The Blood Red Saga: Revenge Solves Everything

Chapter 4: Graveyard

 I was walking the streets of London in a smart tuxedo. No-one knew how Trish and I went from middle-class to living like royalty in almost no time at all. The man who gave me the job must have really wanted Derek Grawl’s wife dead for I was paid a fantastic £100,000 for the bloody deed. Of course, we were not the richest people in London but very few people had that much money. He must have been unimaginably rich to pay that much to hire me. As Trish told me two months earlier, we never spoke of the murder or my past as an assassin. The earliest we ever spoke of was when we first met. Anyway, I was walking the streets of London just to take in the morning air before the city was engulfed in black smoke. I was not the only person to think like this as you could imagine, there were many people making their way to through the city on an early morning stroll. Trish had been the one to convince me to get into the habit. She warned me how it was bad for me to only be out and about when the air was thick with smoke even though she was still laying in bed fast asleep. Neither of us had jobs at the moment. The blood money I earned had set us for the rest of our lives together.

  I met a few of my friends on my stroll who I usually only see in the pubs at late hours. We just acknowledged each other by smiling as we all knew that the others did not wish to be disturbed this early into their morning. I came across the church where I noticed a small cemetery; it must have been recently built for I had not yet noticed it in the month that I had walked in this area. In it was a rather large man with scruffy black hair, a short beard and moustache and a tweed jacket that was ripped in some places. The deep blue trousers were ripped along the bottom and his black shoes were worn and consisted of three or four holes.  It took me a while but it eventually came to me. Derek Grawl. He was kneeling by a cemetery, from what I had heard, he was not a religious man so why he seemed to be praying in church grounds I did not know. Then I remembered that day; the day I killed his wife. I squinted at the headstone he was facing and managed to make it out. It read ‘Here lays Catherine Grawl. Innocent women brutally murdered by’… the name was scratched off, but you could make out the name "Blood Red". I can’t blame him really. I would hate to have to hear the name of my beloved Trish’s killer. I wanted to know how old she was when I killed her so I gradually stepped closer. I thought I would be able to just get close enough to read the rest of the head stone and then retreat home without him noticing. However, when I tripped upon a stone and stumbled, I had made Derek aware of my presence.

 “Who have you come to pay respects to?” He asked with deep sorrow in his voice. He didn’t turn to see who it was; he continued to face his wives headstone with his eyes gently shut.

 “Err; I have come to pay respects to Catherine. I suspect you have come for that same reason?” I replied. I wasn’t sure what his response would be when I said that I had come to pay respects to his wife.

 “Indeed.  An unknown relative of my wife are you perhaps?” He replied with the same soft tone.

 “Nay. I had just heard she was murdered by…”

“Do not speak his name.” He interrupted me with a sharp tone now replacing his soft, sorrow filled one. “If you have not already noticed, I have removed his name from my wives headstone for he does not deserve to be spoken of. Even reading his name or hearing it mention makes me relive the pain I went through that day when I found my wife laying dead on the floor beneath our mattress.”

 I had forgotten about the marks over my assassin name on the stone marking the place the Deceased Catherine laid. “My apologise, sir.” I softly said with the up-most respect, for the mourning man. “I should be off now. I have work to attend to.” I lied. I had to make an excuse to get away from him before he recognised me. He remained silent, keeping his eyes shut as they had been for the entire conversation, although it was a rather short one.

As I walked off, I noticed the cloaked man by the cemetery gate. I had seen him twice before, once outside my home window before I left to kill Catherine and the next on the same day as I was fleeing from the crime scene. He watched me as I left and I watched him. He noticed how I attempted to look under his hood and lowered his head. I straightened myself up and faked my dismissal of the subject as I walked away. I stopped on the other side of the road and watched the strange person as they entered the cemetery and disturbed Derek from his mourning. He whispered something to him and left swiftly to the side where he then climbed over the iron fence into an alley way along the side. Derek, whilst remaining on his knees, stiffened his back and slowly turned his head and glared at me. Glared at me with the same glassy eyes as the ones I stared into when we were only separated by a mere skylight. I knew what the shady person had told him instantly and ran home. I had been an idiot to give him the direction to where I lived. I should have misled him and maybe I wouldn’t be telling you this story now.

 I got home and locked the door behind me. I had shut the door with no precautions towards not waking my sleeping beauty but I was glad that I did. It meant that she was well awake when I explained to her what had happened. The colour had drained from her face leaving her very pale.

 “How? How did he know who you were?” She asked with harsh tone concerning the cloaked man. Her hands were trembling and it showed in the ripples in the mug of coffee.

 “I… I don’t know.” I replied. Although I had a brief idea that he had been following me since my days as Blood Red but I did not wish to alarm her to the unidentified stalker and continued. “All I know is that he has told my victims partner who I am and possibly where I live. We must move with immediate effect.”

 “But…”

 “Yes. I have to come to love this home but if we do not move on, there a possibility of us both getting life in prison… or worse.” I hesitated with the last part as I despised the idea of my beloved Trish being executed as a punishment for deeds that I had done.

 “Very well. We shall pack; collect our money from the bank and leave to live with my friend in the country-side in three days time.” She immediately rose from the lounge settee to begin the packing of our things. I would have to go and buy some suitcases for our possessions for we had a lot more than we had begun with due to our recent riches.