by Jim Ody
“Did Carl not go to the cottage in the woods?” Will found it hard to believe he wouldn’t if he owned it.
“It was the only thing he agreed not to do. Go back to the house Keith was conceived in.”
Will found it all too much. His mind was working overtime on how he could possibly get out of this alive.
Matilda looked back at him, the gun now pointing at him, and said, “I did it for shock value, and then I couldn’t go back. I had to continue until…” she wiped away some tears. “Until killing them was the only answer.”
Then suddenly Keith made a noise. It was all Will needed, he leapt from his chair and dived at Matilda, knocking her clean off her feet. Fiona jumped up, too, and grabbed the gun. She was hysterical as she pulled the trigger, first into Keith and then as they moved away, she shot at Matilda, catching her in the stomach. The gun just clicked as the bullets had been spent.
Will grabbed Fiona’s hand and they ran up the stairs. But something grabbed his leg. He looked back to see Alice grabbing him. He kicked out with all his force, connecting with her chin. The child fell backwards down the last of the steps and laid still.
Each step hurt, but the adrenaline kept him going. Soon, they ran out of the house, and with Fiona’s help they took the weight off his bad leg and left the house behind them. They weren’t moving as fast as they wanted. Fear gripped them as they moved in their strange way towards the road.
Fiona glanced back every so often, but nobody was there. They continued on with teeth gritted.
“Let’s grab some stuff and get the hell out of here,” Will said.
“Okay, but I’m driving!” Will didn’t have the strength to argue.
Finally, they made it back to the cottage.
As soon as they got up towards the cottage, they could hear the music. They looked at each other but they’d seen worse horrors.
“Stay here,” Fiona said. “I’ll just grab some stuff and we’ll go.”
Will was now sweating. “Okay, just hurry!”
“I will,” she called back.
Ten seconds later she screamed. Will hobbled to the stairs. “Fiona?”
“I’m okay,” she said, and came down the stairs. “There are dead bodies up there…” she said, and she was shaking again.
Then the car turned into the driveway.
The twin beams lit them up, and they held up their hands to shield their eyes.
The car door opened. “Will?” The voice said.
Will couldn’t believe it. She’d found him.
His wife had found him.
“Why Will? And with her!”
Fiona was crying even more. “I’m so sorry,” she cried to her sister.
This was it. Tonight of all nights. Everything was out in the open.
Will’s wife pulled something out of the car. “How long has this been going on for? Be honest now.”
Will held up his hands. After all he’d been through he really didn’t think he’d have to face his wife tonight. He hoped he could wait until he got home to sort this out. How did you tell your wife you’d been sleeping with her sister since before you were even married?
“Does it matter?” he said, gulping. He looked back at Fiona. His wife hadn’t even mentioned that her sister was covered in blood.
His wife stepped forward and Will’s eyes grew large. She was carrying his father’s shotgun.
She looked over at Fiona. “Fi? Why d’you do this to me?”
Fiona just shook her head unable to speak.
Another step closer and without warning Will’s wife raised the shotgun, pointed it at her sister and pulled the trigger. The night lit up with a huge boom and Fiona was shot back into the house.
“No!” Will screamed and turned to look at Fiona laid there with a surprised look on her face, and a huge hole in her stomach. All he could think of was that they’d never have a child together now. His true love was now gone.
He heard the shotgun snap open, and the new cartridges loaded. He looked back just in time to see the muzzle light up the night again. His life ended in a bright boom and a splatter of blood.
*
In cabin number 1, laid in a bed was Keith’s mum. She was forty-nine and would never see fifty. Neglected, and beaten she lay waiting for death to come and take her away from it all. Once a beautiful woman, she’d had it beaten out of her. Bruised and broken, she could barely breathe.
If Keith had come home that night then maybe he would’ve taken pity on her. If he had seen the look of regret in her eyes, then just maybe he would’ve found it in his heart to save her. Even put her into care.
She had been a bad mother to him, and in return he’d found a way to slowly kill her.
Her eyes no longer focused. She had but a dozen breaths left to take before her body gave up.
Her mind wandered as she fell in and out of consciousness. She wanted it to end. If she had the strength, then she’d find a way, but it was no use.
Instead she laid there and waited to die.
Little Miss Evil
Chapter 57
T he shotgun blasts were heard by the neighbours. Three calls came into the local constabulary to raise the alarm.
