Eighteen

Reggie wakes up screaming, nurses try to get her to calm down but she won't. She yells for Mac. But he doesn't come. He never comes. She feels a prick in her thigh and there is oblivion.

##########

Mac is coming down off a high, he's been using off and on for months. He can't get Reggie and the cave out of his brain. He'd never fucking taken drugs before in his life until Rick spiked his beer. And in doing so he'd let his animal loose. It had never felt so good.

##########

"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Regina, happy birthday to you." The words are soft and somehow the make Reggie feel like ants are crawling all over her skin. She keeps her eyes closed and turned away. She isn't eighteen until Mac fucks her.

##########

"Come on baby, open your eyes, I got you a cake, your favourite." Devon's voice is desperate. He is desperate. Regina hasn't responded to him in any way since he'd brought her home after the funeral and had her institutionalised. He was trying to get her back to a place he could take her home with him but it wasn't working.

She'd become fixated on Mac for some reason. Devon couldn't understand it. Mac had raped her but for some reason Reggie still wanted Mac. Called for Mac. Begged for Mac. Not him, never him. Always Mac. His temper boils inside him. He wants nothing more than to kill something, someone, but he can't. Los Angeles is full of people, it's nothing like Cainville, no open spaces to get lost in, to do stuff unobserved.

Devon doesn't understand why Regina keeps calling for Mac. She didn't know Mac. But she didn't believe him when he'd told her that. He pushes his anger at Regina and Mac down deep. It can't see the light of day. Not yet.

##########

"Thanks Dad, they don't think that she'll be released any time soon, several months they're talking now. She keeps asking for him. I can't fucking understand it." Devon is angry, so very angry.

"I know son, I don't know what to say, he hasn't said anything beyond being angry that we've had to move his cooking station." Walter scrubs a hand over his face. He gets up taking the phone with him, cord trailing behind as he looks out into the bar. Mac is there, high as he plays pool. His laugh is raucous and the women tonight are sensibly giving him a wide berth.

Walter doesn't know what to think about what happened during the summer beyond being pissed at Mac for causing the death of Devon and Regina's mother. He doesn't know what went on in the cave apart from Devon has said and as much as Walter loves Devon he's not stupid, he knows Devon's lying about something. But Mac? Mac had raped Regina and now he was using when he'd never touched the product before.

For the first time in his life Walter doesn't know how to proceed. It was against his judgment that he'd let Devon take Regina back to California. And he wasn't going to touch the way Mac had gone quiet when he'd found out a week after the fact. Or think about the way he'd started to use heavily within a day of being told that Regina was no longer in town.

Because that would mean Walter had missed something somewhere along the line and the one thing Walter never did was miss things.

"Maybe she's just, I don't know son, twisting things around in her mind?" Walter goes back to his desk and sits rubbing his other hand across his eyes.

"But Dad, she has this mark on her. The doctor's say it's a bite mark. I have no fucking idea where or when she got it." Devon's voice shakes in fury or nerves, Walter can't tell.

"A bite mark you say? Where?" Walter is confused, surely Regina's mother would have mentioned if Regina had been attacked?

"I haven't been able to get a look at it. They're keeping her closely monitored, even when I'm there. But they say it's on her pelvis, down low, on her left side. I had no fucking idea she had it, I've got no fucking clue when or where she got it. She never said a fucking word." Devon's tone is outraged. He is upset that Regina had something he didn't know about. "The fucking creepy thing is that she's had it, uh." He stops and clears his throat.

"What son?" Walter asks as he stills in his chair. Whatever had Devon at a loss for words was serious.

"She's had it tattooed. Bordered or framed apparently. Like the bite mark is a picture or something. Something she treasures." His voice has lowered, become puzzled and at the same times Walter can tell he's supremely pissed off.

Walter swallows. That was disturbing. He doesn't know what to think. Something is tingling in the back of his mind but he pushes it away. "So you're going to keep her there while you finish school then? And then law school and you're back home?" He asks wanting to plan things in his mind. He doesn't care if Devon stays away for college and law school. As long as he comes back.

