Among the Fallen: Resurrection

by Ross Shortall

  Was it a publicity stunt? Was it an apology for all those years of neglect?

  She sat flicking through the channels on the television, mumbling and groaning to herself as she normally did. As the stations jumped from one mediocre show to the next, she sighed and rubbed her aching head, grumbling dramatically as if death were just around the corner. Alex listened with amusement as the staff crept past her room, today being a hangover day, the workforce knew only too well that she was to be avoided and they generally steered well clear. But today was different, little did they know that she was in fact ecstatically happy; her father’s efforts the night before, hangover or not, brought a smile to her face she would remember for the rest of her life.

  It was commonly awkward for the staff to understand the relationship between her and her father; when they kicked off; silence within the staff often followed and left them feeling understandably uncomfortable as an immovable force was hit by an unstoppable force. Alex had invariably longed for the father and daughter relationship, but her father had different ideas and that just built up resentment; that fine line between love and hate was often stepped over, until last night, when hope suddenly appeared.

  She threw on a dressing gown and walked over to the window and gazed over the lake inland.

  Blackwater Bay was as lively as ever, the lights flashed, the fairground was alive and screaming, and all the shops were chucking their tat out as fast as they could. People sunbathed on the beach, and the seals and sea lions from the Sea-Life Centre hollered in the distance as they did every hour of the day. She watched the sun sparkling on the lake, almost hypnotized by the colossal reflections of the city’s concrete giants as they trembled and warped on the surface. People strolled along the bay front walking their dogs, cycling and some just stared out over the lake and island as she watched without a thought. The brilliant blue cloudless sky sat over the city, scarred only with trails of long gone planes, the breeze gently blowing the ivy around her window. The city had been awake for a while, long before she even contemplated leaving her bed, millions of people going about their business, each one the centre of their own little universe.

  Her swollen eyes blinked now and then as she simply took in the stunning view, her make-up from the night before smeared and worn as she stood as still as stone. She turned and looked over towards her father’s wing on the other side of the courtyard and saw his unmistakable shadow leave his window. Frowning to herself, she sighed as the shadow quickly vanished; suddenly realizing the things between her and her father were as morbidly warped as normal. Alex turned and gazed upon her room that was pretty much like an apartment of its own, everything was there she needed to live a happy and somewhat normal life.

  She strolled over the room and slumped down into her couch and put her feet on her glass table, checking her phone religiously for messages as she often did. Boredom was setting in fast and with the crazy world moving outside clearly quicker than her own, she decided there and then this hangover wasn’t going to beat her in the slightest. Alex grabbed the remote and flicked through the channels one more time, eventually throwing it across the room in frustration. She inspected her empty phone again and then scowled to herself. She gazed over her room at a photo collection of her and Collette, sighing as she rolled her phone in her hand for a few moments. Suddenly, she started to type a message.

  SMS Text to Collette Walker

  “Hey Colls, where u hidin? Aint heard from ya in ages. Kinda getting worried now. U got a new bloke or something’? U missed a killer party last nite, Dad threw a big ball weird huh lol hope ur ok, miss ya lots! Xxx get back to me asap ya bitch! Lol”

  Alex smiled a big row of expensive white teeth and decided to try and survive in some daylight, not something she would normally try on a hanging-day, but today was a special hanging-day after all, the sooner she got out, the sooner she wouldn’t notice it had gone.

  Alex got dressed and left her room, venturing down the vast corridors and into the main hall which led to the ball-room. She peered around the door and saw the room was alive with maids and staff cleaning and tidying up the mess. She stood simply gazing at the expensive twenty-one banners that hung silently; in her mind, she was already planning little Sarah’s eighteenth and twenty-first, and to say she was looking forward to it would be an understatement.

  “Alex?!” A voice asked quietly from behind. Alex turned and smiled at what should be a Butler.

  However, he never did Butler’s stuff; he just oversaw daily routines of the other staff. Gerard McGently his name was, lower class with her an upper class when in front of her father, priceless.

