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Careful With That Axe, Eugene -*- Copyright 2000 by Ellen Hayes.

Any resemblance between the writings in this work, and any actual
persons or places, living or dead, are purely coincidental, except when
used for satirical purposes.

This work contains adult situations, adult language, adult concepts, and
possibly sex.  If you are legally not allowed to read materials
containing such things, then you will be breaking the law by reading
this.  I am not responsible.
Continuing to read this document, or storing it or reproducing it
in any format means that you explicitly affirm that you are legally
allowed to possess and read such materials in your city, county/parish,
state, and country.

All rights reserved.  See the bottom for distribution rights.


Careful With That Axe, Eugene


***

     Susan was enjoying - a lot - a lazy Sunday afternoon with Amy,
although both of them were waiting for her brother to get back from his
trip, which is why they hadn't gone with Mom, Dad, and Brian to the
movies.
     Instead, they were enjoying 'Bed of Roses', a ruthlessly sappy
movie, in the VCR, drinking lemonade, and talking about guys in general
and, well, particular guys in particular.
     Noise at the front door alerted both of them.  "Hey, Tuck's home!"
Amy crowed, and they both got up to help him bring his stuff into the
house.  "Man, I want to hear what hap-"
     When Tucker opened the front door, Susan froze and Amy dropped her
glass on the floor.  It wasn't Tucker, quite; Susan couldn't remember
the name he used, but he was definitely in girl's clothes and makeup.
He kicked his pumps off casually, like he did this all the time.
     "What the FUCK?!" Susan gasped.
     Tucker said in a flat voice, almost as if it was a tape recording,
"Debbie broke up with me last night.  I guess."  Susan felt fear grab
her, then.
     "Tuck?" Amy finally asked.
     "I have to go change," he said, not looking at either of them, and
began to walk towards the stairs.
     "What the hell-" Amy said, and grabbed his arm.  Susan didn't see
anything but a blur before Amy screamed and fell to the floor, and
Tucker continued on towards the stairs like he was sleepwalking.  Even
after he stepped on the glass, crushing it into sharp knives under his
bare feet, he didn't hesitate.  He just kept shambling along the
hallway, leaving bloody footprints behind him.

***

     "Shit I hate church," Mike said softly to himself as he buttoned
the collar on his shirt.  He'd managed to convince his mother that he
needed to sleep in late this morning, but of course there was no way he
could actually get out of going to services sometime on a Sunday.  That
was the problem with being the preacher's son... you had to act
respectable no matter what.
     The phone rang as he was reaching for a tie.  "Damn."  He grabbed
the phone and snapped off, "This is Mike."
     "Mike?" asked a semi-familiar girl's voice, sounding upset.  His
whole body went on alert, even before she continued, "It's Susan.
Something happened to Tuck when he was on the trip, he said Debbie broke
up with him?  And he came home in girl's clothes, and he almost broke
Amy's arm when she tried to talk to him..."  She gasped for breath.  "I
don't know what happened, and he won't talk and he won't come out of his
room!  He-"
     "On the way," he snapped, and hung up.  Thirty seconds later, he
had yanked off most of his church clothes, added sneakers and a few
critical items and was flying down the hallway.  "MOM!  Tuck's in
trouble and I gotta go help him now!" he yelled, managing to get it all
out before he bailed out of the house.

***

     Amy's eyes looked like a tortured dog's as she looked at Susan.
"What the hell, what the hell, what the hell," she kept repeating over
and over, not quite weeping, as Susan made sure her arm wasn't broken
and tried to think of something to do.
     Before anything came to mind, there was a screech of tires from
outside, and seconds later Mike came through the front door like he
owned the place.  "Is he in his room?" was the first thing he said.
     "Mike he HIT her!" Susan said, realizing it was stupid but not
being able to think of anything else to say.  Her entire brain was
twisted up like taffy.
     "IS he up in his ROOM?" Mike snarled, and Susan and Amy both nodded
spastically.  "Deal with Amy, I gotta talk to Tuck," he snapped, and
dashed for the stairs.
     Susan found herself and Amy following behind Mike, following the
trail of blood Tucker had left on the carpet.

