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Continued from previous page…
Jane could sense right away that Kathy and Belinda were coming up from behind and about to enter the room. As she was in mid-sentence in her conversation with Gina, she began to notice that Gina was being distracted and looking over her shoulder. It could only mean one thing.
“Hey, hey, Babe, now that’s a better look,” Gina remarked at Belinda’s change of wardrobe. “Much better.. Where’s my gym clothes?”
Belinda was clearly not in the mood to discuss Gina’s gym clothes any further.
“They’re upstairs,” she grunted. “I almost threw them away.”
Jane turned around to look at Belinda’s new apparel. “Alright! Much better,” she said. “You almost look normal again… I like the T-Shirt.”
“Are you guys ready to jam?” asked Gina. “Belinda? A little Stooges, perhaps? Kathy? You wanna do some Redd Kross? I know you like them.”
“For God’s sake, Gina, you and Belinda are fugitives from the law,” Kathy pointed out. “Doesn’t that bother you?”
“Not really,” said Gina, nonchalantly. “Hey, man, I’m from Baltimore. That shit doesn’t bother me.”
“We’re not here to jam, Gina. We’ve got more important things to do,” Belinda revealed.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, what did you say?” asked Gina, sarcastically, as Jane giggled. “Did I hear you right? Ladies.. need I remind you.. that nothing.. nothing, I’m telling you.. is more important than jamming. Belinda, you should be stricken for that… Come on.. get over here… I’m going to bend you over my knee.”
Even though everyone else was amused at Gina’s theatrics, including Kathy, Belinda was miraculously not.
“You’re the one that should be fuckin’ stricken, Gina,” said Belinda. “Why don’t you get over here and I’ll bend you over my knee.”
Upending the jovial nature in the room, Gina did not care for Belinda’s tone. She sensed that Belinda was concerned about something and had to get to the bottom of it. Belinda had a habit of using the ‘f’ word in a certain way that indicated she was serious about something.
“Don’t be gettin’ fuckin’ pissed-off at me, Babe,” she said, calmly, as she took another sip of her beer. “You need to tell me what I did wrong first… Then we’ll decide if you have the right to get pissed-off at me.”
Belinda took this all in stride while Kathy started to look uncomfortable. She knew what was coming next. She could only hope that Gina would say the right things.
“You mind telling me why you said to me in the hospital… that you guys knew everything about what Charlotte was doing to me? … That you guys knew all about the drugs and everything?” asked Belinda, panting.
An eerie atmosphere began to settle over the kitchen. Silence hung in the air like a dark cloud. Gina remained calm and looked over at Kathy with suspicious side-eyes while Belinda noticed her doing it.
“Don’t look at her!!” Belinda yelled. “Look at me!! And tell me the truth!”
Gina took several seconds before answering. “I only said that… so that it would put your mind at ease… I didn’t know what else to say.”
Kathy felt a sense of relief from Gina’s generic answer. It would have to suffice for now. Unfortunately, her creepy silence and the way she looked at Belinda, made the shapely chanteuse start to panic uncontrollably.
Belinda immediately fell into a state of shock. In an instant, she began feeling like she was in a Horror or a Science-Fiction movie. She started feeling like she was Katherine Ross in The Stepford Wives and all the other women in the room were robots.
She put her hands out like a shield and started backing up.
“What’s going on here?” she asked, breathing heavily. “What’s wrong with you guys? Why are you doing this to me? Huh? Are you all in this together?”
Kathy started to approach her in order to calm her down. Belinda did not oblige.
“GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME!!! ALL OF YOU!!!” she screamed as she continued to back up. “You’re all in this together!! You want me out of the picture! You want my family too! Where are my children? What have you done with them? Where is my husband? Is he around the corner? Huh? Waiting for me?”
Because of the insane accusations that Belinda was making, the other girls could not utter a word, which only added to Belinda’s already deranged and suspicious thoughts.
“Jane? How could you do this to me?” Belinda continued. “You’re supposed to be by my side to the very end… How could you do this to me?”
