Silent Pantomime

Chapter 6 | Daisy Huntley

Chapter 6🌌:

The Soham murders, August 2002.

Two ten year old girls, one twisted crime.

I don't know if you know the story of the Soham murders, but it was one of the biggest cases the police in England ever had to handle. It was during the summer holidays, and ten year old Jessica Chapman went to visit her best friend Holly Wells for a barbecue around her house. Seems sweet and innocent doesn't it? Crazy how going around your best friends house for a burger could get you killed.

Holly and Jessica decided to go out of the house to go and get sweets from a vending machine without telling anyone in the house. Many people had seen them walking around that evening, as any witnesses of anything to do with the girls had to be presented forward. But what happened to the girls?

They were lured into a man's house, who killed them and threw them in his furnace - only the remains of the girls were found fifteen days after the incident. Isn't it sick? Having no motive, no plan, just seeking out to kill two innocent girls who went out to buy sweets for a barbecue.

News stories were out all across the country, everyone tried to help out. The primary school the girls attended held assemblies and meetings, the police were searching high and low, bystanders giving as much information as possible. Being helpful.

But something existed called being too helpful. Too good to be true. An anomaly. Because who suspects the one who would do anyone to help out and 'bring justice'? Which is why in stories the butler always does it, because he is just the lively gentleman who cooks and cleans. Cares for people.

The caretaker did it.

His name was Ian Kevin Huntley. A school caretaker who killed two innocent girls just for the sake of it. And he was just there, stacking chairs in the school halls, helping out in the investigation - when all the time he did it.

But that's exactly what I was doing in that moment.

I was the new Soham murderer - I knew I did this horrible thing; I took away a life and it was eating me alive. Yet, I was talking to the mother of the victim as if I was as in the dark of the situation as anyone else. I felt as though I were in some pantomime, playing a larger than life character, playing pure pretend. But the truth was being silent.

"I'm very sorry for your loss," I said to Ally's mum, "She really was a lovely girl." Ally's mum looked at me and smiled, but it definitely didn't match her eyes like mine did. She hesitated for a second, "What's your name?" I completely froze for a moment, but I managed to contain myself. I didn't want to give my real name in case the truth came out that Hazel Fitzgerald convinced a girl to kill herself and then had the audacity to attend the funeral. Or if word alone got out that I attended a funeral of a girl I didn't know. My mind wondered to how I was acting like the killer of Holly and Jessica as my eyes wondered to the bouquets of flowers.

"I'm Daisy Huntley."

The woman smiled again and shook my hand, "It was lovely to meet you Daisy, I'm Michelle. But I've got to get going because the funeral is about to start properly," and with that the eternally sad woman walked off.

My hands were shaking slightly and I felt suddenly flushed, but I had to get through it. Ally deserved to get a proper goodbye now, as she never got the chance to have one before. "I'm sorry," I muttered under my breath, but no one heard it. I just hoped the stars did.

I'll spare you the gory details of the funeral, the priest said some words, the coffin was lowered in the ground, people cried and all that jazz. It was the speeches that wrenched on my heart strings even more.

A girl with auburn hair walked in front of the crowd right at the end of the church, the poor thing was shaking like a leaf.

"Ally was my best friend. My best friend. She was a big part of my life, and I can't stop crying myself to sleep at night. It's not even been a week, yet it feels like an eternity since I've last seen her. I spoke to her the morning she did it, she seemed fine. She was perfectly okay."

The girl was getting audibly upset and was getting louder and louder as she spoke, she wasn't even looking at anyone in particular, just staring and yelling at the world. She seemed so angry. I barely even considered that coming to the funeral would make me see all these people who were distraught; I barely got over the thought of how much I hurt Ally.

"I just wished she'd told me, she was supposed to tell me when something was up. That was my job, she was supposed to turn to me, and she didn't. I've just lost this massive part of me, and I just can't control it. This is the first time I've left my house since I found out. I know I'm supposed to remember the good with Ally, but how can I? How can I remember all the good memories when I know that the entire time I was happy, she was feeling this immense amount of panic and agony that I felt when I got the call on Sunday. How can I smile at that? And...and..."

The girl was getting quieter now, after her voice had managed to plateau slightly. Yet it was still extremely shaky.

"We used to call each other our ride or die. I just still feel guilty, I mean it's been five days, and I'm still clinging onto the handle bars. But she's not. And she'll never come back, all because of some stupid person just saying stupid things. Ally was just so ethereal and someone ruined it by putting ideas in her head just because she never had some dumb boyfriend. I called her before I came here, just to hear her voice one last time on the voice mail. She had this lovely voice, this happy, bubbly, just lovely voice. And the last words I will ever hear her say are 'leave the message after the tone'. I just wish I had at least said goodbye."

The girl walked off, I didn't know if she had anything else to say, but she was so angry and upset that she looked as though she were about to have a fit.

The funeral ended pretty soon after a few more speeches and loads of people left flowers and cards where Ally was buried. Eventually everyone wandered off, but I walked to the other end of the grave yard and sat down in front of a grave as I finally began to sob.

"Adriana Fitzgerald
1974-2015
Loving wife and mother
You were our star"

I looked at the grave in front of me. All of the other ones surrounding it were covered in flowers, bright and beautiful. But no one visited my mum's. I hadn't even been there since the day I saw her being buried, and my dad wouldn't dare walk there. I ran my finger along the carvings in the writing as I cried.

"I'm so sorry Mum," I choked as I clutched onto the stone, "I did a bad thing."

A/N
im writing this over a year since this chapter came out and i would just like to point out that this Soham case is a very raw and real case, and I am truly sorry for these two girls and their families. Soham is literally only 40 minutes from my house, and when I went to a pantomime (it being a panto where i was going to is very ironic i know) today in Ely (the city right next to Soham) I drove right past it. It's just insane to me how these bad things can be much closer to you than you think, so please be careful out there. Some people are utterly disgusting, and driving through a place even 19 years after an incident that occurred before I was born literally broke my heart.