The Wrath

Chapter Twenty-Four

Nadine enters the bedroom with her eyes transfixed on the wall. Before today there had been nothing but a clock, a Dolphin calendar and mirror on her wall. Now there were photos, letters, newspaper cuttings, as well as belongings pinned up.
She approached the wall to see clearer. There was a photo taken from four years ago of Kat, Karen and Nadine when they were thirteen, in their navy school uniform. Their face shot photos cut from a school yearbook with their names printed underneath.
There was a photo of the school they go to, alongside a photo of the school Basketball team with Seans face circled. There is also a photo of Dean meeting Kat outside the school when she is wearing a purple jewelled necklace which was also hanging on the wall next to the picture.
There was a peaked hat, which had also been pinned up on the wall, beside a photo of Karen wearing it. There was another photo of Dean leaning against his patrol car, with his sunglasses hanging from the photo. There was some military dog tags hung up with Seans name embossed onto them.
Lastly there is a photo of Dominic and Nadine queuing up for an ice cream, then Nadine noticed the gold and leather bracelet pinned up beside the picture. Her eyes widened as she picked it up.

"Shit, my bracelet," she gasped.

She puts the bracelet back down then moves her eyes to the newspaper clippings. A picture of a young lad with short brown hair, brown eyes and glasses catches her eye, she frowns as she chews her lip thoughtfully knowing that the face was familiar to her.
Memories stirred in her mind. She recognised the lad, he had been at school with them, a year younger than they were. When they had been fourteen, they had bullied him mercilessly.
Nadine remembered how they had constantly cornered him in the corridors making him late for classes, they used to steal his lunch and empty it into the trash, how they would throw his drink over him. Kat would constantly slyly put her feet out to trip him over or take his glasses from him. Karen would graffiti cruel taunts onto his locker. That Sean would always deliberately tackle the young lad in sports, leaving him battered and bruised. How Sean would deliberately set his German Shepard pet dog onto the lad. They would chase him home from school.
Nadine herself was no better, she used to always steal his books and folders then put them out of his reach. She recalled that the young lad didn't seem to have any good friends to stick up for him, he was often alone, an easy target.
There were diary entries pinned to the wall that he had written, detailing the bullying he had suffered and how miserable it made him, that he didn't understand why he had been singled out. Nadine lowers her head as guilt swelled up inside of her, she felt terrible for causing someone so much sadness in their childhood which is supposed to be fun filled and stress free.
Her expression changes to one of sympathy as she moved her eyes to another newspaper article detailing that the young lad at thirteen years old, at the end of the summer holidays, the day before they were due back at school had been found in their home. He had hung himself with his school tie from the bannister in his house. She'd had no idea, everyone had assumed that the young lad had just left. At fourteen years old, Nadine and her friends hadn't been interested in watching the news or reading the paper. Nadines mouth dropped open, her eyes widened and her hands moved down to cover her mouth.
From behind her hands she muttered, "Oh no."

She whirls around when she hears Alans voice directly behind her, his white eyes bore into hers.
"His name was Gareth. The boy you and your friends decided to have a little fun with at school."

Nadine backed away from him fearfully as he pointed at her then continued talking,
"You terrorised him, you made his life hell."

Nadine couldn't work out why Alan had taken it upon himself to punish them for this, she hadn't even known him before Kats Mum started dating Alans Father.
She decided that the best course of action was to keep him talking, distract him with conversation, as long as he is talking, she is safe from been attacked.
She spoke up,
"Look, I dont understand. If he was a friend of yours."