The Fenton Saga: Never Say Goodbye / There Was No Body.

by Colin Griffiths

  Daniel was by far the biggest pupil in both his year and the year above him. He had natural muscle and strength and an amazing ability with numbers. He loved maths and sport. Nothing else in school interested him. If he could have had maths every lesson, he would. He would miss other lessons and get in trouble over it, but he didn't care. Give him numbers or a ball and he was happy.

  Todd finished school at three pm and walked the short distance home. Daniel’s school day went on for thirty minutes longer and, as the bell went, Daniel walked out of the school for the ten minute walk home. Most of the pupils lived on the estate, so there was no real big school run, particularly on a hot day like today. Very few cars were there, waiting for the children. Pupils scattered in different directions as they walked home. Daniel waved goodbye to some friends and began to walk home. He hadn’t got far when he saw a young girl of about twelve. Daniel had never seen her before, but she was distressed and crying. He crossed the road to her, asking her what was wrong. She told him that her dog had fallen into the brook which ran alongside the village and she couldn’t get him out. Daniel asked her to show him where, they both ran together towards the brook. After about five minutes, the girl stopped. They were approaching the brook which ran at the bottom of a tree laden field.

  ‘He's just over there.’ she pointed, ‘just behind the trees.’ Daniel ran on thinking the girl was behind him, but her job was done. All she had to do was wait where she had been told to, her father would pick her up. Daniel reached the brook and turned to the girl to ask where, then he realised she was gone. There was no girl behind him, just two men dressed in black. They looked like soldiers, but were unlike any soldiers Daniel had ever seen. He noticed one was on his radio. Daniel hoped they did not have guns, though he suspected that they did. Who was that girl? Why had she set him up? The first soldier raised his hands in a gesture that said they were not going to hurt him. Daniel stepped back. He had nowhere to run. The brook was behind him. He would have to fight.

  ‘We are not going to hurt you Daniel. We are here to protect you. We are on your side.’

  The two soldiers made no attempt to grab Daniel. They knew he had nowhere to run.

  ‘What you on about? What side?’

  ‘It’s about your brother. We need to talk to you. You have to get him to stop.’

  Chapter 39

  As Carol got up to answer the door, Daniel thought back to ten years ago, where, as a thirteen year old boy, he had been told that his brother was in great danger if he continued to use his powers. The men had told him that there were people out there, who would use Todd, use his powers. At that time, Daniel didn’t fully understand it. Now he knew that those powers he and his brother held could be used for other purposes. A new weapon. A new research and development programme. If the brothers continued to use their powers, then their only protection would be isolation. There were people out there who would be watching them. He had been told that once they stopped using their powers, then eventually they would disappear, or become harder to use and develop them. It was called ‘parking’ and if you parked them, just like an old car left to rot, they would rust and no longer work. He had been told that he didn’t need to know any more.

  He did what was asked, explaining to Todd as much as he was able to someone so young and he had been successful. His power, or gift, had all but gone. Todd’s had been more difficult to park, no matter how hard they had tried.

  Both brothers now felt like they had unleashed a new chemical weapon on the Town of Ashbourne. They were frightened, not only for trying to get Wendy back. They were frightened of the consequences, the hornet’s nest that they opened would change their lives forever.

  Chapter 40

  Marie Rose woke in a field, shivering and wet. For one moment she thought it had all been a dream, but she could remember it vividly. She could feel the grass beneath her. It was wet. Her clothes were wet. She thought she was in her garden, but as her eyes grew accustomed to the dark, she could see she was in a field.

  She stood up, more to get out of the damp grass than anything else. She had no idea how she had got here. She remembered being taken away by a storm, but that was it. Nothing more. Just waking up in a damp field. She had no idea where she was, but she guessed it wasn’t anywhere near home, because if it was, it must have been a strange way to get her wherever she was. She had a feeling, deep inside, which she couldn’t quite explain, yet it felt like this was the moment she had been waiting for. She had a feeling that she was going to meet her grandsons. After all, weren’t they the ones who had brought her here?

  She could see some lights on, not many, but just over the field she could see there was a housing estate. She brushed herself down, although it had appeared that she had been through one hell of a night, despite being cold and damp, she felt good. She found herself walking. She couldn't really remember putting her feet in gear, yet she knew where they were taking her. She had to find the house, but there was so many. This one will stand out from the rest, she thought or what would be the point. Ten minutes later, she stood outside a council house which appeared to have a big hole in the roof. It also looked as if there had been one hell of a party in the street. She just stared at the front door, from the top of the path. She was scared, although she didn’t really know why. Being scared was not normally part of her make-up. I should be rejoicing, she thought, but she had a feeling it wasn’t going to be all fun. She hoped it would be what she wanted to see in the house, but she wasn’t sure. Nothing made sense about today.

