Trepidus

Chapter 1

Chapter 1 - A New Start

Rickard

He looked older than his age. His face pale with fright. His hands couldn't stop shaking.

He used to be a happy man.

"So tell me Kevin. What happened?" He looked into my eyes.The police were all around Tennyson's lounge. The chief was eagerly looking at the man in the spotlight.

He shouldn't have involved the police.

His rough lips moved. "I.. I was sleeping. I...It was midnight. We had just tucked Penny in. She wouldn't stop crying, she...she...she had marks and we blamed the nanny for her recklessness."

The chief suddenly sprang off the sofa. "Then what?" I encouraged him to speak further but he couldn't stop crying. "We were so happy." he sniffed and cupped his face.

"It was midnight. I was sleeping. It had been a tough day. You see, I wanted a promotion. I asked Lucy to take care of Penny. I told her I didn't want to hear her crying." The tears that had been pooling from his eyes came running down his cheeks. I couldn't believe he was still here, talking.

"I woke up around one. And... I heard...I heard it." His eyes looked in my direction, but I knew they were looking far away. "I heard singing. A beautiful voice. I heard the voice comforting my baby doll. I smiled. I thought that it was... It was Lucy."

"Wasn't it her?" My Wife, Emma, asked in a concerned tone. "No." He began to shiver. "I tried to get up, accidentally touching someone's had. It was Lucy's. It was so cold. I.. I woke up and saw, and saw, I saw that someone had..had..had-"

I lowered my eyes, realizing that telling it was not that easy.

His sobbing echoed around the tiny apartment. He began to mumble and whimper. Emma rushed to him and calmed him down. Somehow it worked. The chief on the other hand looked annoyed. It angered me.

"Go on son, we don't have all day." Emma looked at the chief with pure acrimony. "Give the boy some space."  -  "Tell us when you are ready Kevin."

He swallowed. "I quickly ran for Penny. I ran for the only thing I loved that I hoped was living. There... There I saw her hair. Her pretty blonde hair chopped and thrown on the floor. She was only two! Only two!"

* * *

We left the house after the police was done checking around the place. I was pretty shaken from the incident. Emma looked pale as well. "Buster did it again." I smiled.

"Buster did it again."

Chief came running out to catch up with us. "A pretty useful dog you got there. Buster, right?" I gave him a curt nod.

"The body of the little girl was hidden pretty neatly. My guess was a body bag at Tennyson's. But we weren't so sure. No smell at all. Our dogs got lost but yours, well your dog just did it! And well, we did it too, you know."

Emma looked at the chief, adjusting her glove. "Please be soft on the boy. He lost his wife and daughter." - "Strange town isn't it?" The Chief said, looking at me. I sighed in agreement.

"Strange indeed."

* * *

Chase

Moving across the country was a stressful job, even more stressful when you are here for an escape. I was too escaping the harsh realities of life, that had dawned upon me in Los Angeles.

Standing in the far end of Kintbury, I was contemplating life and how things went. My hands reached for the pocket in my coat, reviving a pack of cigarettes, my hands touching the tough leather of my identity badge.

I took a strong puff of the cigarette as my car stood silently, my body was relaxed and there was no sound around.

It was finally quite in my head.

All the busy and messy memories seemed to seep out of my pours, into the thin and crisp air of October as the breeze ruffled my straw coloured hair.

Infront of me was a beautiful house that I rented for two months. Two months​ in this solitude was all I needed. It was escape, my tourniquet, my suicide.

Everyone around me were inhaling and exhaling the air, but I was absorbing it into my skin, living every fresh breeze as it was my last.

I was finally able to breathe.

Dragging my suitcase out of my car, I made my way inside the house, while texting Colleen, my twin sister about my trip. I shut the door lock, dropped all that I was holding and I sighed.

I am all alone now.

I realized that I was done for the day an having nothing in my hands, I quickly opened my novel, A Game of Thrones, and started skimming through the book.

The clock struck seven in the evening when I was done with half of the book. My stomach felt awfully empty and so did my heart, but I ignored the nagging pain as I tried to make myself some hot pockets.

Munching down my food, my eyes danced around my surroundings as I feasted on more outside in the lawn. It was a sudden shiver and realization that I was being watched. Dropping my food on the plate, I glanced around for any sign of life, but I was welcomed by grave silence.

My eyes diverted toward the majestic mansion at the far left of my house to see a girl looking through the window, waving her hands.

The girl was nothing short of a beauty,her platinum blonde hair were open loose, her eyes were big an sad but her lips were curved into a thin smile.

All of a sudden, my hands moved up to wave back, a smile similar to her on my face. She then dropped her hand to the side and the smile evaporated into the air, her eyes went shut and then, she left the most blood curdling scream ever, wiggling the railing on her balcony violently.

Horrified, I stood frozen as she proceeded her violent screeches until she stopped again, looking and pointing behind me.

Before I had a chance to look behind, something hid my head, knocking the wind out of me, leaving me to blackout into the crisp Autumn winds.

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A/N :
If you didn't know,

Kintbury is a village and civil parish in West Berkshire, England, between the towns of Newbury and Hungerford.

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