The Rusty Jug - Chapter 5

Dear Readers, Blogger has been f-ing up lately, and tonight it would not allow me to format in ANY way! So, I will separate paragraphs with a space, but other than that, there's nothing fancy, sorry!

Chapter 5

After eating, Lia bought them bus tickets to another small town she chose randomly from the map that was on the way to her college. They rode the bus in comfortable silence, and Lia laced her fingers through his. She had been holding onto his hand without really thinking about it all day, and now that she was thinking about it, it just seemed so right. She rested her head on his shoulder.

Jin used his free hand to absently trace random patterns on the back of her hand. This bus ride was not as long as their previous one, but the bus stop was literally in the middle of nowhere. The town was so small that it consisted solely of a gas station, two liquor stores, and a church.

“Obviously, this town was a bit too small,” Lia remarked with a laugh.

Jin shrugged as he looked around. Since it was after dark, there wasn’t much to see. He spotted a tall oak tree with plenty of foliage about 200 feet away.
“I have an idea; can I have my bottle?”

Lia rummaged through her bag, and handed it to him. He immediately swept her off her feet – causing her to emit a small startled gasp – and ran over to the tree. He jumped straight up onto the lowest branches – which were at least ten feet off the ground – and then floated/jumped from branch to branch until he was certain that they couldn’t be seen from the ground. Then, he wedged his bottle so that it would not fall. Lastly, he imagined the two of them inside it.

Lia giggled as he set her on her feet. “And best of all, we didn’t have to spend any money!”

Jin wiped a smudge off her cheek, and brushed his thumb across her bottom lip.

“Mmm,” she moaned, and playfully caught his thumb with her teeth.

He leaned over to kiss her, and she rose up onto her tiptoes to meet him halfway. They kissed progressively deeper for several long minutes, until Jin managed to remove Lia’s dress. She gasped in dismay at the sight of it.

“My new dress!” Lia took it from him, and brought it to the ready and waiting bathtub. She saw her appearance in the many mirrors, and realized that she must have gotten dirty during the brawl earlier. She sat in the tub, and washed the mud out of her dress.

Jin smiled, and laughed silently. He realized that she made him laugh more than he ever remembered doing so in his very long life. A glance at his smiling face in the mirror made him realize that he hadn’t felt the urge to look at himself at all since he had met her.

“You know,” he remarked, “you could have had me do that for you. My magic would have made it perfect again in seconds.”

Lia looked up at him, and smiled wryly. I hadn’t thought of that! “Well, it’s clean now, but you could dry it for me.”

Jin took the dress from her and carried it to a wooden rack made specifically for drying clothes. He draped it over the rack just so. The dress was already dry – courtesy of his magic – by the time he turned to face the tub once more.

He decided to join her in the bath, and removed his own jeans and shirt. He took care not to slosh water on her as he entered the tub, and she grinned at him mischievously. She’s going to splash me, he thought the moment before she proved him right.

Lia had to splash him three times before he decided to splash her back. The two of them splashed each other vigorously until Lia slipped and landed in his lap. She smiled at the result of the genuine accident. “Oops!”

Jin promptly decided to carry her to his bed. Lia grinned at his thinking, and ran her tongue along his cheek. She bit his earlobe, and whispered, “This is perfect… no distractions.”

“Are you absolutely certain you want to do this?” Jin asked.

Lia exaggeratedly pretended to think about it, and then nodded her head. Jin responded by exploring her body as if he hadn’t seen a woman naked in hundreds of years – which he hadn’t. Lia sighed happily, and decided to relax and enjoy his touch since it was the first time she ever considered a man’s touch to be enjoyable.

They made love for so long that Jin’s magic clock – which had somehow developed a personality of it own as it recorded all of his events over the years – began to display messages such as “Enough already!” and “How long do you plan to be at this?” Jin ignored it completely, but had he noticed it he would have laughed. Then he would have told it that he planned to be at it for as long as she let him!

The next morning, Jin woke before Lia, and looked around his prison. It dawned on him that he had made a huge mistake by bringing her inside his bottle with him… He was never going to have a sanctuary again. It would forever be tainted by memories of her.

He settled himself in his perpetually ready and waiting bathtub, and tried to think of anything but her. He failed. She would eventually make her third wish, and then he would be doomed to spend eternity in this prison haunted by memories of her.

*******

Jin landed at the base of the tree, and set Lia on her feet. She had her arms wrapped around his neck, and pulled him close for a kiss. This was still a novel experience for her. Imagine! Me actually wanting to kiss a guy!

Hand in hand, they walked into the gas station to buy something to eat, and find out when the next bus left. Lia reached out to open the door, but was prevented from doing so by Jin. He opened the door for her; in his time, a lady would have waited patiently for him to do so. It was just how things were done.