"Yeah, I've transferred to a college here, can go and all that and keep an eye on her, visit her. Sold the house, got a smaller one. Don't need that room anymore. And you'll keep an eye on our place there?" Devon asks his father as they settle things between them.

"Of course I will, don't you worry son." Walter smiles as he thinks he can't wait for Devon to return. "And when you do come back you bring Regina with you. Doesn't matter if she's not well, we'll look after her, we're family."

"Thanks dad, appreciate it. Guess I'd better go. Got to get stuff sorted for classes now." They say goodbye and Devon hangs up the phone. He looks at the cake box he'd left on the kitchen table. Red velvet cake. He hated it, felt like he was eating blood. But it was Regina's favourite.

He takes it out back and throws it in the bin and then when inside gets everything settled that he needs for his first day of class. He'll stop by to see Regina of an evening now. The institution said that was okay given he was returning to college.

When he's in bed his thoughts flash back to that day in the cave. He and Regina smoking what they'd thought was a joint. Now he knew it had been laced with meth as well. Which was why they'd all gone fucking insane. And Mac. Devon shivers under his covers as he remembers Mac grabbing Regina and throwing her down, following her down and tearing at her skirt and panties. How he'd paused for a few seconds looking down at her. Devon suddenly realised Mac had seen the bite mark, that was what he'd been looking at. He closes his eyes as he brings it to the forefront of his mind as he usually tried not to do.

Mac following Regina down. Tearing her skirt away. Pushing at her other clothing. Supporting himself on his left hand as his right...what? What had his right hand done? His own mind was so fuzzy because he'd gotten a concussion. Touched Regina he thinks. Mac had touched Regina before he'd taken his cock in his hand and pushed inside her. But where had he touched her? Had he touched the bite mark? Why?

In an almost absent gesture Devon grips his own hard cock. And in his mind he replaces Mac's taut body, thrusting in and out of Regina with his own. He is staring down at her as she cries and screams up at him, he is fucking into her tight heat. He is coming inside her and pulling out, it's his come that trickles out of her along with blood. And then Rick is there, his hair falling everywhere, covering Regina as he pushes her legs further apart and pushes himself dry into her backside.

Devon had always known Rick preferred the back door. He is so glad he's dead. He'd always freaked the shit out of him, the way he'd looked at him when he was around Walter. He'd looked at him like he was a meal he was going to sit right down to and enjoy. And then to see it on his face for Regina. Devon thinks he would have killed him himself if Regina and Mac hadn't ended up doing it for him. To save his own arse if for no other reason. Devon goes back to Mac grabbing him and pushing him onto Regina, telling him to fuck her. He'd been too out of it from the concussion and the pot and meth he'd smoked to be able to perform at all. Didn't stop Mac though, he'd been hard again. When he hadn't been able to get it up Mac himself had taken Regina again. He'd been almost gentle that time though. Devon's brow wrinkles as he realises this. There had been something different about that second time he'd fucked his sister. Their sister. And she'd been different too. Coming down from the high. More alert. And he'd been more fucked up.

Head pounding, black spots flickering in front of him. He thinks he'd passed out and only come to when Regina screamed and pushed away from Mac. He remembers Mac standing there looking down at her and smiling. And Devon hadn't thought beyond that smile. That smile that had promised to keep Regina, to make her his. Devon wasn't having it. Regina was his full sister, she belonged to him. And so ignoring Rick's hanging corpse and Mac he'd grabbed Regina and they'd run.

It was only in the hospital when she'd woken up that he'd realised she didn't remember the cave at all. And so he'd lied to her. Between organising his parents funerals, getting funds to travel back to Los Angeles, arranging Regina's transportation and admittance to the institution. He didn't know what else to do with her. She was lucid one minute, the next screaming about blood and bodies and attacking him.

The doctors were trying to find a cocktail of medication that allowed her to stay lucid but not stoned out of her gourd. Devon goes back to the cave again. This time he thinks of nothing tries to remember nothing. He ignores the flash of hatred as he replaces Mac's body pumping away at Regina with his. He is the one who pushes her legs apart. He is the one who takes her first; there on the blood and come-covered mattress of the cave. He is the one who fucks her into submission. He is the one who marks her, biting her neck and ensuring she'll have a scar there forever.

