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  woman in

  the darkness reminded her of Laura. Claire wanted to faint, to gain some

  kind of relief from this horror. Now, she realized, she too had been a

  part

  of this incestuous triangle. She felt she would vomit as both Laura and

  Drummond faced her unwaveringly, defiant, almost proud.

  "Laura, what's he done to you?"

  "Nothing I didn't want, Mother. Everything I have done, I have done

  willingly. I love him Mother, no longer as a daughter, but as a woman. We

  are in love," smiled Laura. "I didn't intend for it to happen, but face

  it

  Mother, Daddy is too much of a man for you!" Claire gasped as she looked

  back to Drummond. There was real hate in her eyes now.

  "You vile, repugnant.......you've defiled our daughter, ruined our

  marriage,

  our family......"

  "And there's one other thing I've done as well, Claire," he interrupted,

  "I've filed for divorce!"

  "What?"

  Claire was beside herself with grief, anguish, guilt, hatred and now

  fear as

  her world crumbled around her.

  "Laura is moving back here permanently. She will attend the local college

  and share the house with me," announced Drummond.

  "And his bed, Mother. We are lovers now. I'm sorry, there simply is no

  longer a place for you," intoned Laura.

  "Let's be reasonable," said Drummond, "you can have until the end of the

  month. I will expect you out by then. In the meantime, you can sleep on

  the

  couch. Laura and I are tired of making love in the dark. Besides, " he

  added

  with venom, "you'll be a lot closer to the liquor cabinet."

  Claire reeled from this latest blow, her mind unable to comprehend, let

  alone cope with the events of the past few minutes.

  "But.....I'll take you to court. I'll sue for everything!" she blurted

  out

  almost mindlessly.

  "Will you Claire? I think not. Just remember, I have evidence of your

  infidelity. All you have is your word against ours.......and who's going

  to

  believe a drunken, lesbian slut, especially when I show them this!" He

  held

  up the photo of Claire and Shanti.

  Claire's mind could take no more. The liquor teamed with the monstrous

  pain

  and anger which raged within her was simply too much. She still held the

  sewing basket and her hand reached in, found the long pair of shears.

  "Shall I tell her....." began Laura.

  But Claire's hand now held a firm grip on the scissors and, in blinding

  rage, before either Drummond or Laura could react, her arm swung upward

  with

  surprising strength, plunging the shears inward and upward, the long

  blade

  piercing his heart.

  His eyes widened for a split second, something unintelligible gurgled

  from

  his lips and Drummond fell backward upon the bed. He was dead even before

  Laura's piercing scream filled the house.

  As Claire stood in stunned silence, Laura ran to the still figure, pulled

  the shears from his chest and screamed again as blood ran onto her hands

  and

  arms.

  It was now her world which had suddenly been destroyed. The one man who

  had

  loved her, given her all she had ever wanted, who was preparing a life

  for

  the two of them had suddenly been snatched away. She dropped the shears

  on

  the bed and screamed his name again and again as she kissed his dead

  lips,

  trying to affect a miracle, to bring him back. to resurrect what had been

  her entire world. She held him, cradled his head, pleading with him to

  open

  his eyes, to take her once again in his arms. When the lifeless body was

  unresponsive, she beat upon him in frustration with her hands, to

  cajole, to

  force life back into him.

  "God! I don't know what came over........" cried Claire.

  Laura looked up to her mother, her eyes filled with complete and intense

  loathing. It was she whose mind was now unable to cope and which chose to

  escape into insanity "You monstrous bitch! she cried, "you've killed the

  man

  I love!" Some form of reason returning to Claire , she turned to her

  daughter.

  "But Laura dear, don't you understand......."

  "Understand? Understand?" Laura sneered in a voice suddenly strange,

  higher

  in pitch than Claire had ever heard before.

  Laura's head canted to one side, her eyes were wide and wild, behind them

  shone only lunacy.

  "He wasn't just my lover. I'm going to have his child!"

  "Oh my god!" gasped Claire.

  "And you, you worthless slut of a mother and wife, you ruined it. You

  ruined

  it all!" she screamed grabbing the shears and lunging toward Claire just

  as

  Shanti and Jody came running into the room, Jody all but tackling his

  sister

  as the shears raked across Claire's shoulder bringing blood from the

  nasty

  looking, but superficial wound "I've got to kill her! She deserves to

  die!"

  cried Laura in hysteria as Jody pinned her to the floor only with the

  greatest of effort.

