PEEL-BEHIND THEIR EYES. Book 1 (Complete)

Chapter 42. Home?

Peel stood transfixed in front of the macabre sight of the jars and their horrific content. The sudden and unexpected vibration of his phone startled him. As he reached into his pocket he reread the note on the shelf,

"Pretty and blue, just like mine"

With an effort, he dragged his gaze down to the screen of his phone. Mason's name flashed beside a green phone symbol asking him if he wished to answer, he didn't and swiped the red phone symbol instead. Peel felt uneasy, he knew he had missed something crucial something in plain sight.

"Sight?"

As he grasped at fleeting thoughts, he looked up at the blue eye's floating in their jars and another penny dropped,

"Blue!"

As he continued to struggle with his thoughts Peel looked down at the two dead men lying in a ghastly pool of almost black blood. He couldn't see properly in the gloom but he knew that Richard's lifeless eyes stared directly up into the rafters. Like a dam released, the flood waters of Peels mind began to flow and he realized,

"Richard's eyes are brown?"

Suddenly everything was clear and looking from Richard's still form to Havers, Peel could see that the knife was no longer buried in the detective's throat.

Peels mind scream at him "The sister has blue eyes! It the sister, it's always been the sister!"

And spinning around he saw Samantha hurtling towards him with her arm arcing through the air, the bloody knife she had used to kill Havers in her hand and the devil on her face.

Only Peels automatic reflexes saved him from a deadly blow as he swung up an arm to ward off the strike. The blade connected with his arm burying itself all the way through his forearm. Peels mind exploded with white hot agonizing pain as he fell to the floor between the two dead men. Like a crazed animal, Samantha crawled on top.

Frantically he tried to shove her off, to use his strength against her, but wedged between the two dead men all he could do was flounder. With a wicked smile on her face, Samantha twisted the knife in Peel's arm making him scream in agony.

Now kneeling on his chest Samantha crushed the air from his lungs. Peel watched helplessly as Samantha lowered her face down to his and said with a venomous voice.

"It's all your fault" She spat "if it wasn't for you none of this would have happened, none of us would ever have suffered the way we have. It's all yours and your fucking mother's fault"

Peel sensed an opportunity present itself and although he was in excruciating pain and was finding it increasingly difficult to breathe, he slowed his struggles and he began to lead the woman.

"Why is it my fault, what did I do?"

Samantha was staring directly into his eyes, but Peel could see that she wasn't seeing him but rather seeing past him. To the past, he wondered.

"Your father was going to leave your mother before you were born. He was going to marry my grandma and raise my mother. But hey-presto, your mother fell pregnant just at the right time to put a stop to that didn't she"

Samantha sneered her contempt "No, your father stayed and raised you instead. And then everything changed when the Gouger came to visit. My mother grew up blind and alone after grandfather was committed to the nut house. Years later she met my father, an abusive kiddy fiddler who couldn't wait until I was born so he could have his fun. For Twenty years he abused and raped me whilst my brother watched"

Peel couldn't say he had ever seen the face of evil until now and it was a chilling sight on Samantha's face as she screamed at him,

"I've made sure mother and Richard are dead, now for you"

Samantha began to push down harder on his chest and Peel was finding it even harder to breath, but he wanted a little more out of Samantha before he dealt with her.

Between gasps, he asked "How do you know all of this, how is it you have your mother's eyes in a jar on that shelf over there"

Samantha smiled and glance up at the shelf "The letter, you know that!"

Peel shook his head "What letter, what are you talking about" his vision was now beginning to dim around the edges.

The look of hate deepened on her cruel face "You know what fucking letter, I had Richard leave it with Rebecca at mother's old house. Don't fuck with me, Bobbie"

Peel remembered the swan-shaped napkin in front of Rebecca as she sat nailed to the table. It had been covered in writing. He had snatched it up and stuffed it into the pocket of his jacket as the house fell around them. And it was still in the suit that he had given to Loftis to take to the dry cleaners. He had forgotten all about it.

"And your mother's eye's?" Peel asked her as he thought,

"Almost there, just a couple more seconds and I'm done with you"

Peel was fighting to breathe now.

Samantha chuckled "Oh, those were a present, along with the letter, but I don't think I need tell you any more. It's time you and our little honey over there die"

Samantha laughed softly as if all was normal and said "You know when they find us, they'll say how evil Richard must have been to kill you all and what a poor brave girl I am to have survived such a terrible ordeal" she continued to chuckle.

Peel had heard enough and decided to put an end to her rant, but just as he was about to tear his good hand from her vice like grip, Samantha with a flick of her wrist withdrew the knife from his arm. The pain was far more agonizing than anything Peel had ever experienced and his world began to spin.

Vomit threatened to erupt and choke him but he managed to hold it back. Unable to move through the pain and exhaustion he watched her raise the knife up above her head ready to plunge it into his chest.

Maybe it was his imagination as his mind wavered over the abyss of unconsciousness, but he thought for the briefest of moments a large bird, no an angel, fly over him screaming in rage.

And with that strange image still playing in his head, the weight on his chest suddenly disappeared. With the gasp of a man pulled from the vacuum, Peel drew in a deep painful breath quickly followed another couple of desperately need breathes. Peel turned to see where Samantha had gone, wondering if she was about to attack again, but to his surprise what waited for him was a relief.

Samantha lay still on the floor and like a bird of prey, Macy was perched on top her hand holding the old bracket she had used to dig her chain out of the wall. Now sharpened it was buried deep in Samantha's eye socket.

In a mass of pain and tired to the core Peel allowed his head to fall back but quickly stopped before it landed back in the pool of blood that he was already laying in. With all the energy he could gather Peel worked his way free and with an almighty strain, he managed to sit up and clutching his bleeding arm he climbed to his feet.

If there was ever a time he needed a drink it was now. He promised himself that as soon as he made it back to the station he was making a beeline to his waste paper bin.

Caked in blood Peel shrugged off his jacket and looking down on the girl thought,

"I came here to save her and instead she saved me. Hmm, brave girl!"

Macy looked up from where she sat and with a final push she sank the bracket deeper into Samantha's head and with a tired smirk asked,

"Can I go home now"

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