  She doubted herself, her reasons for being here. She wanted to turn round and just go. She wasn’t cut out for this anymore. Her hand shook as she rang the doorbell without realising she had done so. It was as if something or someone else was operating her hand. Her heart was in her mouth. Through the glass, she could see a figure she hoped she would recognise, coming to the door. She shivered and wanted to cry, as the door was opened, she wanted to hug the woman standing there.

  ‘I thought it might be you. Come on in.’ said Carol, as she saw Marie Rose standing on the threshold.

  They hugged, holding on as if they had just found a long-lost loved one, for the first time in many years. To Marie Rose that’s exactly how it felt. Then a feeling came over both of them, engulfing them in a moment of solidarity. That was when they both realised why they were together. Carol led her to the living room where Daniel, Todd and Becky were sitting wondering who was calling. Carol opened the door with Marie Rose beside her. She will never understand why or how she said what she did.

  ‘It’s time you met your Grandmother.’ she said, to the boys. It was only at that precise moment when the lounge door was opened that Marie Rose realised that Bill Fenton was her evil son, who used to laugh at her, while her husband beat her. Why she hadn’t realised that before she had no idea. She thought back to the time in Blackpool when Carol was brought to her by the man she was with, the man she did not like. The man who put fear in her bones was her son. There was a bond after all. She had come to meet her grandchildren, who had been fathered by the most evil man she had ever known.

  Everyone spoke at once for a moment, then the two boys looked in astonishment at the lady. When the chaos had calmed down Marie Rose sat and told them how it was. She told them about her life from the beatings given by her husband, the son who seemed to enjoy watching them. How she had escaped one night and never went back. How she regretted leaving her son, although they were two of a kind, she told them, evil to the core.

  ‘They would have killed me. I had to leave.’

  She told them about her second husband and how he died. She told them how she saw his death and did nothing to stop it, because she couldn’t stop it. How it had hurt her. She explained about her gift, a gift which only rarely happened, how she used to con those that visited her. She went into great detail about her life, the beatings, the husbands, the son that she loathed. As they all sat and listened, no one spoke. They just listened, taking it all in, just another
part of a crazy day. She told them how she had met Carol, and the visions she had, also how real it had all seemed. How all her life since that time, she had thought about the boys. She knew they were special, and only now she realised why. They were her own flesh and blood. She had missed out on their lives, which was her biggest and probably only regret. She told them she wanted to know all about them, their lives, their choices, their likes and dislikes. She needed the missing years filling in and hoped they would accept her as their grandmother. She would try to be the grandmother she had always wanted to be, but that would have to wait, as they had work to do.

  The sun was rising, but the skies were grey and spitting with rain, blocking out any glare which the sun could have given. The conversation was still flowing, when there was a knock on the door.

  ***

  James McCarthy couldn’t remember driving there. He wasn’t sure he really had, there was no way he could have got there in such a short time. At this moment he was sitting in his seven-seater SUV, outside a house with a hole in the roof. Rain was spitting outside. Everything was very confusing. He should have had a surgery this morning, but he was hundreds of miles away. He would have to phone in sick. Until this moment, strangely, he had been feeling very tired, the hours really getting to him. He had felt drained, but as he sat in his car he felt rejuvenated, felt like a new man. He thought about what had happened a few hours ago. How he had thought he was about to die and how good that had felt, because he thought he was about to meet his Elsie and that had felt good. He would never again be scared of dying. In fact, he would embrace it.

  He told his wife that he loved her, then he got out of his car and knocked on the door with no reason to be there, except that it felt right. It was where he needed to be and he was feeling good. Perhaps when this was over, he could just rest in peace with Elsie by his side. Oh yes he felt good, he felt really good.

  ‘Did anyone call a doctor?’ he said as a beautiful woman in her early forties answered the door.

  They looked at each other. There was no recognition there.

  Was this the right house? Was this all a mistake?

  ‘No, but you’d better come in anyway.’ said Carol.

  As she had done with Marie Rose she took him to the others in the living room. The others were more expectant this time and weren’t surprised to see the large man walk through the door.

  It had been fifty eight years since Marie Rose had seen her cousin. To be honest, she didn’t know if he was still alive, but childhood memories came flooding back as she hugged him. James gave them the story of the storm dousing the fire in his house, then lifting him to safety, a story which Todd knew only too well.

  James spoke for ten minutes about his life, about how he sensed death. No one interrupted. Then Carol told James about Wendy Cross and how Todd had gone flying through the roof.

  ‘So you are related?’ Todd asked

  ‘I suppose I am.’

  ‘Fucking hell! A Grandmother and her cousin. I wonder what’s next.’

  He looked at his mother, by way of an apology for the language. She waved it away as if to say it didn’t matter and it didn’t. There’s going to be a lot more than bad language before we’re finished, she thought.

  ‘Why am I here? What part do I play in this?’

  Daniel stood, gave James McCarthy a hug. ‘You’re a doctor and you have a gift. That’s why you’re here.’ and Daniel explained about Wendy Cross.

  ‘It seems as though my family is cursed with gifts.’ said Daniel.

  He didn’t like what was happening.

  ‘We should just call the police, before we get ourselves killed.’ He added.

