After Darkness Falls - 10 Tales of Terror - Volume one

by Matt Drabble

  “I suppose some things in life are more important than the superficial,” Jennifer had smiled pleasantly back as she looked up and down Mother’s elegant outfit, expensively styled hair and high-priced jeweler.

  For the rest of the afternoon, Mother had become increasingly bitter and less disguised about her jabs, but none seemed to land firmly enough. Eventually she had claimed to be feeling unwell and Jennifer had even helped her upstairs. Once Mother was lying down he had led Jennifer back downstairs to the lounge and they had sat in stony silence. He wanted to be able to offer her words of comfort and support, but he lacked the tools. It wasn’t long before Mother had buzzed on the intercom that she’d had installed to be able to call on him any time of day or night and there was a panel in every room of the house.

  He had gone when she’d called. It was an automatic response, but he was pleased that it seemed a slower one these days. But then he had been no match for Mother’s slyness.

  He had always been “mommy’s little soldier” it was her pet name for him and it was her way of reducing him to a small child any time that he showed the slightest inkling of rebellion. A 54 year old man might finally discover a backbone, but mommy’s little soldier didn’t. Jennifer had heard him speak those words and she had left, and he didn’t blame her.

  ----------

  It was three weeks later before he finally plucked up enough courage to venture into the library again. Jennifer was on duty but his mouth was dry and barren of ideas.

  “Hello Randall,” she said coolly as he approached the desk.

  “Hello,” he replied sheepishly.

  The library was getting ready to close and mercifully it was empty, save for them.

  “I wanted to…, that is I wanted to say…” he started but couldn’t finish.

  “Why Randall, why do you let her treat you that way?”

  “I thought that you were angry with me?” He asked confused.

  “I am, but not in the way that you think,” she answered. “I don’t understand how you can put up with her treating you the way she does. I don’t care what she says to me, it’s the way that you just lie there and take her abuse that I can’t stand,” she managed to say before her eyes started leaking.

  Randall stood there impotent as she cried before him. In his life tears had only ever been a weapon used by Mother; it was her doomsday nuclear warhead when all else failed.

  Twenty minutes later they were sipping hot chocolate in the library café. The place was closed but Jennifer had a key. Randall was blowing on the hot liquid as the little marshmallows bobbed around as they melted.

  They had hugged clumsily and Randall had made promises that he had no idea if he’d ever be able to keep. They had cried tears of regret together and had sworn that it was never too late for love.

  “I have to do it slowly,” Randall said not daring to look up.

  “Slowly? We’ve been kind of dating for seven months now Randall. Now I’ve never pressured you before but at my age, as your mother so kindly put it, I need something with a future to it. I can’t be wasting my time on a boy when I need a man. I’m sorry to speak so crudely, but there it is,” she finished folding her cardigan wearing arms across her chest.

  “You don’t understand what she’s like,” he said in a small voice.

  Jennifer took his hands. “I’ve known bullies like her my whole life Randall. All they do is take and take and take until there’s nothing left but an empty shell. I don’t want her to finish you off Randall. We can have a life together, but you’ve got to want it badly enough. Do you?”

  “Yes,” he replied in an even smaller whisper. “Yes I do, I want a life away from her and her petty torments.”

  “Then you’ve got to want it like I want you,” she said firmly as she pulled him to his feet. “Come with me, there’s a private office back here and I want to show you how badly I want to be with you and what love can really be like.”

  Randall allowed her to lead him through the library and through a small door behind the main desk. He had no idea what she meant, but he was excited and terrified in equal proportions to find out.

  Randall drove home slowly. His mind was too distracted to risk driving at anything other than a snail’s pace. Jennifer had been true to her word and showed him what love could really be like. He may have been 54, but he had been a virgin until Jennifer had taken him into the small office and then taken his virginity. He had been a terrified and clumsy mess. He had no idea what to touch and what to put where. But Jennifer had been patient and tender and he had soon found his groove after a couple of false starts. Mother had always told him that sex was a dirty business for people with dirty minds. But he had found little of her vivid descriptions in what had transpired only a short while ago. Sex had turned out to be a gentle expression of love, and he had Jennifer to thank for her tenderness and her sweet innocent nature.

  ----------

  “Oh go fuck yourself!” Jennifer snapped as her landlord leered around the corner. She was behind on the rent again and the creep had been willing to take his payment in other ways in the past, but now she had other irons in the fire. Hopefully her days of hooking for a roof over her head were about to be banished to the history bin forever.

  She entered the crappy apartment and heard the telltale scuttling of cockroach legs across the linoleum floor as the she flicked the light on. “Yeah you’d better run,” she growled. Her hands were full of bills from the mailbox and she threw them into the pile with the rest of her growing collection.

  She lit a cigarette and wished that it could be something stronger, but she was so close now that it wasn’t worth the risk. She had landed a big juicy fat cash cow and nothing was going to stop her.

  She had worked at the library for over eight agonizing months playing the dull librarian whilst the ugly bastard plucked up enough courage to even talk to her. Some days she felt like she was going insane stamping books for old fucks; who the hell even used libraries anymore anyway? Oh but she knew all about Randall Chase and that rich bitch who held the purse strings. Their house was a bloody great mansion and old man Chase had been a rich bastard before he’d died, leaving an exceptionally wealthy widow and a waste of a space son.