  He was middle-aged and Greek, but with a weird non-Greek name which was often joked about, outspoken, but very funny at times. Gerard resented waiting around after people, which as a butler was somewhat queer, but he had an opinion or two on her father which Alex loved.

  “Some night, huh, all grown up at last!” Gerard said with a cocky grin, knowing full well how much her head was hurting.

  Alex smiled. “I’m definitely getting too old for all this shit!” She joked. “I didn’t make too much of dick out of myself did I?” she said pulling a face of doubt. Gerard just winked at her and walked past as Alex cringed with embarrassment.

  Gerard paused suddenly, rubbing his head of solid immaculate black hair. “Oh sorry, I forgot -

  Sarah’s teacher called; they are keeping them late to help with some fund raiser they are doing, Eight O’clock tonight.” He said in desperation after almost overlooking the message. Alex pulled a face of subtle surprise.

  “Sounds like slave labour to me.” She smiled coyly. “Okay, thanks Gerry.” Gerard turned to walk away then turned back at her as she watched the great clean up, all smug and happy.

  “You want me to pick her up?” he said friendly. “I’m going that way”

  Alex stood thinking for a moment. It was not his job really, but he had picked her up all week and she felt a twinge of slight guilt in her stomach.

  “That way?” Alex smiled. “Don’t lie!”

  Gerard grinned and looked away. “The offers there!” he grinned. Alex calmly looked passed him, considering his offer, but with Collette out of town, if she didn’t do the school-run today, she weren’t getting out at all.

  “Nah mate, its cool, me and Princess alone time!” she smiled chirpily. “The little bugger can’t get away from me when she is tied up in the backseat, thanks though!” she said merrily.

  “Okay, well if you are sure”

  “I’m sure!” she replied happily. “Gerry? Has anyone heard from Collette? I was kinda hoping she would have been there last night.”

  Gerard frowned as he ushered the maids from a distance.

  “I don’t think so, Alex. The last I heard she was annual leave, but to be fair; nobody has heard from her in ages! Maybe she is on holiday or abroad or something.” He replied reassuringly.

  “Maybe…” she said looking down at the floor clearly disappointed. “I weren’t aware the grumpy old Git paid any of you enough for a holiday!” she joked.

  Gerard smiled and winked at her. “You would be surprised what he don’t pay us!” he laughed. Alex watched him as he signalled the maids, like a conductor of cleaners, they all knew his signals and flittered about on cue. Alex just watched silently.

  “I hope she is okay; she would have loved the party last night.” She mumbled humbly. Gerard laughed sarcastically.

  “Collette would have been serving the snob’s drinks, and you know it.” He joked.

  “Well if you guys hadn’t of kept the whole thing secret, I could have pulled a few strings” she laughed. Gerard pulled a face of dissatisfaction before smiling at her.

  “Alex my dear, I cannot think of anything worse than pretending to enjoy myself in front of such snobbery. If I’m working, I aint got to talk to those self-righteous ass holes!” he laughed cheekily. “I really don’t know how you do it, Alex, really I don’t.”

  Alex laughed and then he
ld her head in pain as her own laughter rippled throughout her sore brain.

  “I have plenty of help!” she said as she smiled through her headache. “Alcohol and denial!” she winked. Gerard laughed and walked away happily as Alex put her hands in her pockets.

  “Gerry!” she said aloud as he walked away. Gerard stopped suddenly and turned awaiting an order or a change of mind. Alex stood looking at the floor for a moment then looked up at him with a big cheesy grin.

  “Thanks for last night, all of you - was the best night of my life…” she said happily. Gerard looked at her smiling and nodded. “You guys are the greatest, and I mean that, I will see that you will all be paid heavily this month.”

  Gerard beamed in delight at the recognition as Alex turned and walked away. He stood and watched her as she walked off, picking her keys up from the rack in the main hall.

