Chapter 5
Ed awakes, feeling sick. There’s such an intense pain in his jaw that he can't even open his mouth. Breathing heavily, he slowly stands and walks over to the mirror in the hallway. His face is a mess, red, bloodied and swollen. He makes his way up to the bathroom and rinses himself with cold water and throws five painkillers down his neck.
Once he's had a chance to gather his thoughts, he decides to go to accident and emergency, his face is swelling more and the pain is too much to handle.
After a gruelling forty-five minute wait, he gets called in to see the nurse who in turn immediately calls for a doctor. The doctor is a tall dark man, with a look of distracted intelligence clouding him.
'My name is Doctor Mo, how did you receive such injuries?' Dr Mo gently inspects Eds face.
'I fell down the stairs.' Dr Mo squints.
'What is your name?'
'Edward Grace.'
'Listen to me Edward; it is not possible to sustain such injuries from falling down the stairs. However, I'm not here to preach to you I'm here here to help you.' He then turns to the nurse and spouts a load of medical jargon to her. Turning back to Ed he says;
'You will need x-rays Edward and from looking at you, I'm going to admit you, is there anyone you would like me to call?'
'No, there's no one, thank you doctor for your professionalism.'
'Just look after yourself Edward, I will see you soon.' He turns and exits the room.
Edward lays on the hospital bed on a ward of seven others, he stares up at the ceiling. Although in intense pain, he’s appreciating the rest. He thinks about his injuries; concussion, cracked jaw, broken nose and a slight fracture to the front of his skull. This wasn't just a beating, Tyrone tried to kill him and this might be reported to the police.
Like a thousand times before, Toni enters his mind; the fun, happy times they had together, the love making, holidays, even the arguments all bring a smile to his face. Then suddenly followed by guilt, her remains in that horrible bucket in the shed, her mother lying on the floor, dead, in a pool of blood with her face smashed in by a hammer. The prostitute he killed in her apartment for money, Ed hates himself, he's disgusted by what he's done and even though these were forced upon him, he still did them.
Three days later Ed is discharged. He decides to walk home, takes in the fresh air, looks at the sky and appreciates still being alive. People stare as they walk by looking at the bruising on his face, black with shades of greens and purples. Not really caring he just smiles back. He then pulls his mobile from his pocket and drops it down a drain thinking that if they can't get hold of him then there will be no more tasks or deals.
He turns, walks up his road with a nice big grin on his face, feeling pleased with himself strolls into house, spots a bunch of post on the floor, ignores it and walks straight into the kitchen and flicks on the kettle. Whilst it's boiling he looks round the room; Sandy's body is still on the floor, he can smell the rotting flesh and see that it's started to decompose; Toni liked the house warm and kept the heating on all the time.
Sipping his tea, he thinks what to do with the body and decides to chop it up in pieces and liquidise once again. Rather than let the grass grow beneath his feet Ed cracks on, straight to it.
This time he starts with Sandy's head, wasting no time he decides to use the axe. Opening the shed door was a big mistake; the smell is horrific and has him instantly retching, then spewing on the grass. He covers his face with his jumper when his neighbour calls from over the fence.
'Edward, is everything okay, I've noticed a lot of commotion from your place recently?'
'Yes Mick, everything is fine.'
'Ok young chap. well, if you need a hand please holler.'
Mick is a well-respected member of the community; although he's retired he continues to help out charity work, raising all sorts of funds. Ed gets on well with him and often helps Mick with the odd DIY jobs and he’s always keen to return the favour.
Mick retreats back indoors and Ed continues to fetch the axe. This time his face covered with a towel, he darts in, grabs the axe and quickly leaves, slamming the shed door shut.
En route towards the house Mick pops his head over the fence once again.
'Edward, what are you doing with an axe?'
'A friend wants to borrow it.'
'Oh, ok thought you may have been in need of my assistance.'
'Thanks Mick.' eager to get away Ed promptly walks into his house and locks the back door behind him pulling the blind down simultaneously.
Unlike last time Ed wants to be better prepared and try to make less mess and lays a bunch of towels around Sandy's stone cold, grey body. He then wastes no time in raising the axe and slamming it down towards her neck. The thud was loud and vibrated up the wooden handle. He looks down to find he missed the neck and wedged the axe into her face just below her nose; he yanks the blade from her face, making a squelching noise and tries again.
Finally Sandy's body is in bits and Ed begins the grotesque task of placing the parts in the smoothie maker. The smell in the room now is vile. Not a single twinge of regret touches Ed; it's as though he's a different person ... or is it that he's always been a careless, sadistic person and these events just brought it out of him?
Now that the body is pure gloop, Ed comes up with the idea to flush all the remains down the toilet and does exactly that. Carrying the two, filled to the brim, buckets up the stairs spilling the odd drop here and there Ed makes it to the bathroom. He pours the contents down the loo, a little bit at a time, followed by large quantities of bleach and then flushing. Not long after he’s done, and will be doing the same with Toni's remains tonight, once it's dark outside.
Ed cleans up all the mess in the kitchen and throws the towels in a pile ready for a bonfire the following day along with Sandy's and Toni's clothes.
Relaxing on the sofa he puts on the TV, skips through the shit programmes that are on and comes across a face he recognises. It's Sandy's, reported as a missing person, her husband Derek must have notified the police. Then Toni's face appears, causing him to quickly flip channels to block out the information that’s being shared nationally.
Moments after changing the channel he hears a ringing noise coming from the hallway. Ed moves quickly, finding a brown padded envelope on the floor inside the front door. The sound is coming from there; he rips open the envelope and pulls out a mobile phone and charger. He then answers the phone,
'Not a smart move ditching your phone was it now Edward?'
'Whatever, you don't scare me.'
'Ha ha listen little man, I may not scare you now but believe me, this is only the beginning of the nightmare.' The caller hangs up, leaving Ed again questioning why all this is happening. Shit scared, he leans his back against the wall and slides down, staring into space.
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