by Morgana Wray
She shook her head and glared at me with pity in her dark eyes. “Lanfen! You may call me Lanfen!”
“Yeah, okay Lanfen. Pour this knackered soldier a drink,” I said with softness in my voice.
She obliged. She fetched a bottle of brandy and attempted to pour me some. I snatched the bottle of brandy from her and drank straight from the bottle. I had been given the kick I needed. The pain in my ribs was dulled and I sprang to my feet in a haste.
“You’re in a state!” Lanfen rolled her eyes at me. “Give me that. I will take you home.”
She took the bottle from my hand and placed a guiding hand on my back. She made me tell her where I lived. We walked all the way to my London flat hand in hand. I fiddled with the keys but I was too messed up to find the right one to fit into the keyhole. The keys dropped to the ground and she picked them up for me. Shoving me aside, Lanfen made an attempt to open the door to my flat. She was more successful than I was. But then, she hadn’t been squeezed half to death by some fat dude with a killer grip.
“You have a nice place here!” Lanfen's eyes lit up, as she entered my flat.
I was out of it. I just grunted and slurred inaudible words that didn’t make any sense even to myself. I was led to the sofa. She shoved me backwards and I fell into the soft, cushy sofa.
“You won’t be needing these. They will not help with the bruises. You need some air.” Lanfen loosened my shoe lace, pulling off my shoes and clothes.
I was soon stripped to my underpants. She leaned close to me and looked longingly into my very drunken eyes. She was a pretty girl and I was in no condition to turn her down. Her clothes soon fell off, revealing a well toned body and very firm cleavage. We did the wild tango through the night and eventually collapsed into each other’s arms. That was the beginning for us. We soon blossomed into something more serious. She did not return to the restaurant where we had met.
Within weeks, we fell hard and fast for each other. There was a marriage at the registry and we soon had a couple of years together. There were the passionate nights when she ended up in one of my old T-shirts. Boy, was that woman as nimble as an acrobat. She did things that made my mind spin in reverse and back again. My mind was blown by her. When I was away from her-it killed me.
I didn’t realize it but most of the feelings that was rumbling inside me was driven solely by infatuation. I was besotted with the idea of having lots of carnal action with a foreign Chinese woman. My head knew it but my eyes just did not see it. They were blind to the tell tale signs. I ignored the hollow feeling that lingered inside me after the mind-blowing sex. I ignored how I only said “I love you” after a roll in the sack.
It wasn’t just the sex that pulled the wool over my eyes. Lanfen was a bloody good cook. I loved watching her cook in nothing but a sarong draped over her backside. Her cute bubble butt looked very shapely from behind in that flimsy fabric that didn’t leave too much to imagination.
“keep your eyes in your head!” Lanfen often rebuked me.
“You know I can’t do that. You my dumpling are a keg of head-turning rum.” I often slapped her firm backside.
There were plenty of good times. I genuinely had a blast with her being a part of my life. I felt comfortable and safe with her for a while. Then it all went to shit like it always did. She claimed I drank too much and wasn’t as invested as she was in the relationship. She filed for a divorce and took the fucking dog and the car with her. She was the last woman in my life. Loosing her hurt like a damn bee stinging you in the butt.
PRESENT DAY
“Why do you have that goofy smile on your face?” Diane asked, snapping her fingers at me.
“What smile?”
“I wasn’t smiling. There was a bit of spinach trapped in my teeth and I was trying to push it out with my tongue,” I protested vehemently. “Honest!”
Diane scanned my face with her probing eyes. That kid wasn’t swallowing my diversion tactics. She seemed to be intent on calling me out on my bullshit. Kids today-They get fed too much information by the internet. I didn’t have access to half the stuff kids could access today at the click of a button. If only one could cram all that tech back in the box, aye.
“You were thinking about someone, weren’t you? And you were not thinking of her in a nice, friendly way?” Diane laughed.
“You don’t know what you are talking about. You don’t have a freaking clue,” I grumbled a bit and tried to laugh off her keen powers of observation.
