STALK HER: A DARK DELIGHTS TITLE

by Dukey, Ker

  Pulling out a rag to rub any places I’ve touched before tossing it into the wilderness, I jump back in and drive back to Alice’s, leaving the car the way I found it.

  I fight the urge to creep back inside, instead walking down to my own car parked a mile down the street and drive to Ebony’s.

  I’m starving.

  I hope she has leftovers in the fridge.

  Once I get through Ebony’s cold lasagna, I flick on her laptop and log in to my new email address and see a message from Alice.

  Dear Ebony,

  It’s nice to know I’m not alone in the world.

  Sometimes it feels that way.

  Alice.

  She took the bait.

  You are far from alone, little bird

  * * *

  The ringing of the house phone jars me from a deep slumber on Ebony’s ratty couch.

  It smells of man sweat and beer farts.

  No doubt from Richard passing out on it all the time.

  I’ll have a new one delivered.

  She won’t need the reminder of him lingering.

  “Eb, get the fucking phone,” I groan, checking my cell and sneering when the time reads five fifteen.

  “What the fuck?” I moan, pulling a cushion over my head.

  A rapping at the front door followed by a ringing of the doorbell causes me to sit upright.

  Memories of only a few hours ago flood my mind.

  The house phone finally shuts up, and I hear the shuffling of my sister coming down the stairs.

  “What the hell?” she gasps.

  Getting to my feet I follow her to the door where a silhouette of two police officers shows through the pane of glass.

  Opening the door, Ebony is already holding a hand to her chest, her eyes wide and frown lines tugging down her brow.

  “What is it?” she murmurs on a shaky breath.

  They look between the two of us and my state of undress.

  I stripped down to my boxers before crashing.

  “Mrs. Bell?” one asks in a judgmental tone.

  “Yes,” she says, and once again, they look between us.

  “I’m her brother, what’s going on?” I ask, and their expression changes as they remove their hats.

  “I’m very sorry to inform you ma’am, there was an accident on route fifty six.”

  “Richard?” she asks, almost in a defeated tone.

  “Mr. Bell was in a hit and run accident. He was struck while working on the road, and I’m sorry but he was pronounced dead at the scene.”

  Her body goes limp, and I catch her before her knees hit the floor.

  Sobs retch from her throat as she clings to me, burrowing her face against my chest.

  “We will need someone to make a formal ID of the body,” they inform us, causing Ebony to cry harder.

  “A hit and run?” I ask and receive a nod in confirmation.

  “Yes sir, it appears to be a criminal matter. Sometimes a person can panic in the moment, adrenaline kicks in. A lot of the time people turn themselves in.”

  “And if they don’t?” I bark, anger lacing my tone for effect.

  “Then we will put in every effort to find the person responsible and bring them to justice.”

  Lifting Ebony to her feet, I wrap an arm around her and guide her inside.

  I place her on the couch and put a blanket around her shoulders before going back to the front door to find the officers looking over the cars parked in the driveway.

  “Is this your car?”

  “Yes, why?”

  “It’s a nice car, sir. Do you live here with your sister?”

  He’s looking at the hundred thousand dollar sports car I went home to get for this very reason.

  No way that car could have caused the damage to Richard and not have a scratch on it.

  “No, I’m having a little disagreement with my fiancée right now,” I shrug. “I didn’t want to get my ear chewed off, so I crashed here.”

  Smiling a knowing grin up at me, the officer asking the questions salutes me.

  “I hear you, believe me. I wish there was a place I could go to escape my wife sometimes,” he grunts.

  “I’ll let her know you said that,” his partner threatens, and they chuckle together.

  “If that’s all officers, my sister has just been given the worst news anyone could receive.”

  This gets their attention.

  They might deal with this stuff everyday, but it’s unprofessional of them to be making fucking jokes about their spouses after the news they just delivered.

  “Of course, we’re sorry for your loss. Please bring your sister down to the coroner’s office sometime today to make a formal identification.”

  With that they get back in their cruiser, and I find my sister inside.

  Her sobs have abated, but there’s tears streaking her face and a wobble of her lip.

  “He didn’t deserve to die like that,” she sniffles. “How could someone just leave him in the road to die?”

  “I’m sorry,” I offer as sincere as I can manage.

  “You hated him,” she snaps.

  “That’s not true. I hated that he put his hands on you, there’s a difference.”

  She wipes her hands down her face and swallows.

  “He wasn’t perfect, but he was mine, and now he’s gone.”

  I reach for her, and she doesn’t protest, coming into my arms and letting me soothe her.

  He needed to go. She will recover and find someone worthy of her.

  Twelve

  Chapter

  ALICE

  “You sleep like the dead,”

  Asher announces to my barely awake form.

  “Creeper much,” I snap, pushing the blankets from my body and smirking when his eyes track my movements, lingering on my bare legs.

  “Why are you in my room?”

