Inside Evil

Chapter 7 - Part 1

*Inside Evil and its sequels are available on Amazon, Kobo, B&N, Smashwords and iBooks*

Roberta smelled it as soon as she opened her front door, a heady scent that layered the air.

"Sam?" She dropped her bag in the hallway and turned into the living room. Leaning against the wall at the back of the room, with the door to the patio slightly open so that the freezing winter air rushed in, Sam took a deep tug on the joint he held in his hand.

"What are you doing back here?" he spluttered, trying to hold his breath and moving the spliff behind his back.

"Where the hell did you get that?" Roberta wasn't actually that surprised seeing as she and Sam had spent most of their sixth form years in a cloud of marijuana smoke.

"Some kid up at your school," Sam replied, realising that there was no use trying to hide it. "Cost me a bloody fortune too, stuck up little snobs."

"Gimme some of that," Roberta said, crossing the room and taking the joint out of Sam's thin fingers. "And close the door, its bloody freezing."

Roberta took a deep pull on the joint, lighting the end up with a bright crimson crackle. She inhaled deeply, taking the drugged smoke into her lungs, before letting it slowly slip back out with her breath. My school, she thought. Not any more it's not.

"What's got into you?" Sam asked with surprise at Roberta happily joining his guilty pleasure. He followed Roberta over to the sofas, where she collapsed in a heap.

Roberta passed the smoking joint back to Sam and filled him in on what had happened up at the school. She had a certain amount of hesitation when revealing to her old school friend that she'd actually been aiming for Susan, a woman who Sam had become close friends with over the past few weeks. A woman who, in actual fact, he'd spent a substantial amount of time with recently. However, whether it was his stoned state or a remarkable ability to not become upset, Sam managed to avoid getting agitated.

"And to make matters worse, I saw DC Frans on the way home, just sitting in his blue Volvo. Again. We caught each other's eye but he was on a call and didn't make any sign to follow me," Roberta finished. She'd noticed the detective several times over the course of the last few days. It was a small town, and so many people would put it down to pure coincidence, but Roberta couldn't help the feeling that she was being monitored.

Sam sat quietly for a few minutes, and Roberta wondered if in her rabble of the events, he'd simply zoned out. After all, that's why her friend had normally sought out the use of illegal substances; to quieten his busy mind. She leaned forward and took the joint out from between Sam's fingers and took another drag.

"Why have you got this? You're not actually an accredited stoner now are you?"

"Things have become complicated," Sam said after a moment.

"How so?" Roberta was suddenly eager to hear about someone else's woes other than focussing on the knot of anxiety that was tormenting her stomach.

"You've known me a long time right?" Sam said, sitting forward and scratching the side of his head. "You know I'm not a weirdo."

Roberta laughed. "Well that could be questionable."

Sam grinned back. "Well, yeah, ok. But listen, there's some weird stuff going on around here. Like, Vanessa's death. That's just odd for starters. They never explained it properly, and just buried her so quickly. It almost seemed like they were trying to cover something up. Then Martha had this vision before being attacked, on the same night that Vanessa dies. Lashing out at Susan just isn't like you either, Roo. And, that's not even taking into account the candles. I mean, OK, I did think I was going mad, but I know what I saw."

"Candles?"

Sam hesitated for only the briefest of moments before explaining to Roberta about the secret cellar in Susan's book store and their discovery of the mysterious candles. He explained how he could feel heat from their flames, see light from their burning, yet put his hand straight through them as if they were some form of futuristic holographic image.

"And Susan doesn't think I know, but there were diary pages written by her daughter and Barry Wittle on that table."

Roberta breathed heavily as she tried to take in the strange account. She had no idea what to think.

"So what do you think is going on?"

"I have no idea," Sam said, slouching back onto the couch. "All I know is that I came up to Ridgewood to work on a paper about the paranormal, and now it seems that some weird ass shit is going on."

"Sam, we're just stoned. There has to be a rational answer to all of this," Roberta said. "I can't believe for a minute that all of this is somehow connected. I've been stressed at work for months. I obviously just lashed out at Susan for no good reason."

"And you think that Martha having a vision of impending doom on the very night she's attacked and her best friend's daughter dies are a coincidence? That you found the body and now you're struggling to control your emotions in the same way that Vanessa seemingly zoned out is just circumstantial?"

"But it is Sam, there's nothing to prove anything. It's insane that you can even believe there's something unworldly going on."

"Then I'm going to get you into that shop and show you those candles. They are proof."

"I'm not going anywhere near Susan Lingly, I've destroyed my life because of her."

"So you won't go near Susan. We'll find a way around it."

"You've read too much of that literature Sam, you're starting to believe it."

Sam cocked his head towards Roberta and looked her straight in the eyes. "I've read enough of that literature to know that something is certainly not right."

*I will be posting one or two scenes a week as the story builds. However, if you can't wait that long, Inside Evil is available on Amazon, Kobo, B&N, Smashwords and iBooks.

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