Chapter 2
After lying in a cold bath for almost three hours, Ed is shivering but can’t move. His personality and life: the terror of the events he has endured during the day has sucked out of him. Staring blankly into space, his mind can only see Toni’s dead body. In the background the haunting sound of the smoothie maker echoes in his mind with the sound of the rotten flesh that was once a beautiful woman, it is more than a sane human can take. The bathroom is filled with darkness, the sound of a dripping tap and the chattering teeth from his shivers are all that can be heard. Ed’s body is covered in goose bumps. When he finally decides to sit up, the coldness from the air penetrates the nerve endings all over his body causing him to jump up quickly and grab a towel to help warm up.
Still dripping with bath water he slowly moves into his bedroom and lies on his bed, facing the ceiling. Toni’s scent still lingers in the room, he knows he needs to pick himself up and fight this but doesn't have the energy. He needs to understand why these people are doing this and who they are. His brain tries hard to think of motives and reasoning behind all this but nothing springs to mind.
After 20 minutes of speculation, Ed comes up with the idea to try to find out who these people are and try to put a stop to things. One thing he knows is that these people are watching him, they obviously know where he lives and they have been contacting him via his mobile. These people are not messing around either, as far as he knows two deaths have been a consequence of this, firstly his beloved Toni and secondly Buster, his mum’s dog, both of who have been maliciously murdered. Toni’s face was smashed up beyond recognition and now, because of him, her body has been completely destroyed under the threat of his mum being murdered.
Ed looks at his watch: the time is now 4am; he doesn’t even attempt to sleep, knowing that wasted time could result in another murder. He stares out of his window, looking to see where these people have been watching from. There’s nothing close enough, suddenly it dawns on him ... they must be in the house!
Dashing into the spare room Ed collects the cricket bat used to smash things up in a moment of uncontrollable rage. He then begins to search the house, starting with upstairs. It’s not a big house, with two double bedrooms and a small box room facing the front. He checks everywhere, under the beds, in cupboards each time with caution ready to destroy anything that looks remotely out of place with the cricket bat.
Once reassured that the upstairs of the house is clear Ed slowly proceeds down the stairs, each step creaking as his twelve stone bodyweight presses down on it. At the bottom of the stairs is the downstairs toilet. He prepares himself, slowly lifting the baseball bat over his right shoulder; quickly ripping open the door, swinging the bat, catching the mirror on the wall and creating an almighty crash, sending splitters of glass across the tiny room. In another moment of madness he smashes the toilet seat, a plastic bin and wooden cabinet on the wall.
Gathering his nerves he then proceeds down the hall into the front room that is connected to the dining room through an archway. There is clearly nobody in there. The dining room however is dark and full of boxes from Toni’s small cosmetics business. Ed hits the lights, there’s movement towards the patio doors at the rear end of the room. Once again lifting the bat over his right shoulder he prepares himself; the adrenaline fills his blood causing him to shake and his mouth goes dry with fear. There’s movement again, whoever this is, is on all fours. Ed charges round the boxes powering the bat through a large dark bulge from behind the curtains. Every strike is with intent to kill as he frantically smashes the bat down as hard as he can.
Taking deep breaths, Ed reaches out a free hand pulling the curtains across. His heart is racing, his breathing becomes heavier, and he looks down to see nothing, he feels around there's nothing there. His phone rings causing him to jump once more. Trying to remain calm, he answers the phone with a consciously careless tone.
‘Edward speaking.’
‘I see your mind is on overtime my friend’
‘Fuck you!’ says Ed.
‘Now now Edward, don’t get ahead of yourself!’
‘Trust me I’m not.’
‘So tell me have you opened the second envelope?’
‘Why don’t you tell me, seem to be keeping a beady eye on me?’
‘Ha ha, you have no idea. Anyway Edward, you have until the afternoon to carry out your next task or... Well, you know the score!’
Swiftly hanging up, Ed places his phone back in his pocket and walks into the kitchen where he left the envelope.
