Masters & Lovers Box Set Three

Klempner – The Present

Mine…

My daughter…

Mitch’s daughter…

Alexanders’ words haunt me…

You locked her in the dark with the corpses of the murdered...

I try to escape into sleep…

… The stinking breath

The blood-shot eyes, wild with rage

The fist…

Da... No...

And a scream of anger. ‘Leave him alone you bastard! Don't you touch him! Don’t you dare touch him…’

The smack of knuckles into flesh and another scream, now of pain…

‘Mommy! Don't hurt Mommy!’

The figure so tall…

The screams of pain becoming shrieks…

The smack of knuckles into flesh…

The little figure grabs for something… Anything…

… He swings the big metal stick with all his might, aiming for the ankles… ‘Stop hurting Mommy!’

A scream of rage and pain. ‘You little bastard!’

‘Run, Lamb, Hide!’

the bedroom. His mother

‘Bitch!’

screams again,

while, the door slams. It

under the bed,

up, slamming the bolts on the door, top and bottom, then rushes across. ‘It’s alright,

Sobbing, ‘You’re bleeding, Mommy…’

Sweetie. Don’t

cloth, squeezing

‘A bit.’

but let's have a sleep. We'll both feel better

tell me a

talking all funny. ‘What story

about the

time, there was a little boy called Larry....’ She speaks slowly, her voice

‘Mommy?’

the morning.’ She pulls him close, humming as she strokes his hair. After a while, she stops humming and her

*****

time for breakfast?’ But she doesn't answer, doesn't open her

‘Mommy?’

…

…

*****

door bangs. ‘Fucking well open up. I know you're in there.

the door bangs again, heaves; bangs and heaves, the bolts straining on

buzzing tide of bluebottles, he stares down at the small, filthy figure on the

scattered: wrappers licked clean, tins

on one hand, swollen, the

is she?

drops his head, tears trickling. ‘I don’t

the fuck’s that that

me. I want her to tell

man gapes then charges around the apartment. As he pushes the bedroom door open, clouds of flies swarm up and through and

and pushes him into the bathroom, closing the door behind him. ‘You stay

sits, hunching small, trembling, listening to the clatter and the cursing from beyond the

open and the man marches in, reaching down to