Underwood (20 page)

‘Yea she also sees old ladies eating apples’ laughed June, ‘mad as a hatter she is love’

Sue slumped back in her chair, took a large sip of wine,

‘I don’t give a fuck’ she said, ‘those woods got ghosts in um’

‘Can you see what I got to put up with’ laughed June as she looked at Peter, he was looking at Sue, into her eyes, even though at that time she was just a drunken old lady, he could see she had troubles,

‘Well I like it here’, he told them,

‘I’s a nice place’ said June,

‘It’s shit’ said Sue.

Peter laughed and got up to go to the toilet, as he washed his hands he was thinking of what to say in order to try and gather some information, what Sue had said about the woods intrigued him, it was like she knew it happened, he wondered whether these two people were the actual link to Underwood, the thing that connects both worlds, that idea appeared to work for him, they had to be the connection.

He went back into the bar to where they were sitting, but the two old ladies were no longer there, he hung on for a few minutes wondering if they had gone to the toilet, but their glasses and empty bottles were gone, he guessed the barmaid had cleared them away, he walked over to the bar and caught the eye of the barmaid who had served him earlier,

‘Those two old ladies I was sat with. Do you know where they went’ he asked her,

The barmaid, looked across to where he was sat then reverted her eyes to Peter,

‘Think you’ve had one too many love, you’ve been sat on your own all night’

Peter opened his mouth to say something but no words come out, he left the pub and sat in his SUV, staring into space, it took him a while to notice the slip of paper that had been put behind his windscreen wiper, he quickly got out of the car, grabbed it and sat back in the driver seat, he unfolded the piece of paper, it read

It was a lovely evening

Just to let you know your family are ok

Tony is looking out for them

Sue and June

His head exploded in a panic, he rammed the car into gear and sped out of the car park, he knew these two ladies lived at Willow drive, he wanted answers and this time he wasn’t going until he had them, he raced to Willow drive with the intention of blowing the whole place open.

He parked outside the house and ran down the garden path, he banged the door with his fist,

‘I know you’re in there’ he shouted’

Moments later the door was answered by a man in his thirties, stood behind him was his wife, Peter tried to barge past him, the man just managed to stop him, they were now stood in the doorway,

‘I know there here I want to talk to them’ Peter screamed, his heart was racing as he tried to push past, the man put both hands round his neck and his wife started kicking Peter in the legs, they pushed him out of the door and Peter fell to the floor, he lay looking up at the two people who just threw him out,

‘Sue and June, I know there in there ‘he cried, ‘I’ve just been drinking with them’

By now neighbours had come out onto the street and were walking towards the fracas,

‘You all right Jamie’ one shouted as he stood at the top of the path, by now six others had joined him’

‘Some idiot looking for some Sue and June’ said the man in the doorway,

‘Do you want him gone’ said the guy who was now walking down the path along with the others,

‘I do’ he replied,

Peter stood up, his legs were hurting from where he had been kicked, and he put his hands up in the air as if to surrender,

‘I’m looking for two old ladies who may have information about my missing family’ he told them,

That soothed the crowd a bit and the mood changed,

‘Why would they be here’ said Jamie the man in the door way,

Peter who still had his hands in the air lowered them, everyone noticed the look of despair on his face,

‘I just, he paused searching for the words, ‘I got the wrong place’ he said with a look of defeat,

He walked to his car, watched by all in the street until he had drove out of sight, when they went back to their own homes.

Peter pulled up when he was out of site, he rubbed his legs and his neck ached where the man had part choked him, he lit a cigarette and opened the car window, ignoring the no smoking sign stuck on the dashboard.

‘I should have known they weren’t there’
he thought, he looked at the piece of paper, he smiled at the words on it,

‘Thankyou girls’ he said out loud and threw his cigarette out of the window.

As he drove he wondered what world he was actually in, he drove out of Underwood, without any problem, and that’s what was bothering him.

The following days were warm and sunny and the people of Underwood went about their normal business, the shops were still fairly well stocked, the pump in the social club still pulled the finest homebrew, and the fields by the centre were still being reaped of the finest cannabis, the body of Steve Duce was bagged and left in the field as some residents built the stage he would be burned on the following Sunday, there would be a big turnout, the story was out that Steve Duce died of natural causes, an unusual way to die in Underwood and for a small moment his death brought a bit of normality back to the town.