The police were at a loss. This would be another of those stories they retold years down the line.
“What the Hell went down here?” the first officer on the scene said.
Two holiday-makers were found just inside the doorway of their holiday-rental. Up the stairs, in the main bedroom, a medical student was found slumped on the floor in a pool of blood. His throat had been cut. Above him was the body of a teenage girl. It was hanging from the rafters by her neck.
“It looks like only the two downstairs were staying here,” the second officer said when they’d all been ID’d. “No idea what the connection with the two upstairs is though.”
Then a call came in from the Tall Trees campsite. Two more bodies had been found in one of the cabins. A young lad had noticed them when he happened to look through the windows.
The police also swarmed the camp.
It was the next day that things really became strange. There were a number of missing people who couldn’t be accounted for. With the recent deaths on their minds, a search party was sent out. That was when they discovered the other bodies in multiple locations.
Immediately, they had to call in neighbouring forces and the camp was shut down. Nobody could understand what had gone on.
The owner of the camp, Nicola Royce, was found in one of the old cabins. It looked like she’d been held against her will. Beaten, and in poor health, she’d eventually died. Her son was missing, and became the prime suspect. Especially when his computers were looked at.
The bodies of three teenagers were found in the old house that was still owned by Nicola Royce. One of the bodies belonged to Marshall, the half-brother of Keith. And it later transpired that the headless body of the man in the cabin, was the father of Marshall and Keith.
Then in the old war bunker the body of a highly gifted medical student was found. A contraption of a gun in a box had been the cause of his death. The sketches of the box design were found in Keith’s bedroom.
Finally, the body of an old man was found in the lake house cabin. Roger Draper had made a number of complaints about the Tall Trees camp, and a witness (who wanted to remain anonymous) said a few days earlier, they’d seen Keith and Roger in a heated argument. The witness felt like Keith was threatening Roger.
Carl Royce was the estranged husband of Nicola Royce. He’d fathered Keith, twenty-eight years ago, and then Marshall to another woman eighteen years ago. He finally moved out from the house in the woods thirteen years ago when he fathered a girl called Alice with Marshall’s mother, the enchanting Matilda Monroe.
A few years ago, Alice got sick, and eventually died. Reports suggested that whilst devastated, Carl found solace in a string of affairs.
After the events, Matilda was eventually found in a London hospital recovering from pla
stic surgery. A doctor confirmed she’d been there the day before the murders, and had been there ever since.
Keith was the main suspect, although another teenager, Jenny Donnelly was also missing. Police couldn’t be sure whether they were working together, she was being held against her will, or whether her body would eventually turn up dead. They both remained wanted.
What everybody was sure of was that Tall Tree campsite would close indefinitely, and for that the locals at The Old Oak raised a glass.
No more outsiders!
If only that were true.
Little Miss Evil
Epilogue
M atilda opened up the envelope carefully. She slid out the thick sheaf of documents. Small brightly coloured tabs indicated where her signature was required.
Carefully, she went through each one, read it carefully and signed.
Once finished, she sat back in the rocking chair, and looked out of the attic window. She sipped a glass of sherry and smiled.
“Alice?” she called.
The child came in and looked at her with her vacant eyes. It was a sight so very sad.
“Mama?” The girl said.
“Look out there, Alice. You see the campsite?”
“The bad people?”
Matilda laughed at that and smoothed Alice’s hair. “Yes, my darling, where the bad people were.”
Matilda looked at the papers on the side.
Tall Trees camp it said.
“We own that place now.”
“With the bad people?”
“No, honey. They’re all dead.”
The girl smiled, but she didn’t know what she was smiling at. She sensed her mother was happy, and that was good enough.
“What if there are more bad people, mama?”
Matilda chuckled, and slowly rose to her feet. “Well, my dear Alice―” she turned towards the campsite. The smile fell away from her face as she said, “Then we kill them, too.”
The End
Other Books by Jim Ody
Lost Connections
The Place That Never Existed
A Cold Retreat
Beneath The Whispers
…Just South of Heaven
Noah’s Lament
Mr Watcher
The Revenge of Lisa Lipstick
Mystery Island
Hudson Bell Series:
A Lifetime Ago
Come Back Home
Little Miss Evil
Acknowledgements
A big thank you to my family and friends. Your support is massive and continues to motivate me.