  The plan had been to simply sweet talk the fat prick and then proceed to milk him for all he was worth. But she had soon learned two things: one, the man was practically mentally retarded, and two, the old bitch had all the money. Randall was a 54 year old man-child who was given pocket money.

  The old bat had been crafty; she had to give her that. She had gone for tea at the house and been lulled into a false sense of security by the woman’s frail appearance. Everything about the old bitch was skin and bone and harmless to look at; everything except her eyes. The old woman had the craziest steel grey eyes that seemed to bore straight through anyone unfortunate enough to get caught under that gaze. It was creepy enough to make Jennifer want to get the hell out of there. It was a stupid notion, but she couldn’t help but feel like the old woman could tell everything that she was thinking with a look. She hadn’t been able to ingratiate herself as she’d first expected. The mother wasn’t going to be the pushover that she’d hoped for.

  She had been forced to reassess her plans and start thinking about the long term option. She could play the timid librarian for a while longer yet, long enough to get a ring on her finger and position herself in that mansion. Once they were married the old bitch was frail and it was a big house with a lot of stairs, and accidents could happen. Once mommy dearest was gone it wouldn’t be a complete shock to everyone if her darling Randall was so overcome with grief that he just couldn’t go on anymore. Her mouth salivated at the thought of having the entire Chase fortune to herself.

  But for now she wanted a long scalding shower in order to scrape that fat pig’s touch from her skin. She shuddered at the thought of his clumsy fingers jabbing into her. Fortunately he had been too overcome to notice her stifled laughter at his short comings and under
sized performance time. She thought that maybe once they were married she would be having an awful lot of bedtime headaches.

  ----------

  Randall pulled into the driveway of what would always be Mother’s house and finished his journey with a stout and steady heart. His future lay beyond these prison walls and beyond Mother’s poisonous reach.

  He parked the car on the driveway, which was frowned upon but his newly found rebellious streak was up and running now. He had a light at the end of a 54 year old dark tunnel and right now he felt like he could do anything and he had Jennifer to thank.

  He trotted up to the front door with a spring in his step. The door was unlocked and he frowned in surprise. Mother was fanatical about security and it had been drilled into him - sometimes very painfully - about locking the door on the rare occasions that he left.

  “Mother?” He called into the empty hallway. “MOTHER?” He shouted in panic as he thought about the murders and rapists that were constantly on the prowl for elderly and defenseless women that Mother had so often warned him about.

  He took the stairs two at a time and ran to her room. The door was ajar and he peered around the corner with his heart pounding painfully at his chest. For a moment he thought that he was seeing things, seeing the worst of his nightmares until he realised that he wasn’t dreaming. Mother was lying on the floor with her lace nightdress torn and raised up on her bony thighs. Her cane was lying uselessly beside her glinting under the soft light.

  “Oh dear God,” he exclaimed and felt a wave of fainting attempt to overcome his senses when he needed them the most.

  He rushed to her side and took her leathery hand in his. He couldn’t believe how thoughtless and selfish he had been. Mother was so old and frail and he was all she had in the world. It was his job to keep her safe and be by her side, and when she had needed him the most he had failed her in the worst possible way. He knew that God would surely strike him down if it wasn’t for the fact that Mother needed him now more than ever.

  He lifted her thin body off of the floor and placed her back on the bed. Her eyelids fluttered briefly open and he started to weep at her fighting spirit.

  “Mother I’m here, I’m here now.”

  “Where were you?” Her voice croaked and his heart broke.

  “What happened?” He asked fearing the answer.

  “They broke in when you were away just like I always warned you that they would; two men with hate and lust in their eyes looking for an old defenseless woman, alone and helpless.”

  “Oh God Mother I’m so sorry,” he wept.

  “I told them that my son would be here any minute, but you never came,” she choked. “Where were you when I was being brutally assaulted?”

  “I’ll call the police, I’ll get an ambulance,” Randall said reaching for the phone.

  “No,” she said firmly. “I won’t have strangers in my house poking and prodding at me and making me relive the nightmare. You’ll take care of me won’t you?” She asked in a soft and frail voice.

  “Yes Mother,” Randall replied resolutely. “I won’t ever leave your side again.”

  “That’s my good boy,” she said as she stroked his hand. “That’s mommy’s little soldier.”

  ----------

  Two days later Jennifer slammed her phone down hard onto the cradle. She had been trying to call Randall for the last two days to no avail. She was a woman used to getting what she wanted and it was pissing her off something fierce.

  Randall wasn’t returning her calls and she had started to wonder if that afternoon in the library office was all he’d been after all along. Now that he had tasted a little honey she had expected him to come crawling back for the rest of the jar, but now he was absent and that just wasn’t acceptable.

  She caught the bus to out near Randall’s place. She was barely keeping a roof over her head and there was no room for extravagancies like cars. She knew that she was born for better than this and Randall was going to foot the bill for her new life.

