Charlie Says, Sadie Does: The Manson Effect

moustachemag | June 7, 2014 

 

Susan “Sexy Sadie” Atkins || Source: media.npr.org

Words By Matt Huxley

“YOU’RE beautiful Sadie.” He said to me. That’s the first thing he said to me. First time he ever saw me. First time anyone ever said that to me. I loved Charlie more than anything I had ever loved before from that moment. “My name’s Susan, Susan Atkins?” Looking up at him in a haze of acid with tendrils of smoke curling around his shaggy beard and hair, his piercing eyes were all I could see.  They owned me. I was his. His alone. “Not to me you aren’t. You’re Sadie. Sexy Sadie.” Later that night my body contorted around his. He brought me pleasure in ways I didn’t even know that you could. The human body is an amazing thing. Smoking a cigarette after the act, he asked me to come with him. We were going to have fun. Lots and lots of fun. I met Charlie’s other followers. He owned a kombi van. We were going to a ranch he said. We wanted to have fun. Charlie wanted Helter Skelter.

I smile, the meth swirling around my head makes those memories all the more vivid. I involuntarily sigh and clench my thighs. Liquid moistens the rim of my vagina. I grin.  Helter Skelter is happening. Katie is next to me in the back seat, crouched in the crevice where the seat used to sit. She’s gripping her knife, a blank glaze covering her face. She’s a boring one, but I like her. She’s loyal to my Charlie, that’s what I like. I like loyalty. She wasn’t there when we stuck that Gary pig. That was Bobby and Mary. We need to get him out. Bloody cops. Bobby was too good for jail. Too pretty. Colourful. Yellows and greens and oranges swirl around him in my head. Pretty colours.

“Shut up Sadie!” Tex is in the front. He snarls at me. “We need to concentrate. Charlie gave us a mission. This will put us on the map. It’s all we ever wanted. People will know who we are, people will know who you are. People will know Helter Skelter.” Tex turns back to the road. Linda is sitting next to him nervously. Bloody weak bitch. Never even cut someone. Not felt the thrill as a knife plunges swiftly past the yielding flesh of a human. She fingers the gun and her knife nervously. Luckily we only need her as a driver. Charlie thinks she’ll prove herself. I know better. Charlie should listen to his number two more. “For Charlie! For Helter Skelter!” I scream! Coloured bubbles pour from my mouth.

We creak to a stop outside the gate of a fine house. Bloody pigs. Fucking rich pigs. I hate them. Tex is scaling the fence, a pair of bolt cutters in his hand. He looks magnificent. Tex is a Texan. As in from Texas. It’s a state. That’s why we call him Tex. His real name is Charles. But we call him Tex. There’s only one Charlie to us.

The phone lines crash down in front of us and we scale the fence. Headlights approach. Linda stays back near the fence as Tex, Katie and myself crawl towards the approaching car. “Halt!” Tex jumps in front of the car. The kid inside looks terrified. Tex points the gun through the open drivers window. “No! Stop! I won’t tell!” His pitiful screams make me laugh. Tex chuckles too. “Too late.” He fires four rounds into the boy’s body. Leaning in through the window he plunges his knife through the boy’s cheek and cuts off his wristwatch. The bright red blood spills from the wound. It’s luminescent. It’s beautiful.

We creepy crawly up to the house. It’s amazing. Why is it so big? Who on earth lives here. Charlie said he used to know people that lived here. But he doesn’t know the people here he said. Some movie star apparently. I don’t care. It’s Helter Skelter. Tex cuts the screen of a side window and we creepy crawly through it. My trip is wearing off a bit. The colours are dimming, becoming a bit crisper. That’s fine. I know a bit of adrenalin flowing through my system will get me back up. We walk through the house. Admiring the furnishings and whatnot. We move through to the lounge. There’s a man asleep on the couch. He seems quite built. A handsome face I think, peering at him closely. Tex kicks him awake.

“Hello there,” he says blearily. Then he sees the gun and my knife. Tex shakes him awake and kicks him in the head for good measure. Katie passes me a small length of rope to restrain him. I shakily loop it round the man’s wrists. I can’t focus properly on the knots, but I do the best I can. The man is moaning softly, face rapidly swelling. “Who are you?” “I’m the devil,” Tex grins maniacally, “and I’m here to unleash hell.”  The man falters, and senses that he is outnumbered, strains briefly against my pitiful restraints.