The cashier greeted them. “Are you two here for the festival? It’s being held on a farm just a mile down the road. There’s been a lot of traffic through here today because of it and I hear it’s going to be awesome!”

“Uh, yeah,” Lia lied. “Do you know if there’s food at the festival?”

“Of course there’s food! The whole festival is about celebrating food!”

“Oh yeah!” Lia blushed. “Sorry, I am such a ditz!”

The cashier laughed. “I’m like that sometimes too.”

“When does the next bus come?” Lia asked.

“Well, the next bus comes in about 15 minutes, but it is going directly back to the city, and if you take it, you’ll miss the festival. I bet you’re asking about the one after that.” He smiled at Lia.

“There’s actually two; one at about 7PM going to the city, and one at about 7:30 headed over to the next state. It’s an express, but they stop here at the midway point to let the passengers take a bathroom break, and buy some snacks,” the handsome cashier informed them helpfully.

“Would I buy tickets for that bus here?” Lia asked.

“Oh sure!”

Lia chatted with the cutie as he rang up the tickets, took her payment, and printed them up for her. By the time he handed them to her, they were almost flirting – which was second nature to Lia as it was part of her job in the gang to size up marks. Jin silently put a hand on her shoulder as a reminder that he was standing right there.

“Oh yeah,” Lia laughed, acting as if she had just remembered something Jin wanted to know. “Where’s the restrooms?”

“Right over there.”

Lia had to use them anyway, so she made her way to the ladies room. She still had no idea if Jin had such bodily functions since he always managed to do his business when she was occupied with something else.

******

Lia was extremely glad she had quite a bit of money left as they wandered the festival. She bought them each 1.00 sample sized servings of every food, and marveled at just how many foods she had never tasted before. In her opinion, everything tasted heavenly!

They walked along in companionable silence, holding hands, and Lia wanted to pinch herself to see if she was dreaming. Except if she was, she didn’t want to wake up! This will be the first day ever that I don’t get into a fight!

In addition to food vendors, there were a lot of vendors that sold other handmade items. As a city kid in a gang, she had never realized that people could actually learn to make things! She noticed a vendor selling jewelry made from hemp and beads, and had a sudden urge to surprise Jin with a gift.

“Wait here for me,” she tossed over her shoulder as she ran off.

Jin looked around, and was grateful there was a picnic table right next to him that he could sit at. His magical binding defined right here as this spot plus about a two foot radius. He sat, and practiced his patience as he waited. It was little things like this that chafed him about her wish.

Lia took her time perusing the jewelry to ensure that she selected the perfect piece. She finally decided on a simple hemp neckband bearing three white beads for Jin. The largest bead – in the center – was a shimmering pearl-like bead, and the two on either side of it were flat disks that looked like they could have been the inside of a shell. It was a manly necklace, despite its opalescence.

For herself, she chose a somewhat matching clear fish line and white bead choker. These are going to look so good on us! She thought as she shoved them in her bag – after paying for them, of course. She turned to run back to Jin, and found herself face to face with her gang leader.

“Lia, Lia, Lia…” He tsked. “The first rule is never disobey your leader. Do you have any idea how much effort it took to follow you?” He asked as he dragged her to the most private spot he could find. This just so happened to be behind the vendors’ trailers.

“Rick…” Lia finally managed to utter.

“What a pretty dress, Lia,” Rick commented, “and so convenient too.”

Lia knew what was going to happen, and that it would hurt a lot less if she didn’t try to fight him. Besides, she had definitely had one order beaten into her. As he had just stated; never disobey the gang leader.

Rick pushed her until she was leaning over some boxes. He lifted her skirt to admire the view. He was a bit disappointed that she wasn’t obstructing him with panties since he loved to tear them off her.

“You’re costing me a lot of money, Lia. My cut of whatever you steal, my cut from the sale of your body, my cut of the drugs you’re supposed to sell… Money I had to spend to come get you…”

Rick entered her abruptly, and she bit back a gasp. She knew he was just trying to provoke a reaction from her. Any reaction would give him an excuse to beat her… She was good at hiding her reactions by now.

Meanwhile, Jin couldn’t breathe, and he couldn’t see Lia anywhere. He knew he needed to protect her, but her order to wait here was still in effect. I need to figure out how to break her orders when necessary!

Lia decided to reason with Rick. “I’m not part of your gang anymore… I survived the exit ritual.”

“Now that I find funny, don’t you?” His thrusts didn’t change pace in the slightest. “I know we beat you until you were sure to die, and yet, you don’t have a single scratch on you… Why is that?”

“I don’t know, and it doesn’t matter. I did it; I survived, and I’m not part of the gang anymore!” Lia insisted.

Rick twisted one of her arms behind her back as painfully as he could. He ground into her extra hard, and was impressed when she didn’t even whimper. She always was my favorite.

