Part 2
"It is your Uncle Eben."
"Uncle Eben?"
"Yes, Katie. Can you please let me in?"
"I ... no!"
"Confound it, Katie, stop playing games. Your parents are worried that the line has been busy and they called me because they knew I was closer by"
That made sense? Didn't it? Of course it made sense. If she let Uncle Eben in he could protect her. Suddenly the authoritative voice on the other side of the door sounded like safety, salvation! She flung open the door and wrapped her arms around Uncle Eben's neck and help on for dear life.
Eben stepped inside, extracting Katie's arms from around his neck after several seconds. She could smell the whisky on his breath. "There, there Katie Angel. Is something bothering you?" Katie began to speak but Eben held up a silencing hand.
"On second thought, first things first. No reason to worry your parents since you seem to be quite unharmed." Was it her imagination or were her uncle's eyes looking at her so intently for more reasons than looking for injuries? Was there something predatory there? Silly, she was being silly.
Uncle Eben picked up the phone and dialed a number. He asked to speak to her parents and after several seconds her mother apparently came on the line.
"Evelyn? ... Eben ... she is quite all right ... really ... completely fine ... seems to have been dipping into your clothes and playing dress up ... nothing to worry about ... Katie, will you be ok if your parents go over to Aunt Bitsy and Uncle Martin's house for drinks? Oh never mind, I am sure she will be fine. I will just stay with her until you two get home ... no, no problem at all except I will probably be lectured by Katie on how she is too old for a baby sitter ...
Katie reached weakly for the phone, tears welling up in her eyes, as strong as her sexual desire was earlier (and she acknowledged that is what it was) her desire to talk to her mother was stronger. All she wanted was to talk to her mother! "Uncle Eben ... please ... let me talk."
Eben brushed her aside and said good-bye to her mother, hanging up the phone. Katie sounded like the child she always fought being labeled as. "Why? Why wouldn't you let me speak to my mother? WHY?"
"Katie. Settle down. You have worried your parents enough for one evening. Anything you wish to say you can say in the morning. Clearly you are upset about something but it is not anything that needs your parent's immediate attention is it?"
Frustration welled up in Katie. It was like a dream she used to have where someone was breaking in and she tried to call the police but she could not get a dial tone. It was like she was living the nightmare. She could not talk to her parents and she did not know if she had even enough calm left in her to explain to her Uncle Eben. No dial tone.
"Uncle Eben ..." She took a deep breath and pointed toward the front window. "There is someone out there. Someone that wants to hurt me." She felt her hysteria rising again. "He wants to taste me and eat me up and ..." She began to sob.
Eben gaped at Katie. "I need you to calm down. That is the only way that I will be able to help you." Eben took her by the hand and led her behind the bar, grabbed a shot glass which he filled with whisky - and then he grabbed a whisky glass and poured a much more generous serving for himself. He gestured for her to drink it and it made her cough through her tears. "Now Katie, what makes you think someone wants to harm you."
"Because he called me and told me he did!"
"Called you on the phone?"
"YES!"
"Told you that he wanted to 'eat you up'?"
"Yes! YES!"
"Sweetie, I am afraid that you got what is known as an obscene phone call. It was probably some deviant calling around at random."
"He knew my name!"
"Ah, some boy that you go to school with that is smitten and from the wrong side of the tracks. Unsavory yes, and I am sorry that you had to be exposed to it but also quite harmless."
"But it wasn't like that. He meant me harm. He was so friendly at first but then..."
"At first? Dear God, how long did you talk to this reprobate?"
"A while .. I ..."
"A while? And having no idea to whom you were speaking? Clearly you lead him on." Eben raised his hand to silence her protest. "I am not saying that it was at all intentional - of course not - but your talking with him at length gave him the idea that you would welcome his advances."
Maybe her Uncle Eben was right. There are consequences to talking to wolves, there are consequences to leaving the well-beaten path. Her mother would say that if you lie down with dogs you get up with fleas and by extension if you bared your throat to the beast you should not be surprised if he shows you what big teeth he has.
Eben poured himself another drink and a shot for Katie. "You are still trembling, here." Katie drank it, prepared for the burning sensation this time and hardly coughing at all.
Katie knew she had to pull herself together. Maybe her uncle was right that she was overreacting and even if she was not she was safe for the night. "I am sorry that I am being such a pill, Uncle Eben."
