Another Day at the Cul-de-Sac

Life at the Park and Flush Trailer Park is never an easy one. It is a hive of low-income wage workers, high school dropouts and meth addicts sharing space with moonshiners, immigrant farm hands and the financially destitute. In essence, not the best place to raise a child, let alone three of them. But Barbra Kanker didn't have much of a choice, it was the cheapest place she could afford and still make it on time to her three different jobs. Barbra was a single mother who worked varying jobs as a waitress, an auto mechanic and a night nurse in order to support her family and keep a roof over their head. This meant that she had to work long hours. This meant that she was rarely home. This meant that her daughters had to raise themselves and make their own decisions most of the time. And sometimes those decisions were rather, problematic.

"RUN DOUBLE-D! THEY'RE GAINING!"

"THE DEMONS OF THE DEEP WILL NOT SUCK OUT ED'S BRAIN!"

Two prepubescent boys were running through a construction site as if a pack of wolves were at their heels, their cries filling the air as they twisted through the incomplete houses, construction equipment and small hills of dirt and gravel. One of the boys was short with pink skin, scheming midnight blue eyes and three long strands of black hair slicked back with cheap Axle Grease. He wore a bright yellow shirt with a singular red stripe running vertically down the right side and a purple collar, a pair of baggy sky blue jeans and red sneakers. Next to him was a taller boy with sickly yellow skin, dull looking brown eyes, red hair cut in a crew cut and a single black unibrow that seemed to float off his head. He wore a short sleeved red and white striped shirt under a green jacket, a pair of indigo blue jeans and worn out black shoes. Though different in looks and personality, they were united in two ways; their names and the looks of terror etched on their faces.

The boys scrambled up on top of one of the hills of dirt and quickly looked back, their faces consumed with worry and fear. "Where is he Ed?! They could be on us any minute!" the shorter boy whispered and shouted at the same time. "There he is Eddy!" the boy known as Ed exclaimed, pointing one of his fingers towards a figure running around a cement mixer. Though running is probably an over exaggeration. Jogging would be more accurate, or speed walking. "Curse my weak and skinny physic!" wheezed the figure as he came more into view. The figure was a third prepubescent boy around the same age as the other two with tan skin, intelligent jade eyes and a black sock shaped hat with two white stripes running up each side that completely covered his head. He wore an orange t-shirt and purple shorts with blue sneakers, an odd combination that would make anyone who knew anything about color balance quietly approve before turning away in shame. "Hurry Double-D, before the sirens eat your brain, for yours is the largest and most delicious of them all!" shouted Ed, his eyes wild with panic. Eddy, with panic and anger consuming his own eyes, grabbed Ed's mouth and yanked him down to eye level. "Are you crazy ya big dolt?! Your shouting will lead them right to us!" whispered Eddy. He then looked back and saw a cloud of dust coming over the horizon, the sight of which caused Eddy to freeze and his mouth to droop, as if he was trying to shrink in on himself. "We're too late." Eddy croaked. "COOTIES BAD FOR ED!" Ed shouted as he leaped into the air before grabbing Eddy and taking off down the back of the hill and sprinting towards the forest beyond. "GUYS, WAIT FOR ME!" shouted Double-D, trying desperately to catch up with his friends. Chancing a glance behind him, he saw a sight that filled every fiber of his being with dread.

The position where his friends were made the details of what was in the cloud shrouded to them, but since Double-D was closer, he was able to see them in crisp and terrifying detail. The cloud of dust was trailing behind three prepubescent girls, each of them sprinting like a cheetah after their prey. Leading the pack was a tall girl with curly red hair that covered her eyes, but the smirk on her face clearly showed her malicious intent. She wore a white sleeveless shirt with red polka dots and turquoise skinny jeans and worn dark blue sneakers. To her left was a shorter girl with long blond hair, excited hazel eyes and buck teeth. She wore a light gray shirt that showed her midriff, red shorts and brown boots caked in mud. But the one that brought near paralysing fear to Double-D's heart was the girl on the right. She had sea blue hair that covered her right eye, but the uncovered left eye, framed in eye liner the same color as her hair, was cunning and wicked, the grey iris boring into him as if he were little more than a fine cut of beef, a slight sneer mixed perfectly with an evil grin adorning her face. Like the red haired girl she wore a sleeveless shirt, unlike her the shirt was as black as oil and was paired with olive green hunting pants and black boots. Double-D was very familiar with those faces as they had tormented him, his friends and the other kids in the Cul-de-Sac for a whole year by this point. Individually they were known as Lee, May and Marie but they were most feared as a collective, as simply The Kanker Sisters.

