Dirty Little F---ers

"These children that come at you with knives, they are your children… These are just a few. There are many, many more coming right at you." – Charles Manson

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"You're just in time for dinner, Mom and Dad. I made your favorite. And I hope you don't mind that I invited some company."

The creature who spoke to them was seated at the head of the dining table. It grinned when it saw their shocked expressions. "Pretty major, huh?" it said, looking almost boyish for a moment. "You wouldn't let me get a tattoo, so I got these instead." The sharp quills protruding from its face quivered when it laughed.

"Oh, Jesse!" the woman gasped. She looked like she wanted to cry. "What's happened to you?"

"It's Spine now," the monster who had been her son told her coldly.

"What are you doing here?" the man demanded. "I thought I made it very clear that you would never be welcome in this house again!"

Spine glared at his father. "Yes, you did. The kick to the head as you threw me out the door really emphasized the words."

"Leave!" his father ordered. "I want you and these scum you brought with you out of here right now!" He looked with loathing at the ragged group of teenagers who were ravenously eating his food.

One of Spine's new friends, a young man with spiky blond hair and an arrogant manner, stopped eating and smirked. "You were right," he said to Spine. "Your old man is a pig."

"You insolent -!"

The young man suddenly stood up and advanced on the couple. Flames appeared on his hands and he threateningly held the fire close to their faces. "You don't want to insult me, pig." His voice was low and menacing. "You really don't want to do that."

"You're a mutant, like him. You're all goddamned mutants!" The man grabbed his wife protectively and took a step back. "That's it. I'm calling the cops." He took his mobile phone out of his jacket pocket and began to dial 911. He suddenly screamed when a crystalline blade flew toward him and sliced off his hand. The woman screamed, too.

The mutant who had thrown the blade, the girl sitting on Spine's right, snickered.

"Jesse!" the woman said her son's name pleadingly. "Jesse, please don't do this. Please!"

Spine rose from his chair and walked toward them. He knelt in front of his parents who huddled together in terror. "I want to know something," he said. "It was just an excuse, wasn't it? Kicking me out because I was a mutant? You've been wanting to do that for years. Ever since Jacob died."

"Don't you ever say his name!" His father spat in his face. "You don't have that right!"

"Why?" Spine sounded furious. "Because you think I killed him? I let him drown? I was nine, he was fourteen! I wasn't strong enough to save him! Why the fuck can't you understand that?"

His father refused to listen. "You should have died instead of Jacob," he said cruelly.

"Stop!" his mother cried out. "Just stop!" She put her hands over her ears so she wouldn't have to listen to the hateful words they said to each other.

"It's okay," Spine said. "It doesn't matter now anyway." He closed his hands into fists. Long quills jutted out from his knuckles. "Tell your favorite son little brother says hi."

He drove his fists into their eyes.

The young blond man sat back in his chair. He scowled at the others. "What are you looking at?" he asked. "Eat."

There were murmurs of "Okay" and "Yes, Pyro."

They ate a very good meal.