Read Online THREE TIMES A LADY by Jon Osborne - Free Book Online

already have the pitchfork handy, though.’
    Claire Bishop finally screamed then – screamed as loudly as she possibly could – and she didn’t stop screaming for thirty solid seconds, until her throat had been rubbed as raw as the beef all around them.  Not that it did her any good.  The walk-in freezer was like a soundproof booth. 
    The boy watched her silently until she’d finished.  Then he laughed disgustedly.  ‘Just shut up, Claire.  Just shut the fuck up or I’ll chop off your disgusting little tongue for you with this handy pitchfork of mine.  Nobody’s going to hear you anyway.  I’ve made damn sure of that.’
    Claire tried her best to take in a deep breath for a second round of screaming but couldn’t manage it.  It felt like a thousand-pound weight was pressing down hard on her chest, strangling her lungs into submission and making it impossible to get enough oxygen into her system.  Worse, what little breath she did manage was painfully cold; hurt her insides; froze them together. 
    ‘But why ?’ she finally sobbed as the drug-induced fog in her brain cleared and the first tears of horror began to leak out of her big blue eyes, streaking her heavy mascara in thick rivers of dirty water on her smooth cheeks.  Saltwater droplets slid down her face before falling to the metal floor at her feet like the first raindrops of an impending storm dotting a sidewalk.  ‘Why me ?  I didn’t do anything to you.  I don’t deserve this.  I was nice to you.’
    The boy shook his head and waved the cleaver distractedly in the air, like an irritated professor who’d just been asked a very inconvenient question from an ignorant student that seemed to poke holes in a theory upon which he’d just taken great pains to expound.  Light from the network of noisy fluorescent bulbs overhead bounced off the cleaver and stabbed Claire’s brain through her glistening eyeballs.
    ‘Did you just ask me why ?’ he asked incredulously.  ‘You actually have the nerve to ask me something like that after everything I’ve done for you, you ungrateful little brat?  And if you think that being nice to me has anything to do with this, then you’re even stupider than you look.’ 
    He paused and shook his head.  ‘And I’ll tell you something else, Claire.  Judging from the look of you, that’s quite the feat to accomplish.  Quite the feat to accomplish, indeed.’
    Claire sobbed and pulled hard against the thin ropes that were biting deep into her wrists and ankles like poisonous snakes, at the same time looking around frantically for any possible avenue of escape.  There was none.  The only way in was the same way out and the boy was blocking it.  All she could do now was wriggle around like a worm that had been impaled on a sharp steel fishing hook.  But doing that only tightened the knots and cut off her circulation even more, turning her fingers and toes a deathly blue.
    The boy pressed his lips together into a tight line while he watched her squirm.  Then he shook his head again.  ‘Well, since you insist , Claire, I guess I’ll tell you exactly why I’m doing this to you.  I’m doing this to you because you’ve been a very naughty boy here today, that ’s why I’m doing this to you.  You’ve committed a great sin in the eyes of God and now you need to be punished for it.  Tell me, son, are you ready for what you deserve?  Are you ready for me ?  I know that you and your brother like it.  Don’t pretend you don’t.  I’ve seen the way that you two boys have been looking at me lately.  Disgusting, foul little perverts.  Don’t you know that little boys aren’t supposed to look at their mothers that way?  It’s unholy .’
    Claire Bishop stared in amazement at the figure standing before her.  Not only was he wearing a dress, but jewellery and make-up too.  Bright red lipstick covered his mouth.  Rouge coloured in his cheeks.  Expensive silver bracelets dangled from his