Monster Slayers MC Book 1

Marley’s POV

I picked up after the kids who had finally all fallen asleep after drinks of water, trips to the bathroom and stories. Please let me be very clear here. These are not my kids or rather, I did not birth any of them but I care about and for them all as if I had, even if many times I only have them for a short period of time. I’m just a big softy when it comes to kids. All of these children are intended to be here only temporarily. You see they are what we call “rescues”. That is how I started out too but now I’m a caregiver because I have been unable to get past the trauma that landed me here in the first place.

I work and live at “The Rescue Farm” which we just call “The Farm”. Everyone in the small town that we live closest to assumes that we rescue animals and while we do occasionally take them in as well, our primary rescues involve mostly children who have been neglected, abused and all too often sometimes molested.

We also sometimes take in young women who have been abused and need a safe place to hide from their abusers until their lawyers can get them the help they need. For the kids, we give them as much help as we can to recover before they either can be adopted to a private home or are of age to be on their own. For adult women, this often means getting them new identities and relocating them to a safer location.

“The Farm is run by “Papa Joe” Crankston, his wife “Mama Mae” and his older sister “Aunt Chris”. My name is Marley Connely and I was one of their rescues who has just never left, but more about me later.

After being up before the sun to help out around the farm, usually just to collect eggs from the chickens, helping Mama Mae make breakfast for everyone and then keeping up with our three youngest children. I was more than tired, I was worn out but I still had to check in on the older little kids. We have 6 kids under the age of 10. Sara (age 10, going on 30), Max (our only boy at the moment is age 8), Christie (age 6), Tina (age 4), Bailey (age 3) and “Baby Jane”the youngest being just, we think, a year to a year and a half old. We just got her about two weeks ago. The others have been here anywhere from a couple of weeks to several months.

Dr. Murphy, the doctor who volunteers his time to come out to check on the new arrivals or when the kids get sick or hurt and need attention, had given his best guess on how old she was to be between 12 to 18 months old.

He had also taken footprints to hopefully find out not only who she was but how old she was and possibly a name but so far had not called with any new information and she’s been here almost two weeks. We didn’t really know her name as she had been rescued from the side of the road. Someone had just set her beat-up car seat/baby carrier on the side of the road and drove off. No bottle, her diaper was wet and full, she was dirty and badly dehydrated. Papa Joe had found her on his way home from the store.

To say he had been shocked when he spotted it would definitely be an understatement. He said that at first he had thought it was just an empty car seat that had fallen off the back of someone’s truck but then, as he passed, he heard her crying so he stopped, Thank God!

In addition to the “little ones” there were also 4 older girls between the ages of 14 to 17. The oldest one, Josey, will be 18 soon and can’t wait to get out on her own. She has already been here for almost 9 months. In addition to her, there was Barbara (16), Karen (15) and Lisa (14), who had all been rescued within days of each other from bad family situations in towns all over the county a couple of months ago.

All of these kids were rescued from bad situations and while none of these kids had been subjected to anything even similar to what I had gone through, we sometimes got kids who had been through even worse than they had.

We all live at “the farm” along with our guardian angels, Mama Mae, Papa Joe and Aunt Chris. They have been helping kids out of bad situations for over 20 years and we all loved them like they were the parents we should have had, not the ones we had been born to.

Papa Joe is about 6’3” and even though he’s almost 60 now, he still sports muscular arms and a flat stomach. He wears his salt and pepper hair close cut on the sides and back and slightly longer on the top. He has ice blue eyes, a slightly crooked nose and a smoothly shaven jaw line that could cut ice.

Mama Mae is about 5’8” and is a year younger than Papa Joe. She has long blonde hair that is slowly going white and she constantly wears it in a braided bun on the back of her head. She has big warm brown eyes. She’s put on a bit of weight over the last few years making her hips wider and her belly a bit rounder but Papa Joe claims that he likes it because it gives him more to hang on to, which causes Mama Mae to blush like crazy every time he grins and wiggles his eyebrows at her.

