I spent the rest of the day helping out around the kitchen with Lottie, Jensen and some of the kids. Violet was getting pretty good at helping around the kitchen, as well as being great at defending herself.
'Where's Brooke?' I asked as I prepared the plates for tomorrow's food.
We'd picked up some more cutlery each time we went on runs, while the small towns and villages round here were empty of supplies and weapons, no one had ever thought to take cutlery.
'She's having a rest, poor woman she does so much for these kids that she deserves a break,' Lottie replied smiling.
'You're right about that, I don't know how she does it,' I laughed.
'You do a pretty good job of looking after the kids yourself.'
'Yeah, we like it when your around,' Tyler said joyfully. I laughed at him, Tyler was a sweet boy who was only five years old. He was a tiny boy with dark hair that was shaved at his insistence, he had dark blue eyes that lit up every time I came by to look after him. Tyler was a quiet, shy little boy who had been nervous with me at first but now it was like having a little brother. I didn't look after the kids as often as they would like, but I tried to make time for them.
'I like being around you as well,' I laughed.
'I think we're about done here,' Lottie told me.
'Are you sure? I can finish off for you if you like,' I offered.
'I'm quite sure, now go on lad we've all got a big day tomorrow,' she replied. 'All right then if you insist, see you kids later,' I called as I walked out the door. I walked out into the cold December air, feeling the wind whip through my hair. It was still early in the day, but it was already pitch black outside. I didn't feel tired, so I took a walk through the crop fields. I kept fiddling with the necklace in my pocket, aching to pluck up the courage to give it to her. The more I thought about, the sadder I felt. There was just no way I'd get away with it, maybe if I more suave or confident, but I'm just a quiet kid.
Great now I've thoroughly depressed myself, I thought miserably. As I reached the very edge of the farm, I began to hear voices. I crept closer not wanting whoever it was to know I was there, at first I thought it could be a stranger but then I heard a familiar name be mentioned.
'Rowena is just the distraction, and you know it,' a cruel, quiet voice said.
Kyle? It couldn't be, I thought confused.
'No she's not, I love her and your not going to take her away,' another quieter, pleading voice said. I knelt down and shuffled closer, taking care not to make any noise. The wind picked up, making it harder for me to see through the crops. Lucky for me I was wearing all black, so at least I'd be hard to spot. As I crept closer, a feeling of dread washed over me as I saw that there was only one person standing in darkness. But, the voices are so different?
I felt confused and worried and I didn't know what to do except keep listening.
'Ha, you think that you can stop me. No one can stop me and you know it. Our real goal is out there, she needs to pay and we will have our revenge,' he laughed.
What the hell was he on about, who did he want revenge on?
'No I won't let you, she's a good woman, too good for the likes of us and I'll not have you hurting her,' the softer voice argued.
'You love her too, I can feel it. You just used Rowena to distract yourself, you only think you love her,' the cruel one taunted.
I didn't know much about mental health, I mean Frankie had told me about her condition so I knew a little, but this, this was just weird.
'It might have started out that way, I mean I had to do something to try and stop you hurting HER, but now I love Rowena and I'll do whatever it takes to protect her from you!' 'Its not Rowena you need to worry about. I'll let them have this happy time, but I have a plan to get rid of those in my way, and you'll not be able to stop me,' when he laughed it sent shivers down my spine.
I kept quiet and I waited until he'd walked off, so Kyle had a split personality and for the last six months we'd mainly been dealing with his 'nice' side. I didn't know who 'she' was that he kept referring to, but someone in our group was in danger. It wasn't Rowena, that much I was thankful of but it could be any of the others that I cared about.
Whoever this woman was, his good side loved her but his bad side kinda wanted to hurt her but from what I heard he was also kind of obsessed with her.
I kept thinking about it as I waited for him to be back at the house, it could be Frankie I mean she's hit him more than once and he had sort of tried to look out for her these last few months. He warned her not to go to Birmingham on the run, he even went to help her with our defences a few times.