CHAPTER 6
Diane flicked her hair behind her ear and took a swig out of the doctor pepper bottle. She did not take her gaze off me. She was keen on piling on the pressure until I caved in. Her lips continued to do the dance and she said, “Hey. By the way, you had this sheepish look that dad has on his face when mommy says something she thinks I don’t quite understand. His face always went bright red when she says stuff like fancy a doughnut tonight Kev.”
“Uh, I think she just meant a jam doughnut. There’s no conspiracy there to keep anyone out of the loop.” I threw my hands over my eyes, bowing my head in utter humiliation.
“Yeah, right! If you say so!” Diane shrugged her shoulders, laughing teasingly at me.
“How old are you anyway?” I snapped grumpily. “You don’t know as much as you think and you should not be talking about stuff that someone your age should not be talking about.”
“I am not a dum kid. I am fourteen, okay. There are girls younger than me on pregnancy pills so don’t treat me like some ignorant little girl.” Diane bared her teeth at me, unleashing her unfettered anger.
She had the cutest frown on her girly face. She looked slightly threatening. She seemed distracted by her distaste for my choice of words.
“This should help with that.” I slapped some an alcohol-soaked cloth over her wound.
“You asshole! What the fuck the you do that for?” she winced in pain. “ouch! You stupid idiot! I don’t like all that hospital shit!”
“That would have gotten infected! Do you want to lose the arm? Do you?” I chuckled spitefully at her.
She kicked and fought and scratched at my face, but I persisted and put some disinfectant around the wound. I taped some plaster over the cleaned wounds and dragged her by her hand to the roadside. There was a cleared path made by the crashed helicopter which we used to our advantage.
“You are not going to stick any more of that whiffy stuff into my wound! I won’t fucking let you, you old goat!” Diane sulked, pinching my skin in a desperate bid to disentangle herself from my grasp.
“Yeah, yeah, kid. Quit the winning already. Nobody likes a sore loser. You are flipping coming with me-even if I have to drag your stubborn arse all the way to that bus.” I frowned, turning my face away from Diane.
She was not very enthusiastic about returning to the bus. There was a genuine look of terror on her face. I believed she was definitely afraid of getting more treatment for her arm. That kid really had a deep dislike for anything medical. The hysteria that she was so blatantly displaying was definitely a red light that showed that much.
“What? What the hell happened?” Diane squirmed.
“What the bloody hell are you muttering about, kid? If you are scared of seeing a freaking nurse? Get over it, kid!” I snapped contemptuously as her.
There was a shiver running through her, as she started to tremble. She was not faking it. Her eyes definitely showed a genuine concern and a deep aversion for what she had just seen.
“Don’t you see it? Don’t you see all that blood everywhere?” Diane sobbed with her free hand clasped over her mouth.
I concentrated my gaze ahead of me. What I saw was a really chilling sight. I could see the bus. It looked as if someone had sprayed it with red paint. I knew it couldn’t be paint. Paint doesn’t attract flies and paint doesn’t thicken up in the way that the red fluids on the bus had done.
“That smell! It really stinks, badly!” I coughed a bit, as I cautiously approached the red-stained bu
s.
“I don’t want to go in there.” Diane protested, sobbing even harder. “Don’t make me go in there.”
I could see she was not feeling very good about approaching the bus. I wasn’t keen on forcing her up the bus. I wasn’t even sure how safe it was inside. I needed to be careful about my next move.
“If I let you go? You won’t go anywhere, will you?” I looked fiercely into Diane’s tearful eyes.
She nodded her head and wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her shirt. That was all the confirmation I needed. Digging into the backpack I had retrieved from the helicopter, I found a pair of scissors. I armed myself with it and walked stealthily towards the bus, leaving Diane standing at a distance from the bus.