“Sadie, find out who else is here.” I wander along the hallway, my bare feet shuffling through the thick carpet. I pass a bedroom and see a pretty woman reading a book. She smiles and waves at me, which I return. She’s buzzed on something and I don’t want to alarm her just yet. Let her think I’m all in her head. I continue down the hall and pass another room, looking in I see a vaguely familiar pregnant woman and a man. I head back to Tex. “Three, two females and a male.” I report. “Bring them here, but don’t panic them.”

Grabbing my knife I advance into the first room, “get out of bed. Go to the living room. Now.” She looks scared, but does as I say, clutching her robe around her. I follow her out where Katie greets her with another knife and forces her towards Tex.

I move to the next room and do the same thing. The pregnant woman starts sobbing quietly. “Shut up! “ I prod them towards the living room. The man seems somewhat protective of the crying bitch.

“On your knees,” Tex snarls at the newcomers. The pregnant woman struggles to get to her knees. “Can’t you see she’s pregnant! What are you doing?” The second man yells at Tex. He attempts to advance on him. “Stop now, I’ll shoot you, stop. I said stop!” The man doesn’t stop and the gun roars out twice. With a shriek, the man collapses onto the rug and shakes. Blood pours from the two wounds in his stomach. His eyes are rolling around in his head.  The pregnant woman screams and sobs into the rug. Annoying bitch.

The other woman seems practical. “What can I do to make sure that no one else gets hurt?” “Get all the money you have.” Tex snarls at her. He pushes her in the direction of me. The woman walks back to her room and empties her purse. It amounts to a pitiful $72. I take it back to Tex. “Is this all you have?” He screams at the woman.  “How much do you want?” The other man has recovered from the kick. “We want thousands!” Tex replies. He seems stressed. That’s not good. Charlie said to keep our cool. We don’t want to panic the victims. “I can get you that, if I have more time.” The pregnant woman talks for the first time. Her voice is high and irritating. Tex yells in frustration. I move closer to the man on the couch to check his restraints. They are loose. He grabs me by the hair and tries to run outside. I grab the knife and plunge it behind me. I think it hits his legs. We struggle into the hallway, he’s trying to make a break for it. Out of the corner of my eye I see Tex leveling the gun at us. Don’t do it, I plead with him in my mind. I stab the man in the back with the full force of my knife. Somehow he manages to kick me loose and stumbles outside. That’s when the bullets pass me and sink deep into his back.  It seems as though it’s in slow motion. He cries out and falls onto the lawn. Tex passes me and stabs him deeply and furiously. I look into the living room and see the other girl struggling with Katie. She’s stronger than Katie and she flings her off her and runs out the other door. Katie stumbles after her and I hear screaming and pleading. “Tex! Tex! Help me!” Katie must be losing the fight.

Tex throws a knife at me and nods at the figure on the lawn. “Finish him off,” He runs back towards Katie and the other girl. I take the knife and crawl over to the man. I plunge it many times into him. Many many times. It feels great. The blood oozes from the points where I strike him. Thick and beautiful. He’s dead.

I return to the living room at the same time as Katie and Tex. Both are covered in blood and Katie seems a bit roughed up. I force the pregnant bitch up onto the couch. “Please stop, I’m pregnant, please, let me have my baby, please stop. I beg of you. Please. My husband will pay you. Stop. Let me have my baby.” She keeps pleading and moaning. It’s frustrating as fuck. She needs to stop. Needs to stop. Stop. Stop. I need it to stop. My head hurts.

I lean over her and say in my most menacing tone, “look bitch, I don’t care about you. I don’t care if you’re going to have a baby or not. You’re going to die and I don’t feel anything about it.” I take the knife that Tex gave me and plunge it deep into her stomach. Finally, it stops. Tex takes over and keeps plunging the knife into her, over and over and over again. I take a towel and dip it into her blood. I write pig on the front door. The blood oozes down where I’ve written, It looks good. I taste it. Delicious and sweet.

We run back towards Linda and the car, shrieking in delight and happiness. We’ve done it. Helter Skelter has started.

http://www.moustachemagazine.com/2014/06/charlie-says-sadie-does-the-manson-effect/