  I shuffle out of the room and go relieve my bladder.

  Asher’s left by the time I return.

  I find him a couple minutes later downstairs in the kitchen.

  “Why is she here?” I narrow my eyes on his uppity cousin, who I hate just because she’s rich, stuck up, and a cunt.

  “I’m here because my family needs me,” she flicks her cheaply - dyed hair over her skinny shoulder.

  She means Asher. She has a creepy fascination with him.

  “Ash?” I ask as he lifts a mug to his lips, taking a sip.

  “I asked her to come over, my dad’s car…” He answers after a couple of swigs.

  Oh, God, am I supposed to guess the next line? I snatch the mug from him and suckle down the nectar of coffee.

  “It’s covered in blood,” he finishes, and I stop my movements, eyeing him over the lip of the mug.

  When I regain my ability to move, I look to the living room to see if Fred’s in there. His chair is empty.

  “Where’s Fred?”

  “Sleeping in there, with your mother.”

  My eyes snap to the door where my mother lays in her deathbed.

  He never sleeps in there.

  “So whose blood is on the car?” I ask the burning question, irritated that he’s not being forthcoming and I have to drag the answers from him.

  “Well, that’s what we need to find out, isn’t it,” the bitch says, batting her fake eyelashes.

  I see concern in Asher’s eyes, and as much as I despise Fred, I actually have a soft spot for Ash.

  I grasp Asher’s arm.

  “He probably hit an animal, this road is notorious for wildlife coming out of the woods at night.”

  “Well, that would be wishful thinking, April,” little Miss Fake huffs.

  Ash rolls his eyes and corrects her. “It’s Alice, and you know it. Don’t be catty, it doesn’t suit you.”

  Sneering, she rolls her eyes. “As if. It was a genuine mistake, she looks like an April.”

  She mouths fool at me when Ash turns to look out the kitchen window.

  I offer
her the middle finger and wrap an arm around Ash to aggravate her.

  “We can get it cleaned up and check the news just to be sure.”

  I reassure him and feel his body relax against mine.

  “You’re right, let’s do that,” his eyes flicker to the pale bruise on my cheek and guilt washes in them.

  * * *

  Without permission, my face contorts into a cringe when I see the state of the car.

  It looks like someone’s actually attempted to clean up the front of the hood; smeared blood is left diluted from someone pouring a substance over it.

  It just makes this all seem really fucking dodgy. There’s a crack in the windshield and blood across the roof.

  Whatever he hit, I doubt it’s still breathing.

  Did I push Fred to this?

  “Ash, I’m not sure if you should touch that car. It could be evidence, you could be implicated if you clean it,” his cousin tells him, concern in her tone.

  Dammit, she’s right. I don’t want to touch it now either.

  “Let’s just cover it for now?” I suggest.

  Ash grunts his approval and goes to pull a tarp out of the garage.

  We can’t even stash the car in there because it’s full of Ash’s tools and bike.

  I help fix the tarp into place then leave them to go check my emails.

  Dear Alice,

  It saddens me to know you feel alone.

  Tell me about yourself.

  Kind regards,

  Ebony.

  I hit Reply:

  Dear Ebony

  I let a boy use me. It was in hopes he would talk to his father about a scholarship. I’m desperate. My mother got sick. Her illness ate my college fund. I hate myself for being so weak.

  Thirteen

  Chapter

  ERIK

  Knowing you’re doing something wrong and actually doing something about it are two very different things.

  I know it’s not normal for me to be sitting outside my sister’s bedroom listening to her cry.

  I’m not normal though.

  I have a sickness, and I know that.

  But I can’t force myself to move away.

  Her sorrow comforts me, makes me feel strong.

  And now I need to be the warrior that will re-build her life for her, eliminating anything in it that hurts her.

  I’m her savior in this. Richard was a cunt who had to go.

  Getting to my feet, I knock on her door.

  Not waiting for a reply, I go inside to find her dressed but crumpled up on the bed.

  “I can’t do it,” she says, her voice muffled by a pillow. “I can’t see him like that, Erik. Don’t make me.”

  “You want me to do it?” I ask, and she nods.

  Seems a little perverse for me to go see the damage I caused, but if she can’t do it... Richard didn’t really have any relatives that actually liked him.

  “Ok.”

  She lifts up and launches herself at me.

  “Thank you.”

  * * *

  “Are you ready?” the officer asks, waiting for a confirmation.

  He then proceeds to nod to a guy who leads me to a window.

  They gave me some drivel about death being traumatic and how a body can look different and how upsetting this can be, what the fuck ever.

  Just get this shit over with.

  The guy on the opposite side of the window stands over a table, a body shape covered by a blue sheet before him.

  With a nod from the officer he pulls back the sheet and Richard’s mangled face appears.

  They’ve made an effort to clean him up, but fuck, this would have destroyed Ebony.