  She hiked the last couple of miles over to his mansion, trying to swallow her bitterness as she walked towards the affluent house. This was a home owned by people living the life that she so richly deserved.

  The Chase house was set back from the road with a long winding drive and imposing gates. There had once been a small guard hut that had housed a security guard blocking access from the road. But Randall had told her that his mother had grown increasingly distant and distrustful of the staff. Now there was only Randall and his crazy bitch of a mother.

  She circled the high fence around the property looking for an access point. She could peer through the unkempt trees towards the main house and see that someone was moving around. Knowing that it was only the two of them in there and that dear old mother wouldn’t be dragging her bony carcass around the grounds she took a chance.

  “Randall?” She called softly. “Randall, is that you?” She heard his low gasp in reply.

  “Jennifer? What are you doing here?” He called back nervously.

  “Apparently talking to you through a bloody fence,” she said bitterly before she could stop the tone from creeping into her voice. “I miss you my love, I haven’t seen you since that afternoon, and I wanted to know how you could be so cruel to me.”

  She watched as he rushed over through the thick undergrowth to the fence. His face was flushed with a mixture of joy and fear at her presence. She pushed her fingers through the bars of the fencing and he took them.

  “I’m so sorry,” he said sadly. “But I can’t see you anymore. Mother needs me too much and I have already failed her once, I can’t fail her again.”

  “And what about me? How can you fail me after I gave myself to you?” She wept softly. “How could you just use me and throw me away like garbage, I thought that you loved me. I would never have done the things that we did if I didn’t think that it was love talking.” She watched in hope as his face crumpled in misery.

  “I do love you,” he insisted. “I do, I just…, I just can’t,” he shrugged helplessly. “Mother,” he offered weakly.

  “And what about you Randall? What about what you want, what you need? What about our life together, our plans, our future?”

  “But she needs me.”

  “I need you Randall,” she said squeezing his fingers through the bars. “Let me be with you, let me help you, together we can do anything. Two heads are better than one,” she smiled as sweetly as she could muster.

  “Help me how?” He asked unsurely.

  “With your mother, let me help. I want you Randall, I want to be with you and if we get married, she’ll be my mother too won’t she?” She watched as Randall’s face processed the offer. She figured that she could take a little of the bitch if it got her a lot of the money.

  “There’s a gate round the back,” he said finally.

  She walked parallel to him around the property until she found the gate. He unlocked it and she walked through and into his arms. She felt his hot breath on her neck as he nuzzled in close and then his hands were roaming all over her. She fought her revulsion as he jammed his mouth on hers and then his thick tongue invaded her clumsily. She concentrated on not gagging on his foul breath and on making the right sort of enthusiastic noises. Eventually he released her and she almost sagged with relief.

  She followed him to the back door of the house and then inside. The kitchen was large but poorly kept. The first thing that she was going to get organised was rehiring some help around here.

  “We’re going to get married?” Randall asked open-eyed with wonder.

  She almost laughed at his childlike expression. “Yes,” she said concentrating hard on her poker face

  “And then you can live here, with us. You can help me take care of Mother and none of us will ever be lonely again.”

  “That’s right Randall, we’re going to be one big happy family,” she smiled.

  “We have to tell Mother,” he said happily as he grabbed her h
and and began pulling her hard towards the stairs.

  She followed him up and stared in disgust at the peeling wallpaper and faded carpeting. There were going to have to be some major changes around here that was for damn sure, she thought as they climbed.

  “Mother, Mother,” he called as they reached her bedroom. “It’s wonderful news Mother, wonderful news.”

  “What are you shouting about now?” Mother’s irritated voice drifted out of the darkness.

  Jennifer could see that the bedroom as shrouded in dusky dim light. It also appeared to be the only room in the house that had been carefully maintained. Apparently Mother wasn’t going to suffer the indignities of discomfort.

  “Jennifer and I are going to get married and then she will be here to help me take care of you. We’re going to be a family again Mother, a family.”

  “What nonsense are you spouting now you silly boy?” Mother snapped.

  “Hello Mrs. Chase,” Jennifer offered shyly. “It’s nice to see you again.”

  “What is she doing here?” Mother demanded shrilly. “What is that tramp doing in my house?”

  Jennifer watched as the old bat swung her skinny legs out of bed nimbly. It would appear that Mother wasn’t quite as infirm as she liked to make out. She normally limped around leaning on her cane, but now she was out of bed in a flash.

  “Mother calm yourself,” Randall said still smiling happily, but now his grin was a little unsure. “It’s not good for you to get excited. Quickly take your cane,” he said looking at her strangely as she stood, apparently not requiring her walking aid.

  The slap was loud and sharp within the confines of the bedroom. Randall’s cheek was suddenly burning red with Mother’s precision handprint. Jennifer could immediately tell that it was a common occurrence due to Randall’s immediate silence.

  “I’ve had enough of this foolishness child,” Mother said with authority.

  “But I was just…” Randall started quietly.

  “ENOUGH!” Mother yelled and slapped his face again.

  “Hey now why don’t we all just calm down a little,” Jennifer said trying to play peacemaker. The last thing that she wanted was for all of this to get out of control. Her careful plans had already been thrown to the wind and she hated winging it.