  Shanti picked up the phone and dialed 911.

  Laura was ranting incomprehensibly, her eyes wild, her mind gone.

  "Claire," said Shanti to the dazed woman, "get to the bathroom and get

  something on that cut, I'll be in in a minute to bandage it."

  "But......but.....Laura!"

  "Jody and I will take care of her. Now go on before you lose too much

  blood."

  "Uh.......uh.......yes......" murmured Claire as she stumbled into and

  down

  the hall.

  Shanti turned to Jody who still held Laura whose thumb was in her mouth

  as

  she hummed a nursery rhyme and crouched in a fetal position, her eyes

  gone

  from violent to empty.

  "Before the police get here," said Shanti, we'd better decide what we are

  going to tell them."

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  A week later, Claire and Jody were sitting in the living room as Shanti

  entered, suitcase in hand.

  The police had accepted their story almost without question. Drummond had

  raped his daughter who, when she found out she was pregnant, stabbed him

  to

  death and wounded her mother as she tried to intervene.

  Laura was certainly not going to refute that since she was now being

  confined in an institution for the criminally insane.

  She was steadily regressing into a world of infancy where painful

  memories

  did not exist. An examination had indicated she was indeed pregnant. The

  doctors were, quite frankly, not optimistic regarding her recovery.

  At the funeral, Claire had come to realize how different life would be

  now

  for her and Jody as, because of the rumors already flying of incest

  between

  Drummond and his daughter, very few of even their closest friends had

  attended. Jody's friends had suddenly quit calling or coming by. Claire

  and

  Jody were finding out how v
ery much alone in the world they now were.

  Claire sat, drink in hand, already stuporous even though it was only

  mid-afternoon.

  "I'll be leaving now," announced Shanti.

  "Don't go," pleaded Jody for several reasons, most of them having to do

  with

  his bedroom.

  "Must you?" asked Claire, still unsure, especially through the alcoholic

  haze of whether she should be happy or sad. Shanti had lied that she had

  been forced to participate in the deception regarding Laura's mystery

  identity. Claire wasn't sure she believed her, but by now it didn't much

  matter whether she believed the woman or not.

  "Yes, my work here is finished."

  "I......I'll write you a severance check," muttered Claire as she rose

  and

  walked slowly from the room.

  "I'll miss you," smiled Jody.

  "Perhaps not as much as you might think," replied Shanti.

  "What do you mean?"

  "Let me explain before your mother gets back."

  A few minutes later Claire returned with the check. Shanti deposited it

  in

  her purse. She turned to Jody.

  "Jody, there is something private I want to say to your mother. Would you

  excuse us?"

  The boy grinned, nodded and left the room.

  "What is it Shanti?" asked Claire as they stood facing each other.

  "You once asked me why I had come here to work and I told you it was

  simply

  because I needed the money."

  "Yes."

  "That wasn't the whole truth, Claire. Do you remember my interview, when

  Drummond told about how his grandfather had bought this house?"

  "Yes, from an old drunken Frenchman."

  "That old drunken Frenchman was my great grandfather."

  Even through the liquor, Claire's interest was aroused.

  "Of course your husband left out a few important details.

  He failed to mention that his grandfather was a banker and heartlessly

  foreclosed on a loan to drive my great grandfather off the property so he

  could buy it for a song. He also didn't tell you that bankruptcy drove my

  great grandfather insane. His wife left him and he went to live deep in

  the

  bayou....."

  Shanti's voice was beginning to be tinged with venom.

  ".......where he lived with a black woman for the remainder of his life.

  They had twelve children, seven of them girls and he, in his insanity,

  raped

  every one of them. Three of those daughters bore his children. One was a

  girl who he impregnated when she was twelve and he almost eighty. The son

  she bore was my father."

  Shanti looked the older woman eye to eye with a controlled hatred in her

  voice.

  "My father began raping me at the age of nine. I told Laura I seduced my

  brothers. In reality, they took me the same way my father did. I have two

  children Mrs. Walker. One is both my son and my brother. The other is my

  daughter and my niece."

  "My God Shanti, I had no idea!"

  "No. I suppose you didn't. Your kind never does. You who have riches and

  power prey on those who don't. My great grandfather was an honorable man

  until he was driven to insanity."

  "Then you........? What happened......?"