He opens it and instantly reads, “Take the gun and kill a random person, then discard the body. If you don’t carry this out or get caught you know the consequences. Remember, I’ll be watching you.” Ed’s attitude begins to change; killing a stranger shouldn’t be too difficult considering what he’s already been through.
Putting on a pair of black leather gloves, Ed collects the gun from under the stairs and places it down the back of his trousers. Grabs his keys and leaves the house with only one thing in mind, to kill a stranger.
The air is bitterly cold; the sun is only just beginning to rise and the frost on the ground crunches beneath his feet. Constantly looking around Ed reminds himself to be clever and stay focused. He knows he can’t just go up to a random person and shoot them. He needs to catch them off guard and, when the time is right, take their life.
Three streets from his house, near the local shops, there’s a lot more movement going on. One person catches his eye, a short bald man drinking a can of beer. Ed instantly assumes this person won't be missed as he’s walking around in the freezing cold drinking beer at half five on a Sunday morning.
Ed realises that following a person is more difficult that he first thought, especially when they’re drunk and mumbling shit to themselves, shouting in the street and bringing attention to himself. Ed keeps a good hundred yards back to minimise suspicion; the stranger stumbles into a wooded area. Upping the pace Ed follows, taking this prime opportunity to carry out this dreadful task.
The woods feel colder than the street and the stranger is nowhere to be seen. Ed rushes around, looking through the trees into the misty distance. Out of nowhere he feels a tap on his shoulder. He spins round fast, tensed up ready for action to find the stranger standing there with bloodshot eyes and breath that could launch a shuttle.
‘You’re following me!’ his words slurred.
‘What?’
‘I know you’re following me!’
‘What gives you that idea?’
‘I was told!’
‘What? By who?’
‘Never you mind.’ The stranger flings forward head butting Ed straight on the nose causing his eyes to blur; Ed drops to the floor holding his face. Blood pours from his nose making it difficult to breathe. He looks up; as he does, a kick swiftly connects with the side of his head.
‘I’ll teach you to follow me motherfucker!’ Ed falls onto his side, in a panic reaches behind and grabs the gun. Swings round pointing it straight in the stranger’s face, he instantly raises both hands in the air. Ed smirks,
‘We have some talking to do, don’t we?’
‘Please don’t shoot, I’ll tell you everything you need to know.’ Strangely he's now well spoken.
‘You have 30 seconds to give me a good reason not to shoot you!’
‘Ok, ok, take it easy. A man dressed in a black suit approached me; he was tall and well groomed. He told me that I will be followed very shortly and handed me a hundred quid. Said if I get followed I was to hold you down and call this number.’ He handed Ed a white card with a number scribbled on it. Ed takes the white card, places it in his pocket, then with no second thoughts shoots the stranger straight in the face sending him flying to the floor.
Ed stands over him, the life completely evaporated from the stranger with a congealed mess of, flesh, blood and brain matter scattered about four foot from his head. There’s a small bullet hole in the corner of his eye dislodging his left eyeball slightly. Ed p
laces the gun into the left hand of the dead stranger, and then heads out of the wooded area in the opposite direction he entered, disposing of his gloves down a drain as he walks onto the street pathway.
The air is still bitterly cold even though the sun has now risen and lighting up the streets. The traffic is now flowing with a few commuters rushing to work, even on a Sunday Ed wishes that’s where he was heading, wishing his life was normal, but instead he’s briskly walking home with the vision of shooting a stranger in the face, seeing the blood spray from the back of his head and lifelessly dropping to the floor like a sack of potatoes.
As Ed reaches his front gate, once again his mobile phone rings and as before the number is unknown.
‘Edward, you did it! You killed a stranger, as you’ve kept your end of the deal your mum will live.’
‘Whatever, I know you told the man I killed I was going to be following him, what was that all about?’ The caller pauses, Ed can almost hear his mind thinking about what to say next.
‘I don’t know what you mean.’
‘Put it this way, I’m on to you!’ Ed hangs up feeling pleased with himself, feeling a sense of power, Edward Grace is now in control, he smiles and walks back into his house.
***