***

     Mike tried the door to Tuck's room, but it was secured.  "Tuck?" he
yelled through the door.  No response.  "TUCKER, IT'S MIKE!  OPEN THE
DOOR!"  Nothing.  He banged on the door for at least a minute, and that
didn't work either.  "Damnit," he said, and dug in his pocket for the
sealed glass vial.  "In case of severe emergency, I think this
qualifies," he said to himself as he smashed the glass vial against the
doorframe.  The pieces fell to the ground as Mike fumbled for the slip
of paper which had the emergency code for the door lock. *Eight one
eight six two five seven four,* he read and typed blindly into the
keypad, hidden beneath the soft wire brush Tucker had placed over the
handle and keypad.  It had been a clever design, ensuring that anyone
trying to get in would complete a circuit-
     "FUCK!" he cursed as a jolt zapped his hand almost off his arm.
     "Should we call the fire department?" Susan asked from behind him.
     "No, wait..."  The difference between a calculator and a telephone
popped up in his mind, and he tried punching the code in the other way.
There was a quiet but deep clack and the door handle turned under his
hand.
     Tucker was in the middle of the room, naked.  On the floor were
torn shreds of cloth.  There was no way of identifying what they had
been...  He stood stiffly like a piece of sculpture, staring at a blank
place on the wall.
     And his feet were bloody, like he'd walked home from Los Angeles...
     "Tuck?"
     Still no response.
     As he slowly walked into the room, Amy called from outside, "Be
careful!  He just hit me when I touched him!"
     Mike nodded silently, approaching the silent figure in front of
him.  "Tuck?" he said again, softly.  "Talk to me, Tuck."
     Tuck didn't move, or say anything, or respond at all.  He looked
almost dead to Mike, like a zombie.
     "Tuck?  I'm going to turn you around," Mike announced, and put a
hand on Tuck's shoulder.  When nothing happened, he pulled, gently at
first, and finally induced Tucker to turn around.  There was nothing in
his eyes, either; no recognition, no anger, no tears, nothing at all.
     "Tucker?  It's me, Mike," he stated.  "Talk to me, bud.  What's
going on?"
     When that didn't bring a response, he added, "You're scaring me and
Amy, Tuck.  Talk to us."
     "Please?" Amy said from the hallway.
     Mike watched Tucker's face carefully as he spoke, and there was
nothing there at all.  He waved his hand in front of Tucker's eyes, and
didn't get a response from that either.  "Tucker, come on, come back
out, we need you here."
     Nothing.
     Mike clapped his hands in front of Tuck's face suddenly, and didn't
get more than a blink.
     Mike's hair stood up and he chilled as he realized what he would
have to do.
     "Shit.  Susan," he said, turning around momentarily, "go get a
glass of water, a towel, and some bandages, okay?  Go," he ordered, and
after a few moment's hesitation, she left.  Amy stayed, peering around
the door as if she was ready to run for her life.
     "Tuck, come on," Mike said as he turned back to the catatonic teen.
"You gotta come back, Tuck, or you'll die like that."
     Tucker uttered the first word Mike had heard.  "So?"
     *Oh, boy,* Mike thought.  *Man, I didn't want to do this...* He
looked into Tucker's eyes. Nothing.  "Tucker, please, you have to come
back now.  Right now."
     Tucker stood there.
     Mike took a series of deep breaths, clearing his mind.  As he began
to trance himself, his athame rose out of its sheath as if it was alive
and controlling his hand.
     "Eugene Wallace Tucker, by bonds of blood and bone, by bond of
soul, I summon thee."  He grabbed Tucker's unresisting right hand in his
left, and carefully positioned the knife.  He intoned, "I summon thee,
Eugene Wallace Tucker, by my blood and bone, by my soul..." and
carefully sliced deep into Tucker's wrist.
     The blood ran freely down his wrist and began pattering on the
carpet.
     The startled look on Tucker's face was the first sign of life that
Mike had seen in him.  He started to pale and tremble, and he slowly
turned his head to look down at his own wrist, still held in Mike's
hand.
     Mike switched, tossing the knife from right hand to left and
grabbing Tucker's right hand with his own right hand, and sliced his own
wrist and matched wound to wound.  "TUCKER!" he roared.
     Tucker flinched and his eyes snapped onto Mike's as he began to
gasp for breath.
     "I'm here, my brother," Mike whispered, the tears starting to
trickle down his own face.  "Always."
     Tucker took a deep breath as his head snapped back, and he began to
scream at the top of his lungs as he grabbed onto Mike's hands.

