"Oh, and another favorite of the old days was Horsing, but that stopped after several girls got killed. Hooves to the head, things like that."

I guess that was the Alpha House history lesson, but we were so brain-cooked after blowing those b.u.ms we barely heard her.

Big stomach-aches kicked our a.s.ses that night. And Mercy wasn't the same anymore. She didn't talk like she usually did, and she just kind of walked around with her eyes really wide, whispering prayers to herself. We scrubbed the living s.h.i.t out of ours mouths, took an hour-long steam shower, then threw out the clothes we'd worn that day. b.u.m-stink haunted me for a long time.

I woke up in the middle of the night, after more of those f.u.c.ked up nightmares and then dreaming those weird words in Kezzy's voice.

I looked under my bunk and saw Hannah quivering under her sheets, and I could only hope her nightmares weren't as bad as mine. But then I looked across to the other bunk, and there was Mercy sitting on the edge of her mattress staring into the dark.

"Mercy. Are you all right?"

"I'm inundated in sin," she whispered, a hand to her heart.

"Bulls.h.i.t. It's just hazing. Every frat house and sorority has it."

"No," she moaned. "My sins are unabsolvable. I've affronted G.o.d, I'll incur His wrath. I'll never be forgiven."

More holy roller stuff. "Sure you will," I tried to console her. "This is just a circ.u.mstance where we gotta do gross stuff we'd never do any other time. If we get into the sorority, we'll do better in college, we'll graduate and make something of ourselves. All this hazing stuff is just making a sacrifice for something more important, right?"

Her giant eyes looked up at me in the dark.

"Look, doesn't it say in the Bible that you should obey your oppressors because the spirit of G.o.d can never be oppressed?"

"Yes...it does."

It was just more jive I made up, but this time I don't guess it was working. Mercy was fried crispy a" I could tell by her eyes. She reached under her pillow, put her Ozzy Osborne cross on, and went back to sleep.

Either the b.u.ms or the dogs had broken her. She'll be all right in the morning, I told myself.

I got up. No way I could sleep. I walked down the dark hall in my oversized nightgown, listening. No sound at all. The door to the library was still locked a"for some reason, I was dying to see that book Kezzy was reading in the gazebo the other nighta" and when I peeked into Kezzy's room, her bed was empty. Downstairs, the grandfather clock said it was past 3 a.m.

What was I doing? What would I tell Kezzy if she caught me wandering around, or what if Zenas did? The motherf.u.c.ker would probably b.u.t.t-f.u.c.k me again with that hog he had for a c.o.c.k. I caught myself staring at the old painting a" Joseph Corwan. I wondered what the old guy would think if he knew what kind of crazy-psycho s.h.i.t was going on at his college...

Next thing I knew, I was looking out the kitchen window.

There she is again! Kezzy was at the gazebo, a candle burning on the table. She was standing there buck-naked with her perfect 10 body, reading from that book again. But this time...

Zenas was with her.

He was naked too and, now, seeing him without that dumb-a.s.s maid's suit, the guy really was a stud and a half. But what were they doing? For a minute, they both turned their backs to the door.

I slipped outside and crept around the hedges.

Kezzy was whispering something that I couldn't quite hear, and then Zenas...

He started to kind of wobble in place like he was drunk, his head rolling around. I thought he was gonna fall down, but then he snapped out of it and came over to Kezzy.

She got down on her knees and began to blow him.

THIS I've got to see, I thought, so I crept closer, quiet as I could. I managed to get maybe four or five feet away behind those hedges, and I had a perfect view of Kezzy chugging away on Zenas's c.o.c.k.

d.a.m.n, she looks like she needs a shoe horn, I thought. Zenas was so big, it stretched Kezzy's mouth out. She was getting all flushed and misty with sweat, and then she pulled her lips off and pulled both of his b.a.l.l.s into her mouth. She started sucking on them like a couple of Tootsie Pops, while Zenas was slowly stroking his hard-on. Then he said the weirdest thing.

"What delights, my sweet. You are a profound fellatrice."

What the f.u.c.k? It didn't sound anything like Zenas's voice.

"And this vessel you've provided is particularly pleasing, my precious wh.o.r.e. So virile. I feel filled to the very brim with seed..."