Jane could only continue to feel like an apparition. She felt sick to her stomach, but Belinda did not know this. She didn’t realize that Jane was indeed on her side, along with the other two.
Or so we think.
“Belinda, I swear… I only want what’s best for you,” said Jane, robotically.
The fact that Jane ended her sentence with those sentiments and said nothing more than that, did not satisfy Belinda at all. You see, without her being aware of it, Jane could be a terrifying little pixie when she wanted to be. Her voice was already enough to scare the pants off any paranormal investigator, and the cold stare she was giving Belinda did not help matters very much either.
“I gotta’ get outta’ here,” said Belinda. “I gotta’ get outta’ here, don’t you see? I gotta’ get away from you guys… You’re all out to get me… You’re gonna kill me and bury me in the back yard next to Khudobin… I gotta’ get outta’ here!”
Belinda waved her hands up in the air and ran past the girls with tears in her eyes as she headed for the back door. She had no idea where she was going, but knew she had to get out of Kathy’s house and on her way to safety.
“Belinda, where are you going?!” yelled Kathy. “Get back here!”
“Belinda, get back here!” repeated Gina.
Belinda did not stop. She tore through the back door and out into the unknown, leaving everyone in a state of dazed confusion.
Without hesitation, Kathy began barking out orders—
“Jane, go out the front and cut her off. Tackle her if you have to.”
“Roger that,” Jane returned, as she obediently headed for the front door.
“Come on, Geenie, let’s go, move it,” said Kathy, as her and Gina bolted for the back yard.
Once outside, the two of them peered around into the darkness hoping to spot a glimpse of Belinda. After several futile seconds, they both started calling out for her in a whispered shout.
“Belinda, where are you?” asked Kathy, trying not to alert the neighbors. After several more seconds, it was Gina’s turn.
“Belinda, get back here… Don’t be such a fuckin’ moron all the time.”
Kathy nudged Gina in the arm and gave her a dirty look. “Don’t call her that,” she said.
“Well, she is one sometimes,” whispered Gina. “You haven’t noticed that?”
Kathy just shook her head, rolled her eyes, and did not reply. Suddenly, after looking around for a few more seconds, Kathy spotted a dark silhouette moving around towards the rear of the property and facing the fence directly abutting her neighbor’s yard.
“There she is!” said Kathy, pointing her out with her finger. “Belinda, get over here!”
“Belinda, come on.. get back here… We’re not going to hurt you,” explained Gina.
Upon hearing their voices, Belinda flew into a full-fledged panic. Breathing heavily, she desperately looked up towards the top of the wall, waited a few seconds longer to gather her bearings, then jumped up and grabbed the top of the wall with both of her hands! Even at the depressingly old age of thirty, she managed to pull herself up a little bit and throw her leg over the top.
“Omigod, she’s scaling that wall!!” exclaimed Gina. “How many bumps of coke did you give her?”
“Gina, goddammit, now’s not the time for jokes, let’s go!” demanded Kathy, as they both took off to retrieve Belinda from doing something potentially destructive.
“Belinda, don’t go into that yard!” yelled Kathy.
But Belinda did not stop. She pulled herself up and over, then dropped herself into the neighboring back yard.
“Belinda, my neighbors have guard dogs!!” shouted Kathy.
Sure enough, within seconds, a sensor-activated spotlight turned on in the neighbor’s patio. Immediately after that, the sound of vicious, barking dogs filled the silent air. The sounds got increasingly louder in Kathy and Gina’s ears as they realized the dogs were coming directly for Belinda in order to devour her ripe, succulent body.
“OH, GOD!!!” screamed Kathy. “Belinda, get back!!”
But it was too late. Belinda let out a bloodcurdling scream as the dogs closed in for the kill. Kathy and Gina could only listen in horror.
Belinda was being mauled to death.
AUTHOR’S NOTE:
My, my, my, things just
aren’t going very well for
poor Belinda, are they?
She just spent the last three
months in a mental hospital,
and now she’s being served-up
as a late-nite snack to a pack of
vicious, Silicon Valley Rottweilers.
And where is Mr. Slick in all
of this? He’s certainly not being
much help, is he?