It was Daniel’s idea to tell scary stories.
The house warming party had died off, and there was only 4 of us left sitting around the lounge.
I rolled my eyes, wanting to declare that we weren’t 12 years old anymore, but his new girlfriend, Bethany, perked right up at his idea.
“Oh, yes please, I’ll go first. I’ve got a great one that I’ve never told before, it’s about this woman called Deborah.”
-–
It had been a mistake, as far as Deborah was concerned, for her family to move here. Things were meant to get better, that’s what Dennis had said as he’d packed suitcases. Things hadn’t gotten better, they had gotten worse, and now Dennis was refusing to talk about it all.
“You okay, Deb?” Marie Fishers voice broke her thoughts apart, nudged her into her current reality, folding shirts and putting dresses on thick wire hangers. “You seem a world away.”
It was hard for Deborah to force a smile, but she did so, and even managed to utter that she was fine, just thinking about the pile of washing she had herself at home to fold and put away.
This answer seemed to please Marie, as Deborah knew it would. It was of course what Marie was thinking about herself, and she nodded feverently, a smile on her face. “Never ends, that’s for sure. I know my Harry won’t have lifted a finger to help. He’s never been one to..”
Deborah half listened, glad for the distraction but too tired to be bothered actually paying attention. She mmhmm’d in the right places and every so often gave a knowing laugh at Marie’s good natured rant and before she knew it, Marie was turning the stores lights off and announcing that it was ‘time to get out of here, and back to our own washing!’
It had rained during the afternoon, and the ground was still wet and glistening as Deborah made her way to her station wagon, praying the thing would start without fail this time. She meant to call a mechanic on her lunch break, but she had instead spent it on the phone to the school. Her daughter again had not shown up to her classes. The principal was requesting a meeting with her and Dennis. Deborah wanted to be angry at her daughter, she was 16 after all, and though the move hadn’t been easy on her, she was old enough to know better. Didn’t Deborah have enough to do without chasing up a teenager who should be doing the right thing without needing to be told?
It wasn’t fair to be mad with daisy, and she knew it would get her nowhere anyway. Her daughter, at the first sign of impending trouble, would clam up and that would be that. No, she needed to be smart about it all, make the time to talk to her, sit down and talk properly. It had been such a long time since they had done that, just mother and daughter. They had gone on girls days out when daisy was growing up, doing everything together from nails and face masks at the beauty palour to rom coms and snacks at the cinema. They would catch a train into the city and choose their destination when they walked across it. Now they lived where there were no trains, no city to explore. Daisy had grown out of nails and pedis with her mother years before, so they’d upgraded to high teas and spa days. But that didn’t mean they couldn’t find new things to do, in this new place there were mountains, hills, they could explore the outdoors. Maybe Deborah could convince Dennis to come too, maybe they could actually be a family again. Maybe, just maybe, it would be okay here.
-
The house was dark when Deborah pulled into the driveway.
She felt a surge of irritation, a pang of annoyance.
Even though it had been a fickle hope, Deborah had wished that Dennis would be welcoming her home with a nice meal, a glass of red.. An apology, for their argument this morning, or maybe, just maybe..for no other reason than he was unemployed and home all the time at the moment with nothing else to do, while she was the one with the full time job.
He had applied for a lot of jobs, or so he said, but he was yet to even go to an interview, much less recieve a job offer.
Still, Deborah didn’t mind being the one to provide, she loved her family.
It just irked her that she was the one that had to do absolutely everything!
But, according to her new work colleague Marie, it was just how it was.
-
She sat in the station wagon, any hopes of a nice and relaxing evening dashed and her anger simmering, as she pictured the scene that awaited her inside.
Dennis most likely would be stuck on the computer playing cards and passing it off as ‘working on his novel’. Or maybe he was passed out drunk. Since the move, he’d taken to starting his beers earlier and earlier throughout the day.
She sighed at the thought of the conversation about skipping school that would eventuate into a screaming match with Daisy, no doubt.
If the girl was even home, which did not seem likely, she had that teenage habit of turning every single light on in the house, and leaving them on, even if it was daylight.. It was most likely that Daisy was out with that older guy she’d recently started dating.
Deborah and Dennis had done their best to discourage her, well it was mostly Deborah doing the discipline, as Daisy was quite the daddy’s girl, meaning Dennis basically let her get away with whatever she wanted.
Deborah thought for a moment about driving back out, going somewhere far away from there. She imagined leaving them both to their own devices for the night and seeing how apologetic they were when they realised she didn’t come home, that she could possibly be in an accident, laying hurt somewhere while they were too busy with their own lives.. Maybe they’d notice and care about her then.
But she wasn’t a horrible person.
As much as they irritated her, Deborah loved her husband, and she loved her daughter.
-
As she suspected, their was no sign of her daughter anywhere.
