Inside Evil

Chapter 3 - Part I

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

Vanessa was buried the following Thursday morning. The news of her abrupt death had passed through the small town quickly, leaving none without the knowledge that the daughter and only child of the Lingly’s, was dead. The coroners acted with speed to abate the pain of Susan and her husband having to wait to bury their daughter, and though it had happened in the most unusual circumstances, the autopsy showed nothing more than a sickly girl whose heart had given out. Blood screens had shown that there were no toxic drugs within her system; a matter which caused Roberta to wonder even more how a promising young girl such as Vanessa had fallen so dramatically from the rails. It was clear from previous medical reports that, other than the past few months, Vanessa had been in fine health. All that remained were the facts which concluded that, sad as it may be, Vanessa’s body seemed to have just given up. Other than a small burn mark on the bottom of her left foot, there was no indication for her death at all.

As the congregation gathered, there was no let up in the lashing rain. No opportunity for the inevitable and conversational, “Well at least it’s a clear day”. The day was the gloomiest that there had been for weeks, the firs roared, the rain drove with force and it was bitterly cold. Inside, the temperature was as bearable as it gets when trying to heat a medieval stone church, and people sat huddled together, still in their hats, gloves and scarves, their breath forming momentary white contortions in the air. The service was a quiet and simple affair, with the priest relaying stories of Vanessa’s childhood, talking about how intellectual she’d been and how her spirit was now in a better place. It reflected the shock within the community at the loss of the young girl, and though many bouquets had been delivered to both the school and the Lingly’s, still more were piled up and around the porch to the church. Friends and family gathered around the small, rectangular abyss as she was lowered into the ground, and while the world carried on, all residents of Ridgewood hung their heads in remembrance of a bright, young and friendly girl who had gone a little wayward in her last months. All spare her mother, Susan Lingly, that was.

Wrapped in a blanket by her bookstore fire, her mind blank, Susan slowly rocked back and forth. It was business as usual for her on this day, except that she didn’t open the bookstore, she didn’t do the accounts and she didn’t pay any attention when the phone rang. All she did was rock, back and forth, and occasionally lift her hand and take a swig from the quickly draining bottle of whisky. Not that it helped.

Susan wasn’t going to celebrate the afterlife of her daughter. Sod the afterlife, what about the here and now? She lifted the bottle for another swig and found that it was empty. As she fumbled around trying to get up, she could feel the alcohol coursing through her veins, her eyesight swooning slightly at the heat behind her eyes. Had anyone been in the room they’d have laughed watching as Susan tried to get off the floor. She’d sat on her legs for so long now that they’d gone numb, so she did a kind of half roly-poly onto her side and then pushed her legs out in front of her. Turning onto her front she grappled with several cushions for a few seconds before finally managing to lug her drunken body onto the sofa. She righted herself and then, as she mustered the energy to actually stand up, there was a loud rap on the door. Susan quickly ducked her head, but not before seeing a sodden looking Sam peering through the window.

“Susan? Susan...I know you’re there, I just saw you.”

Susan kept quiet, her head pushed into the cushions desperately trying to make herself look as flat as possible.

“Susan!” Sam shouted fiercely, “God dammit, let me in, it’s freezing out here.”

“Go away,” Susan shouted back, “I want to be on my own.”

“I’m not going anywhere, and if you don’t open this door I’m calling Martha, and then Bernard.”

Susan sat bolt upright at the sobering thought that Sam might actually call her husband. There was no way that she was seeing Bernard. She’d managed not to go home for five days, and she wasn’t about to start now. He’d lied, he’d betrayed their daughter, and it was him that had driven her out of their home and up to that boarding school. She could see nothing that he’d said or done, but Vanessa had been terrified of him.

Vanessa was the sweetest child anyone could have asked for, always well behaved and definitely a daddy’s girl. When she fell over and scraped her knee, it was Bernard she wanted. When she passed her first flute lesson, it was Bernard that she’d rushed to see, leaping up to hug him around the neck because she was so overjoyed at having passed. The first night she’d got hideously drunk and been unable to get a taxi home from Mornington, it was Bernard that she’d called at 3am in the morning. But, over the last few months something had snapped, something had definitely changed. Bernard would go to kiss her goodnight, normally such an endearing ritual, but Vanessa would recoil, a look of fear in her eyes. Bernard’s offers of help were increasingly refused, and one morning Vanessa had screamed. Susan ran into the living room only to find her daughter surrounded by a smashed glass of orange juice and Bernard trying to calm his daughter. He’d simply offered her a lift to school, but Vanessa had gone berserk, smashing the glass down before becoming overtaken with emotion. She had stood, silent for a few seconds and then, as Susan had gone to comfort her, had just screamed, “Don’t touch me, neither of you, don’t come near me, you don’t understand!” before running out of the front door and down the street.

The next thing Susan knew was that Mr Swithburn had her in the school office offering to allow Vanessa a place in a dorm for a while, “just while she sorts herself out.” That had been a month ago, and now look what had happened. Yes, Bernard had killed her, not directly, but by whatever way you looked at it, him driving her out of the house had been Vanessa’s sentence to death. Susan could never forgive him. She could never look him in the eye again.

Sam continued to pound on the door, and Susan knew it was no good to try and keep him trapped in the world outside.

“OK, OK….” Slowly but surely, Susan pushed herself up, shuffled over to the door and unlocked it.

“Right, lets get you sorted,” Sam announced as he pushed past. “I thought I was gonna catch my death out th...” He stopped mid sentence realising what he’d said. “Oh Sue, sorry, I didn’t mean.”

“Sam, just pour me another whisky.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, what about a cof…”

”I don’t want coffee,” Susan screamed, her hands pulling at her hair and her eyes filling up. “I want my daughter!” Her voice trailed off and she shuffled across to the table, opened a new bottle of whisky and took a huge gulp.

“Why has this happened?” Susan cried out. “I don’t deserve this. She didn’t deserve this.”

Sam looked uncertain of what to do next, hovering a few feet away as Susan allowed her rage to come out. A moment later, he leapt forward and enveloped Susan into a bear hug.

“Don’t. Sam, don’t,” and as Sam continued to hold her, Susan screamed louder and louder.

“Stop it, stop it!!” Susan cried out, and struggling free she gave Sam an almighty shove. The force of the push sent Susan’s spindly drunken body off balance, and as she crashed to the floor, her arms flew up above her. The near full bottle of whisky went flying out of her hand, soaring through the air until it cracked against the hearth and landed amongst the flames of the open fire.

“Shit! Susan!! Stay down,” Sam shouted as he crouched low to the ground in front of Susan’s sprawled body. For a few seconds the flames licked around the bottle, blackening the label and gently heating the glass. The cracked glass finally gave way and with an almighty bang, the searing heat burnt the whisky with explosive force, sending huge flames soaring into the room.

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

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