Darkly Wood

by Power, Max

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  “You were close friends with Gabby Waddock?” was the first question that was eventually put to him and in response Bobby shrugged his shoulders.

  The journey from the cemetery to the police station was a long enough one, but throughout the whole drive not one word was spoken. Bobby had never felt so alone. When they finally arrived at the station, he remained out in the cold. They ushered him to a dimly lit room at the heart of the station and left him waiting for half an hour before finally beginning their interrogation. He knew that he should not be there. This was stupid. Why couldn’t everyone just leave him alone? But his only answer was in his head.

  They wasted no time in trying to get at Bobby. When he didn’t answer, Sergeant Nobel slammed his hand on the table that separated them and Bobby jumped. The uniformed policeman that stood behind Bobby, poked him between the shoulder blades with a closed fist demanding,

  “Answer the question!”

  “We were friends.”

  He didn’t like the man asking him questions and it showed in his voice.

  “I think you were more than friends eh?” It was a rhetorical question. “I think you were a little overly fond of the young lady eh?” Again he didn’t wait for an answer and his voice became louder and more aggressive, “I think you had notions of an improper nature about her lad, that’s what I think. I think you had vile lustful thoughts about your ‘friend’ and that you tried your hand with her up in Darkly Wood!”

  Again Bobby felt a shove in his back as the policeman behind him tried to provoke Bobby to anger. Instead he just sat there and lowered his head.

  “LOOK AT ME!” the detective suddenly roared and Bobby obeyed.

  “Ashamed of yourself?” he shouted rounding the table and pulling Bobby to his feet.

  He was a big man, much bigger and stronger than Bobby who was of slight build. He yanked Bobby from his chair and shoved him up against the nearest wall. As though that wasn’t enough, the angry detective punched him hard in the stomach. Bobby doubled over but the two men immediately forced him upright. Sergeant Nobel grabbed his chin to raise Bobby’s face so that he could look him in the eyes.

  He knew how to break men did Sergeant Nobel. Oh Yes! He knew what it took. No one would commit such a vile crime in his locality and dare to think that they could walk away Scott free. He knew how to break men alright and he had broken tougher ones than Bobby Bunker. But Bobby still said nothing. Tears formed in his eyes. He wasn’t afraid. He wasn’t even hurt that badly. In truth Bobby didn’t really know what made him cry at that precise moment. Perhaps it was the thought of poor Gabby, lying cold and alone beneath the damp earth that had just crept into his consciousness despite his dilemma. Bobby imagined her face as he closed his eyes. Sergeant Nobel took the tears to mean something else. They were a sign of weakness.

  He stepped back and let go of Bobby’s chin before promptly slapping him hard across the face. Bobby just stood there so Nobel slapped him again, this time so hard it hurt his hand and left Bobby with a deafening ringing sound in his ears. Still Bobby just stood there. Nobel stepped back and the other man, who went by the name of Samuel Wormhold, stepped forward. He began a relentless unprovoked attack, punching Bobby over and over again. Nobel sat down and lit up a cigarette as Wormhold went about his horrible business, landing blow after blow to Bobby’s face, stomach, kidneys and back. He was enjoying his work, and when he had finished, Wormhold picked up the bloody limp mess that was Bobby Bunker and dumped him back onto the chair opposite Nobel.

  Throughout the beating Bobby neither spoke nor cried out. Fortunate to be still conscious, Bobby stared silently back at Nobel through half closed eyes as he sat barely able to keep himself upright, on the chair opposite. He smiled, and then sniggered just a little. It really angered Nobel.

  “What’s so funny?”

  He had to ask and Bobby stopped laughing. Bobby raised his right hand and rubbed blood from the end of his nose with his sleeve. Then he looked up at Nobel through swelling eyes, a smirk on his cracked bloody lips.

  “You never even asked me where I was.”

  Nobel had no idea what he meant.

  “Where you where?” he simply had to ask and as he did so he realised the relevance of the question.

  “When Gabby went missing,” Bobby answered, “when she was killed. You never asked me where I was that day.”