  “Oh, and Gerry!” she said hastily before he could escape. Gerry turned and looked upon her queerly, clearly frustrated and awaited her next demand. “I need another new remote for my TV!” she said with a devious smile. Gerry simply smiled with very little surprise and nodded with amusement.

  “All grown up…” he said to himself quietly. “Fuck! If I were twenty years younger!” he said jokingly before joining the others in the great clean-up.

  Alex opened the front doors and the sunlight roared into the main hall, lighting up the normally cold statues, antiques and marble floor.

  “Fuck that!” she said to herself as she put on her shades and ventured out over the gravel drive, passing motionless and empty Limousines; their hot metal surfaces trembling in the morning heat.

  She pulled out her keys and pressed a button, instantly her car started and she leisurely walked up to it as its roof slowly opened. Suddenly, she paused briefly, thinking and wondering. She looked down at the city in the distance and watched all the people fussing about as the fairground bellowed in the horizon. Roller coasters thundered around tracks and stray balloons drifted homelessly into the air, cries of excitement and screams of fun filled the air far away. Alex leapt over her car door and stood on her seat as she quickly realized that city was going to be deafening today more than ever; she needed to get away, but to aggravate a hangover was never a good idea. She turned and looked up at the cliff side behind the mansion, smiling smugly before dropping into her seat and speeding off.

  Behind Beaumont Abbey was a small cliff about fifty feet high, covered in trees and woodland with a single road leading up to its peak. Up there was what some called Beaumont Drop, a cliff edge of grass and trees that watched over the whole lake and deep into Blackwater City. It was named in the early 1800s by staff because a member of the Beaumont family leapt from there to his death in what was said to be a suicide. Alex often went up there when she wanted quiet time, just time alone to enjoy the clean air and take in the amazing scenery and breath-taking horizon, and since it was only accessible to Beaumont’s and their staff, she always got exactly what she wanted, peace.

  Alex pulled up to the edge and switched off the motor and sighed. The birds around her sung merrily and crickets chattered invisibly around her. She took out her phone and checked her messages before throwing it on the dashboard. Alex sat staring at her phone, her face blank but her mind full of unsettling worry. To say Alex was concerned about Collette was an understatement.

  Collette and Alex spoke daily, up until recently; but in the last few months, it seemed like Collette had mysteriously vanished from the face of the Earth. According to the rotors, Collette was on a month’s annual leave, seeing her family in England, but that was two months ago. She even asked her father if he knew anything, to which his response was less than sympathetic.

  The sun glazed down upon her and she merely sat there enjoying the tranquillity; her whole life was suddenly still and silent; no maids rushing around after her, no bickering with her father and no people were dashing around her. She swiftly put on the radio and flicked through the pre-sets until unexpectedly, she came across a local station, running a debate about her father and his shortcomings as mayor. Alex smiled and dropped her seat back, placing her feet on the windscreen and listened with amusement as opponents of her father said what they had to say.

  Blackwater Radio CCG – 12th April, 2012

  Spokesman: “… That’s not what I am saying, but what I will put on record, is that Blackwater has never been more prosperous under corporation backing!”

  Newsreader: “By backing, you obviously mean control!”

  Spokesman: “Nonsense! The Beaumont Corporation has pumped nine-million dollars into the economy and the city’s infrastructure this year alone. Three million into charities and social outlets, the people of Blackwater have never been better!”

  Newsreader: “But its still is a form of control, you have privatized the police department and…”

  Spokesman: “And crime has fallen sixty percent!”

  Newsreader: “Through fear and control!”

  Spokesman: “Not at all, we…”

  Newsreader: “You have replaced one third of the force with a ghost army that we, as citizens are not allowed to see, surly we should at least see what, if anything, where our money is being spent, who are these…”

  Spokesman: “But it’s not your money, its corporation money and funded by us, the identities of our private force are secret for no other reason than to protect their families!”