Then again, it could be Delilah. They'd also been in a few fights and Delilah wasn't shy about putting him straight when he was being a dick, he'd also tried to get on her good side lately. Then again he'd been nicer to everyone since we'd left the school, my head hurt trying to figure this out.
I looked out into the darkness and couldn't hear or see Kyle any more, I tried to stand up but my legs had gone numb from all the kneeling. It took me a good few minutes to shake of the numbness before I could walk back.
I had to tell someone but I didn't want to ruin Christmas for everyone, not only that Kyle's bad side had said that he was going to let them have the holidays before he did anything. I assumed that he included New Years in that, so it meant we had a little bit of time.
As the house came into view it dawned on me, I didn't want to cause a panic but I had to tell someone about this. I couldn't tell Jade, she'd fly off the handle. Rowena might not believe me and I knew that she was safe enough for now. Brooke wouldn't be able to help me and she'd no doubt just tell Jade. Marcel would just kill him, as kind and gentle as he was, he would flip if he knew that Kyle was planning to hurt one of the girls.
Jensen was the same, especially when it came to Frankie he wouldn't even give Kyle the chance to explain. Not that you could really talk your way out of something like that, though I'd wager he'd still try. Ash didn't know Kyle well enough to be able to do something, and to be fair if it was anyone else with this problem we'd try to help them. Frankie would probably want to help him, given how close she and Rowena were she would help Kyle for Rowena's sake.
I smiled, why didn't I think of her before, Delilah. She wouldn't run her mouth, nor would she fly off the handle and she had no love for Kyle so she wouldn't want to help him. I walked back up to the house, trying to look as normal as possible. Luckily for me Delilah was just coming out of the house, she was laughing with Jensen, no doubt he'd told her about his surprise for Frankie.
'Hey lad, where have you been?' Delilah asked softly. 'Just went for a walk, hey um can I borrow you for a little while, I need help with something?' I tried to sound normal but it was hard, I hated keeping things from my family especially Jensen given how close we were.
'Sure thing, is everything alright?' Delilah wondered.
'Yeah, you look a little pale,' Jensen said worryingly.
'Honestly I'm fine, I just need to talk to Delilah,' I replied trying to sound somewhat cheerful. 'Okay, well I'm here if you need me,' Jensen smiled before heading to his and Frankie's tent. I didn't say a word to Delilah until we were back in the middle of the crop fields, I rubbed my arms feeling the cold set in as I saw the first droplets of rain pour down.
'What's going on Finn, you drag me out here in the freezing cold without saying a word?' Delilah wondered concernedly.
'Just a sec, I need to make sure we weren't followed,' I told her quietly.
'What, who would follow us?' She asked confused.
'Kyle,' was all I would say until I knew we were actually alone. I checked around a few times to make sure it was safe to talk, Delilah stood there impatiently tapping her foot on the floor. Once she knew, she would understand why I was being so paranoid. It had occurred to me that Kyle would do anything to keep his secret, and I'm damn sure that would include killing anyone who found out about it.
I told Delilah what I'd seen and heard, the
look of horror and fear followed by anger crossed her face, anger was the one that stuck. She walked up and down, kicking her feet in the dirt, swearing under her breath as she did.
'I can't believe I gave him a another chance, I should've known he was dodgy,' she ranted.
'It's not just you, but the bigger question is what do we do now?' I asked fretfully.
'As much as I want to find him and kick his ass, we need more evidence. We need to keep an eye on him, find out exactly what he's planning before we do anything,' she said sounding frustrated.
'You're right, I just can't stand the thought of Rowena being with that weirdo,' I answered, annoyed.