I stepped slowly up the stairs. Something shiny came swinging at me before I could make it halfway up the steps of the bus. Luckily, I was already on alert. I ducked very quickly. I couldn’t get a good look at my attacker. I was too hopped up on the adrenaline rushing through my veins to bother with that. The shiny, metallic stuff came swinging at my head again.
I rolled all the way down the stairs. That was the only way that I could have kept my head from being caved in by my attacker. Sprawled on the floor, I saw the whole girth of her coming at me. Her crazed eyes bulged behind her pair of leopard spots glasses. There was a haze of red midst clouding her mind. I could see it in the way she was breathing.
She was looking but not seeing anything other than something or someone she wanted to attack. She had seen something terrifying. Something that had made her slightly unhinged. I had to try to try to speak some sense into her. I hoped that she would be in listening mode.
“Miss Maple!”
“What happened here? Why have you got a spider wrench in your hand?” I raised both hands in the air, gesturing for so some calm.
“You’re trying to trick me, aren’t you? You’re one of those devil’s, aren’t you?” Miss Maple thundered, waving the spider wrench violently at me.
I jumped back and shook my head. I didn’t want to have my brains strewn across the road so I paused to consider my next words while giving the terrified and volatile woman some distance. I kept my eyes on her. I could not afford to turn my back on her in the state that she was in. I tried to get some sense out of her, but all I was seeing and hearing was batshit crazy.
“You need to put that down. You could seriously hurt someone with that. You don’t really want that to happen. You are not that kind of person,” I spoke calmly and tried not to show how panicked I was on the inside.
My heart was racing. I was hoping I could bring whatever shred of sanity that she had in her to the surface. Whatever had happened to her certainly did a number on her. Her attitude was definitely way off the mark from what was normal for her.
“Can you understand me, Miss Maple?” I asked, focusing my gaze on the spider wrench in Miss Maple’s chubby hands. “You really do have to put that thing down. You are safe now.”
Miss Maple sniffled a bit and started to sob. Then she raised her head and started to ramble tearfully. “I had to do it. I had to put all of them down. The children-they got aggressive. Their eyes changed and they attacked each other. Then they turned on me. I had to defend myself.”
“You mean? You mean you had to?” My face strained in awe. “You don’t have to blame yourself. I believe you.”
“You do? Why?” Miss Maple wiped her teary eyes.
“You are not the violent type and I have seen many violent men. I should know.” I moved to place a calming hand on Miss Maple’s shoulder.
She raised a suspicious eye at me and jumped back. “How do I know that you’re not one of those demons? How do I know you won’t go for my throat when I let my guard down?”
“Lady, I have just been through a ton of shit that you don’t want to know about to get back here. I am in no mood for games. If you are going to use that thing-do it now, or cut the bullshit and give me a hand to clean up your mess.” I squeezed the brows above my eyes tensely.
She shuffled out of the way, hugging the spider wrench tightly against her protruding bosoms. Sweat dripped down her forehead, as her untrusting eyes peered at me.
“I am not letting this go. I kind of feel naked now without it.” Miss Maple shrieked.
“Suit yourself! Just don’t hit me with that!” I yelped, as I walked past her.
I looked back at Miss Maple before climbing up the bus. I needed to know that she wasn’t doing anything suspicious with that blunt instrument in her hands. I was more worried about Miss Maple’s state of mind than whatever horrors that I was about to see. It must have taken bigger balls than that of any tough guy you can point a finger at to do what she had to do.
When I was finally up those stairs, what I saw made me go pale in the face. The kids were all in their seats. They had been tied down with their seatbelts. The scene before my eyes would have looked like a normal school day in a regular school bus except that there was blood stains everywhere, and all the kids seemed not to be moving very much. As I took that painful second look I soon realised that they weren’t moving at all.
There were kids with cracked skulls. One of them had her mouth wide open. There was an umbrella sticking out of her mouth. Leaning closer to get a better look, I could see the pointy part of the umbrella sticking out of a gaping hole at the back of her head. It must have taken a lot of brute force to cause that kind of damage to a human skull.
“I definitely should not get on that woman’s bad side.” I pinched myself in disbelief.