***

     Kathy was more than a little disgusted.  *What did she expect,
playing with his head like she was?*  She'd been crying on everyone's
shoulders for almost four hours now, and still hadn't come up with
anything sufficient in Kathy's judgement to warrant even what Debbie had
admitted to.  "Debbie, you are STILL drunk, and you can't tell us what
happened-"
     "HE HIT ME!" Debbie screamed at her, using up the last of Kathy's
tolerance.  "I'M GONNA-"
     Kathy backhanded her friend hard enough to rock her backwards, and
grabbed her by both shoulders before pulling her back upright.
     "What you are going to do," Kathy snarled, silencing Debbie, "is
nothing.  You are going to stay right here, and you will take NO action
on your own.  Understood?"
     When Debbie opened her mouth to do something else immensely stupid
like talk back, Kathy shook her violently.  "NOTHING!" she roared.
Dropping her voice to normal, she reiterated, "You are still drunk and
stoned, you're having a bad period, and you don't even know the whole
story yet.  WE," she jerked her head at the other girls, "will find out
what happened, and WE will decide if something needs to happen to him.
YOU will stay here, and you will NOT do anything, or I'll hurt you,
Debbie, so help me God."  Kathy waited for a few moments, then asked,
"Got it?"
     Debbie began to sob, but she nodded spastically, which is the only
reason Kathy let go and handed her to Sabrina.
     As the other girls clustered around Debbie, Kathy caught Kim by the
shoulder.  "Do you know where Mike is?"
     "Uh, he said he was going to church late," she admitted.  "But I
dunno-"
     "He's gonna be with Tucker.  Call Tuck's house and see what's up.
After April, I don't know what the little dork'll do after this.  I hope
he made it home from the airport..."  Kathy shook her head.  Despite all
the problems Tucker had caused her personally, she still liked him, and
Debbie's story sounded suspiciously incomplete.  *Christ, what a bitch,
to dump him like that halfway across the U.S. from home...*
     Of course, opening the door nude to find someone ELSE had been
knocking at the door was pretty bad too.
     *Why couldn't they just have a nice simple breakup, where it was
someone's fault or something?* Kathy thought as she rubbed her neck.
*Why does it have to be this complicated?*

***

     Susan was still trying to calm down from just seeing the aftermath
of whatever Mike had done to bring her brother back from zombieville.
Amy was crying in her room and couldn't talk about it.  At least he'd
finally stopped screaming.  *Oh my God...*
     When the phone rang, she almost screamed from the shock and noise.
*Oh Christ I hope it's not Mom and Dad, please don't let it be Mom and
Dad,* she thought as she got up and took several deep breaths before
turning towards the kitchen phone.
     She got to it just before the house voicemail picked up.  "Hello?"
     "Uh, hello?  Is Mike there?"  It was a girl's voice.
     "Who's calling?" Susan asked, suddenly suspicious.  *Is this
Debbie?*  She couldn't tell-
     "It's Kim, Mike's girlfriend?  I need to talk to Mike if he's
there.  It's, it's about Tucker and Debbie...  We got Debbie's side of
the story, but we need Tuck's too.  And if Tuck's half as bad as Debbie,
he can't talk either.  Mike'll know it."
     "HALF as-"  Susan fought to control her anger.  She snapped, "I'll
go ask if he wants to talk to you."