  Newsreader: “Nonsense! We are entitled to…”

  Spokesman: “Every citizen in this city earns twelve percent more than everyone else in the States, there’s a three year residential waiting list alone to live in Blackwater City, you and all your fellow opponents of the corporation, all spend your high wage packets and flourish within the city and that, you can’t deny!”

  Newsreader: “It does not escape the fact that Mayor Beaumont and the corporation, silence those with bonuses and materialistic living schemes, we have a right to…”

  Spokesman: “What’s wrong with Mayor Beaumont and the corporation, putting back into the community?”

  Newsreader: “It all certainly seems…”

  Alex smiled and swiftly turned off the radio, staring between her feet and out over the city as it continued to live happily in the distance. She loved it when people opposed her father and what he stood for, she had always believed and considered his ethics to be far from giving; but his paid crew of spin-doctors always managed to turn it around in one way or another.

  She continued to gaze over the lake, watching the fairground on the bay as it hustled with people; all joyous and content as the rides roared and sent them screaming around tracks over the city. The cable cars slowly crept over the glimmering waters, delivering sightseers to the common place that she called home. As the sun warmed the soles of her feet, she lowered her shades and shut her weary eyes, lazily taking in the rays as her mind ventured out into daydreams and fantasies as they normally did; until eventually, she fell into a long and much-needed sleep. Slowly, the far-reaching distant sounds of the city vanished and the wildlife around her fell silent, stepping into her dream world of nothingness and serene tranquillity.

  “I have been searching for you… where have you been? I have missed you…” a voice said creepily in her dreams, waking her up crudely as the sun vanished behind the trees on the horizon. Alex rubbed her eyes and yawned coarsely, reaching for her cell phone, the time reading 19:17pm.

  “Shit!” she cursed violently as she started the car, Sarah was due out soon and she nearly stranded the poor girl. She took a look in the mirror at her red sun burnt face and sighed again as she slipped the gears and made her way towards the city, cursing to herself as the radio played to deaf ears.

  Chapter Four: Broken Souls

  Then I heard the LORD say to the other men, Follow him through the city and kill everyone whose forehead is not marked. Show no mercy; have no pity! Kill them all – old and young, girls and women and little children. - Ezekiel 9:5-7

  Alex waited outside th
e school, patiently browsing her texts of nonsense and gazed from the car window, jaded almost to tears as Sarah finished her class. She was always the last one out, spending at least ten minutes giving her goodbyes to the other children as Alex watched with a loving smile.

  Sarah was a popular six-year-old and a sparkly little miss know-it-all as they all are at that age; the other children had no idea nor cared of her roots and neither did the parents; which was a deliberate move on Alex’s behalf. Alex knew that if Sarah went to school in Blackwater, she would have the same problems and the same unwanted attention she suffered. Alex understood at an early age that most of her friends were gained purely for whom she was and not her as a person, and always felt she missed out on real friendships over it. She had Sarah shipped off out of town deliberately to stimulate her personality if nothing else, in the hope she would turn out better than her; and in many ways, Alex thought she already was. She sighed as she fumbled around in her seat, tapping her pedals softly as her trainers squeaked and slipped from the custom metal.

  She watched inquisitively as the parents huddled outside in packs like wolves, gossiping like hens and discussing their partners; the people that lived next door and whatever nonsense that had touched their boring and mundane lives that day. Alex never even thought about the mother thing before Sarah, she wasn’t very maternal; but she managed to slip into the role and adapt very quickly.

  The reasons as to why she avoided being a mother stood before her in the street, the instant so-called bond and common ground that made strangers randomly talk to each other like they had been friends for years. As snobby as it was, Alex had no common ground with these gossips and strays, and she always kept them at arm’s length.

  She checked out the single dads as they stood in their own little crowd, rating them on her ridiculously high scale of zero to ten on just mere looks alone. Alex was pretty shallow when it came to men, promiscuous and often had a man on her face for recreational reasons, but that was as far as it went. She had a long string of failures just like any other girl, but it was made all the more pitiful after each and every one.