  Again he smiled, chuckled almost and Nobel suddenly had a bad feeling. He could not resist however.

  “Where were you then?”

  Bobby made him wait a bit. He just stared at him, leaving the policeman waiting, knowing it was driving him mad. He waited and waited until he thought the Sergeant would explode and just before he did, Bobby answered him. He leaned forward and said,

  “I was in hospital.” He allowed the words to sink in before finishing, “all day!” The smile on his face grew. “ALL DAY!” he repeated. Nobel slammed his closed fist onto the table but this time Bobby didn’t flinch. There was no flinch left in him.

  “LIAR!”

  Bobby laughed and it hurt. Everything hurt and he had to suck back the blood that dribbled from his lip. Nobel was furious, but he knew somehow that Bobby was telling the truth.

  “Why didn’t you tell us in the beginning?”

  “Like I said,” Bobby answered, “You didn’t ask!”

  Nobel stood up and stormed out. Wormhold was baffled and for a moment just stood there staring at Bobby before following Nobel through the door which he promptly slammed behind him. None of this made any sense to either man.

  They hurried to Nobel’s office. Nobel immediately picked up the telephone and rang Wickby hospital. With the surprise of Bobby’s revelation he hadn’t bothered to ask which hospital but he wasn’t about to go back and ask that idiot anything else. Not until he checked this out first. He felt stupid enough as it was. Wickby General was the only hospital in striking distance and if Bobby was telling the truth, they would have a record.

  Sergeant Nobel thought he would have difficulty establishing the full facts quickly, but much to his surprise, once he had explained who he was and who he was enquiring after, the nice young lady who answered the phone put him straight through to Doctor Leonard Specter. The Doctor was surprisingly familiar with Bobby’s movements that day. The young serviceman had in fact, the Doctor explained, come in the night before. He was put on fast until the morning of Gabby’s disappearance and the Sister had woken him at six a.m. Bobby was brought to theatre where he was anesthetised and then they cut open his left arm to remove a piece of shrapnel which he had been carrying around with him since his return from the war. The operation was over by eight thirty and Bobby was back on the ward and awake by nine. He remained there all day and was released the following morning. Doctor Specter could personally vouch for his whereabouts. The hospital kept meticulous records.

  When Sergeant Nobel had thanked the Doctor for his help and let the information sink in, both he and Wormhold were left with one remaining mystery. Why, if he were innocent, did Bobby Bunker take such a severe beating when all along he could simply have spoken up and cleared his name? They returned to ask Bobby that very question. There was something not right about this whole thing.

  They were not to know, the guilt that Bobby carried with him. Like the villagers of Cranby, they were unaware of how Bobby blamed himself for surviving when all about him had perished. The people of the town had been angry at him for not being their son or husband or father, returning alive and well from the war. He understood that, more perhaps than they did. He felt it more too. Bobby didn’t want to discuss the horrors he had seen with them. They could never understand.

  How do you tell someone that you saw their son lie for hours, slowly bleeding to death on a muddy patch of earth just out of reach of anyone who could comfort or help him? How could you say you lived while you listened to their tormented cries throughout the dark night? How could you? And how could you return home practically unscathed save for a
small piece of shrapnel hidden in your arm, as time and time again you witnessed such horrors and then, for the ultimate horror of death to be visited on all those close by, whilst you walked away more or less unharmed?

  More importantly, they were not to know the deal that Bobby had entered into. How could they? How could anyone? Bobby had pledged his soul to live. He had lay crying in the mud of a trench at first praying to God that he might get home alive. But Bobby soon realised that it was a Godforsaken place and changed his pleas, offering them up to anyone who would listen. He prayed that others might die so he might live and his prayers were heard.

  On his return home, Bobby had travelled to Darkly Wood to wander and be alone with his thoughts. In that place, Bobby was reminded of the deal he had made. Though others feared that place, for some reason Darkly Wood welcomed Bobby. His walks there gave him clarity and peace of mind for the first time since the war. But they only lasted while he was there and at all other times, Bobby was in turmoil. The Wood had been trying to show him the way to escape his pain, to see the light.

