Red Herring Harlots

[joeyfx]

It's almost there. I'm so close... Oh Jesus Lilli... mmm, it feels so good. You
feel so good. Oh don't stop... don't-

In Ma's defence, she knocked with one hand while she was turning the knob with the
other. She must have been moving fast cause I didn't hear her approuch, or maybe I
was just too absorbed in the smell trapped in Lilliana's panties to notice. As the
door swing open, I'm stuck sitting up in my bed in shock, one hand clutching a
pair of a teenager's under garments to my face, the other clutching... well...

"Oh Shit!"
"Oh Shit!"

We both say it at the same time, Ma pulling the door closed to a crack while I'm
rolling into my covers. I don't know who's more embarassed but she's fighting a
laugh; I can hear it on her voice, but she's concerned too. She wouldn't have
busted in here like that. I should be humiliated, I should be... but I'm not. It's
a little embarassing but I don't feel like I should be anymore. I don't know...
maybe it's arrogance. I don't know if it's because I'm a ghoul and I know what I
can do, or because I'm a Gypsy and there's a pride in that pariah status... or if
it's just because I know I'm Jeriko's favorite. I look back to when I first got
here and how much I hated him. I guess I still hate him... but I love him too.

He's closer to a father than my adopted dad was... my adopted dad who made me
think he was my real dad... who lied to me my entire life, even about my mother
still being alive. Jeriko... he told me the truth. He even took me to my mother. I
got to meet her... my father and sister too. I had this whole family that I never
knew about. Jeriko even shares my blood. We're family and yet... and yet I do hate
him. I hate him for what he is. I hate him for keeping me prisoner here and for
all the evil in him. It's not his fault. He is a product of his environment, but
that doesn't make him any less worthy of that hate. Ma thinks she's the favored
ghoul but no... i know the truth. I see how he looks at me... how I make him
proud. It's like when I was a kid and I won my first trophy, how Dad... nevermind.

"Jhonen? Oh my God Jhonen, I'm sorry, I didn't see anything I swear! Hey I need
your help? The girls are getting out of hand."

"You wanna?" I mutter in response to her claim of blindness.

"Huh? I couldn't hear you."

I don't know why I said it. Ma is like, well, a mother to me... not that I really
have any concept of what a mother should be like to a person. I can see why Jeriko
goes for her though. She's thick without being fat, and those hips and tits are...
it doesn't matter. I wouldn't screw around on Lili... maybe it's to take something
that belongs to Jeriko... the way he took so much from me...

I spoke up, "I said give me a minute. I'll be right out."

"Okay," she called back.

So I shoved the panties back under the mattress and put my dick away. Everyone
makes fun of the pajama pants, and, i must admit, for hiding a half-jerked boner, 
yeah, they aren't the best clothing option. But they are comfortable and loose and
I can scale a building in them, so yeah, fuck what others have to say about them.
I hop around a little, put my mind elsewhere, let the blood get to flowing again,
and when I'm a little less exposed, I head out to the dim hallway where Marianne 
is still waiting for me. She looks up with a hint of impatience but smiles polite,
like she didn't just walk in at the worst possible time.

"Hey Jho, I'm sorry about tha-"

"Don't mention it."

"Yeah but I shou-"

"No no, seriously. Don't mention it. What'd you need?"

There's an urgency to her that, had she not walked in when she did, she'd likely
be grabbing me by the arm and dragging me along already, but she keeps it
restrained for whatever reason, and she's not looking me in the eye all of a
sudden. Great. Just what I need; the lady who feeds me and does my laundry
picturing me with my cock in my hand every time she sees me from now on. As if
things weren't weird enough around here.

"The girls," she continued, "they're getting out of hand. I'm worried it's going
to turn violent and they've stopped listening to me. Every time I stick my head in
there I get something thrown at it."

"And you think they'll be less inclined to throw shit at me?"

"No, not really. But I do think you're better at dodging than I am."

I conceed to her point as we go, nearly tripping over the long eared, hairless cat
that Lili adopted from her dead classmate. Just out of habit from hanging out with
the girl, I lean over and scoop the cat up. It purrs in a most friendly manner as

I handle it like a sack of potatos, first flipping it over backwards in my hands,
then flipping it up onto my shoulder. It perches there, first like a parrot, but
by the time we're turning down the hall to the dressing rooms, it's lounged across
my neck and shoulders like a breathing boa. Lili said she looked it up and it's
called a Sphinx; coolest cat ever. Even as big as Olie has gotten, it still keeps trying
to kick our pit-bull's ass.

We could hear the argueing even with the door shut. Shit, if I'd been paying
better attention I'd have been able to hear the argueing from my room.

"Fat ass bitch, if you EVER touch my concealor again-" greeted me as I pushed the
door open and peeked my head in.

"Oh please, no amount of concealor's gonna hide those pock marks..."

"You dumped it out and filled the tube with diareah, you fucking cow!"