Aunt Chris may be older than her brother by two years but is also in excellent condition. She stands about 5’10” tall but her figure would be compared to the cartoon character, Jessica Rabbit, if she wore clothes that would show it off but normally she wore overalls and an overly large button down shirt underneath. She resembles Joe a lot in looks except for the crooked nose and her dark brown hair is more salt than pepper now.

Mama Mae and Papa Joe had been high school sweethearts and it was obvious to anyone who saw them together that they loved each other as much today as they had on their wedding day. They had only been blessed with one son, Jeff, but he had been killed when he was a teenager when he tried to save his date from being kidnapped by a man who had targeted her for human trafficking. Jeff’s girlfriend, Mary, has never been found. That was what had started Papa Joe and Mama Mae on their mission to help kids out of bad situations.

There is also a man who watches over the boys that work as hands on the ranch. His name is Bill but I’ve never met him, only seen him from a distance. From what I understand, he has worked with Uncle Joe for many, many years helping to rescue kids. Other than that, I really don’t know much about him except that he’s a very large man with darkly tanned skin and long black hair. Like I said, I’ve only ever seen him from a distance.

As I said before, my name is Marley Connely. I’m 23 years old now and I’ve been living at the farm for about 10 years. I’m 5’3” with “burnt reddish brown” hair, green eyes. I’m considered fairly well busted but not huge. Thankfully a tiny waist and “womanly hips”, as Mama Mae calls them. If I have to describe my facial features, I’ve got a small nose, nicely shaped lips (at least I think so), my green eyes are rather large but the long eyelashes I inherited from my mom make them look big. I try to keep my eyebrows nicely shaped but I’m not overly picky.

Mama Mae and Papa Joe rescued me from a really bad situation (more about that later) when I was 13. Papa Joe is still the only man that I allow to come close to me. I can’t help it but having a man’s hands on me terrifies me and I have a panic attack, start hyperventilating and pass out. Even handshakes are almost more than I can handle in most cases, especially if they have a firm grip.

Anyway, enough about me for now. The kids are what’s important here, at least in my opinion. Most of the children we rescue are girls but every once in a while we’ll get a boy. Right now, we only have one boy. A cute little guy by the name of Max who is only 8 years old. When he first came to us, he was very shy, wouldn’t look anyone in the eye and barely spoke to anyone.

I was the first person he spoke to and he’s the only male that I allow to touch me. He always comes to me for comfort hugs, especially during thunderstorms. He’s been here for about 6 months now. He’s become very protective of me and will jump in front of me with his little fists balled up, a growl in his voice and a mean look on his face if any man tries to get too close to me. He seems to sense when I’m feeling uncomfortable when men are around. It’s adorable and he’s found a place in my heart.

Besides the farm hands who help Papa Joe and Aunt Chris with the farm, we don’t get many men out here. Papa Joe makes sure of it. Farm hands are mostly boys or young men who have stayed on the farm at one time or another. They never come to the house unless it’s an emergency and Papa Joe lets them know that even though they are former residents, they are not to have any interaction with the girls here. To do so means they immediately lose their jobs and place to stay.

Occasionally a man will find his way onto the property, usually because he’s broken down or run out of gas on the road that runs across the front of the property. They follow the fenceline until they reach the gate, climb over it and walk usually only about 50 yards onto the property before they are stopped by a gun toting Papa Joe.

After one particular incident when a man somehow found out that his wife and child were at the farm and he tried to come and remove them, Papa Joe installed a laser beam set up at the front gate that sends an alarm to the house and the barn when anyone that doesn’t know it’s there breaks the beam of light. There are also security cameras all around the house and set in strategic places around the property so that we can see someone coming on a monitor set up in the living room before they ever get close to the house.

“The Farm” is 50 acres of land and the house is set in about the center of the property. We mostly grow vegetables to not only feed ourselves but to sell on the roadside stand that Aunt Chris runs on the outskirts of the small town closest to us. We also have some pigs, a couple of cows for milk and about half a dozen horses and one old mule used to haul the wagon used at harvest time. Aunt Chris is Papa Joe’s older sister and a widow. She lost her husband during a rescue mission not long after the four of them started helping kids out of bad situations.