Her room yielded no information as to where she could be, she hadn’t even bothered to hang up her clothing, there were bras and jeans scattered all around the room, much less had her technology loving daughter began writing a journal that she was just going to leave laying around for her mother to find.
Defeated, Deborah made her way to the study, where she could see a blue light gleaming from under the door.
“Dennis? I’m home.” she entered the room, speaking loudly as she knew he didn’t hear much when he had his headphones on.
He was leaning forward close to the screen, which was flashing an array of colours. He made a grunt in response and Deborah had to fight back the urge to shove him off the damn computer.
“I’ll make something for dinner.. Are you hungry?” Deborah spoke sweetly, but inside she was still seething.
Dennis again grunted in reply, not giving a yes or no answer and not even having the decency to turn around and engage in actual conversation with his wife.
Deborah turned and left the room, slamming the door behind her.
He was so rude these days, absolutely no consideration for her. She had wanted to continue with their discussion from earlier that morning, see if they could see eye to eye about things for once, but she knew if she stayed in that room with him for another minute, she wouldn’t be able to not lash back at him.
-
Deborah woke with a start.
Groaning, she rolled over to check the time on her bedside alarm clock. 8.30am flashed in red, making her confused. It didn’t make sense. She looked over to Dennis’ side of the bed, which was empty and seemed unslept in given his doona was still tucked in.
She never set her own alarm, always getting up when Dennis’s alarm rang at 6am. She would make the coffees, shower, get breakfast ready for Daisy, and be out the door by 7.15
Deborah pulled on her dressing gown, thoughts racing through her head as she exited the bedroom and towards Dennis’s study, in search of her husband.
Obviously he had stayed up all night on the computer, but he could have had the decency to set her alarm or let her know he wasn’t going to be coming to bed.
Deborah threw open the door, not even bothering to knock. She expected to see Dennis sleeping on the small sofa, or perhaps even the computer chair if he’d been that tired, but he was nowhere to be seen.
Not seeing Dennis where he should be, that sent Deborah into a bit of a panic.
Even if he hasn’t fallen asleep, he would still be here, in that room, watching a game.
Dennis was a huge sports fan, and international games always began early, so he would get up every day at 6 to watch whatever game was on that morning.
Deborah went to Daisy’s room, again not bothering to knock. Not that it really mattered, as there was no one in there either.
Daisy’s school bag sat atop her t-shirt laden desk, her school dress and shoes scrunched together on the floor.
Not seeing Daisy, and seeing her school things didn’t send Deborah into much worry, as it truly wasn’t unusual. Her daughter had been skipping school since they’d moved here, preferring to spend time with that man she considered the ‘love of her life’.
In the kitchen, another empty room greeted her, bearing no signs of use by anyone.
No dirty coffee mugs, no crumbs from Toast being made.
Deborahs own dishes from the pasta she made the night before sat piled in the sink, the same spot she had left them.
The phone ringing brought her back to reality.
-
“Ohh it’s fine! No, I was just calling to see how your night went? I didn’t expect you to be coming in until after lunch, anyway.”
Deborah didn’t know what to say.
She had just explained to Marie, her new work colleague that she had inexplicably slept in, and she would be right over.
She hadn’t gone into detail about her possibly missing husband, or delinquent daughter, Deborah needed time to wrap her head around those things before talking to anyone else about it.
“My.. Night?” Deborah squeaked in response. Nothing Marie was saying made any sense, the last time they’d spoke, they both said they were going home to do their own laundry.. Nothing to call up about the next day and ask how it went?..
“Oh don’t be so coy, I know I’m old enough to be your mother, but honestly, I’m intrigued to know how your date went? Was he really the Romeo he was portraying himself to be?
Deborah nearly laughed out loud then, a date?! Now she knew that Marie must have lost her mind.
She opened her mouth to tell Marie that, of course there had been no Romeo date, she was a married woman after all, but before she could speak, a figure appeared at the bottom of the staircase.
A man, with a towel wrapped around him. His hair is long, down to his shoulders. His body chiseled and gleaming.
“Oh dang, I’ve got a customer. Look, fill me in when you get here later, okay?”
The line went dead, but Deborah still did not put down the phone. She stood, in awe, of the man infront of her.
Even though he looked much different, older, wiser, softer, handsome.. Deborah recognized the Grey blue eyes of the man her daughter had been seeing, the bad influence.
“Please, don’t speak. Sit.” the man’s voice was commanding yet gentle, and he moved into the kitchen, closer to her, pulled out a chair so she could sit.
She did as he asked without much thought, and although there were so many questions aching to be asked, like where was her husband, where was her daughter? Who are you? Deborah sat silent, waiting for the man to continue.
“You know me, but you don’t really. You think I am the same man that was romantically involved with your daughter. I am, but I also am not. It would be pointless and too much to explain all of this to you, the differences between us. I am me, but I am others as well. There is no 1,there is only us. That’s all you need to know.”