  Bobby didn’t kill Gabby with his own two hands; rather she had been lost to a pact he had made in a moment of despair, and one he was forced to re-commit to, on his visits to that terrible Wood overlooking Cranby. He had sold his soul and was re-paying by installments, watching those around him fall and die. Unfortunately Gabby’s death meant he hadn’t cleared his debt. It would seem that the cost to him in life would be far greater than he could possibly cope with or afford.

  Neither Nobel not Wormhold could comprehend such tormented thoughts. They didn’t understand that Bobby had welcomed the beating that they had administered. Moreover they couldn’t have understood that it helped him see a light at the end of the tunnel. Their very punishment had shown Bobby a way out. But they were not to know. So when they opened the door and found Bobby’s lifeless limp body hanging from the light fitting, a makeshift noose made from his belt, the chair he had sat upon forlornly lying on its side, they didn’t understand that he was at last, finally free.

  CHAPTER FIVE – TALES OF DARKLY WOOD

  A whole week had almost passed before Daisy saw Benjamin Blood again. It was the longest, oddest week ever. Every day had been filled with endless move related chores. School was still out, so at least she would be spared the new girl routine for a few more weeks. Daisy had been so busy helping her mother decorate and run errands that she barely had a moment to herself. Her chief complaint in advance of the move had been to constantly insist that she would be bored in Cranby. In hindsight, Daisy considered that her moaning might have backfired. Her mother appeared to be doing her utmost to keep Daisy occupied.

  All the while, below her mother’s radar, Daisy’s mind would drift back to her meeting with Benjamin. Every day, she would watch the street outside and whenever she did venture out with her mother or indeed alone, she wished ever more deeply that Benjamin would be just around the next corner. But he never was. Daisy found herself making up reasons to go out; just on the off-chance that she might see Benjamin again. She made sure to forget important items whenever her mother sent her to the shops, just so she could go out again. It was entirely silly but Daisy could not help herself. Benjamin was becoming an irrational obsession.

  When it was time for bed, Daisy would float off to sleep thinking of increasingly more and more unrealistic scenarios in which she could meet up with Benjamin. The degree of romanticism in her fantasies was not something that she would admit to herself, but her crush was becoming stronger daily, despite if not because of his absence.

  What a strange thing love is. It can hit you like a hammer so hard that you don’t know what it is. Then it sneaks up on you afterwards and surrounds you. Daisy thought sometimes that she might actually be in love with the boy she barely knew. It was stupid of course and Daisy quickly dismissed the notion. Nonetheless, the thought lingered in her subconscious and coloured her thinking. Whatever it was, he was becoming a permanent fixture, even though he was nowhere to be seen.

  On Friday night as she prepared for bed, Daisy remembered the peculiar occurrence on her first day in Cranby. For some reason, (Benjamin if the truth be told), she had forgotten all about the boy that she had seen up on the hill and the book that she had found. Daisy tried to remember what he had looked like, but her memory was a little rusty. The book stuck in her head though and she decided to look for it. Where had she put it? Her locker! Daisy opened the top drawer of the small locker beside her bed and true enough her memory hadn’t failed her. There it was.

  ‘Tales of Darkly Wood’ by ‘J.S. Toner’

  She jumped into bed, intrigued by her rediscovery. Tucking herself into her soft familiar bed and adjusting the pillow to get into a comfortable reading position, Daisy opened the cover. It was a beautiful little leather bound book with a plain brown cover undecorated, save for the gold script announcing the book’s title and declaring its author’s name.

  Inside by contrast, the inner cover revealed an elaborate drawing in ink. It was red and black, a deeply dark sketch which depicted a rather frightening forest, thick and twisting, filled with gnarling branches, each wrapping around the other in an ever more complex twisting monstrous image. Peering out from the mass of thorny trees were disturbing creatures, partially hidden by the dense undergrowth. Mostly, all that could be seen were evil eyes and grasping long pointed witchy fingers. The picture seemed alive and immediately grabbed Daisy’s attention.