'I know how you feel, but if we act too soon it might cause him to do something stupid,' Delilah answered. I woke up the next morning feeling confused and frustrated, I knew Delilah was right about keeping an eye on Kyle but I loathed the thought of having sit there and watch them together. I took a deep breath as I got up, I had to be normal I couldn't let on that I knew. I shook the thoughts away as I realised that today was Christmas, and Christmas was a time to celebrate with family. Which is exactly what I was going to do, I thought cheerfully.
I jumped out of my makeshift bed, given that we'd all gotten used to having our own space we'd decided not to cram into the house with everyone. So a while ago we'd gone on a run to get some more covers and made sure that we wouldn't freeze while sleeping in the tents. I opened the zip to find everyone else was getting up as well.
I looked over to see Kyle holding Rowena's hand as they walked up to the house together, I felt my fists clench but I kept calm and didn't react to my anger.
'Merry Christmas,' Jade said happily. Hey, Happy Yule,' I replied remembering that this was also a Pagan holiday. Jade and Frankie had spoken about this the other day, I would've planned something for this if I'd known more about Yule, but if I'd asked them about it they would have figured it out which would've ruined the surprise.
She smiled as she followed the others up to the house, the only ones left outside were me and Delilah. She too looked frustrated and on edge, she came over to me as she took a deep breath.
'This going to be hard, are you up for it?' She asked quietly.
'Yeah, I can do it knowing that I'm protecting my family,' I told her firmly.
'Same here, now lets go before they wonder where we are,' she smiled. As we entered the house I found myself to be awe of Lottie and the kids work on the decorations, it looked Christmassy but it also looked a little different. There was a tree they'd decorated with Christmas things, but there was also pentagrams a triquetra and various other witchy symbols. I could see some pretty plants and berries hanging from the ceiling, I smiled thinking how lucky we were to have found this place and these people.
'I can't believe you did this, it looks amazing,' Jade said in awe.
'This must've taken you and the kids hours to do this,' Frankie smiled.
'It was no trouble, the kids had fun picking these and putting them up. I knew you two were Pagan and wanted you to be able to celebrate your holiday as well,' Lottie replied happily.
'Well thank you, so much Lottie. This is more than we could've ever hoped for,' Jade told her as she gave the old woman a hug.
Lottie laughed, 'now everyone sit down before you make me cry.'
'No tears on Christmas,' Rob laughed.
'Here, here,' Frankie said smiling.
'How did you even know what things to get?' Rowena asked softly.
'Well back before I was a cook and a child minder, I used to work at the university and I taught Religious studies,' she told us.
'Wow, you really did have a whole other life once,' Kyle joked.
I felt my blood boil as he spoke, Delilah looked over at me We spent the day laughing, joking, almost as if things were normal. Frankie jumped for joy when saw Jensen's present, I'd never seen her so happy. Jade and Ash loved their present from me, it'll certainly make building joints a little easier, I thought laughing. Rowena giggled and shrieked with excitement when she saw all the hair dye.
Everyone loved getting presents, especially the kids. It kept them happily occupied as the adults sorted out dinner, Rob surprised everyone by bringing in a deer he'd caught for dinner. 'Damn, I know we have good food most of the time but that was freaking awesome,' I said feeling stuffed.
'You've outdone yourself,' Jade praised him.
'Thanks everyone, I just wanted to make this day special,' he replied humbly.
I laughed along with everyone else, you could tell it was Christmas as Rob was never humble. As I looked around at the people before me, I couldn't help but feel lucky. In this world, happiness and sustainability were so rare, we'd only met two groups of people who had achieved those things, Ester's people at the hospital and Rob and these people. I still held out hope that even after all we'd seen that we would find more people like this, one day the world would be free from this plague and we would truly be able rebuild society.
I tried to imagine what the new world would look like, a place where people like Kyle didn't exist, a place where we didn't have to worry about the dead rising and eating us. I wondered where we'd all live, would we settle in one of the places we found or would we all go back to to where we were from and live out our days there?
