Love Me Tenderly

'Please, please, don't do this. I am like a daughter to you. It is not right' Mirabel pleaded.

'Will my manhood refuse to penetrate you because you are like a daughter to me? Answer me, you whore and point of correction, you are not my daughter. I have no blood connection whatsoever with you. You are just like any other girl to me and that is why I can feel my lust for you rising anytime I see your lovely young body'. he screamed at her like someone deranged.

He was done being kind to this fool. He had tried being nice to her, to win her over so that she could come to him of her own free will or at least submit to him willingly enough when he eventually made his demands but she had continued to show animosity towards him and looked at him as though he was beneath her. The fool who did she think she was anyways?

Mirabel could not believe this. Her mother could not come to her aid because she was in a drunken stupor, dead to the world.

'Come now, you know you want it. You hear me hitting on your mother every night and you want to. You want to know how it feels like, don't you? Well, I am here to oblige you. And don't bother screaming. No body will hear you. Even if your mother wakes, she will not understand what is going on and the neighbours will not come to your rescue either. So be a good girl and be submissive and compliant. I promise I won't hurt you. I will be patient and go easy on you'. Ken, her step father spoke to her adopting a gentler tone.

Mirabel could not believe what she was hearing. It was not as though she had not seen it coming. She had seen the way Ken had started looking at her since her mother decided to bring him home as her new husband, being tired of always having to go out to meet with him. She had thought that he would forget about his lust especially since she started calling him father even more frequently than she did formally.

She had also shared her fears with her mother but she had reassured her.

'Ken is not like that. We should be grateful that he accepted us and cares for us you know'.

Mirabel had considered running away when her mother had brought the man Ken home as her new husband. She did not know why but she had disliked him instantly but she had been scared that her mother might just not survive her absence.She was all that her mother had afterall.

'Please Dad, You couldn't possibly violate your own daughter this way. I promise to be more respectful but please do not do this'.

Ken was now very impatient. He had wanted this fiery witch since Mira had brought him home but he had to take his time. He had intentionally made the nights unbearably noisy with their lovemaking so that she would feel attracted to him or wish for him to do to her what he was doing to her mother but the girl had continued to show her dislike of him and it had enraged as well as excited him and now, he could not delay the inevitable any longer.

He tore at her old clothes.

She screamed but Mira did not even stir. He knew that the neighbours would not come to investigate because they were used to such shouts and noises. And they had come to fear him and would not want to antagonize him.

She was now naked,using her hands to cover her full firm breasts.

He pushed her down and hurriedly unbuttoned his trouser. He pulled her pants down roughly and was about to thrust into her but Mirabel did not know from where she got the strength but she the second, she felt him distracted and off guard, she raised her knee and kicked his penis with all the strength adrenaline had pumped into her body due to her fear of what was about to take place.

He twisted in pain, his erect penis hurt him much and be ame flaccid. He was enraged.

Mirabel stood up and grabbed her clothes thinking that if she escaped, she could put her clothes on in a bush or anywhere.

Any exposure was surely better than what Ken had in store for her.

She ran to the door of their one room house but it was locked ,not with a key, they had not been able to replace it since the last one got missing. But it was bolted.

She tried to unbolt if quickly but her hands were shivering so badly and was sweaty from her fear.

She eventually got it open but before she could run out, a hand grabbed her and pulled her back into the filthy room and flung her on the floor. Then he hurriedly bolted the door again.

Mirabel knew that she had just missed an opportunity for escape and was resigned to her fate.

She had heard about these things and had also seen such things where boys and girls would do some things to each other in the bushes and all round. That was the kind of neighbourhood she lived in. Living with the worst of the worst in Soho, but she had also heard of love and had longed for it.

Her parents had not had it and in search of love, her mother had ended up with this monster, this beast called Ken. He was the reason,the drinking problem her mother adopted after her father's death had increased.

She had thought that she would give herself to the person she loved and that she would enjoy the experience but it would seem that that was not going to be. Her first time was going to be with this beast that she detested.