What was this weird f.u.c.kin' talk? They must be doing some silly play-acting thing 'cos there was no trace of Zenas's New England Redneck accent. If anything, he sounded like someone from olden times.

"And now, my sullied one, I have an unquenchable need to ink deep into the purse of your womanhood..."

Practically panting, Kezzy tongued his b.a.l.l.s out of her mouth and got up on the table right next to the big book. She had her a.s.s on the edge and pulled her knees back. Then she almost whinnied like a horse when Zenas pushed his hard-on all the way in her.

He gave her a good throttling, banging the b.i.t.c.h's cooze so hard the f.u.c.kin' table was inching across the patio. Sounded like she came two or three times...

"And I see there's mischief afoot tonight. We've an interloper."

That's when both of them looked over right where I was hiding. They could see my face in the gap.

"Come out from there, Ann," Kezzy said.

I could've croaked on the spot. Did they know I was there all along?

I came out with my head down, while Zenas slowed his strokes.

"Ann. Take off your nightgown," Kezzy said.

"Oh, come on, Miss Kezzy," I begged. "It's humiliating for a fat girl like me to be naked in front of someone with a beautiful body like you."

"Why, Ann, I'm touched. What a nice compliment." She glared. "Now take off your f.u.c.king nightgown or I'll have Zenas sit on your face and s.h.i.t in your mouth."

That's what I liked about Kezzy. She was such a warm, thoughtful person. I took off my gown, smirking.

"My, what a portly trollop, and quite uncomely," Zenas said. "Has this one any accreditations of note?"

"Oh, yes," and then Kezzy curled her finger at me and I stepped right up to where Zenas was practically busting her open with his c.o.c.k. She reached up, grabbed my hair, and held my face down on her belly just as Zenas picked his pace back up.

"Ann, you know you'll have to pay for your Nosy Parkering, hmm? Now, open your mouth."

I did, and squeezed my eyes shut. How much c.u.m is she gonna make me eat in one day? I thought.

Zenas popped his c.o.c.k out of her just at the right time and fired three big slops of sperm straight into my mouth. Kezzy pushed up on my chin and made me swallow but Zenas was still getting his nut. Now Kezzy grabbed my hair tighter and moved my face around in front of the spurts. "Good, good," she whispered. "Paint her face."

Zenas hosed me down but good. When he was done, I was wearing a mask of his load.

"A proper and fitting anointment," Zenas said. "What's with your voice?" I half-yelled. Kezzy kept my cheek against her belly and that f.u.c.ker Zenas? He put his half-hard d.i.c.k right back in Kezzy's t.w.a.t and started banging her again.

"I have the impression, Ann, it's not mere nosiness that makes you do stupid things like this, but instead a burning curiosity," Kezzy said. "For what is curiosity but proof of the quest for knowledge?"

I wasn't much listening to her because I knew what was coming. Zenas may have been a strapping, big-d.i.c.ked stud, but he was also pretty young, and young guys could get off a couple times in a row. The guy oozed testosterone and I knew d.a.m.n well he was gonna put more of it on me real soon.

"But there is some knowledge a" knowledge so great, Ann, and so forbidden a"that one must earn the right to be in its midst."

Zenas pulled out again and a" BAM! a" put another six or seven big belts of j.i.z.z right in my face. I was sopped.

"A delectable release," Zenas said.

"Come on! What's with your voice?"

"The voice?" Kezzy cooed at me, and that b.i.t.c.h was still holding my head on her belly. "Your desire to know is so keen, so blistering."

"And what's that book?" I gasped.

She patted my head and just chuckled.

"Oh man, you're s.h.i.tting me, right!" I yelled when I looked up and saw Zenas hard again. He was standing right there between Kezzy's legs beating off a mile a minute.

"Zenas is a very fertile young man, Ann," Kezzy said.

"Why don't you just give it a rest!" I yelled but when I did that Zenas grunted and plastered my face again. "Heer ya go," he chuckled in his regular redneck voice. "More'a my nut fer ya, lots more..."

If anything the a.s.shole came more each time. Felt like ten spurts went right into my face. When he was finally done, he slapped his limp meat a couple times against my cheek. Splat, splat, splat. Nice touch. He really knew how to make a girl feel wanted. "I appreciate that, Zenas," I groaned. By now it felt like my whole head had been dunked in a bucket of c.u.m. "Why do you sound like your old redneck self all of a sudden?"