Devon slides his hand up and down his cock as he thinks of this. Thinks of Regina being fucked by him. He allows his pre-come to lubricate his cock as it oozes out of him, his hand is moving faster as his balls draw up. He will fuck her one day he swears. He'll fuck her like Mac fucks women. Like he's heard them describe him fucking them. Hard and fast and animal-like. He remembers hearing women at the bar talk about him. How sore they'd been the next day. How they'd had bruises and bites and how they'd talk about it all with pride. That they'd been fucked by Mac himself. It was almost like he'd deigned to be with them. And they were happy for any bit of attention he ever showed them.

Only Walter and Devon knew how lucky they were to have survived. Devon hasn't done that yet. Taken a life. But he would soon. He comes with a silent cry, so used to not making noise in case his mother heard him and wanted to help him that he never makes a sound when he's doing anything sexual now. His semen slides down his cock and hand quietly, just as his breathing returns to normal. Not bothering to clean up Devon rolls on his side and goes to sleep. He has a big day tomorrow.

Unlike Regina, he doesn't dream.

##########

"Open up, take your meds." The nurse hands Regina the cup of pills. She throws it back, the pills hitting the back of her throat. She swallows them dry and then takes the water they gave her and swallows some of that too. She frowns as she tries to remember where she is.

"Where's Mac, why hasn't he come?" She has given up trying to figure out anything other than why Mac hasn't come for her. She is eighteen now.

"Who is Mac?" Regina doesn't answer. It's none of their business. "Regina, who is Mac? Is he related to you?" The nurse asks again and again Regina ignores her. She turns away. He should have come for her by now.

##########

Mac lies trembling on the floor of his private cave. He is dreaming. Dreaming of what he'd done in the other cave. Who he'd done it to. His thoughts are fragmented as they always are these days. He dreams in fits and starts. Watching Reggie, taking Reggie. Rick fucking her arse. He rolls over as he wakes and smacks himself on the head even as his other hand scratches at his neck, taking off a scab he'd already had there. Fuck, what the fuck was wrong with him?

He knows of course, deep down inside he knows. He'd taken Reggie before she was eighteen. He'd broken his deal. Nothing else mattered. Mac was using these days. It kept him sane. Kept him from setting fire to everything and everyone around him and watching them burn. He feels his cock slam erect at the thought of burning everyone in his life so he can walk away clean and free. To do what? His mind taunts him. And to do it where? He doesn't listen as his hands now pluck at his thighs. He's not wearing anything but underwear and his skin is dotted with scabs and oozing sores.

Reggie, his thoughts focus on Reggie and he drags himself to his feet. Is she is eighteen now? If she is he needs to claim her.

##########

Hours later he is in his house with the lanterns on in the bathroom as he scrubs himself down. He has no idea how much time has passed since he'd last seen Reggie. His mind is foggy. He wants to use but won't allow himself to until he's figured shit out. He carries the lanterns into the bedroom with him and sets them out as he dresses. Then he blows them out and gets his truck and heading into town. When he pulls up at the bar he pulls around the back and goes in that way. He's hunting for something. Entering Walter's office he looks at the calendar. He keeps one of those stupid word of the day calendars on his desk and he turns it to the correct date religiously each morning when he arrives.

Fuck. Mac looks at the date in shock. Fuck. He's lost months. Months. She's been eighteen for weeks now. Fuck. He starts to pick at his sores again, making them bleed. His mind tells him he needs a hit but he ignores it for now. Walter comes in as he sits in the chair and tries to plan.

"Where the fuck are they?" He asks Walter. Walter looks at Mac, shocked that he is not high for once.

"Why? What do they matter to you?" He wants the truth. Mac is the only person who has ever dared lie to him.

Mac thinks as much as he can, his brain is still muddled. He can only think he can't tell Walter that he owned Reggie. "Promised the fucking mother I'd look out for 'em is all." He says finally. And it was kind of true. Walter didn't need to know he'd only be looking out for Reggie. And only as much as he wanted to look out for her.

