Chapter 1

Matilda sulked at the kitchen table. Her unspoken dreams screamed for a different family, one filled with love. They would live in a house. The house would have a backyard where she and Bobby could play without fear of being attacked. She imagined a swing set and Bobby's little hands clutching the chains while she pushed him from behind. He'd go higher and higher, giggling and kicking his feet. The house in her dreams would have a kitchen window to look out at the blue sky, at the fresh-cut grass, at the tree leaves fluttering in the summer breeze, at the...

But she didn't have a kitchen window. Her apartment was a reflection of the rundown neighborhood and her life. A single light bulb dangled on a wire from the hole in the ceiling where the fixture should have been. Any building inspector would have written it up as a hazard, but no city inspector ever visited the building.

Matilda's eyes followed the cracks in the wall zigzagging around the peeling yellow paint. They led to a jagged hole almost five feet off the floor. Sometimes she wished she had not ducked to avoid her father's punch. Her small head would have been crushed by his powerful fist. Her misery would have ended.

She turned to look at her little brother sitting next to her. As usual, Bobby was silent with downcast eyes. If she died he'd be left to fend for himself. But he wasn't strong like her. No, she had to survive. She had to care for him, protect him.

Matilda turned back to her food, planting her elbow on the kitchen table and resting her cheek on her upturned palm. She poked at the tuna salad with a fork. Her preference would have been a sandwich, but she couldn't find any bread when she had prepared lunch for herself and her brother. That was typical. They were usually out of most things. In fact, it wasn't technically tuna salad since what little mayonnaise that had been left in the jar had gone bad. As if looking to blame someone, she glanced at the woman at the end of the table. But her eyes dropped when she saw Cathy staring at her. She hated the woman and her daughter. Why did her real mother have to disappear? Things were not great back then, but so much better than now.

Her father's shouting filled the small apartment. Matilda turned once more to her little brother. He was eating slowly. Accustomed to his father yelling, he somehow turned it off. Matilda sighed. Bobby didn't turn it off. He went into a shell. That was his way of dealing with it. Matilda, on the other hand, yelled back.

Her father stormed into the kitchen.

"That mother-fucker wants more money," he shouted. "That prick! I do all the fuckin' work, take all the chances, and he wants more money. Fuck him!"

"Frank, calm down," Cathy said. "No sense getting a heart attack."

"Like hell! Who the fuck does he think he is? Just 'cause he has a fuckin' badge don't make him God. I should turn him in. A cop don't stand no chance in prison. The mother-fucker would get what he deserves!"

The woman looked at Matilda's father solemnly. "Don't do nothin' stupid. You need Skip Grafton. He's your protection. Without him you'd be in jail. What would happen to us then?" She fanned her hand over the table. "Calm down."

She stood up and pushed her shorts down in one quick motion. She wasn't wearing panties. A knot formed in Matilda's gut and she turned to her brother. He stared down at his plate, bringing tiny forkfuls of tuna to his mouth.

The woman bent over, resting her forearms on the table. Her long, bleached-blonde hair hung over her face. She wiggled her ass. "Come here and stick your cock in me."

"Cathy, didn't you hear what--?"

"Yeah, and you need to calm down ... and I know just how to do it. Come on, give me your fat cock."

Matilda's father stopped yelling and stared at his girlfriend's naked ass. He smirked and undid his pants, letting them drop to his feet. After stepping out of them and his underwear, he walked up to Cathy.

Frank grabbed her hair and twisted her head to the side. "Get me hard. Use your mouth."

"I'm eating," she said, jerking her head free and stuffing a spoonful of devil's food cake into her mouth. She looked at her daughter sitting across from Matilda. Bits of cake sprayed from her full mouth when she said, "Joan, do it for me."

The 17-year-old girl jumped from her chair and ran around her mother. Dropping to her knees, she smiled at Matilda. It was an evil smile. Then she stuffed Matilda's father's cock into her mouth. She slurped as if putting on a show.

Matilda stood up and pulled her little brother from his chair. She was about to drag him from the kitchen when Cathy yelled, "Don't you fuckin' leave. We're doing this for your father. Maybe you want to do it instead."

Matilda's eyes watered but she clenched her teeth to fight back the tears. It was bad enough for a 14-year-old girl to have to see it, but her little brother was only eight. She wrapped her arm around him and pulled him to her.

"What is it with you two?" Cathy said. More pieces of devil's food cake splattered the table. "You have a thing for him, don't you? Does he lick your cunt while you lie in bed? Do you play with his little dick?"

"Fuck you!" Matilda shouted, the tears now flowing down her cheeks. She hated the woman and her slutty daughter.

Joan pulled away from Frank's cock and said to her mother in a flat tone, "He's hard." Then she turned to Matilda. "Is that it? Does little Bobby eat you? Maybe he should share my room and not yours. Then he could taste a real cunt. Bobby, would you like to lick my pussy?"

Matilda felt her brother's head dig into her side. She hugged him tighter.

"You're all a bunch of assholes!" Matilda screamed. "Leave him alone! He never hurt anyone."

"Then sit down and finish your lunch," Cathy barked. "Both of you. What's the big fuckin' deal? Didn't you ever see your father fuck your mother?"

"No! She wasn't a slut."

"You mean she wasn't a real woman. Just some prude. Your father told me all about her. The only reason you and your brother are here is 'cause he raped her when he wanted sex."