"You wrote TFTD on my mirror, you pizza faced whore!"

"ARGH!!"
"ARGH!!"

That was my cue to interveen. The door was cracked just enough for me to get a
peek, so a kick to the bottom of the door sent it swinging wide and hard, slamming
into the wall behind it and making The Red Herring Harlots, one and all, jump in
their seats and spin around to see who was trespassing.

The fat one looked like she was about to snatch a fist full of hair from the Pizza
faced one's scalp. The Pizza faced one looked like she was about to bludgen the
fat one with a comb. I don't know what was more repulsive; the wash of cheap
perfume that filled the room thicker than cigarette smoke, bad enough to make my
eyes burn, or the sight of these various freaks, all slutted up in hopes of
pleasing thier unique audiance.

I guess I shouldn't talk. As they froze and looked over at me, a couple of them I
hadn't seen before gave that bad taste look I get so often. I'm no Brad Pitt
myself. After Jeriko bit my nose off, some of it grew back, so it's not like some
vacuous cave, but it looks raw and stunted, like I got drug on my face behind a
car for a few miles. The scars around my eyes and lips, I thought they'd be less
noticable with some sun, but as I tan, they just get brighter red, so considering
all the time Lili and I have been spending outside, the diamonds around my eyes
are the red of exposed muscle, the sheeny slick of scars.

But then, I'm just a kid. I'm 21 years old, but I haven't aged since I was taken
in by Jeriko, and I was always getting shit about looking young for my age; could
barely grow a scruff on my chin, so naturally the girls almost immediately go
about thier business again. Fatty and Pimples start cussing each other out, and
the rest of the girls go about thier business, talking shit, smoking cigarettes,
getting make up on. One of the girls looks me over, but I guess she doesn't see Ma
standing in the hallway. Lucky for her, Ma doesn't seem to see either, cause the
girl would have gotten her ass kicked for lifting the little tiny spoon up to her
nose and snorting a yellow powder up her nose. I see her eyes go wide, then
dialate, then her whole body relax as she goes back into her conversation with her
girlfriend. It's not two minutes before I see her starting to shake, and that
spoon goes up to her nose again.

I'm snapped out of my distraction by the sound of the comb breaking upside Fatty's
head. I look back and the girl is bleeding from a gash just below her scalp line.
Pizza Bitch is about to swing again with the broken handle, but Fatty grabs a
weapon of her own.

The nail file catches the light and immediately I'm moving. I don't even think, I
just react. I feel blubbery forearms in my grasp and I feel her naked boobies
slapping my chest as we struggle. Fuck... if only she hadn't struggled. I hear the
snap before I hear the scream. Fatty drops, wrist craddled against her massive
flapjack bossom and the tears begin. Every girl again stops what they are doing
and looks at me.

All of a sudden every one of them is shrieking at me. I'm being pelted with hairspray cans, make up bags, shoes; anything they can find. Even Pizza face is closing the distance and smacking me with the broken comb and it's all I can do to duck and dodge and deflect the blows, and those girls don't pull punches. Of course I don't want to go ballistic on them, so I'm backing up and finding myself in a corner, huddling down, surrounded by amputees and... oh shit.

Lola knows what I am so she doesn't hesitate to slash that nail file she picked up and catch me on my arms. I hiss and give a kick at her and that just sets the dancer's off worst. Suddenly nails are flying at me and I take a kick in the balls by a plastic leg and just as I think things are about to get real bad, just as this ball of panic starts to build in me, the same ball of panic that usually leads to black outs and blood, I hear the shrill whistle from the door and Ma is screaming "STOOOOOOOOP!"

The girls, turn in unison to see Ma standing there, hands on her fantastic hips and that scowl on her face that Mother's seem to immediately learn when they have kids.

"That's enough! Ursula, help Berta up and get her to the hospital so she can have her wrist looked at."
"I'm pressin' charges," Berta, aka Fatty, quipped.

"Like Hell you are." replied Ma, "You want me to tell Jeriko you plan on pressing charges?"

That shut Fatass right the fuck up. She pouted and shook her head and went along with Pizza Face right out the door.

"This is bullshit, Marianne! Lavinia is going to kick clown-boy's ass. Berta was supposed to perform tonight. The whole final number revolved around her. Now what are we going to do?"
Ma sighed, looking around the girls and to me cowering on the floor. "Okay... alright girls, I think I have an idea..."

And no matter how much I argued... no matter how many times I told her No Way in Hell... I still ended up on that stage in front of the nightly audience... hair hidden beneath a green wig, scars made all the brighter with red blush and make up so thick on my face I felt my cheeks sagging. The corset pinched, and the thong rode so far up my ass I could taste it... it wasn't all bad though, the stockings were soft... I didn't have to dance... just lounge on the couch and eat the grapes they shoved in my mouth... although I think Lola fed me her eye instead...

...and try as I might, Christ knows Lili's never going to let me forget about it.