"Let's just say," Kezzy answered, rubbing her fingers around in my c.u.mmy face, "that an aspect of Zenas had to absquatulate."

"What? What the f.u.c.k is that?"

"Nothing, dear. I'm just toying with you."

"Wal, thet's it fer me. Durn't think I cud get off another 'un... less'n yew want me ta try, Kezzy."

"No, no, no!" I bawled.

"Hmm, well, the prospect sounds interesting," Kezzy purred. "Go ahead, please, Zenas. Give it the All American College Try."

No bulls.h.i.t. The guy stood there and started beating off again! Maybe thirty seconds later, he pulled another full b.o.n.e.r. "For f.u.c.k's sake, man!" I yelled. "No guy can come four times in a couple minutes! It's impossible!"

"Oh, Ann," Kezzy said, "on wondrous nights such as these, all things are possible..."

The b.i.t.c.h wasn't kidding because a minute later, Zenas pumped out four or five more big splats of s.p.u.n.k. Christ, where did it all come from?

"Ee-yuh," he grunted. "Thet theer's what we call a serious c.u.m-face," and then he laughed.

"You're quite the man for all occasions, Zenas," Kezzy told him. "Thank you."

"Yeah!" I yelled. "Thanks!"

He walked away into the backyard darkness; Kezzy let me up, and I felt all that spooge start to crawl down my face, then my neck, then my chest. "You may go now, Ann," Kezzy said. "No more Nosy Parkering for you, hmm?"

You got that right. Kezzy reached down to take the book but before she picked it up, I caught a split-second glimpse of it.

The two pages I could see were hand-written, big fancy cursive handwriting. The paper was yellowed it was so old. Along the top read: Transcription into Phonetic English of Stanzas 115-130 What the h.e.l.l did that mean?

"But before you go, Ann?" Kezzy grinned at me, her big bare b.r.e.a.s.t.s sticking out, all shiny with sweat. She glanced at the book, said, "Heb f'ulfh wm'gyr ee'a glubb a" " and the next thing I knew I was lying in my bed, tired as s.h.i.t but wincing from a killer headache. I felt a fast rocking motion, and that only made my head hurt more, but then I opened my eyes and saw Kezzy there. She was shaking me.

"Ann? Ann, wake up. I need to know what happened."

"Whuh..." I leaned up and squinted. "Kezzy?" and then the memory socked me right in the face. The gazebo. Kezzy and Zenas. That book.

"What happened?"

"You mean at the gazebo?" I said. "You tell me."

"Gazebo? I don't know what you mean. But why is Mercy leaving?" she said and shook me again.

I looked across to Mercy's bunk. It was empty, and her suitcase was gone. "Leaving? I a""

"Ann, she's standing outside right now waiting for a cab. Did she snap?"

I got up. A cab? I was confused. All I could think about was the c.u.m-bath at the gazebo.

"She...sounded weird earlier. Her religion or something. She feels guilty about the stuff we had to do." Hannah was asleep in her bunk; she was actually sucking her thumb, and I think she whispered, "Mommy. She made me suck a dog's d.i.c.k..." I went to the window and looked out. Sure enough, there was Mercy standing at the end of the driveway with her suitcase. I rushed outside.

A cab was pulling up just when I got to her. "Mercy, don't leave!"

"I have to, Ann. I'm inundated in sin." She dragged her suitcase to the cab. "You should leave too. This house is evil. Kezzy is evil."

"Oh, come on! It's just hazing, Mercy. I admit, it's a bit extreme, but...if you leave now you won't get into the sorority."

"And if I don't leave, I won't get into Heaven."

"But we're halfway done! You can hack it a little more," but I could tell by the long stare and the drone of her voice that she was cooked. Kezzy's gross-out three-ring circus had finished her.

"Come with me, Ann."

"No, I've come this far, I'm going to finish a" "

She put her suitcase in the cab. "We can redeem ourselves together, at church."

"I'm really not into church, Mercy. I think you're overreacting."

Her big clunky cross glittered when she got in. "Goodbye, Ann. I'll pray for you," then she closed the door and the taxi drove off.

Kezzy stood at the front door in her skimpy Victoria's Secret nightie. "Well?"

"She's gone. She quit," I told her, kind of holding back how mad I was.