Now, mostly because of age, they don’t do the physical rescues anymore but take in any kids that the police feel would be better suited here than in the state foster care system. This is a small town after all and hauling them to the nearest big city to have “the system” take over is not only traumatizing for the kids, it’s expensive for the town.

These kids have been neglected, molested and abused. To put them in the standard foster system would just be wrong on so many levels. We are basically a foster home for kids who are considered to be “special needs kids” who need more help and attention than the standard foster system could or would give them. I should know. Been there and wouldn’t be here now if it hadn’t been for Mama Mae and Papa Joe and Aunt Chris.

Most new foster parents don’t have a clue on how to deal with the trauma we’ve all been through. They don’t have the financial resources to deal with expensive psychology therapy sessions that many of them have to attend. Nor are they equipped to deal with the panic attacks or night terrors that we go through when something triggers them and we all have different triggers.

A lot of the girls that come to us are totally terrified when they get here. Afraid to look anyone in the eyes or even look up from the floor. They flinch if you move too quickly around them and will run away and cower in a corner if you raise your voice to them, expecting to be beaten or worse if you show any signs of anger.

When adults they are unfamiliar with are around, they won’t talk unless asked a question and some of them, not even then and if they do, it’s barely above a whisper. Each child was different when it came to touching. Some just wanted to be held but most would cringe and draw away if you tried to touch them in any way. All of the ones who had been molested were very leary about being touched or even partially undressed in front of others. Sometimes it is because they have scars they have always been told to hide but normally it’s because they have been molested and fear it happening again.

When we take in young women who are already over 18, it’s normally to hide them until their attorney’s or law enforcement can arrange new identities for them or they go to court to prosecute their abusers.

Papa Joe and Aunt Mae don’t like accepting them for more than a week or two at a time because their being here can endanger the children. We do have a safe room in the basement that can hold up to 20 adults and another one in the farm hands bunk house that can hold up to half a dozen full grown men but so far we’ve never had to use them. I for one hate to have to be in a room with no windows. I feel like I can’t breathe and I will usually have a panic attack within minutes if the door closes behind me when I’m in there.

All of the adults have cell phones that have local law enforcement as #1 on the speed dial and texting the local sheriff “The Farm” alerts him to send out every patrol on duty to our location but it would still take them a while to get here. Thankfully, other than the one time the man came for his wife, we’ve never had to test that either but it’s good to know they will come as fast as possible if called.

Anyway, having finally finished picking up all the toys and gathering all the dirty laundry, I head down to the laundry room. With the amount of kids we have right now, daily laundry is required. Otherwise the piles get to be an all day job and that’s not time I have to waste with so many kids to keep up with.

Thankfully, I usually only have to deal with the little ones’ clothes since the older girls are expected to do their own. They are also required to help with the house cleaning and cooking so that it doesn’t all fall on me and Mama Mae and Aunt Chris.

We don’t always have older girls to help out and sometimes they fight it, saying they are not here to be our unpaid slaves or maids, but they are quickly set straight by the rules that if you can’t help out with the cooking, you don’t eat. If you don’t want to help clean then your area will be dirty. If you don’t help by doing your own laundry, then you wear dirty clothes.

Some feel the rules are not fair but we explain to them that it’s not fair for us to have to cater to them when they are fully capable of doing for themselves. If they continue to argue and refuse to help, they are told that they will be taken to the city and put in the state foster care system or group home for delinquent girls (or boys as the case may be) and it doesn’t take long for them to change their minds.

Right now, it’s just me, Papa Joe, Mama Mae and Aunt Chris. Most days it’s just me and Mama Mae taking care of the kids while Papa Joe and Aunt Chris take care of the farm and the vegetable stand that she opens only on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

There is also a child psychologist named Dr. Jill, who comes out on Wednesdays to hear the new arrivals story and assess their mental well being and stability, as well as to meet with kids she’s already met. Talking through things can often be the best way to work through things, letting the children know that the people who hurt them are sick and that it had not been the child’s fault for the way they were treated. Oftentimes, the abuser will beat into a child that they are being punished for being bad when in reality they had done nothing wrong.