"Come on Girls!" the red haired Lee trumpetted, "Our Boyfriends are gonna have some fun with us tonight!" "I can't wait to show Big Ed my chicken bone collection!" May exclaimed with eagerness and glee. Double-D started running faster, but he knew it was futile. The Kanker were more athletic than he was and thus much faster than him. He wished that he was with his friends now, but both Ed and Eddy were probably either halfway back to the Cul-de-Sac by now or hiding in one of the trees deep in the woods where the Kankers were unlikely to find them. If he wanted to escape them, he would have to make more intelligent maneuvers.

Double-D quickly reached the tree line and started slipping his way between the gnarled roots of the trees, trying to find a ditch or river bank to might be able to hide in. He kept running, aware of the increasing sounds of crunching leaves and branches as the Kankers plowed their way through the undergrowth. "Oh Oven Mitt!" a scarchy, almost boyish voice echoed through the air as Double-D ducked underneath another tree branch. "I have a special gift for you!" Double-D shivered slightly as he tore his way through a patch of wild raspberry bushes, knowing that the voice was that of 'his' Kanker, Marie. For some reason after he, Ed and Eddy first met the Kankers, the three of them have been continuously hounded by Kankers as they continuously called them their boyfriends. Every other day without fail the Kanker sisters would chase after them, sexually molest them with kissing and leave them humiliated in some way. Sometimes the Kankers would mix it up by forcing them to wait on them hand and foot, sometimes they would just kidnap them for a few hours of 'fun', but either way they would inevitably find themselves walking home with their clothes ripped and torn and their faces covered in red lipstick, angry and withdrawn. They each had their own, Eddy had the violent and brutish Lee, Ed had the doppy and invasive May and he had the manipulative and possessive Marie. And he knew that she was possessive as earlier during the fifth year graduation dance he had been able to score a dance was Nazz, the kindest and hottest girl in the school and his crush. He wasn't able to completely enjoy it however as Marie ended up destroying the school gym and the school itself in a fit of jealous rage. If that was any indication of his future relationship status than he might as well forget about dating until he was at least in college.

Unfortunately Double-D was so caught up in his thoughts that he failed to notice that large root that he ended up tripping over, nor the steep hill that he ended up tumbling down, grunts of pain punctuating every bounce down the hill before landing at the bottom. A moan of agony escaped his mouth as Double-D lay there, pain shooting through his body like an adrenaline shot. He tried to slowly get up, but fell back down, gasping as agony seared through his left shoulder blade. He turned over onto his back and looked at his arm. The arm wasn't broken from what he can see. He tried to move the limb. He failed. With stark realization, Double-D knew that he had dislocated his shoulder. He lay there staring up at the sky, now resigned to his fate as the sounds of footsteps quickly getting louder and closer beat against his ear drums. And then the wicked smiles of the three Kanker sisters filled his vision.

"Well Oven Mitt, you gave me quite a workout back there," Marie said, panting slightly every couple of words, "but I always end up catching ya in the end." "Same thing with our other boy friends." Exclaimed May in a sort of intense glee. "Speaking of which, Marie, May and I are gonna keep looking for our stud muffins, meet us back at the house when you're done here," said Lee. "Take as long as you like." as she walked away before jogging back into the trees, May following close behind her. Marie waved lazily at their shrinking forms before turning towards the prone body of Double-D, her face glowing with anticipation. She straddled his body, his face drenched in nervous sweat as she invaded his personal space for at least the 186th time. "Now Oven Mitt, just lay there like the good little dwib you are, I want to make this nice and intimate." Petrified with terror, Double-D almost completely forgot about his dislocated shoulder, that is until Marie put her right hand heavily down on it. "YAAHHHH!" Double-D's scream of pain along with the arching of his back and kicking out of his right knee surprised Marie as she was forcefully thrown off him. Clutching her side in slight pain, Marie turned to Double-D, anger blazing in her eyes, only for the anger to dissipate as she saw him, clutching his shoulder in clear agony, tears trickling slowly down his cheeks as he hissed in pain. Her intentions temporarily forgot, she quickly crawled to his side, her face showing something that Double-D rarely saw from her; concern. "Oven Mitt are you alright? What happened?" As she asked that question, a flash of fury passed through Double-D's eyes. 'Simple you complete terror, I nearly broke my shoulder blade because I was trying to get away from you!' thought Double-D as a feeling of loathing passed through his body, but it soon passed, as Double-D looked into her eyes and saw genuine worry in her eyes. At that moment he found that he couldn't stay angry with her, no matter how much he wanted to. "Curse my gentlemanly disposition" he muttered before taking a deep breath. "I tripped over a tree root at the top of the hill and dislocated my shoulder on the way down." Double-D choked out, grimacing slightly as another spasm of pain shot through him. Marie look at him at first with…'was that guilt' he thought, but then the look quickly went away and she then looked at him with a bit of resolve. She looked away and found a large tree, nodded and then turned back to him. "Do you think you can walk?" Double-D looked at her in slight confusion before nodding. "Okay, I want you to give me your right arm so that I can get you up, then I want you to drape it around my shoulder." Double-D looked at her in suspicion, wondering if she would take advantage of him here, then his arm spasmed again. 'Well, nothing ventured nothing gained as John Heywood would say' "Okay, I trust you." Marie seemed to freeze, as if she was stunned, but when Double-D extended his right arm, she shook herself out of it before grabbing his hand, pulling him to his feet and draping his right arm on her shoulder and guided him towards the tree.