'Stop playing hard to get or pretending that you do not want it because I know that you do and very much too' he leered at her.

His breath reeked strongly of alcohol but that was not what nauseated her because she was used to perceiving that from her mother's breath as well but he did not even brush his teeth.

Admittedly, they had no money for such luxury but they used other means to make their teeth clean and smell good but evidently Ken had no time for that.

He was already naked. Mirabel shut the disgusting sight if his naked body from her sight. Years of rage and helplessness filled her. She felt humiliated even before anything had happened and she wondered how she was going to feel afterwards.

This was hell. She felt his tough filthy hands fumbling with her breasts as he lay on her pulling her legs up so that he could thrust into her. She shut her eyes to shut off the sight. She wanted to scream as she felt his legs nudging her clamped kegs apart and spreading them apart with his hands.

All of a sudden, his weight was lifted off her. She thought that he had risen to adjust himself to better punish her. But she heard as though in a haze a sound of something hitting something else.

'What is he up to now? Does he want to do me any body harm apart from the obvious?' He might want to stab her with something sharp as he had his way with her. She thought to herself and the thought forced her eyes open to see that it was her mother who had hit Ken with a bottle on the head and had collapsed again.

She stood and ran to her mother bit she was unconscious and so was Ken.

What had happened?

What just happened? What had happened while her eyes were shut? Where had her mother got the bottle she had used on Ken? It was obvious that he had been hit on the head and very hard too for him to have passed out.

She offered a silent prayer of thanks to the Lord. She knew that the nightmare was not over but for the night at least, she was safe.

She kissed her mother on the cheeks,even in her stupor, she had still managed to stop Ken from defiling her. She had saved her daughter and she might not even know what she had done and might not remember it when she woke but that was okay. She would see how they would go far away from this beast. They were better off without him anyway.

The bottle had shattered as it fell from her mother's hands as she collapsed from the exertion of hitting Ken with her strength.

She carried her mother with some difficulty to the flat bed that was no more than a mat which they had in the house and taking a broom, she started gathering the bottles together and packed it with a broken dustpan in the house.

He kicked Ken to one side of the room and stayed awake to guard her mother and herself, in case Ken woke and attacked them.

She dozed some of the time due to the exertion of fighting off her stepfather and losing and the fear of violation but she always came awake with a start.

She need not have worried about Ken coming around because he did not till it was morning.

As soon as it was dawn, Mirabel woke her mother by sprinkling water on her.

'Oh, my head. It feels like it is splitting', Mira, her mother complained.

They had similar names. Her father had given her the name Mirabel because it was almost as though it was the full form of her mother's name. Mirabel- Mira.

'It is just a hangover. You had too much to drink last night. I have told you that alcohol is not good for your health nut you won't listen, if it causes your death, what would I do? I shall be all alone in the world, you know'.

'Stop saying such useless things and get me ready, to go to work'.

'You will have to stay home today. You do not look too good. I shall tell them at the factory that you are not feeling too well'.

'Are you out of your mind? It would mean my money bring reduced, you know. And I cannot afford that'.

Mirabel was tired of all these. She had taking to housekeeping for some families and was paid stipend for her hard work but at least it helped keep the hunger away and they also gave her their used clothes and when they are really in a good mood, some food stuff.

Mirabel was really hardworking and loveable.

Her mother worked in the factory but majority of what she earned, she used on alcohol and was drunk most of the time but anytime she was sober, Mirabel would glimpse the mother she had known before the death of her father.

Tears poured down her cheek.

Life was just unfair.

Her mother had brought Ken home as her new husband immediately afterwards, she could not stay without a man's live. Mirabel had been disappointed. Ken was working someplace at the time but conviniently lost his job almost immediately he started living with them and Mira had to go look for a job when Ken could not seem to find another.

But how could he, a lazy man who could not even brush his own teeth!

She had not liked him right from the first because she could not bring herself to trust him and had not hidden that fact. How right she had been.

