Chapter 1

Wham! Another mosquito died, its flattened blood-red corpse staining the porch.

“Goddamned bloodsuckers, no matter how many of them I kill, they keep coming back for more,” Erik swore, as he wiped his stained hand clean on his worn pants.

His wooden house, filled with cracks and holes, was too close to the swamp for comfort. Although he lived on the edge of a small town in Arizona, he felt anything but part of the community.

Heck, those bastards refused to pay for a paved road to my house. All I have is a dirt road and a pickup truck with a failing engine. I swear the damned car could break down any day now, leaving me with a three-mile hike to the nearest neighbor and five miles to town. Heh, I bet that most of the residents rather see me leave altogether anyway. Well fuck them, all of them.

He had bought the swamp and surrounding area for a cheap price in his younger years, gambling that the value would go up. The opposite turned out to be true, however, and he was stuck there ever since. The land was not worth a damn these days and he had too little money to move to a better place. Still, the land was his and he thought of it as his kingdom.

Erik puffed at his cigar, before blowing the smoke through his nostrils. He imagined this was what angry dragons looked like. His rocking chair gently rocked back and forth while he enjoyed the sounds of singing birds, chirping crickets, and croaking frogs. The humid air made it hard to get any work done, especially at this time of the day. The sun burned with a vengeance and even in the shade it was 106 degrees. Erik knew that he should get up and start doing something useful, but it was much more comfortable to sprawl in his rocking chair and take a swig from his lukewarm beer.

“Goddamned bloodsuckers,” he sighed, as he sent yet another mosquito to an early grave.

The sound of bike tires riding through gravel disrupted the peace and quiet. His daughter appeared in sight a few seconds later. Erik cast a lazy glance at his scratched watch; four-thirty, she was half an hour late.

The teenager had tied her long blonde hair in a ponytail. He had not seen her leave that morning since he had stayed in bed until eleven, but her wardrobe did not really surprise him; she wore skintight short shorts, sandals, and a skimpy white tank top. It was obvious that the girl had been cycling in the heat and humidity; the tank top clung to her breasts, drawing attention to her orange-sized boobs.

Erik spat on the porch. For fuck’s sake, she went out without a bra again. Doesn’t that girl ever listen? She’s going to get raped one of these days if she keeps provoking men like that.

“Goddammit, Jessica, you’re thirty minutes late again,” Erik said, as he ground the stub of his cigar in the ashtray and took a final gulp of his beer. He squashed the can in his big, calloused hands, and threw the flattened aluminum behind him without a second thought. It landed in the garbage can, although judging from the other squashed beer cans that he had strewn around, this was more through luck than actual skill.

“But Dad,” Jessica whined, “I had to study math with Valery. We have an important test tomorrow, I told you about this last night.”

The bearded man with unkempt dirty blond hair got out of his rocking chair with some difficulty; weighing 207 pounds did that to you. He walked to the girl and stood before her. With his six feet height, he towered over her five feet and two inches. The girl had a lithe frame, weighing only 104 pounds. Compared to him, she looked like a nimble elf, while his build resembled more that of an ogre.

Erik grabbed her by the tank top and pulled her close, sniffing her mouth and nose. “You’ve been smoking again, haven’t you?”

“No! I told you, I was studying! You can call Valery if you don’t believe me.”

“Goddammit girl, can’t you tell the truth for once? I can recognize the smell of cheap cigarettes from a mile away!” Erik said, releasing the girl.

“And what if I have? You smoke too!”

“That’s no excuse, I’m an adult and as long as you live under my roof you’ll abide to my rules.”

Jessica took a step back and put her hands on her sides, glaring at her old man. “Or else what?”

Erik sighed. Raising a daughter single-handed was not an easy job. “Or else I’ll have to punish you.”

A glint appeared in Jessica’s green eyes while her lips twisted up in a sneer. “Oh, really? And what are you going to do?”

“Goddammit Jess, you’re not a little kid anymore!” He stared her down with his bloodshot, light blue eyes.

“Exactly! It’s about damned time that you stopped treating me as one. I’m sixteen years old and if I want to smoke, then you should let me!”

“Watch your language, young lady. I do not tolerate foul words.”

“Oh, come on, you swear all the time.”

“Yeah, but I’m an adult. You’ll do as I say and not as I do or I’ll ground you for a week.”

“Whatever, as if you can keep me locked up in this crappy old house anyway. That entire shack almost falls apart when I so much as blow against it and I’m not even the big bad wolf!”

Erik sighed. She has a point on that one. If she kicks a wall hard enough, then she’ll easily break through it and then it’s up to me again to fix it. A lot of the wood is rotten and I’m not even sure if it’s still safe to live here.

“Fine, then I’ll take your smartphone away for a week,” Erik said, as he wiped the sweat from his forehead. It was really too hot to be having this discussion, but he could not back down now. Letting her win this argument equaled to him becoming her lapdog and that would only happen over his dead body.

“Like I care, we don’t even have any reception in the middle of this goddamned shithole anyway!”

“Goddammit, Jess, I’ll spank your ass!”

“Ooh, tough guy, spanking a little girl. As if I care,” Jessica said, as she shrugged her shoulders. Only the quiver in her voice betrayed her anxiety.

“Very well, spanking it is,” Erik decided, who rolled up the sleeves of his sweaty shirt.

Jessica’s pupils grew large and she froze in place. She had never expected him to be serious about this. They had arguments like these all the time and usually they came to some sort of an understanding, but this time Erik just was not having any of it. He could not even remember the last time he had spanked her. However, considering the more than fair share of warnings he had given her in the past, he could not let this go by unpunished. Erik grabbed her waist, before she had a chance to turn and flee as she did the last time that he had uttered a similar threat. Erik picked the teenager up threw her over his shoulder, walking back to his chair.

“No! Leave me alone!” Jessica yelled, while she hit him with balled fists and tried to kick him with her feet.