Papa Joe insisted that talking with Dr. Jill was required for all new arrivals after one particular incident where a child, a boy about 10, was just as psychotic as his parents had been. He had tried to attack Papa Joe with a knife from the kitchen when Papa Joe had restricted him from watching TV for using foul language, which is a major no no at the farm.

Thankfully, he didn’t manage to hurt anyone and Papa Joe managed to disarm him and locked him in his room then called the social worker in town who showed up with the police and took him to a mental facility. As far as I know, he’s still there and probably will be for a long time.

Dr. Jill and I became friends and she always stops to say Hi and chat for a few minutes whenever she comes out. She was a great help to me to get over jumping whenever someone moved too quickly or raised their voice around me and I can actually look people in the eye now, well at least for brief periods of time so long as they don’t stare or look angry.

I can also stand closer than 10 feet from a man and not freak out, which was a huge accomplishment for me, but I have to admit that being closer than 3 feet makes my stomach feel like it’s trying to jump out of my mouth. Dr. Jill says I just have to go at it slowly and to not push it. Sometimes being wary of strangers is a good thing.

There is also a teacher by the name of Carrie that comes in, when needed, to help tutor any of the children who seem to be struggling with their studies. Mama Mae is a certified teacher and teaches mostly the older children while I do the simple stuff like helping the younger children learn to read and write and do their basic math, like knowing what their numbers are and mean and how to add and subtract. It was Mama Mae and online classes that allowed me to get my GED since there had been no way I would have been able to attend regular classes.

I enter the kitchen to find all three of them sitting around the table drinking coffee, talking. I overhear Papa Joe say “The Monster Slayers MC has a girl they rescued and have asked me for our help. They think she’s about 16 and in pretty bad shape. They’ve tried to help her but she won’t let anyone come near her except the other women and she’s even having trouble letting most of them get too close to her.”

“Well, it will be our last room. We’ll be full up. But meeting day is soon and hopefully at least a few of the ones we have now will find forever homes. We have over 20 couples coming this month.” Mama Mae said.

“Meeting day” was held once a month, usually the second Saturday of every month where people looking to adopt would come and meet all of the kids, interact with them. Before they were allowed to interact with the kids, all of the adults were forewarned that these kids had been in bad situations before they came to us. It was explained that they had severe trust issues especially when it came to things like touching, privacy, loud noises, etc.

Only children who were ready to be adopted would attend and thankfully, that included all of the children currently in our care. If a couple expressed interest in a particular child, Jill would provide them with a detail of the issues each child faced and, if still interested, they would have to meet with Jill and Mama Mae before they could schedule time for individual “get to know″ sessions with the children.

In those sessions the interested couple would meet with Mama Mae and Dr. Jill in a “Play room” at Dr. Jill’s office and spend time with the child of their choice and if they got along and the child agreed to accept the couple as their new parents, the couple would be allowed to begin the adoption process, which meant the couples would foster them for a period of time and then a re-evaluation would be done before they would receive approval to adopt. The kids were made aware that if they did not want this or had any issues with the couple that could not be resolved, then they didn’t have to accept. They were in total control.

The older kids, who were normally here longer than the younger ones, were a big help during “Meeting day” and the “get to know” sessions. They would listen, watch and report back to Mama Mae and Uncle Joe their observations. I’m almost always present for those times as a security blanket for the children, mainly.

As I step into the kitchen, Papa Joe looks up at me and says “Marley, I’m glad you are here. I’ve got something I need to talk to you about.”

“Sure, Papa Joe. What do you need?” I answer as I pour myself a cup of decaffeinated coffee and join them at the table.

“An MC that I have worked with on rescuing kids in the past contacted me about a girl they have rescued from a situation similar to what you went through that they want us to take in. She’s 16, they think, and while she’s not in as bad of shape as you were, she’s totally terrified of the bikers. Do you think you could come with me to pick her up? The Prez has promised to keep all of the bikers out of the clubhouse when we go to pick her up so there won’t be anyone around to make you or her uncomfortable.” Papa Joe said.