She looked over to where he was lying and knew that he would be stirring anytime soon. She had made sure he was still breathing because she had thought at first that the blow to his head had killed him

Though it would not have been a bad thi g at all, only that it might have put her mother into trouble.

When she had managed to make her mother conscious enough, she spoke urgently to her.

'Mum, do you remember what happened last night?'

'What happened last night? What do you mean?'

This was what she had been afraid of.

'So, you do not remember hitting Ken with a bottle on the head?' Mirabel asked urgently.

'No. But why would I do that? Do I want to kill him?'

'He tried to force himself on me last night. I screamed and screamed but you were out because you had too much to drink. I tried fighting him off but he was too strong for me and he had almost succeeded when you hit him on his head and he fell down unconscious, that was how I was saved from being violated. Thank you so much mum'.

Her mother was staring at her like she had grown horns.

'Ken would never do such a thing. You are his daughter, remember?' she stood up and staggered a little as she went up to her daughter to feel her temple.

'Are you sure you are not running a fever? Or maybe it was a nightmare that you had. It must have been so vivid that you thought that it actually happened'.

Mirabel could not believe what she was hearing.

She looked for evidence to show her mother but she felt hurried. She wanted to be out of that place with her mother before that beast came around.

She showed her mother the scratches on her body and how her panties had been torn. Still Mira would not believe it.

'I know that you hate Ken but do you really hate him that much that you would accuse him of all these? That must be the case for you to have gone as far as I juri g yourself to frame him'.

Mirabel was exasperated.

'Mother, it is true that I do not like your husband but I could not accuse him of doing what he did not do. He actually forced himself on me last night but you saved me!'

'How could I when I was out cold because of the drink I had taken and how come I can't remember anything?'

'I could not believe it as well, when you hit him. It must have been your subconscious working to save me. It was nothing short of a miracle and now, we must leave. I was able to pack the few things we had last night while the both of you were out. We need to leave because I can assure you that he won't spare us and I might not be lucky next time!' she said with a sense of urgency.

'I am not going anywhere with you. How do you expect me to leave my husband? Who will accept me at this age? Ken loves you like his own daughter. Try to accept him or at least tolerate him. But never you accuse him of such a disgusting thing again!'

There was no time to argue, Ken was coming around. She had thought that by the time he did, they would have been long gone by then.

'Mother, please, he is coming around. Let us leave!'

'Now, I understand. You actually hit him on the head while he was sleeping and injured yourself to show me as evidence of his attempted violation of you? Then you packed our things because you wanted us to be rid of him, right?''

'Mum,please, let us go. You will find another work somewhere else and I might even work for the both of us and all you need to do is stay at home'.

'Will you also be my husband?'

'If you stop drinking and take good care of your health by eating right, men will be attracted to you. You are a very beautiful woman. You will be the one now making the choice of who to marry and who not to and not the other way round. Ken does not appreciate you'.

'Says someone who begged me for love last night and hit me on the head when I refused?' a voice said behind them.

They both turned round to find that Ken had regained consciousness.

Both mother and daughter looked up to find Ken looking very angry and very conscious.

They wondered, for different reasons how long he had been conscious and what he had heard.

'Mirabel, I took you as my own daughter. Like the daughter that I had always longed for but never had. I came in here loving your mother. That was the wrong that I ever did you. You hated me.

I tried to show you by my actions that I am not taking your late father's place but wanted to fill the void that he left that you and your mother may not be lonely.

I admit that I had ulterior motives as well', he said and paused deliberately, so that his next words sank in and have the desired effect.

Mirabel who had been spell bound by what she had been hearing, felt a little relieved that he was about to confess to a vice of his that his mother may not have been aware of. She prayed that he exposed himself with his own words but the next words he uttered dashed her hopes.

'My ulterior motive was that I needed your mother's companionship because you see, I was also very lonely. I was glad that she accepted me and I loved her for that. Why then would I want to hurt her by violating her daughter - my daughter?'

Mirabel did not know what to say. It had been difficult trying to convince her mother about what Ken had tried to do but right now with what he had said and the sorrowful tone he had adopted, it was going to be impossible. Whatever she said was going to look petty.