As she rested him against the tree, Double-D caught a small flash of regret on her face before she moved to the left side of his body and to the edge of his view. "Okay, I would say that this won't hurt much, but we both know that would be a lie." She then grabbed a small stick and showed it to him. "Alright, I'm going to need you to put this in your mouth and bite down as hard as you can." Double-D looked at the stick in disgust. "I'm not putting that in my mouth! Don't you know how much bacteria there is that could harm you?! For all I know some animals covered it with urine and fecal matter!" Marie shot a frustrated glare at him. "I'm sorry, do you want to bite your tongue?" Quickly realizing that that might happen, Double-D reluctantly put the stick in his mouth and clamped down. "Just so you know, after I'm done I'm going to ravish you without mercy." Double-D looked at her and caught a mischievous glint in her eye. "Wait, whaaaaaAAAAAAAGHHHH!" The sound of his shoulder being slammed back into place was drowned out by his scream of shocked pain as all feeling returned to his arm in an instant. As he breathed heavily between the stick, gasping as he recovered and the pain ebbed, Marie sat down next to him against the tree, a satisfied smirk on her face. "There you go." She spoke, almost giggling as she did. "It's all better." Double-D, remembering that he had a stick in his mouth, quickly spat it out before he glared at her in mock rage. "That was uncalled for." He said scathingly. "Hey it distracted you didn't it?" She replied cheekally, turning to him and flashing a coy smile as she did. Double-D turned away and grumbled a little, but he couldn't deny that she was in the right in this case.

The two of them fell into an uncomfortable silence, neither one of them willing or able to take any initiative in starting a conversation. Double-D sat there, holding his arm and stewing in a cold sweat. He was painfully aware that this was the longest that he had spent in the company of any of the Kanker sisters without being assaulted in anyway, let alone the sister that was clearly the most infatuated with him. He was afraid, yes but he was also a little confused, as he never believed any of the Kanker's to be altruistic. Eventually, this line of thought grew too troublesome for him to ignore. "Why did you do it?" he asked timidly. Marie looked at him in a sort of combination of shock and curiosity, as if she was surprised that she was speaking to him in a calm and even friendly manner. "What help you?" she asked before turning away to briefly think about it. "Believe it or not, my sisters and I don't want to hurt you." "Really, with all the bruises and cuts we suffered I never would expect that." Double-D replied, his voice oozing with sarcasm and dry monotone. "I meant severely hurt you." Marie snapped back, looking annoyed and slightly frustrated. "You know, broken bones, black eyes, twisted ankles, severe bleeding and concussions, stuff like that. Mom raised us better than that." She then turned away from him and crossed her arms over her chest, a look of sour bitterness crossing her face. "If we ended up doing something like that you would go to the hospital, your parents would find out, our mom would get sued to cover the medical expenses, our mom might lose her jobs, we'd have to sell the trailer and my sisters and I would go to juvie, and I DON'T want to go to juvie." "So it's less about being a decent human being and more about pragmatic selfishness, how thoughtful." Marie turned back to Double-D and stared into his judgemental eyes, sneering at him as she did. "Call it if you want, but I actually do care about you." Yes, just not enough to not invade my personal space, take no for an answer, not smash up my inventions and not cause any permanent emotional duress." "Oh screw you!" Marie then turned away seething, got up and walked away for a short while before sitting down behind another tree. Double-D sat there for a moment, brooding. 'Well what did she expect? That I would be thankful for what she did and throw myself on her while forgetting everything she and her sisters had done to us in the last year? Frankly, I'm surprised to didn't try to hightail it out of here while I had the chance.' 'Yes,' Replied a voice that sounded distinctly like his own. 'but did you really need to go for the low blow like that? She did help you put your arm back in, the least you could do was thank her.' Double-D looked down, regret washing over his face. 'You're right, she did the right thing and I attacked her for it. I should go over and apologize for this.' Slowly and reluctantly, Double-D stood up and walked over to the tree that Marie hid behind. As he walked around it he saw Marie sitting with her knees drawn to her chest, glowering at the ground in front of her. Double-D rubbed his face, steeling himself for the confrontation. "I'm sorry, you were helped me with an injury that you couldn't have known I would've gotten and I snapped at you because of it. It was wrong and I shouldn't have done that. Instead, I would like to thank you for helping me." Marie turned and stared up at him, softly smiled at him and then got to her feet. "Well thanks, I'm glad I could help but I feel that you could do something to make up for how mean you were to me." Double-D suddenly grew nervous, he didn't like the look she was giving him. "Well," he stammered, slowly backing away as he did. "What would you like for me to do?" Marie suddenly struck like a thunderbolt, grabbed him and pinned him against the tree. She smiled lustfully up at him, a gleam of triumph glissining in her eyes. "Well, remember when I said that I was going to ravish you without mercy?" Double-D stared back, petrified terror filling his every being. "Ye-yes?" "I wasn't lying."