A huge thanks to the members of Jim Ody’s Spooky Circus - my street team, and specifically my group of advisors Simon Leonard, Angela Hill, AJ Griffiths-Jones, Cheryl Elaine, Dee Groocock, Terry Hetherington and Ellie Shepherd who listen to all my crazy ideas and advise me whether or not they are worth pursuing!
I had some wonderful BETA readers for this, so thank you to Dawn Harvey, Sue Foster, Jan Waters, Simon Leonard, Caroline Maston, Sue Scott and Angela Hill.
A special thanks to the wonderful Mel Comley who has given me such great sage-like advice.
Thank you to Caroline, David and Jason for your continued support. Also, to Andy Barrett, Maggie James, Sarah Hardy, Valerie Dickenson, and Kerry Watts who also try to steer me in the right direction. Or try. And also to the continued support from Diana Richie who goes out of her way to share my posts. Thank you.
Thank you to Matt Rayner for your friendship, design and support with Question Mark Press, and for giving me another project!
A special mention to Emmy Ellis @ studioenp for her wonderful design direction. You truly bring my book covers to life! Not to mention being a great author, and a wonderful friend.
And finally thank you to you, the readers. For reading, for enjoying, and for getting behind me. Without you there would really be no point!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jim writes dark psychological/thrillers, Horror and YA books that have endings you won’t see coming, and favours stories packed with wit. He has written over a dozen novels and many more short-stories spanning many genres.
Jim has a very strange sense of humour and is often considered a little odd. When not writing he will be found playing the drums, watching football and eating chocolate. He lives with his long-suffering wife, three beautiful children and two indignant cats in Swindon, Wiltshire UK.
Connect with Jim Ody here:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/JimOdyAuthor
Jim Ody’s Spooky Circus Street Team: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1372500609494122/
Amazon Author Link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jim-Ody/e/B019A6AMSY/
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @Jim_Ody_Author
Instagram: @jimodyauthor
Pintrest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/jimodyauthor/
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/jim-ody
Want to read more books by this author?
Here are details of three more books for you to get your hands on!
A Lifetime Ago (Hudson Bell Book1)
This is a tale about how the events of one day have such catastrophic consequences on the future.
Hudson Bell is a consultant for the police. A former DI, he spends his days helping to find missing children.
May and her son go on a road trip to celebrate his birthday; Robert and Nadia buy their dream house by the sea.
But as each look to enjoy a new life, none of them can shake off what happened on that fateful day. One of them blames the others and will stop at nothing to seek revenge.
One accident and five lives changed forever.
?
Question Mark Press
The Place That Never Existed
For Paul and Debbie it was meant to be the happiest time of their lives.
A small village wedding in front of their family and friends, followed by a quiet honeymoon in Devon. Not everyone had been happy to see them together. A woman from their past refused to accept it. Her actions over the previous year had ended in tragedy, and had almost broken the happy couple apart.
Now, away from it all in a picturesque log cabin, Paul and Debbie look forward to time spent alone together... But she has found out where they are, and she will stop at nothing to make sure that the marriage is over… forever.
But Huntswood Cove isn’t just a beautiful Devonshire fishing town, it has its own secret. Recently, people have begun to disappear, only to turn up dead in suspicious circumstances. The locals begin to question what is going on. Soon everything strange points to the abandoned house in the woods.
The house that nobody wants to talk about. To them, it is the place that never existed.
?
Question Mark Press
Mystery Island
The Island of dark secrets lies close to Maui. Few have ventured there, fewer have returned.
With a map in hand, extreme-sports enthusiasts, Kyle and Donna, descend to the depths of the Pacific Ocean in search of treasure. Will they find it? And will they survive?
Peering eyes are everywhere, lurking and in wait, ready to take back what's theirs.
Some things are better left buried.
?
Question Mark Press
From the spooky mind of M. L. Rayner:
After accepting a generous opportunity to start afresh, Leslie Wills, a young man from Stoke-on-Trent, eagerly begins his long-distance journey to the Scottish Highlands of Elphin, a settled village that sits huddled amongst the dominating mountains. Its people are welcoming, and the beauty of the land is great. But deep within its Highland paths, a location rests hidden from the public’s eye. A location which entices you to learn the truth of its troubled past. But once you bear witness to its sights and sounds, its presences will never allow you to forget.
Uncover the truth, Journeying back to a forgotten time. With a plot full of secrets and suspicion that will leave you longing for answers.
?
Question Mark Press