The proof she had to show to her mother was not enough but she was going to try anyway.

'You are lying! You tried to take advantage of me last night. You must have got my mother drunk or laced her drink with something so that she would not wake while you are carrying out your sick games but your plans backfired. You were stopped somehow from completing your mission'. Mirabel had been about to say that her mother had been responsible for hitting him but she was sure that whatever he had heard, he didn't hear that part and he may have thought that she was the one who somehow got hold a bottle and knocked him unconscious. She wanted him to continue to believe that. She did not want to put her mother's life at risk by revealing that and her mother did not even remember doing it.

'Look at the bottle with which I hit you on the head yo stop you from havi g your way with me. Look how naked you are. That was because you had got ready to do something abominable'.

Her mother was looking really confused. She had thought that her daughter was making up stories. And she had said all she said to make her confess that no such thing happened but it was evident that it did happen and both of them were accusing each other. She did not know what to think and the headache was serious.

Ken saw her confusion and felt that he had to say something to tip the scale in his favour.

'Mira, dear, don't tell me that you believe your daughter over me? If that is the case, I shall leave right away. I shall not stay in a place where I am not wanted nor trusted'.

He made to start packing and Mirabel was filled with joy. They didn't have to leave their house for him. He would be the person leaving the house for them.

'Yes, go and look for another woman who will slave to keep you fed and clothed while you move around looking at you g girls lasciviously and taking advantage of those who will let you or do you think I do not know of your activities?'

This was too much for Mira and she gave Mirabel a resounding slap.

'Will you keep your mouth shut? For how long are you going to carry on this charade? You want him out of the house, now he is about to leave and you are throwing more accusations his way?'

'But mother, it is the truth!'

'Mira, please, do not raise your hand to her. I can endure anything she does to me, afterall she is my daughter. At their age, they rebel alot. So I am not surprised. I just did not think her rebellion would take this turn' Ken said looking at Mira inquiringly but as soon as Mira looked away, he smiled wickedly at Mirabel who wanted to throttle his neck. Now she wished that he had died last night from the impact of the bottle on his head.

She was filled with hatred for him.

As she looked at him with murder in her eyes,he suddenly changed his smile to an understanding one and Mirabel knew instinctively before she even looked round that it was just for the benefit of her mother who may be looking at him.

'Mirabel my daughter', he continued. 'I am sorry that I had to reveal all this. I had not wanted to but you gave me no choice. I had to defend myself. Had you just limited your desire for me that you masked as hatred to just looks, no one would have known because I would have just considered it your hormones acting up or the age of curiosity which is the stage you are in now but you went too far.

How could you have undressed me last night and got yourself naked and begged me to take you and do to you all that you hear me doing to your mother? And when I refused, you insisted and I decided to wake your mother by pouring water on her, you found an empty bottle and knocked me unconscious.

What happened afterwards? Did you now satisfy yourself with my manhood when I couldn't stop you because if my unconscious state? I mean you had all the time in the world and no one to stop you.

But dear daughter, that is not the best. I had thought that you were different from other girls your age and it had made me happy and proud to be your father but right now, I do not know what to think and I wonder what you get up to when you go to the places you call work. Do you sleep with your boss or your boss' husband's for more money or for pleasure?'

'Enough! Mira screamed. She could not bear to hear anymore. She was confused. Both of them sounded convincing. She had thought that she knew her daughter but what she was hearing and knowing the kind of neighbourhood they lived in, she was convinced that Mirabel had somehow been influenced. And living in a one room house did not help matters because though they always waited till she was asleep,she could have been faking it and secretly watching them while they tore at each other like animals. Now she had grown the appetite for such and had gone as far as trying to force Ken to have her.

She did not know if she should send Ken away so that she would not get more corrupt that she already was. She could meet with him some place other than the house but that would not be convinient. But what if she sent Mirabel away? But to where? They had no relatives that she knew if that would want to take her in.

What was she to do?

All she knew was that she was not going to lose Ken because of Mirabel's teenage tantrums.