Alice

Chapter Four

"there once was a garden.

it was vibrant and full.

then a hideous storm came and

shattered it all." - @xpretions

1

Neither Mark nor Diane slept that night, horrified at the destruction that Alice had caused to their livelihood. Throughout the night, Diane kept mumbling to herself, although she was aware that Mark was probably awake. She could not control herself. Diane had never talked to herself in her life - she often saw it as the first sign of madness, but this was an exception. Maybe she was going slightly mad. A lot of people would in that situation.

"I'm going to get that bitch", she repeatedly said. Mark did not reply, although he wanted to tell her to calm down. At this point, nothing could calm Diane down, because nothing could eliminate the threat of Alice.

One thing that was keeping Diane awake through the night was the fact that she had promised to bake a few batches of cakes for the church for Monday. Now she did not have the materials to do that and she sincerely hoped that a shop would be open nearby on a Sunday, because Diane would not be able to make them otherwise. The thought of letting the church and the community down terrified Diane. She knew that the cafe would have to be closed for the next few days at least, and to her, that was enough to let the community down, because she knew that several people, several of her friends, liked that cafe very much. To some, spending time in her cafe was the only time a person use to could find an excuse to get out of the house. Thoughts about what she was going to do raced through her head, as it would take a lot to put the place back to where it was. There was the redecorating, buying new crockery and cutlery, ordering tables and chairs. Diane did not dare to think about how much it would cost - they would come back to that later. For now, the only thing saving them from financial ruin was keeping the cafe open, and to do that, they would both have to act fast.

Diane also thought about how Alice was loving every second of this. Alice probably lay awake at this very moment, thinking about what she had done, laughing herself to sleep. What worried Diane more was the note that she had left. Although she did not like to admit it to her husband, Diane was scared. In fact, the word "scared" was an understatement - she was terrified, and both Diane and Alice knew it. No matter how much Diane would try to put on a brave face, it would not fool Alice. Alice could see through everybody, and Alice was planning to use their fear to her advantage. Diane could sense it. It mortified Diane to think about the things Alice could be plotting - were their lives in danger? Not for the moment, anyway, Diane decided. Alice would have some fun with them before murdering them. Possibly the worst thing about this whole scenario was the fact that they could do nothing about it - they had nobody to turn to, not even the police. They could not exactly prove that Alice had done it as the CCTV camera had been smashed to pieces.

That night, not long after they recovered from the initial shock of what had happened, Mark had insisted on going to the police.

"We can't", Diane immediately replied.

"Why not?" said Mark. "Look, Diane, I know you might not feel comfortable with speaking to someone about what's happening, but Alice is putting our lives at risk!"

"It's not that I don't want to", replied Diane, "it's that we can't! Believe me, Mark, I would love nothing more than to see this bitch suffer for what she's done tonight, but we have no evidence that it was her!"

"We do!" said Mark, pointing towards the corner of the ceiling. "We have..."

That was when he realised that there was no CCTV camera - the pieces of that camera were scattered across the floor near to where he was stood. The security system of the cafe had probably been one of the first things Alice had gone for.