where she’s standing. She’s stubborn like that.
“Did your father tell you I didn’t really want you? That I got pregnant just so I could have his money? Because he’s right, I did. I never wanted a child. Not a child that did nothing but cling to me, vomit on me, and demanded too much attention. You were such a burden to me, Denny. Now it’s time to get to kill two birds with one stone. Hurt your father and get rid of you like I should have done years ago,’’ she sniggers evilly and I look at her wide eyed. She’s clearly lost her ever loving mind. I always knew she was psychotic, but this... this is something far beyond psychotic; I don’t think there’s a medical term for it.
“I...I don’t understand mother. What are you saying?’’ I ask feeling a little panicked. Looking around the area, the panic doesn’t subside and the urge to flee just intensifies. There’s no one around to help me if she does something equally alarming as her odd behaviour right now.
I’ve never felt any sort of love from my mother, so her telling me she never wanted me doesn’t even sting, nothing could have surprised me about her feelings towards me. I guess I’ve always truly known, but it still never stopped me over the years trying to gain her approval, to make her proud.
Now I can see why dad was so scared to leave her, why he distanced himself from me during my childhood. She really is a raving lunatic.
“Well, I want you gone. It will kill your father, but also get rid of you. My all-time embarrassment. My biggest failure. Your father will never recover from losing you. You were always his main concern, the reason he stayed with me. Even when he acted like he didn’t care about you, I knew. I knew he still kept a close eye on your grades, had someone record your school plays, but the man was weak, he still is. I can’t wait to see his face when he gets the call to say he lost you,’’ she grins, her grin disarming and disturbing to the eyes.
Slowly, I put my hand in my cardigan pocket, silently pressing the buttons to what I know to be Mason’s mobile number. I don’t want to risk it dialing the last person I called as I’m pretty sure it was my Nan. She’d probably be out somewhere with friends on a Saturday night. And knowing her, she’s probably either at bingo drinking the rest of her buddies under the table. Or in a bar chatting up someone thirty plus years younger than her and don’t think I’m joking.
Not long after moving in I got a call from a local bar asking me –okay pleading with me- to pick her up. When I walked in I had to pry her off a twenty something year old lad who looked like he was going to be traumatized for the rest of his life.
And something tells me I’ll need someone sober for what’s about to come. I can feel it in my bones, that fleeting instinct there, not too far in the back of my mind. It’s screaming at me to ‘go’, to ‘run’, and not look back.
“Mother, you’re scaring me,’’ I shiver, hoping the next button I press on my phone is the call button, but I don’t have too much time to dwell on it when Craig Davis’s brother suddenly walks around the corner, coming from out of the alley with a smug, evil, smirk on his face. My face drains of colour and my whole body goes on high alert.
What the hell is he doing here?
I look towards my mother, and back to Carl, and it occurs to me, my mother knows him, she’s not at all the least bit intimidated or scared of his presence and the thought scares me more than I’d care to admit.
Taking a step backwards my mom begins to laugh, the high pitched sound screeching in my ears, but it’s Carl’s amused expression while he shakes his head that has me freezing on the spot. That’s when I look down to see a huge butcher knife held firmly in his left hand and my whole body locks up, freezing in fear.
“I’m going to have fun with you,’’ he snarls then lunges at me, a scream roaring from my throat.
This cannot be happening.
Chapter Sixteen
MASON
Where the fuck is she? It’s been over two hours and I’m