  He was thinking about the two men ten years ago. The ones who had told them that if they showed their gifts they could be in great danger.

  ‘If you think I've just done all that, so you can call the police, Daniel,’ said Todd, ‘you have got another thing coming. You know more than anyone what we have just done.’

  ‘And what is it you have actually done?’ cried Carol who was now in tears.

  ‘We have become accessible, Mum, that’s all.’ The two boys hugged their mother. They knew it was too late to go back.

  ‘So what happens now?’ The doctor asked, after listening attentively to Daniel’s explanation. They were all sitting now. Becky and Daniel sat on the floor. Daniel had told them all about what had happened, when the two men had talked to him down by the brook, how people would be looking at them, taking advantage if they could, and how the men were there to warn them, and protect them, but ultimately it was up to them. The boys explained that Daniel had trained himself to ‘park’ his gift, but that Todd couldn’t.

  ‘It was like it couldn’t be parked’ Todd told them, ‘and tonight we used it and we shouldn't have.’

  ‘So we wait for a knock on the door.’ said Carol.

  ***

  Madison was pissed off, really pissed off. It was the first time she had been left alone, which she thought at sixteen was a bit ridiculous and her parents should have trusted her more. She was pissed off because she had not had wild parties, only one friend over, as agreed. But now the house was wrecked. Her friend would wake up alone, not knowing where she had gone and now she was hundreds of miles away from home, walking down a council estate that looked awful. There were beer cans everywhere, burnt out barbecues, bottles, and fast food packets. The place was a dump. She felt like she had let everyone down.

  It was kind of eerily quiet, like an abandoned town on the Walking Dead films. She expected to see zombies coming around the corner. She remembered that if she had to kill them, to go for the head, go for the brain. She loved the Walking Dead, but she didn’t want to become a zombie, not today anyway. She was in her thin dressing gown. There had been no time to dress before she was pulled through the window. She was cold and wet and had no idea how she got here, wherever here was. She thought she might be in Wales.

  To make matters worse, as she walked down the street, she could see a house with a bloody hole in the roof. In spite of the cold, in spite of the anger that raged inside her, in spite of wondering what the hell she was going to say to her parents, or Chantelle, for that matter, she felt good. She looked around as she approached the house with the hole. The streets were deserted. Must have been one hell of a party, she thought. She couldn’t remember all that had happened. She knew a young boy had been responsible for it, had caused the storm which had grabbed her and taken her to this dump. She really hoped Chantelle was okay. God only knew, what she would think in the morning. She felt in her dressing gown pocket, somehow she had her phone. She would ring Chantelle later, when she could think of something to tell her. As for her parents, well, they were another thing. Maybe she could get home in time and clean up before they got back. The kitchen was wrecked, she thought, the bastard wrecked my kitchen.

  She wrapped the sodden dressing gown around her as tightly as she could. She walked down the path, feeling determined, feeling angry. A rage was building up inside her, and that wasn’t good, wasn’t good at all. She rang the bell. ‘This had better be good.’ she thought.

  The sound of the bell was no surprise to those who sat inside the house. As on the previous two occasions, Carol got up to answer the door. The others sat and waited. An air of expectancy hovered around the room. You could almost cut the atmosphere with a knife, taste it. They were all expecting a pretty young girl, they were not disappointed.

  They both looked at each other for a second or two. Carol looking at this beautiful young girl that Todd had called hot. Madison, looking at this lady and thinking that she was the most beautiful woman she had ever seen. Neither had a clue who the other one was, both knowing that they would soon find out.

  ‘Can I come in? I'm bloody soaking.’

  ‘Of course you can.’ Said Carol, she opened the door wide and Madison stepped in.

  Carol told her to wait there, ran up the stairs to fetch a thick, warm dressing gown. Madison accepted it gracef
ully, and quickly changed, Carol took her into the living room where the others were waiting. The first thing everyone noticed, despite the unkempt look of wet hair, no make-up, and wrapped in an old, towelling dressing gown, was how beautiful this girl was. She was truly stunning.

  Madison looked around the room, catching everyone’s eye. She caught Todd’s. ‘You!’ she exclaimed. ‘I hope you’re going to fix my house.’

  Hot tea and biscuits were served; as Todd gave up his seat to Madison and sat on the floor next to Daniel and Becky. It was Madison’s turn to tell her story. It didn’t take as long as her predecessors. Her life was many years shorter. She told them about her mother and the one-night stand, her adoptive father and how much she loved Morgan.

  ‘Morgan Hughes,’ she said ‘I call him the man with no second name’ She paused for a laugh. No one did.

  ‘Oh, never mind. You’re all Welsh, aren't you?’ she said.

  They all laughed. She told them about her school, her friends and that Chantelle was there at home, probably scared. She talked about things she liked, that their estate looked awful. She had a gracefulness about her, although her story was less eventful, to her audience, she had an aura about her that made everyone just sit and listen. None more so then Daniel. She is hot he said to himself.