Double-D stumbled out of the forest an hour later, mentally kicking himself for his foolishness. He had let his guard down for a single moment and she had taken full advantage of the situation to leave his face plastered with lipstick and kisses AGAIN. 'Curse my kind nature, it always seems to work against me at the worst possible moment.' Double-D grouchelly mussed as he walked down the alley way that lead back to the Cul-de-Sac, his shoulders slumped in tired exasperation. As he turned the corner onto the main street he saw his friends loitering under one of the light poles. Judging by the sheer amount of red lipstick on their faces and the angry look Eddy was giving Ed, their tormentors were able to eventually catch up with them. "Do I even want to know what happened to you guys?" Double-D asked as he approached them. Eddy quickly turned his face toward him, his face reddening with rage. "Monobrow here fell for one of their traps and I got caught when I was trying to stop him." "But Eddy," Ed moaned with a pleading look on his face. "There was a giant chicken in the middle of the field." "Yes, a FAKE chicken!" Screamed Eddy, looking as if he was one bad word away from trying to strangle him. "That chicken was so fake even a toddler would be able to tell the difference! I can't believe you fell for it, it was made out of cardboard and gum tack!" "Eddy," Double-D calmly spoke, putting his hand on Eddy's shoulder as he did so. "It already happened and there's nothing we can do about it now. It's best that you let this go." Eddy turned and glared at him, starting a short staring contest. But Double-D wouldn't flinch and eventually Eddy looked away. "Fine, whatever Sockhead. I just want to go home and figure out what kind of scam we should tryout tomorrow." he grumbled as he slouched his way up the street towards his pink house. "Okay then, good night Eddy." Double-D waved at his friend's retreating back before turning to his other friend, who was now smiling dumbly at him. "I better get home to, after all early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise. Goodbye Ed." "Farewell Double-D." said Ed before he turned and ran towards his grass green house, laughing jollily as he went. Double-D shook his head fondly and walked towards his teal blue house. As he opened the door, he looked around, sighed and took off his shoes before entering the kitchen. Once again he found himself home before his parents. Not that this would be unusual for a normal child, but due to his parents' hectic work schedule, they often got home after he went to bed and left long before he woke up. As such he hadn't had a conversation with them that wasn't over the phone in two years and they hadn't had dinner together in five. Not that he minded too much, as it allowed him to be more independent than every other kid in the neighborhood, but he would like to at least be able to listen to some music with them. As Double-D had his dinner of pasta with cream sauce and broccoli, his thoughts turned toward the frustrating enigma that is Marie Kanker. She had helped him today and yet still assaulted him. She showed genuine concern and yet still took advantage of him. It was both frustrating and intriguing at the same time. As he put his dishes in the sink so that he could wash them tomorrow there was only one question on his mind. 'Who are you really Marie Kanker?'