“So you can do what, Lia? Whore for your new pretty boy?” Rick asked. “Notice that he hasn’t bothered to come save your sorry ass?”

“Jin!” Lia cried out in remembrance. If she could have smacked herself on the forehead, she would have. Of course he isn’t here, I ordered him to stay put! “Come here right now, Jin!”

Rick pounded into her as hard as he could. “Gin huh? You’ve taken up drinking now? Remind me to beat you for that later. You know better than to -”

Rick was unable to finish his sentence for an enraged Jin held him by the throat.
“Do whatever it takes to protect her,” Jin stated. “Lia said that, and I will comply even if it means killing you… Especially if it means killing you.”

Lia was torn. She wanted to see Rick dead, but she didn’t want Jin to kill him and forever have blood on his hands. Jin was too precious to her to let him blacken his soul like that.

“Don’t kill him!”

Rick tried to laugh at Jin in response to Lia’s order, but he couldn’t breathe much less talk. He could smirk though. Jin reluctantly set Rick down, since not doing so would kill him shortly.

Rick coughed, and laughed hoarsely. “You hear how she begs for my life? She’s nothing more than a trained dog!”

“Shut up Rick!” Lia snapped, finally fed up with his abuse. “I could not care less if Jin did kill your sorry ass, but I don’t want him to dirty his hands with your blood!”

Now that Lia was finally standing up to him, she really got into it. She punched him across his face, and followed that up with a knee to his groin. She twisted her knee back and forth a couple of times to drive the point home.

“I am not part of your gang anymore, and I am not going to be your trained dog ever again! I have no qualms about killing you myself, so you had better crawl back to whatever hole you came from, and leave me alone!”

Rick was still recovering from the knee to his still erect and uncovered groin, but even so, he managed to laugh. “You don’t get it, bitch! You’re mine until you die!”

“You’re a snake; no! You’re worse, you’re… you’re… Grr! I just wish-!” Lia stopped herself from wasting a wish on him. She exhaled a long sigh to calm down. “You’re a gang leader, and I have more than enough testimony in my head to have you convicted and locked up for the rest of your life for your crimes!”

“Now that, young lady, is mighty interesting news,” a man informed her. He stepped into their private little clearing. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but I am the local Sherriff, and I came to investigate several complaints about an argument disturbing the peace.”

Lia had done too many illegal things to ever be happy to see a cop, and she immediately tried to persuade him to leave. “I’m sorry, Officer, to cause a disturbance. As you can see, we are done now, and we’ll just be on our way.”

“Not so fast. You mentioned that he’s a gang leader… I didn’t even realize we had a gang in our little town,” the Sherriff remarked.

“Oh no. We’re not from around here,” Lia demurred.

“Well, according to those who complained of an argument, the man on the ground with his genitalia on display was seen following you until you were alone, and then he forcibly made you come here. I can only assume that your boyfriend realized something was wrong, and followed. All I need is a statement from you of what occurred here, and I’ll cart him off to jail. So tell me, what happened?”

Lia took a deep breath, and said, “Yes, Rick dragged me back here, and raped me until I was saved by my boyfriend. That’s my statement, and all I have to say on the matter. Now can I please go?”

The Sherriff handed her a card, flashing a hand held tape recorder in front of her so that she knew he had gotten her statement on record. “Sure miss. Just give me a call if you decide to give me any more detail. I’m sure there’s a few decent cops in a precinct somewhere who would love your help bringing this man to justice.”

“I’ll think about it,” Lia mumbled as she accepted the card. Then, she grabbed Jin’s hand, and ran off with him. As soon as they were alone, having snuck into the farm’s barn loft they hid the bottle in some straw, and disappeared inside it.

Lia buried her face in Jin’s shirt. Jin held her close, and murmured, “You must have been so afraid when that man… You should have let me kill him.”

“No, no…” Lia replied absently. “I’m not afraid of Rick raping me again… God Jin! There’s a cop involved now! What am I going to do? If he learns my name from Rick… There’s enough evidence on file to have me convicted of several old crimes I’ve committed as well!”

“Wait! You’re afraid of the cop?” Jin asked in confusion. “I thought cops were good men trying to put bad men into jail?”

“Well, yes,” Lia admitted. “They are, but the problem is that they consider me one of the bad guys when all I’ve ever done is what I’ve had to do in order to survive.”

Lia began to cry. For the first time, she doubted that she’d actually be able to change her life. Her inner voice kept screaming I wish I could just make it all go away; Rick, the cop, my whole damn gang! She bit her lip to keep from shouting her wish out loud, and sobbed all the harder.

Jin didn’t know what to do, other than hold her. He held her tight, and rubbed her back. Never before had he wished he could grant wishes for himself, but right now, if he could, he would wish for every member of her gang to drop dead.

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