  "Was my little way of extracting revenge on the Walkers. I wasn't after

  you

  personally, you just happened to be a part of the family I hate and shall

  hate to the day I die!"

  "You.....you planned all this to happen?" asked the incredulous Claire.

  "Yes, I wanted to see this family suffer as mine has done.

  I wanted you to experience the degradation and torment of incest.

  Drummond's

  death and your daughter going insane were just unexpected icing on the

  cake!" added Shanti smiling.

  "You vile, evil, despicable......" sputtered Claire.

  "Call me what you will. It is no worse than what my family has been

  calling

  the Walkers for three generations!"

  "Get out! Get out of my house and never come back!" shouted Claire.

  "Don't worry, it will be my pleasure! By the way, you'd better hold on to

  Jody. He's all you've got now. He should be great company for you. I took

  him to bed a number of times. He's quite good you know, energetic and

  eager

  to learn!" retorted Shanti smiling wickedly as she opened the door and

  strode confidently to the waiting taxi.

  She looked back only once as she was getting into the cab.

  Already, the lawn needed mowing and there were some broken limbs that

  should

  have been pruned away. But it was the house, the house so neat and trim

  which now somehow had taken on the appearance of age and decay. She

  smiled a

  final time, closed the door and the taxi sped away.

  Claire turned as Jody reentered the room.

  "She gone?" he asked.

  "Yes, for good. My god, I can't believe how I let that woman deceive me.

  Why

  she's nothing more than a common......."

  "Whore?" Jody finished it for her. "I don't think you have much room to

  talk."

  "What do you mean?" was Claire's suddenly anxious query.

  "Oh she seduced us all but with you it was so easy!. No one forced you

  to go

  to bed with her. You chose to strip yourself naked and lie between her

  legs!"

  "Jody!" cried Claire in shock.

  "And when Laura came to your room, even if you didn't know who it was,

  you

  still had sex with her time after time!"

  "Jody, I....."

  "There's nothing to say. You're every bit as much of a whore as Shanti.

  At

  least she didn't try to hide what she was!"

  "Oh Jody," wept Claire, "you're right. I'm so ashamed!"

  "You should be. Pretending to be a loving mother while all the time you

  wanted sex with whoever would give it to you!" Claire started to respond,

  but no words would come. Unable to face her son, she hung her head, then

  turned to fill her glass again.

  "A bitch in heat who runs to the bottle for comfort to soothe her

  conscience!"

  "Stop it! Stop it or........"

  "Or what , Mother? Are you going to kill me too?"

  "No, of course not,' she cried, tears streaming down her face, "I love

  you,

  Jody!"

  "Do you? Do you really?"

  "Of course I do! I love you more than life itself!"

  "Then prove it!"

  "I don;t understand."

  He grinned as he took her hand and placed it on his crotch.

  "Jody! No!" she said, recoiling and pushing his hand away.

  Slap. The open hand caught her across the face.

  Slap. Slap.

  "Jody... don't..."

  Slap. Slap.

  "Please!" Slap. Slap. Slap.

  "You said just this morning how I'll have to be the man of the house

  now."

  "Yes, but....."

  "Well I intend to be just that, the man of this house. A man needs a

  woman

  to keep him satisfied. Think you can keep me satisfied, Claire? It was

  the

  first time he had ever used her first name and signaled the end of their

  mother/son relationship. Claire was horrified, yet her underlying

&
nbsp; masochistic desires had been triggered by Jody's verbal and physical

  abuse

  and her heart was pounding in excitement.

  "What do you want me to do?" she asked, her voice low and subservient,

  her

  nest already soaking wet.

  "Even a slut has to advertise. Show me what you've got to offer, Claire!"

  His voice, even his grin was powerful and Claire felt her temperature

  rising.

  "I can't. I won't!"

  "Oh won't you? You owe me, Claire!"

  "What do you mean?"

  "Don't forget who told the police that it was Laura who killed Dad, who

  gave

  you the alibi which is keeping you out of jail, maybe out of the gas

  chamber. And remember, without me, you're alone, Claire, totally alone!"

  Claire hung her head as Jody smiled in triumph. How easy she was, he

  thought.

  Tears of consternation, remorse and now fear were mixed with those of

  excitement as her hands reluctantly/willingly went to the buttons on her

  blouse. She reviled herself silently for wanting this boy/man to see her