“I would go with him but my hip is acting up so bad and I can’t stand to sit in the car that long. Plus I need to get started on the food for the meet and greet.” Mama Mae said.

My first gut reaction was to refuse but I swallowed down my fear and nodded my head. I couldn’t let what happened to me keep holding me back. I owed Mama Mae and Papa Joe so much and other than helping out around the farm, they very rarely asked me for anything and they had given me so much, more than I would ever be able to repay. The least I could do is to do what they asked of me when they needed help. “When do we go?”

“Tomorrow morning. We leave here by 8 am at the latest, right after all the kids have been fed and we’ve had our breakfast. Mama Mae and the older kids will be watching the little ones.” Papa Joe explained.

“Where do we have to go?” I asked.

“It’s about 45 minutes from here near Jackson. The Prez assured me that all of the bikers will be cleared out of the house by the time we get there and it will only be him and his VP there. Don’t worry, I told them that they will need to keep their distance.” Papa Joe said.

“Ok. I’ll be ready.” I said, trying to sound braver than I felt.

“Good girl.” Mama Mae said with a big smile. “Well, I don’t know about the rest of you but I’m going to get a nice long bath and then hit the hay. I’m tired.” She said as she pushed away from the table, rinsed her cup in the sink then limped out of the kitchen.

“I’ve got to finish up the kids’ clothes.” I said as I rinsed my cup in the sink and went back to the laundry room. I heard Aunt Chris whisper to Papa Joe but her voice was one of those that carries no matter how low she tries to keep her voice.

“Do you think she’s going to be able to handle it?” Aunt Chris asked.

“I hope so or I might have two terrified girls on my hands.” Papa Joe said. “But I didn’t want to have them bring the girl here. You know I don’t like giving out our location to anyone. That’s why we don’t have “meeting day” here. Plus it’s a chance for the kids to go to the park and play on the equipment and be away from the farm for a bit.”

“Do you think we’ll have any adoptions this month?” Aunt Chris asked.

“I’m pretty sure the baby will go, if we can’t find out who the parents are before then and maybe little Bailey, she’s barely 3 and maybe Tina, she’s just 4. The older they get the harder it is to find homes for them but I never give up hope.” Papa Joe said. He had to fight hard not to get too attached to the kids that came into his care. It was too hard to let them go when they got adopted. That’s something that I struggle with everytime.

“Did you get any details on where this new girl is coming from?” Aunt Chris asked.

“Not really. Only that she was rescued from someone who was abusing her and was going to put her in a whore house to earn her keep.” Papa Joe said.

“And she’s only 16?” Aunt Chris asked, sounding horrified.

“Yeah. I’m going to watch the news and then I’m going to bed. Tomorrow is probably going to be a long day.” Papa Joe said as he pushed away from the table.

I heard them leave the kitchen, Papa Joe going into the living room to watch TV and Aunt Chris to her bedroom. I stood looking out the window of the laundry room, into the back yard. It was almost a full moon and a clear night so the backyard was lit up with moonlight and it looked so peaceful. I took a deep breath and gave myself a pep talk. “I can do this. There won’t be many men there and they’ve all been told to keep their distance. Besides, Papa Joe will be there and he will protect me.”

I wish I could lose this fear of having men come close to me but every time I’ve let one near, the fear becomes overpowering. I can’t go through it again. I just want to be normal again. By this time in my life, I should have been on my first date, had at least one boyfriend, had my first kiss. But while I wanted it, I was too terrified of anyone getting that close to me, except Max.

I just want a normal life and sometimes I long for a big strong man to wrap his arms around me, to hold me close and make me feel loved but Randy had ruined it all! Damn him!

I try my best not to remember what had happened to me but everytime a new kid comes in, I can’t help but wonder if they went through the same things I did.

I finished up the kids’ clothes and carried the full basket upstairs to their rooms. I put the clothes away in each child’s room, checked that they were all covered and safely on their beds before I went to my own room. I took a shower, washed my hair and blew it dry before I braid it, then put on my pajamas and crawled into my bed. I lay looking out at the night sky wondering about tomorrow. I finally fell asleep but as I expected, the night terrors crept into my dreams.