I could see Jade going back home, she loved that house and her village. She'd go back to growing her herbs and finding a way to grow some weed, she'd spend her golden years being high as a kite. Rowena would go wherever her mum did, I saw her one day with a bunch of kids of her own. She was too kind, too loving and patient not to have kids. If we ever had real jobs again, I could see Rowena being a teacher or a nursery nurse. I think Jensen would end up as an actual farmer, he loved it so much that I couldn't see him doing anything else.
Marcel, well he's staying here when we leave so I think he'll always be here. I could imagine him growing old on this farm, with a wife and kids of his own one day. Violet, I couldn't wait to watch her grow up, I had a feeling she was going to be one hell of a woman. I think Brooke would happily stay as a nanny for the rest of her life, she loved the kids so much, in fact I'm surprised that she hadn't opted to stay here when we all left.
Frankie would always be by Jensen's side, I couldn't ever imagine those two being apart, they'd get married and settle down with a couple of kids. Delilah would always be the wild girl, I doubt she'd ever settle down, I could see her still having crazy adventures in twenty years. Frankie would always be the same, strong willed, independent, fierce woman I'd known. I doubt there was any kind of evil that could shake her.
As for me, well I didn't know what the future held for me. I knew that one day I'd return home to my family, though I had only cared for Leon for a very short while it made me realise that one day I would like a family of my own. Of course in order for that to happen, I'd need a wife and well the woman I loved was currently with a psychopath.
One thing I did know, was that I'd do anything to protect my family, even if that meant killing people to do so.
Chapter 33
Delilah
'We need to do something,' Finn whispered angrily.
'I know, but with everything going on we don't have time to deal with this,' I replied sadly.
'But we can't just let him kill someone.'
'We won't, we just have to keep an eye on him. If we're going into battle any time soon, we need all the bodies we can get,' I told him strongly.
'You expect me to go into battle with that psycho, he'd love nothing more than to get us all killed,' Finn spat.
'You know full well if we rock the boat with Rowena, she'll only defend him. We need to prove to her that he's sick and twisted.'
'You've said this before, but do you suppose we do that?'
I sat thinking for a minute, we needed a way to prove he was evil without him finding out that we knew. If he found out that knew, he'd kill us without hesitation.
'What if we just kill him,' I said quietly.
I expected Fin
n to argue or be appalled at my suggestion but instead he just smiled.
'I was hoping you'd say that,' he replied in a hushed voice.
'Are you sure your okay with this, we've both killed others in battle but this is different. We're talking about murder here.' 'If you have a better idea I'm open to it. But you know as well as I do if we tell Rowena about his problem, she'll only try to save him and in the process she and the other members of our family could be killed.'
He was right, though I hated myself for suggesting the idea, I knew we had no other choice.
'And how do you propose we do it, we have to make it look like an accident or like a walker got him.' Before he could answer I heard someone walking towards us, it was fortunate that we spoke so quietly. I turned to see Frankie walking through the field, I wondered what she needed. Frankie usually stayed near the house to help with repairs or read a good book when she had time.
'I need to talk to you two, it's about the bodies we've found,' she told us sadly. 'Has Jade decided to tell Rob?' I asked. 'Yeah, she went and told him not long ago. Suffice to say he's not happy,' she said sounding frustrated.
'Let me guess, he wants to find these arse holes and kill them,' Finn guessed.
'Yeah he does and to be honest I agree. With everything we've been through to get here, all that we've lost I don't want to leave them be and risk them attacking us first,' she replied strongly. I looked at Finn with worry on my face, if we went to battle it would give Kyle the perfect opportunity to kill anyone of us. However, it would also give us the chance to 'get' him killed. Finn nodded, no doubt he'd reached the same conclusion I did.
'We agree,' Finn told her. 'Good, look I'm going to go back to the house and check on Jade. She doesn't want to fight, so I've no doubt that there's going to be a lot of arguments until we all agree,' she answered as she rushed off back to the house.
Dead World Rising (Book 3): The Cure Page 33