  I nod. “That’s him,” I say, making my face drop and tears spring to my eyes.

  I turn away, pretending to need a minute, then ask,

  “Any leads?”

  “Unfortunately that road isn’t used often, and there are no cameras for forty miles in either direction. It’s going to be hard to find those responsible.”

  No it’s not.

  I wait for an hour after leaving the coroner’s office before ringing the county tip line.

  “My neighbor came home with blood all over his car last night.”

  “Can you give me the address and your name, sir.”

  Yes to the address.

  Fourteen

  Chapter

  ALICE

  What the hell is happening? I re-read the text from Reese.

  Message received you fucking bitch. My leg is broken in three places.

  Before I can reply, my heart begins a nervous pounding as I see a police car pull up outside our house.

  “Ash,” I call up the stairs while rushing to the door.

  “What?”

  “The police,” I whisper yell.

  He turns white as a ghost, his muscles tightening over his skeleton.

  “They’ve stopped at the car,” I frown, biting my nails anxiously.

  Coming down the stairs and pushing out the door in nothing but a pair of sweats, Asher exudes confidence.

  “Officer, can I help you?” he asks in a matter of fact tone.

  Hands on hips, the policemen nods to the car. “This yours?”

  “My dad’s, why?”

  “We had a call come in, telling us this car may have been involved in an incident we’re investigating.”

  Shit.

  I bet it was Asher’s blonde bitch cousin calling it in like a traitorous whore.

  “Do you mind if we take a look?”

  “Do I have a choice?” Asher folds his arms and looks over his shoulder at me, the tendons in his neck bulging.

  “Is your father in?” the other officer asks.

  Crap. He’s stayed in the room with my mother all day.

  When Asher questioned him about the car, he said he couldn’t remember how he even got home.

  Just as Ash begins to open his mouth, I sense Fred come up behind me.

  My stomach dips when he steps around me and all eyes land on him.

  He looks dirty and hungover.

  “What’s going on?” he asks, stepping down the steps into the yard.

  “This your car, sir?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Where were you last night around one a.m.?”

  He doesn’t even try to hide his guilt, it’s written all over his face.

  Vacant eyes searching the empty space in his mind, trying to conjure up answers.

  Pulling the tarp off the car, the officer nods his head to his partner who steps forward and tells Fred he’s under arrest.

  “I’ll get you a lawyer, dad,” Asher tells him.

  What the hell is going to happen now? Will I become my mom’s guardian if Fred goes to prison?

  The officers talk in hushed murmurs to Asher then they lead Fred to the patrol car.

  Shit, this is really happening.

  “Alice!”

  I jump at the sound of my name barked from Asher’s lips.

  “What?”

  “They’re booking him for a hit and run.”

  Da dum… da dum...da dum…

  “The man is dead. He killed someone.”

  Reaching up onto my tiptoes, I wrap my arms around his neck and hold him.

  We’re in new territory with this. What the hell are we going to do?

  Fifteen

  Chapter

  ERIK

  Staring at Maggie standing on my sister’s doorstep wearing oversized sunglasses and a black coat, I nearly laugh but manage to refrain.

  “What are you doing here?”

  She gasps and places a hand over her chest.

  “I saw the news an hour ago, Erik. I’m here for Ebony. Geez, I’m not a monster. How could you think I wouldn’t be here?”

  There’s a weird pitch in her voice. It’s shaky, on edge.

  Rolling my eyes, I hold the door open and let her waltz inside.

  She marches down the hallway with her arms outstretched until s
he reaches my sister standing at the other end, glaring at me for letting her in.

  “I’m so sorry about Rich, Ebs.”

  Ebs? She’s crazier than I am. Not once has she ever referred to her as Ebs.

  “I actually need to go into the office if you’re ok to stay with her for a while?”

  “Sure, anything for the family. I came straight over when I saw the news, it’s just devastating.”

  * * *

  REPLY:

  Alice,

  I shouldn’t be telling you this, but I can’t help but feel moved by your story.

  I know someone who works at a business who sponsors students. I can give him your name if you would like to go and have a meeting with him? He works at LeeRoss Industries.

  Spaces are limited and time is of the essence, so you’d need to meet with him as soon as possible.

  From,

  Ebony

  * * *

  I drive down Alice’s street but don’t stop.

  Police are all over her yard, yellow tape around the car, and a tow truck stationed ready to take it away once they’ve done what they need to.

  It’s fitting really.

  Both Richard and Alice’s stepfather like to beat women, and I took them both down with one stone.

  I want to go to her so badly, but it’s too risky with the spotlight on her house right now, so I give my sister the time she deserves from me.

  I need to rescue her from Maggie.

  Sixteen

  Chapter

  ALICE

  Murder charges, reckless endangerment, and drunk driving.

  Turns out Fred is loose lipped and a complete idiot. It’s going to take a miracle to get him off from this, and miracles are a fantasy.