  Never a great reader, this little book enticed Daisy and tempted her in to discover the secrets hidden in its pages. She loved the artwork, the plain simple colours, the script, even the feel of the book. Daisy held it close to her face and inhaled. The smell was a most unusual smell and one unfamiliar to Daisy. The book smelt old and musty but there was something else underneath and she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. Whatever it was, Daisy was drawn in and wanted to explore the little tome.

  She turned past the title pages and opened the first proper page of the book. The title of the first chapter was ‘Lord Terrence Darkly’. Daisy began to read and before she knew it, the first chapter was behind her and she had discovered the sad tale of Terrence Darkly and his fiancéé Honey. It was such a shocking and sad story. She was entranced and hungry for more. The second chapter was headed simply ‘Libby’ and Daisy was just about to dig in when Isabel turned her head around the door frame.

  “Lights out Daisy May.”

  As usual when her mother used her full title it was generally a sign not to debate. She thought about asking for a few more minutes but when she glanced at the clock on her locker it told her that it was eleven thirty and that told her not to argue.

  “OK Mum, goodnight.”

  “Goodnight Darling” her mum replied and turned out the light before closing the door behind her. She didn’t kiss her daughter good night. Isabel never did for some reason. That was one of the things she missed about her Dad. Archie was a huggy-kissey man and he always kissed her and hugged her before he would let her go to sleep. Archie hugged and kissed her all the time. He loved his precious daughter and he didn’t need an excuse. For whatever reason Isabel just wasn’t affectionate but Daisy was used to it and although she wished that her mother might be more huggy, she accepted that it was just the way her mum was.

  When she thought of her father, it made Daisy feel a little sad. She had been so distracted with the move that she hadn’t thought of him much throughout the week. She felt a little guilty and made herself a promise to call him in the morning. Daisy slid her book onto the locker. The title of the second chapter brought back thoughts to intrigue her. ‘Libby.’ It sounded like a girl’s name. Daisy decided she would read it first thing in the morning.

  But then almost immediately her mind drifted off to a face that she was unable to forget. Benjamin was back inside her head and Daisy caught herself romanticising about him again. It just wouldn’t do.

  “Stop it!” She told herself and adjusted her position in her bed. Daisy tried to thi
nk of something else. She lay facing the window with her back to the door and the moonlight illuminated her room just enough so she could make out the contours of all the furniture in her room. Daisy didn’t like the dark and had only just stopped using a night light. It was even scarier in the new house without her dad in the next room. But Daisy was determined not to take a backward step. She had to face her fears.

  The book called to her from the locker and she yawned. For a moment she considered turning on the bedside light to just read a few more pages, but she was too tired and didn’t think it was worth the risk. Her mother would be very angry if she got caught. It could wait until the morning. She enjoyed an enormous yawn and tucked the duvet under her arm.

  Daisy reached across and very gingerly ran her fingers over the leather bind of the book. It seemed to call to her. She opened her hand and gently laid her palm on top of the book. Then she closed her eyes and reassured herself that it could keep for now. ‘Libby’ she said in her head again and once more vowed to read it when she woke in the morning.

  CHAPTER SIX - LIBBY

  “Camera! Camera!” The little voice that called her dog’s name was sweet and somewhat skewed. Like her dog’s name, Libby was a little different. She was twelve years old and liked just about everyone and everything. It was hardly surprising. The little girl had some fine examples for parents. Her mother loved Libby. Her father loved Libby. Camera, the little terrier with the strange name, loved Libby. Most people outside their close loving family didn’t see her like Libby’s mother and father did, but they really didn’t matter.

  “Camera!” Libby shouted yet again, her quirky little lispy voice carrying surprisingly far on the wind that swirled around the edge of Darkly Wood.

  “Libby, leave her” her mother gently cautioned. “Stay here. Come on, sit beside me please. Camera will come back when she’s ready.”