Andy Thomas the vicar still went around the town blessing as many people he could, wishing them full life and healthy daughters, knowing that in the coming weeks a new breeding machine can be started by the pretty girl in number 13 Hawthorne, it would soon be his job to select suitable fathers.

Philip Lenan spent most of the days trying to think of new laws, disappointed that the death of the bus driver was natural causes, he wanted a murder charge brought, people were far too well behaved for his liking, he was working on a law to introduce a fighting pit, where those who offer no benefit to the town would fight to the death, the victor choosing the woman of his choice to spend their last days with, it was going to be a spectacle beyond anything he could have imagined, the body’s would be slung in the woods, to feed the devil.

The sheriff Allan Herapath was doing an itinerary of the residents of the town, every home had been searched for the missing Perter Ford, but neither he or a body was found, so it was put down that he was deceased, that the woods had taken him, the sheriff was of course disappointed with this as he had shown great potential, he was just pleased that he had not taken his beautiful daughter with him, it had been arranged the keep a special eye on her, the population of Underwood stood at 243.

Tony griffiths drank a lot of beer, drove the odd person around in his bus and made sure Delyn brown had everything he could possible give her, he spent a lot of the time studying the weather, looking for a storm, cursing the sunshine, he visited Eileen and Lily and their neighbours whenever he could without being suspicious, the two girls had also visited Delyn again, where more promises to each other were made.

With Nathan next door at No.13, Eileen and Lily sat at the kitchen table with a cold drink, it had been a hot day, and they had all come in from the garden as they felt their skin burning, life had taken on a different meaning for Eileen, she had no man in her life now to depend on, she had to put her trust in somebody else, a complete stranger, for all she knew he could have been responsible for Peter going missing, the more she thought about it the more likely it seemed that he had perished, her and Rebecca were growing close and she was valuing her friendship, as were their sons and daughters, but they knew it wouldn’t last long, not with Ivy’s 16
th
birthday coming very soon.

The back door was open letting in what little breeze there was as both girls sipped their cool drinks.

Stuart Hillman the bony toothless faced odd job man had to take on a bit more responsibility since the disappearance of Peter Ford and for that reason alone would have been enough to take what rightly he could claim his own, “no woman belongs to any man” was one rule of this town, so the lady in No.12 was his by rights and as he climbed over the wall of No.12 Hawthorne into the back garden, and with Peter Ford out of the way he only had one thought in his mind,

‘
I’m going to take what is rightly mine to take’
and he thought of all the nice things he could do to her, and maybe the not so nice.

‘What the fuck do you want’ asked Lily at the man who stood by the back door, Eileen got of her chair closely followed by Lily, and Stuart Hillman was stood there in the doorway grinning.

‘I’ve come to give your mother a good servicing’ he laughed as he took hold of Lily by the waist and upended her carrying her up the stairs,

‘I’ll kill her if you stop me ‘ he told Eileen as she followed him, Lily kicked and punched and screamed as much as she could but the man was stronger than he looked and try as she might she could not get free.

Stuart Hillman dropped her into the bath and took the key out of the door and locked it just before Eileen jumped on his back, punching and screaming she pulled at his hair and felt pieces of it come away in her hand, with Eileen still on his back he slammed her into the wall Eileen catching the back of her head on the door frame, momentarily it took the fight from her as she literally fell off his back onto the floor, then the fight all went out of her as she felt a boot into her ribs and as she lay on the landing floor she felt her jeans being pulled from around her waist, she clawed at him with her hands but the fist in her face saw to that as her jeans were off and Stuart Hillman started to take off Eileen’s panties.

‘You’re so going to enjoy this’ he told her.

Lily lowered her legs out of the bathroom window, until she felt the plastic pipe running under the window, she slowly put her weight on it praying that it would hold, but she had to act fast she knew that, she shimmied across the pipe to the down pipe and hurriedly climbed down, straight into the kitchen, with sheer panic in her young confused mind she opened the kitchen drawer and for reasons that she will never really know why, as quiet as a mouse she went up the stairs.

Stuart looked down at the beautiful lady naked from the waist down in front of him, it had been a long time since he had someone so fine, he wanted to hurry it up or it would be over before he started, he let his trousers drop to the floor.