Flies crawled over her still dead eyes. The dark black of her pupils streaked across the white of the dead girl’s eyes. Things were changing before my eyes. It seemed like none of us were in fucking control of anything anymore. My world had been torpedoed and turned upside down. If people are forced to result to such barbarism to keep breathing then what hope was there. I had to hope that this was not the new normal. I had to hope that this was just some very localized freak incident. There was only so much a person could take before something snaps.
“This is just sick stuff here. None of this is normal. Whatever this madness is-it doesn’t seem to have any damn boundaries.” A solemn look lingered on my saddened face.
I couldn’t help it. I had to take another look. There was something familiar about the red shirt that was stained in drool and blackish-red congealed blood which the dead girl was wearing. Those words on her shirt-I had seen them before. The words on the shirt read “I am a rascal! Bite me!”
I shook my head in disbelief. Could it be? Could it be her? Was this Emily baker? I didn’t know the kid well but I had had words with her on certain occasions. Mostly to tell her off for unruly behaviour. It was certainly true that she was an annoyance but the kid didn’t deserve to go that way. No child did. Her Pokémon headphones were still hanging over her ears.
“So unbelievable! You were a pain, kid but you deserved better!” I descended into moody soliloquy.
I heard footsteps walk up behind me. I could hear some sniffling sounds. The bulky shadow that was cast on the floor gave me a pretty good inkling as to who it was that had just snuck unto the bus.
“If you’ve got something to say about all this, you should say your piece now.” I spat on the floor between my shoes. “I ain’t here to judge you. Shit happens and I want you to know that you can unload on me.”
“I know you’re wondering how anyone could be so monstrous, aren’t you? You’re probably thinking that I need locking up for doing something so vile, aren’t you?” a single tear ran down Miss Maple’s uneasy face.
She was shaken up. Her hands were still on her chest, rubbing against the steel spider wrench beneath them. She didn’t seem to have that mad rage bubbling beneath her eyes anymore. There was some measure of calm in the way she conducted herself. It looked as if she had somehow found a way to make some sort of reconciliation with what she had done.
“Do you see a child killer before you, Mr. Davis? Am I the most loathsome of them all?�
�� Miss Maple’s stern eyes peered at me from behind her glasses.
“No I do not. You were just a woman in a very difficult situation. Most people wouldn’t have done things any different.” I bowed my head, and spoke some reassuring words to the distraught woman.
Some part of her was still recoiled into herself. There was some absentmindedness in the way her eyes stared blankly through me. She was there and she was not. I talked to her and I wasn’t entirely sure that Miss Maple was processing everything I was saying. Her head must have been one massive beehive of really sinister and self-loathing thoughts.
She probably hated herself more than anyone else could. I was hoping that she would not add to the death tally by doing something stupid. I had seen my fair share of senseless violence for the day. I was sick to my stomach of seeing blood everywhere I turned. Today was definitely shaping up to be a damn nightmare. Someone had to have a fix for this. I wished there were a reset button to take all of this back.
“Diane! She can’t see any of this!” I wiped the sweat off my four head. “Do you hear me?”
“What? Huh?” Miss Maple moved her shoulders jumpily.
She seemed to have been taken by surprise. My voice must have snapped her out of her transfixion on whatever unsavoury thoughts that were floating about in her traumatized noggin. I wasn’t really a guy with a softer side. I was as rough on the inside as I was on the outside. I always tried to be honest. I rarely did sugar-coating so I gave it to her straight. “You are a grown woman. I need you to keep whatever shit that is weighing you down on the back burner. These are unusual and possibly unsafe circumstances. So step up and get a grip.”
“What would you have me do?” Miss Maple wiped her eyes.
“Distract her. I need you to keep Diane away from this bus while I clean this mess up,” I spat the words out hastily.
Miss Maple nodded her head approvingly and traipsed out of the bus. She looked back at me and smiled briefly. “Thanks for the tough love talk. I needed that.”