Deborah nodded, as if this made perfect sense to her. And even though she wouldn’t of been able to explain it if asked, it did make sense to her. She understood what he was saying.
“I watched. To learn. And then when I was learning, I noticed.” the man pulls his own chair, and sat to face Deborah, a sad smile on his handsome features. “You love your family. They don’t love you. I have.. Been the same as you, before. No one helped me. I wanted to help you.”
Deborah felt tears sliding down her cheeks. She did love her family.
“They weren’t that bad, please, I know we had things to work on, but my daughter.. She’s only a teenager and she doesn’t realise..”
The man waved a hand as if to silence Deborah, which it does. She felt defeated, how could she have let this happen.
“Daisy.” the man spoke her name with disgust, “She was your daughter, yes. And she was also planning your murder.”
Seeing the shock on Deborah’s face, the man continued, “the older boyfriend, the me but not, she was trying to entice him/us to kill you. She knew her father would let her do whatever she wanted, she knew you had a big life insurance policy.”
Sobs wrack Deborah’s body, she pictured her daughter, sweet baby Daisy taking her first steps, saying her first words.. How could this be true?
“And that hubby of yours.. Dennis the menace. Yes, he was quite the menace that man. You believed he was spending hours upon hours working on a so called novel? Hmm? No, I don’t belive you did, Deborah.
You probably thought he was cheating, right? Didn’t want to admit to yourself there was another woman? Well, dear Dennis wasn’t doing the dirty on you, that’s one thing for sure.”
Deborah doesn’t find relief in knowing Dennis hadn’t been cheating. The news about Daisy had shook her to her core, there were no emotions left in her to feel anything.
Or so she thought, until he spoke again.
“Dennis wasn’t a cheater, Deborah, he wasn’t spending that time on dating chat rooms. On chats of another kind, yes. Have you heard of the black market, Deborah? That’s where Dennis was spending all of his time. In fact, that’s why you had to move here in the first place.”
Debroah stared at the man in horror and confusion. She didn’t know much about the black market, only knew that it was a bad place.. With bad people on it. And as for moving, Dennis had wanted to relocate because he had a better job opportunity out here, although that had fallen through just as they’d got the keys to the new place.
“What.. What was Dennis doing? I don’t understand..”
The man frowned and shook his head. “You don’t want to understand, Debroah. It’s better, for you, that way. All I’ll say is, did you notice that before you moved, your town had one of the highest averages of child missing persons cases? Hmm? Or that since you’ve moved here, in 3 months there have been 2 children that have disappeared from this very town. I’m not sure how good your Maths is, Debroah. But I will allow you to put two plus two together.”
-
Marie was beaming when Debroah arrived at work.
“So sorry I’m late, car troubles.” it was a lie but only because it was habit to say as an excuse as to why she was late to her shift, and because yesterday it had been true. Her car was running like shit, but today, it was fine, better than ever.
“Oh dear, call Phil the mechanic if you have any more troubles with it. Or maybe that handsome new man might be able to pop the hood..” she howled with laughter, and Debroah couldn’t help but join in.
“It was a.. Unique night, that’s for sure. I learnt a lot about myself, actually. And one of those things was that I just don’t think I’m ready for a man. Yes the company was lovely.. But, imagine being stuck doing someone else’s washing every night? I just don’t think I’m ready for a commitment yet.”
“Oh I don’t need to imagine, that’s my life story! Harry doesn’t ever lift a finger to help, it’s always me!”
Debroah gave her an empathic smile, fighting the urge to say she knew how that felt.
Because she didn’t, not anymore.
-–
Bethany finishes the story with a happy smile on her face.
We all sit in silence for a moment, not sure what to make of what we’ve just listened to.
It was Claire who spoke first, her voice a little slurry from the wine she consumed earlier, but her mind was still switched sort of on.
“So, the man like.. Killed that Dennis dude and the kid? What was he, some kind of monster or something?”
Now it was Bethany’s turn to frown. “He wasn’t a monster, not at all. If you stop someone bad from doing bad things, does that make you a monster? And I don’t belive he killed them..it was more a case of making it as if they had never even existed in the first place.” with that, Bethany gave a deep yawn. “Well, anyways guys I better get going I didn’t realise it was getting so late. Thanks for a great party, Sam. It was great to meet you all.”
We all waved Bethany goodbye and Daniel walked her down to her car to see her off safely. Claire murmured her own goodnight before laying down on my couch, doona wrapped snuggly around her.
I went to my own room, still neat and tidy from unpacking.
As I pulled my curtains shut and climbed into bed, I tried to close my eyes but the imagine kept replaying over and over, how when thanking me for the party Bethany’s eyes had gone from chocolate brown to a blue Grey.
I wondered if I should burn my hard-drive, I wondered if I should stop the live stream of the people tied up in my storage shed.
I wondered if it was already too late for me.