"It is quite all right Katie Angel. Give your uncle a hug and all will be forgiven." Eben opened his arms and Katie walked into them. She needed to feel safe and protected. She did not even mind feeling like a little girl. "There, there Katie Angel, there, there."
Katie's body relaxed against his, relaxed for what felt like the first time in hours and her tears began to flow again and soak his shirt. Tears of relief to not be all alone in the house. But then her body began to tense again as she realized that her Uncle Eben's hands had slipped from the small of her back to the curve of her buttocks and suddenly she could feel something hard pressing up against her stomach. No ... not possible, not possible. She pulled away.
"Uncle Eben, what are you doing?"
"You are so beautiful Katie. I am responding like any man would to be beautiful woman in his arms." His words were slurred.
"But you are my uncle!"
"You know that is not really true. That is just what you call me. Don't look at me like that! You are practically falling out of that dress - My God, you are bigger up top than your mother - and you are rubbing up against me like you are hot to trot, pressing yourself to me, and then you want me to act like that does not have an effect?"
"But I only hugged you because I trusted you - because you ARE my Uncle Eben! I didn't mean anything by it!"
Eben laughed bitterly. "Tramps like you never do. You think that I do not know what you have been doing for years? Tempting me, teasing me and today was the final straw. Prancing around in your little bathing suit - begging to be treated like an adult! I figured that since you were in such a hurry to grow up I might as well be first in line."
"Uncle Eben, I know it has been hard for you with Aunt Margaux leaving you." Katie moved closer to an ice pick sitting on the bar.
"She is not your aunt, Katie, but she could be. Both of you are born whores - you cannot help yourselves. I do miss the little tricks that she managed in bed - maybe I can teach them to you or maybe you were born knowing them." Eben reached for Katie clumsily and she grabbed the ice pick.
"Katie, put it down!"
"No, you stay back. This is your answer. I will not bare my throat and the hunter considers me the prey so that leaves me with no choice but to fight." Katie cautiously moved around him and toward the phone.
"I have no idea what you are talking about. Put down the ice pick."
"Not on you life, Uncle. Not on your life." She reached for the phone and dialed, never taking her eyes completely off of the man in front of her. She put the phone to her ear and ... complete silence. Eerie silence. The phone was dead. "Oh my God, you never called my parents!"
"What are you talking about?"
"You faked calling my parents - you cut the phone line!"
Eben looked strangely sincere and suddenly sober. "Katie, I called them. Think about it logically for a moment. If I did not talk to them they could be home at any minute. Why would I want that? For them to find me here with you in that dress? Instead they are now having drinks across town."
"I don't know why you did it - you are right, it doesn't make much sense but it makes more sense than anything else." For the first time in a long time she noticed the radio was still on. It was playing "Love is Strange" which struck Katie as morbidly funny about a second before Eben threw caution to the wind and made a grab for the ice pick and suddenly Eben was on top of her, trying to wrest the pick from her hands. The only advantage Katie had was sheer adrenaline and she has been running on that for so long that it was beginning to fail her. She heard her father's voice in her head and as she lost control of the pick she brought her knee up as hard as she could.
Eben rolled off of her and writhed in agony. "You crazy bitch! What in the hell are you trying to do?"
Katie tried to scramble away but he grabbed her ankle. NO! No, this was not going to happen to her. She lunged for her mother's heavy lamp with the red crystals hanging from the lamp shade, she twisted around in her last burst of energy and brought it crashing down on Eben's head. He went still as red glass shattered and flew everwhere.
Katie ran for the front door and outside where she looked around in desperation. She saw Mr Lupino taking out the garbage and raced to him. He looked at her in shock. "Katie, what has happened to you? You are bleeding? Has someone done this to you?"
"It was so awful. Can I please use your phone ... I have to call the police. My uncle attacked me and ..." Katie's knees buckled and Mr Lupino quickly grabbed her to stop her from falling.
"Oh, you poor thing, of course you can use my phone. Are you ok to walk or do you need to be carried."
"I am fine to walk." Katie tried to give a reassuring smile and her neighbor smiled in return. Funny, she had never noticed before what a big smile he had with such shiny white teeth. She walked to his front porch and waited for him to let her in.
And Mr Lupino's last thought before he shut the door to his lair was "and I did not even have to huff and puff and blow the house down."
The End.