"You don't need to do that son, they're my children, it's my responsibility to look out for them. Not yours." Walter says no more. He looks at Mac before he continues. "Harley is becoming a deputy, in time he'll become the sheriff so we'll be covered. We've finally got distribution sorted out thanks to your help over the past year, now all I need from you is to cook. If you can cook and use I don't care. But you cook first. Then you use if you need to. You understand me boy?" He looks at Mac waiting for an answer. When Mac finally stops picking at his sores and looks back at him Walter is surprised by the hatred in his eyes. Hatred directed at him.

"Yeah old man, I'll cook and I'll use and I'll do what you fucking tell me to. But no more, no more travelling to fix up your shit. I cook only. Fucking sick of cleaning up your shit because you can't pick the right people." Walter's eyes flash and Mac wonders if he's going to take out the revolver he keeps in his desk draw and shoot him. He would welcome it except it left Reggie alone.

Reggie was his, he was going to get her back no matter how long or how many years it took him. He would get her back.

Walter stands and looks down at Mac, he realised he didn't know him. Had never really known him. And he never would. He decides to give Mac something to keep him sweet. He needed him. For the time being.

"They're in Los Angeles, Regina has been institutionalised. They'll return when Devon finishes law school." He walks back out to his bar without looking further at Mac. Which is a good thing. He doesn't need to see the pure feral fury that flashes across Mac's face at the thought of Reggie being locked up. She wasn't crazy. Devon was only trying to make her out to be.

##########

Devon wakes on a Saturday morning, he has slipped into class easily. Not making any real friends. He has Regina after all. And a life planned for him once he finishes law school. He showers, dresses and eats breakfast, taking his time. Then he gets into his car and backs out, when he's on the street he heads to the institution. He is thinking of Regina so doesn't see the old sedan pull out and trail after him at a distance.

He doesn't feel the malevolence reaching out toward him in the form of Mac.

Regina looks at him without speaking. The doctor explains they're keeping her medicated for the time being. She still asks for Mac, usually in the morning. Devon has finally thought to say that Mac was an imaginary friend Regina had made up as a child. It does the trick, turns the doctor's to thinking she's a little less stable and more along the way of keeping her on some meds. Devon is dreading her coming home, what with him gone most days. But the doctor's say she'll be able to cope, provided she stays medicated. They also say she they've re-instated her birth control.

"Birth control?" Devon asks.

"Yes Mr. Ashton, her general practitioner has letters from her gynecologist, Regina was put on birth control nearly two years ago. It was regular medication she was taking so we've re-instated it.

Devon is furious. What the hell else had he not known about Regina? Mac for one thing. It is clear to him now that she knew Mac. Somehow, she'd managed to get to know him without either he or Walter being cognizant of the fact. His lips thin as his fury mounts. Had Mac already been fucking her?

He reigns in his fury as he sits by Regina's side. She doesn't talk to him. But she doesn't ask him about Mac anymore either. She has some colour. The nurses say they're sitting her in the sun, out in the garden for a little while each day. She seems to be more relaxed after it. Devon remembers how she'd relaxed in the open air of Cainville.

"She likes the open air." He says to the nurse who nods at him.

"Unless she misbehaves, we'll make sure we keep it up for her then." Devon nods.

He spends Saturday and Sunday with Regina, then is back at class on Monday.

##########

Mac watches the institution for four days. It is the fifth day when he finally makes a move. Getting onto the grounds undetected is not hard. He's watched for orderlies and what not. Reggie is so quiet he's sure they forget her half the time. That works to his advantage. Unobtrusively he walks to her, then stands behind the tree so he can't be seen though she can see him if he turns her head. He takes a pebble and tosses it at her hoping like hell she's not too fucked in the head.

##########

Reggie looks at the pebble that lands in her lap. She frowns as she registers that it had been thrown. Then she looks over in the direction she thinks it had come from. Her gaze crawls up steel-toed work boots, covered in she didn't know what. Heavy navy work pants. A denim shirt tied around a lean waist and a filthy black t-shirt. She sees scabs on the arms and on the throat along with her mark. Her mark.

And then she sees his eyes. Mac has come.

When their eyes connect he smiles at her. "Hey pretty girl."