Matilda looked up at her father in shock but he wasn't paying her any mind. He stepped up to Cathy and rammed his cock into her from behind. With his hands on her hips, he rocked back and forth.

"Yeah, baby, fuck me good. Show the little shit how a real woman gets fucked."

Joan sneered at Matilda and then turned Frank's head to the side, pressing her mouth to his. While he fucked Cathy, her daughter kissed him with passion. When she broke the kiss, she looked at Matilda and stuck her tongue out.

Matilda knew not to argue. She knew her father would beat her up ... and her little brother as well. She helped Bobby get comfortable in his chair and then sat down. Whatever appetite she had was gone. She felt nauseous as her father fucked the woman a few feet from her and her baby brother.

It didn't take long, and soon her father grunted and thrust into Cathy one last time. His thighs pressed against her buttocks and his head tilted back as he unloaded his spunk. Opening his eyes, he staggered back. Joan was waiting to wrap her arms around him from behind.

"Are you feeling better, Daddy?" she cooed. Looking over his shoulder, her eyes were locked on Matilda's. Matilda hated when she called him Daddy.

Without taking her eyes off Matilda, Joan reached around Frank and grabbed his cock. "Oh my, it's so messy. A good daughter wouldn't leave her daddy like that." She shuffled around him and dropped to her knees. Matilda almost gagged when Joan stuffed his slimy cock into her mouth. "Mmmm mmmm," the girl moaned while sucking.

When Frank's cock was clean she pulled her lips off it with a kissing sound and turned to Matilda. "Maybe you should have done that for him. After all, he puts the food on the table."

Bobby spoke for the first time. "Do we have any more milk?"

Matilda jumped from her chair and hurried to the refrigerator. Swinging the door open, she studied the bare shelves. There were several beer cans but not much else. The foul stench of a plate of unwrapped leftover chicken caused her to slam the door shut.

"We're out of fuckin' milk again!" she spat. "I'll go to the store."

Her father, in a post-orgasmic daze, simply nodded. He dropped to a knee and dug into the pocket of his pants on the floor, giving Matilda a twenty dollar bill.

"Bobby, let's go," Matilda said, holding her hand out and wiggling her fingers.

"Oh no, he stays here," Joan said with a smirk. She was shoving her shorts down her chubby legs. Like her mother, she didn't wear panties.

"What are you going to do to him?!" Matilda screamed, her voice filled with panic.

"What do you do with him?"

"Nothing. We just hug."

"Well, I'm not going to hug the little brat. I'm gonna fuck his father and he's gonna watch. Isn't that right, Daddy?" The last was said so sweetly that Matilda cringed as if Joan had scratched her long fingernails on a blackboard.

Matilda's father nodded, licking his lips while staring at the girl's shaved pussy. "Hurry back. I want some milk too. My fuckin' ulcer is killing me."

He was a big burly man and effortlessly lifted Joan, laying her on the table. Her butt was at the end and her head not far from Bobby's plate. Cathy spread two white lines of cocaine on her daughter's body. She sniffed one through a straw and then handed it to Matilda's father. He sniffed the other line into his nose and tilted his head back. Then he rammed his cock into Joan. She grunted and turned her head to the side, pursing her lips at Bobby and kissing the air.

"You're all fuckin' sick," Matilda shouted before storming out of the apartment.

She walked through the garbage-ridden streets thinking about her little brother and their dysfunctional family. Her skirt was dark red and very short. The red, black, and green striped socks came above her knees leaving a patch of naked skin between them and the bottom of her skirt. Her short-sleeve shirt was old and too tight causing her pointy bra-less tits to poke out the front.

A metal trashcan cover clanged on the concrete floor. Matilda spun around. A man staggered towards her from the alley with his arms extended. She smelled body odor and cheap wine. She kicked as hard as she could. He grunted and crumpled to the ground clutching his groin. Matilda ran to the corner and only then looked back. The drunk was still writhing on the floor with his hands between his legs. She gripped the twenty dollar bill in her clenched fist and hastened down the street. Pay attention, dummy, she reminded herself as her eyes darted right and left.

Matilda couldn't refrain from sighing in relief when she entered the supermarket. She fondled the money in her hand and decided to buy more than milk. Her father would probably slap her around, but she was used to that. Then again, he might be so stoned he wouldn't even realize she spent more than she was supposed to.

She strolled around the store, browsing the items on the shelves. It was always good to be out of the apartment. Her thoughts kept going back to her little brother though. He was all alone with the monsters that made her life miserable. She prayed Joan was only trying to rile her by talking about having sex with Bobby. If she hurts him I'll kill her, she thought, clenching her teeth. Her fingers turned white as she gripped the shopping cart.

Matilda stopped in the toy aisle. A glittering blue yo-yo with silver flecks caught her eye. Blue was Bobby's favorite color and she knew he'd love the toy. But at $5.99 it was too expensive. They needed milk and food more than a toy. But Bobby deserved something. He was so unhappy. She snapped the yo-yo off the clip and looked at it closely, and then she glanced up and down the aisle.

Matilda pushed the cart to the rear of the supermarket. She looked both ways and then crossed her arms with her hands tucked under her armpits. One corner of the cardboard package dug into her flesh. Her heart beat fast as she walked quickly. Inside the restroom, she made sure she was alone and locked herself inside a stall. She ripped the yo-yo package apart as she listened for the slightest sound. Then she lifted the hem of her short skirt and stuffed the toy into the front of her panties. Dropping her skirt, she checked to make sure there was no evidence of her misdoings.