***

     Kim pulled into the parking lot and shut off the car.  It was
almost a minute before she could force herself to get out, because Mike
was out there somewhere, and to say he was unhappy was an
understatement.
     Finally, she pushed open the door and got out.  She looked around
the park, and finally saw him by the trees, waving at her.  She waved
back and began walking.
     When she got close enough to talk, she started, "Mike, look, we all
know Debbie's not telling the whole story, and we've got her under
control.  What happened?"
     "Before the fight with Debbie, or after?" he said, sounding far,
far too calm.
     "B-before?"
     Mike looked at her for several moments.  "Tucker was out dancing;
he said Debbie had insisted."
     He paused, and eventually Kim nodded in confirmation.  "That's what
we got out of her."
     He nodded, and to her it looked like he relaxed just a fraction.
"While he was out dancing, some guy met the group he was in, and this
guy was chatting them all up and dancing with them.  You've done that
before with him."  Kim nodded.  "Well, no one knew that this guy had a
psycho boyfriend, who got loaded and then found the group at two in the
morning.  When Tucker tried to figure out what was going on, the guy
attacked him too.  That," Mike intoned, "is not a smart thing to do.
After Tucker knocked the guy down, the cops stopped everything, and the
psycho went off to jail, but it was a couple of hours before Tucker
could get back to the hotel.  And then Debbie, Tuck said she was drunk,
exploded on him and hit him.  Right in the nose; they thought it might
be broken at the club, after he'd almost gotten hurt in a serious fight.
He reacted and put her down on the ground, and then she started
screaming at him and locked him out.  And then she took off when Tuck
was freaking out."
     Kim felt so sick she wasn't too surprised to feel the ground rise
up and kick her in the butt.  "Oh, ohhh.... shit."
     "Tucker doesn't remember anything from the hotel room to waking up
in his room, either," Mike said almost casually.  "Nobody's sure how he
got home."
     "Debbie claimed she left the ticket and some money in the room,"
Kim supplied when she could think again.
     Mike snarled, "With the door open?  Oh, that was smart-"
     "LOOK!" she yelled.  "I'm not defending Debbie, but _I_ had nothing
to do with it, okay?  So don't get all pissed off at me, because I just
spent four HOURS with Debbie making sure she didn't do anything stupid."
She shook her head.  "I like Tucker too," she admitted in a calmer
voice, looking at her shoes, "and I knew what she was saying didn't
sound like him, and so did all the other girls.  And I don't want
anything to happen to him, and so that's why _I_ came out here," she
glared up at him.  "I came out here to find out everything that happened
so we could tell Debbie she was full of shit.  And we got it through to
her, that if anything happens to him because of her, she's gonna regret
it for the rest of her life."  She looked at Mike's face, which had
softened into something that almost looked normal.  "Is, is Tucker
okay?"
     Mike sighed, then stretched both arms out to the side and whistled,
before he sat down on the ground facing her. "Yeah, or he will be at
least.  Debbie doing that, she really fucked him up, Kim."
     "We DID figure that out on our own," Kim said wryly.  "But she's
pretty fucked up too.  Did she mention to Tuck what happened to her?"
     Mike just shook his head grimly.
     "She said she woke up about two, sick and drunk and stuff, and
someone was knocking and knocking at the door... so she got up and
answered it.  She dropped the towel she had on after a bath..."
     "And it wasn't Tuck."
     Kim shook her head.  "It wasn't anyone she had even seen.  And he
was drunk too, and he was insisting that it was HIS room.  She had to
force the door shut on him, and then call security while he kept banging
on the door and cursing her, threatening her and stuff..."
     "Oh, Christ..."

***

     "Christ!  Hello?!" Susan snapped into the phone.
     "Um, hi... is this, um, Tuck?"
     "No.  It is not.  Who is this?"  Brian came into the kitchen, and
opened his mouth, and Susan made a gesture promising instant massive
pain if he said anything.  He left.
     "Um, this is Julia, I'm a friend of his.... we were at the
convention together.  Is he alright?  He, I mean, him and Debbie broke
up, and it got really weird after a while... did he make it home okay?"
     "Oh God..."  Susan slumped down to the stool.

***

     Dan, completely covered in camo and carrying a large bow, came out
of the woods several minutes after Kim had left.  "So?" he asked.
     Mike shrugged.  "Deb lost her mind, which we guessed, and the rest
of the Pack is taking Tuck's side, or at least not taking Debbie's."
They weren't quite the same thing, but the important thing was they only
had Debbie to worry about.  "And Kim said they've already threatened
Debbie with going out of sanction if she does anything against Tucker."
     Dan whistled in amazement.

