Leticia

World Castle Publishing

Pensacola, Florida

Copyright ©
Lindsay Anne Kendal
2012

ISBN: 9781937593
926

First Edition World Castle Publishing February
20
, 2012

http://www.worldcastlepublishing.com

License Notes

This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you respecting the hard work of this author.

Cover Art:
Lindsay Anne Kendal

Photo: Shutterstock.com

Editor:
Beth Price

For my mum, Trish, thank you

for all your support
and listening to me

constantly going on about my stories.

I love you
.

I’d like to say thanks to Jay for

always taking me to Saddleworth Moors

where this story is set.

In loving memory of Frances Moloney, who

k
new
this book was being written, but
sadly

n
ever
got to see it finished.

Around midnight, 2
nd
March 200
1
.

A haze... no, wait...what... what is that? A bed? Where am I? Why
won’t my eyes focus
properly? I tried to move but felt as though all my energy had been sucked out of me. I lay still for a while, waiting for my vision to clear.
T
he nerve endings throug
h
out my body start
ed
to tingle, the same feeling you get after lying on your arm too long. It was slightly painful to move, but
eventually
I managed to drag myself to my feet with the aid of the bed post. I looked around the room and saw what an awful mess it was in, furniture broken, the TV smashed,
shard
s of glass all over the floor
.
However
, that was the least of my worries.

I slowly made my way into the bathroom and stood in front of the large mirror. As soon as I saw my refection
, sorrow and anger filled me
. I must have been attacked
;
there were cuts and bruises all over me,
and yet, I couldn’t remember anything
.
M
aybe I had a concussion.
There was
dried blood in my hair from a wound just above my forehead
.
If
the blood had had time to dry, then I must have been out
cold
for quite a while. I turned the shower on and
washed
all the blood
from
my skin and hair. It was a power shower, so the water beating against
my body
seemed to relieve some of the aches and pains
that had now started.

I dried my hair, dressed in something comfortable and threw all my clothes into my suit case. I went into the bathroom for my toiletries and briefly looked into the mirror again. ‘
Time to move on
’
,
I said to myself
,
‘
again
’. I threw my case onto the back seat of the car, started the engine and floored it out of the hotel
parking lot
. One thing was
certain
, I had to leave Colchester.

Nine years later.

The
faint beeping of my radio alarm clock slowly became louder. I opened my eyes, reached over and clicked it off, then lay back thinking about
my
clients booked in for today
;
what nail treatments and designs each one was having done. I begrudgingly dragged myself out of my bed and walked to the bathroom feeling a bit groggy and lethargic. I had a nice shower, brushed my teeth
,
then peered at myself in the mirror for a moment. My eyes looked unusually dark today, a deep brown instead of the normal hazel. I grabbed my brush and pulled it through my long, slightly curly, dark brown hair. Now it was time to get dressed and head out for my first appointment.

My first client, Mrs Denny, seventy-two years of age, but in the head, not a day over twenty-one. Always full of life and energy. Every time
I come to
her house she give
s
me a big
loveable hug, a lovely cup
of tea
and some of her life story
;
and what a colourful life she has led. I could sit and talk to that lady all
day;
I probably
would
do if I didn’t have to work.

The second client,
Miss
Marion Wilson, a pleasure as always. Oh how she droned on about all that’s going wrong in the world. By the time
her appointment is over,
I feel like I should be going to the doctor to get a prescription for Proz
ac. But she’s a harmless woman,
young, single and no children. Without sounding awful,
people can
kinda understand why she
is
on her own. Before
leaving
she always says the same sentence to me ‘
Now you take care
,
Leticia, and be on your guard, there are some nasty people walking these streets’
. If only she knew how well, when needed, I could take care of myself. When I walked out of Miss Wilson’s house my stomach
started to
rumble, it was definitely time for breakfast.

While
making my
way to my car, I had a sudden feeling that
someone
was watching
me;
I could feel thei
r eyes on the back of my head.
There was nobody around
so I disregarded it, got into my car and drove into town. I pulled into the small
parking lot
next to my
favorite
little sandwich
shop;
they do the best egg and sausage
sandwich
in the whole of Holmfirth.

On my way out of the shop
and after taking a
bite out of my
sandwich
, I
looked around at the other people going about their own business. I saw a middle aged man, well dressed in a suit reading his morning paper on a bus stop seat, coffee by his side. He looked like a
real gentleman. To my left was
a young mother with her son at the traffic light waiting to cross the road. I smiled sli
ghtly, watching
the young boy pressing frantically on the button at the crossing.

Directly across the road from
me
were two men in their early twenties
,
each
smoking a cigarette
.
One
seemed to be glaring at me, I stared back for a moment trying to work out
whether I knew him or not, but
couldn’t recall seeing his face before.
I looked at the man beside him
but didn’t
recognize
him
either, however, unlike the
other;
he seemed to be going out of his way to avoid making any eye contact with me. I started to feel a little un-easy. I walked
rather quickly
to my car. I
got inside and finished my breakfast, before heading to my next
customer’s
house.

Luckily
,
the afternoon visits went rather fast.
For some reason
I really wasn’t in the mood to be sociable today
,
which
i
sn’t me really – not any more.
When I walked through my own front door and shut it behind me
I felt relieved. Safe. Some
thing about those two men
before bugged me and I still felt a little on edge.  It was now
after
six, so I had a quick bite to eat, changed into my comfy clothes and flopped in front of the TV. There wasn’t much on, so I decided to
surf
a few of the jewellery channels.

A sudden bright flash of light made me jump, and then the thunder started. It made sense
really;
it had been a really muggy day, so we needed it to clear the air a little. I loved the thunder and lightning, so I turned the TV and light off
and
watched the storm
. It was quite a severe one too, thunder roared every few seconds, fork lightning struck the ground. This was one of the perks of living in the middle of nowhere, just on the outskirts of Greenfield, in the
Pennines;
I had no
neighbors
for at
least
a mile which meant no houses to block my view
.
All
that surrounded
me was grassland and a few trees to the rear of the house.

As I was looking at the amazing array of lightening, I got a buzz of excitement within me
, like
butterflies because of the sudden change in weather. That was until I saw a flash of lightning and a full upper torso silhouette of a person through the window. I was startled for a split second, as any normal person would be. I snapped out of it with the
worried
feeling that I may be about to be
robbed
, beaten up
,
or worse. My adrenaline started to flow, I tried to remain as calm as
possible
, I co
uldn’t risk getting too worried
I
’
d change and my secret would come out.

I ran into the kitchen
and
pulled the longest carving knife
out of the draw
er
, then turned and stared out of the kitchen window for a minute or so, looking all around. The rain was bouncing off the win
dow ledge at least an inch,
the apple tree’s branches
were
blowing heavily in the wind, but nobody was there. I turned and faced the kitchen door that
led
into the back garden
, then
do
uble checked that it was locked.
I pushed the top and bottom bolts over too for extra security
before quickly making
my way to the front door
. After
pu
t
t
ing
on all of the locks
I
checked every window in the house. I felt safer
now
and went back
to
the sofa
, putting the knife next to me on the side table. I sat back and closed my eyes
,
“
Do
your best to get in here, but if you do, god help you
!
”
I thought to myself
.