For a millisecond he thought it was a cramping in his neck, until he could feel his neck leaking and his throat fill up with blood and it was still pumping out as he collapsed on top of the beaten Eileen soaking her with his blood as Lily repeatedly stabbed him in the neck, until all her energy had been sapped away from her as she screamed at the carnage that she had just caused, she was now looking at the knife in her own hands as if someone else had put it there, her hands red with blood, her face and clothes splattered with it, Eileen managed to slide herself out from underneath the dead body, her legs and torso saturated in blood as the mother and daughter looked at each other.

‘Mum’ Lily cried as she shook with terror as she collapsed to the floor, looking at the body that lay there, looking at the man she just killed as the carpet soaked up the blood, she let the knife drop to the floor.

Eileen held her as close as she could,

‘It will be ok, ‘she told her.

She knew it never could be, not after this.

Eileen took her daughter into the bathroom, she ran the shower and stripped her daughter off and washed the blood from her, Lily still shaking in a trance like state, still trying to work out what had happened, Eileen then showered herself and she threw the both sets of bloodied cloths into the bath, they grabbed a towel each to cover their nakedness.

‘You need to go and get dressed’ Eileen told her,

‘I don’t want to walk past it mum’ she pleaded,

Eileen held both her shoulders and their eyes met, Lily noticed that her lip had been cut,

‘Just look straight ahead, I’ll follow you, we will both get some clothes then go downstairs’ she shook Lily gently ‘ok’ she asked her

‘Ok’ Lily answered,

They opened the bathroom door, Lily hoping that Stuart Hillman had somehow got up and walked away, but the body was still there, the hacked neck had now stopped spurting blood as it pooled around the body, Eileen wishing now that she had just let Stuart Hillman have his way and saved her daughter from this ordeal, but it was Lily who had saved her, and as they dressed in silence, they both wondered what this place had turned them into.

Neither Eileen or Lily wanted to leave the bedroom, knowing what was lying on the landing, Lily had stopped shaking but neither her or her mother really taking in  what had happened, this town had turned them into killers and the evidence of it was lying the other side of the bedroom door.

Eileen opened the door slowly telling Lily to hold on to her and not to look at the floor, they did this successfully until they turned to the top of the stairs when both of the girls had frozen in fear, in front of them, just two steps from the top and looking at the very bloodied body of Stuart Hillman, was Andy Thomas, the vicar of Underwood, or as he would call himself the god of the town, he reached the top of the stairs as the two girls stepped back onto the landing, trembling with fear, Lily bit her lip and tasted her own blood, Eileen tried to shuffle her daughter behind her as if pretending she wasn’t there.

The vicars eyes went back and forth to the body and then to the mother and daughter,

‘Well,’ he simply said,

Lily started mumbling something but Eileen put her hand over her mouth and then took one step forward and looked the vicar in the eye.

‘He tried to rape my daughter,’ she told him, ‘you know the rules, she’s not quite 15,’

The vicar raised his eyebrows,

‘He locked me in the bathroom, I had to climb down, he had her naked by the time I got to him,’ she sounded assured confident, she just hoped she would be believed, the vicar pushed Eileen aside and glanced at Lily,

‘Did he have his way’ his eyes were cold, his words piercing,

‘No,’ Lily stuttered, ‘my mum caught him before he could’

The vicar bent down beside the body as if to examine it, the two girls just watched, within a minute he was stood back up,

‘Do you not think stabbing him once would have been ample,’ he asked, Eileen stuttered her words out,

‘He wouldn’t let go of her and I just panicked, I didn’t mean to kill him,’

Andy Thomas grinned, he was a man of god, and the bible said an eye for an eye, but this was not representative of his bible, he clicked on his walkie talkie, Lily and Eileen recognised the name he was speaking to.

The vicar closed down his radio, he grabbed Eileen by the wrist, she screamed at him to let her go, Lily started punching the vicar in the arm that held her mothers, all the time the vicar was laughing,

‘I’m arresting you for murder’ he laughed.

The only prison cell in Underwood was occupied once more, Eileen was taken there by the two deputy’s, neither deputy wanted to do it and Sandra promised to help her in any way that she could.

Eileen was mostly concerned for her children rather than herself, being locked up in a cell left them vulnerable, she just hoped that the people that she had met would look after them, the reliable Craig brought food and drink for her and as she sat on the floor of her cell, not wanting to sit on the filthy mattress she wondered how some people could be so caring in a place that was full of evil.