***

     "Look, Deb," Kim tried to explain, "Tuck is scared and feeling
abandoned-"
     "What about ME, huh?" Debbie cried.  "What about ME?"  She gasped
for breath, then gasped in misery, "She was supposed to be back at two,
and then that GUY...  I was all alone, and she wasn't there...."

***

     Mike hung up the phone.  "Well, since Tucker signed a contract,
he's gotta go to work tomorrow, or Debbie is gonna get his car back.  I
looked through it myself, and it almost makes sense, which means a
competent lawyer of hers could fandango all over it and breach of
contract his ass."
     "He's gotta go to work tomorrow?  At DEBBIE'S job?!" Amy confirmed.
     Mike shrugged.  "Kim said she'll take pay records and his paycheck
back and forth.  I think she knows what'll happen if there's any
bullshit about pay or anything like that.  And he'll get the money he
made over the weekend the same way, in his paycheck on Friday, with the
rest of it, minus taxes.  Kim'll check it too."

***

     "Look, Tuck," Amy said, still trying to hold on to reality as she
lay next to Tucker on his bed, "you don't have to go to work if you
don't want to.  Your dad said-"
     "I know what he said," Tucker said, his voice raw from all the
screaming he'd done.  "But I promised Miz Parker I'd do it.  I can't
break a promise like that."
     "What about Debbie?" Amy retorted as she looked at him.  "What
about the promises she made?  Huh?"
     "Mike's talked to Kim about it, and if she breaks any of the
promises she made, she'll wish she hadn't-"
     "Damn right!"  She'd liked Debbie, but anyone who did something
like this to Tucker was on her shit list forever.
     "She knows what'll happen if she breaks a promise.  We don't
tolerate oathbreakers," Tucker continued quietly.  "And if anyone breaks
their promises, I'll be damned if it will be me."

***

     "I can't trust him ever again," Debbie whispered.  "I just can't."
     Sabrina sighed as Lisa held the shaking girl.  Being raped had the
effect of making a girl paranoid anyway, and with Debbie's history, if
she'd stopped trusting Tucker, then there was no way they were going to
get back together.

***

     "Why did I have to react like that?  Why?" her son whimpered as he
cried into Sarah's shoulder.  "Why did she hit me, Mama?"
     Eventually, Sarah offered the only wisdom she could.  "Sometimes
things just happen, Eugene.  You just have to live through it, and go
on with your life.  I'm so sorry," she said, knowing it was completely
inadequate, but not knowing anything else to say.  "I wish it hadn't
happened either.  But what's done is done.  So you just have to live
with the consequences..."

***

     "If she screws him I'll do her myself," Brian snarled.
     "No, you won't," Mike corrected.  "You'll talk to me, and we'll fix
it together.  But you don't go off on your own, Brian.  You should know
better than that."
     He glared at Mike, but eventually nodded.

***

     "Oh my God, he knows everything!  He can-"
     "Deb," Kim interrupted, "Mike's not going to let him do anything to
you, just like we're not going to let you do anything first either.  If
he goes off and does something stupid, we'll pay him back.  You know
that," she reminded Debbie.  "But Mike doesn't think he will."
     "Are you sure?" Debbie sniffled.
     Kim nodded.  "Mike is probably the one person on Earth that Tuck'll
listen to over his own brain.  And Mike won't allow Tuck to do anything
to you.  I made sure of that."

***

     "Michael, what did you do to my son?"
     Mike sighed.  "Mister Tucker, I didn't do anything to him I didn't
do to me too."  He displayed his wrist, and peeled back the artfully
done bandaging he'd applied to them both, that covered a deep bloody cut
with what looked like a simple bandaid.  "I don't know where he went,
but he wasn't gonna come home," he tapped his head, "without something
drastic.  You know how he gets when he's sick enough."
     They were silent for a long time.
     "I won't let him go," Mike finally forced out.
     Mister Tucker considered that for a longer time, then finally
nodded.  "Thank you, for saving my son.  Again."  He gripped Mike's hand
and squeezed, just like Tucker did, and held it for the longest time.

***

     Debbie had finally fallen into a restless sleep in Lisa's arms,
leaving the blonde to think silently.
     *I knew this was going to happen,* she thought.  *I knew it.  Guys
can't be trusted...*  She'd bide her time, but if anything else happened
to Debbie, and there was the least chance that Tucker was at the root of
it, she'd make sure he'd pay for it himself in blood.

***

     Amy managed to catch Mike before he left.  "Mike?  I know today was
pretty bad, but... I gotta find out what's going on with, with the way
he came in from the trip," she squirmed around what she didn't want to
say out loud.
     "Amy, I can't-"
     "I'm not asking you to tell me," she assured him.  "But, I mean,
can we go pick him up after work tomorrow, so I can ask him?  I swear I
won't push, but I think that'd be the best place."
     Mike thought about it for a long time before he nodded.  "But I'm
not gonna make any promises, and if he doesn't want to talk, I'm not
going to make him.  And you're not going to make him, either."
     "I know."  She looked at him for a few minutes, then hugged him.
"I still don't know what you did, but thanks for bringing him back," she
whispered into his ear.
     He kissed her on the cheek before he let her go.

***

     Kathy passed the thermos to Jill, and sat back against the side of
the car.  She shook her head as Jill drank.
     "I like Debbie," Kim pressed, "but I like Val- I mean Tuck, too."
Jill nodded in agreement.
     Kathy stared at the sky.  Finally, she commented, "Shit."  After a
few moments, she continued, "Debbie's gonna have a cow if we're not
careful."
     "So we're careful," Jill stated.  "I think Deb's a dumbfuck for
doing it, but you can't tell her that, not now.  But I'm with Kim; I
LIKE Val, and I'm not gonna flush her down the toilet just because
Debbie got stupid when she was drunk."  Both of the other girls nodded
in agreement.
     Kathy stated, "I don't know what to think about them... I still
can't figure out if those two were the best things that ever happened to
each other, or the worst.  But..."  She shook her head.  "Damn.  Anyway,
you're right, I don't want to lose either of them as a friend."
     Kim took the thermos back and sighed before she drank from it.
"Why did she blow up like that anyway?"
     Kathy shrugged, but it was Jill that answered.  "Old stuff, you
know.  And Tuck's stubborn enough, especially after what she did, that
he's not going to talk to her again if he can avoid it.  He's gonna be a
dumbfuck about it too, just like Debbie."
     "I thought it was going to work out," Kim sighed.
     Eventually, Kathy stated, "We all did."
     "At least Lisa's holding Debbie together," Jill said out loud.
"But who's gonna do it for Tucker?"
     "Mike," Kim answered.
     Kathy added, "And us."
     Jill's eyes had gone wide.  "Mike and Tuck are-"
     Kathy kicked her shin.  "Don't be an idiot.  No, it's not like
Debbie and Lisa... it's...."  She shook her head.  "It's deeper than
that."  Kim nodded in support.  "I think, if one died, the other one
would die too.  Like twins or something.  But that means Mike's
vulnerable too," Kathy added, looking at Kim.

***

     Amy stroked Tucker's hair as he clung to her, trying to relax
enough to sleep.  He'd been adamant about his job commitment, and he had
to get up early tomorrow.
     *He is so weird...*
     But she loved him like no one else.

***


When will it end?
Will it consume my soul?
Into the fire
I'll be intended once more
Into the fire
I've fallen
Into the fire
I'm fallin'...

Take me back where I came from,
don't want to see your face no more.
You broke my heart
Now its not the same
I'm fallen
Again...
I'm fallin'....  Into The Fire, Dokken



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+ ==[--------   Ellen Hayes   @>--,--'---      ellen@barkingduck.net +
PGP DH/DSS keyfing: 33D4 156A AE39 53E2 0313  6714 2878 56A8 61B0 9CDC
+ http://www.barkingduck.net/ehayes -=[1990]=- vicki .sig virus 11.4 +


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