The Scarlet Anniversary

by Lubowa M. Planet

  ‘It was her idea,’ Maddy had pointed at Portia with her knife. ‘I decided that it was a good idea after all but I didn’t want her! I wanted this one instead!’

  Portia looked at Katie and shook her head. ‘I wasn’t going to kill you Katie, I was planning to get away and then free you. You know that don’t you?’

  Katie started walking slowly forwards, her gaze on Portia. As she moved forwards the blonde girl looked afraid and Katie knew that it was a genuine fear as opposed to everything else she had exhibited. Everything that Portia had said and done had been disingenuous falsehoods and Katie saw that now. She saw it in the very real fear that sparked in Portia’s eyes.

  ‘Shut up Portia,’ she shook her head, pulling a knife from the table as she moved forwards. ‘I’m sorry, it’s the only way that I’ll get to live and I don’t want to die!’

  Katie woke with a start. The hospital room was dark and she knew that sleep had been stolen from her once more. She lay on the bed and stared at the ceiling, comforted by the noises that drifted in from the corridor outside. The police had decided that she no longer needed a sentinel at her door to protect her from monsters because the monsters were dead. Of course she wished that this were true. She wanted to know that the evil that had kidnapped her and threatened her very existence had flown away but she couldn’t. There had been question after question and one of the detectives that had come to see her on a regular basis had let her know that the garden behind the shed had started being excavated and that a number of bodies had been discovered.

  She also knew that the story was all over the newspapers and the television – David and Madeleine Francis had been nicknamed the Desolation Devil’s by some hack somewhere in London and the name had stuck already. Portia was being treated like some kind of tragic heroine, a sufferer of Stockholm syndrome that had been pushed to evil by the things that had happened to her during those 36 hours of captivity. Katie had so far, mercifully, been unnamed, but she thought that this had to be a temporary reprieve and that sooner or later she would be named and from that point forth her life would never be her own again.

  Not that it was anyway – her life had been stolen and perhaps stolen as finally as it would have been if they had murdered her. Her family hadn’t called for a while and Katie felt sad that they had abandoned her. She wanted to call them but couldn’t find the strength to do so.

  Some of her friends had come to see her and they had been shocked at the story. Of course she didn’t know how they felt as she wouldn’t know how she would have felt if it had happened to them.

  ‘Maybe when they make the film, I can play myself,’ she had smiled at them and they had all laughed. The idea was horrendous but Katie felt a curious disassociation creeping in; The girl that she had been before David Francis had dragged her into his car seemed like she was a very long way away. When she slept, she dreamt of being tied up , and alone in the world and gained a weird, disturbing sense of comfort from it.

  It would be hours until daylight and she wouldn’t find sleep again. Not tonight.

  ‘Katie, please – don’t – please put the knife down!’ Portia screamed as Katie raised it above her head. There was a moment of pure tension in the room. It was as though the air had got heavy and dull. Katie felt nothing but the knife in her hand. The blade shone like a beacon and she tensed her muscles. Portia shook her head as Katie started bringing the blade forwards.

  ‘Oh darling, what did they do to you?’ Her mum held her hand, squeezing it tightly as though someone might steal her daughter away from her again.

  ‘I’m fine mum,’ she smiled as much as she could but in truth she had no idea what they had done to her. She had dreamed that she was tied to a cross in the shed and that the charred and ruined corpses of David, Maddy and Portia had stood looking at her – their eyes gone, leaving only dark hollows that burned with cold, black hatred.

  When she had woken, her parents had been sitting in the room, watching her. Of course they hadn’t abandoned her, they had spent their savings on the first ticket from Sydney they could get and had flown half way around the world to see their daughter.

  Katie just wished that their daughter had been there to meet them.

  It hadn’t taken long to explain what had happened but all through the conversation she had noticed that her father’s strong hands had slowly clenched and unclenched as his straightforward mind and clear morality struggled to cope with the events that had happened to his only daughter. The idea that he had not been able to protect her would haunt him until his dying day, and although there was no way that she could say or do anything to chase those demons away, she wanted to, even if a small part believed that he was right to blame himself.

  There had been some small talk, news of her brothers and the other minutiae of normality and then there had been more tears from her mother and in the end, Katie had begun to feel resentful. She was the one that should have been crying, but she couldn’t find the emotion to even wallow in that one act of being alive.

  David yelled in pain as the knife swung round and imbedded itself into his shoulder – Katie swore as she twisted the blade round, the flesh tore and blood flowed from the wound. She pushed it down and this forced him to his knees, his face contorted and twisted with pain and anger.

  ‘Untie her!’ She hissed at Maddy. ‘Untie her or I’ll fucking kill him!’

  Maddy, her face painted with absurd hurt and betrayal nodded and moved forwards. Katie twisted the knife again and David screeched in pain, his hands clawed uselessly in the air. However his cries had acted as a catalyst for Maddy and she began to untie the ropes that still held Portia to the post. It only took a few minutes before she was free from the bonds.

  Katie gazed at David and then –

  ‘She hit me over the head,’ Katie looked at the psychologist; she had been out of hospital for a few weeks and had been referred to a counsellor by the kindly police man that had given her the blanket.

  ‘And you have no idea why she did that?’ The counsellor, a mild looking man called Tom asked her, pushing his glasses up to the bridge of his nose as he did so.

  ‘No.’

  ‘How does the fact that she hit you as soon as she was freed make you feel?’

  ‘Fucking terrible; Why, how should it make me feel?’

  ‘I don’t know. I haven’t been in that position Katie.’ He smiled and she wanted to smash his face in with the onyx paperweight that sat on his desk. ‘I would imagine that you feel betrayed?’

  ‘Angry,’ Katie shrugged. She stood up and walked over to his window, gazing out at the leafy street and the city beyond. ‘I am fucking furious.’

  ‘At her?’

  ‘No, and not at them either. I am furious at myself Tom. If I had just left her tied up, then maybe they wouldn’t all be dead.’

  Katie slowly swam through the pain that cocooned her head. She sat up, her hands and feet were tied together. She looked ahead and saw that David and Maddy were both bound to the post, tape across their mouths. Maddy was terrified but David looked grey and as though the ropes were the only things that were holding him up.

  ‘Portia?’

  The blonde turned and looked at her, a sneer dragging any beauty from her face. ‘What?’

  ‘Why have you tied me up?’

  ‘I’ll untie you once I’m done with these fuckers!’

  ‘Untie me Portia!’

  ‘No, you’ll try to stop me!’

  ‘Stop you? Stop you from what?’

  ‘What do you think?’ She turned and looked at the two people who had brought them here against their will in order to kill them.

  ‘No, we don’t need to do anything Portia,’ Katie struggled against the ropes around her wrists ‘We can get the police.’

  ‘That’s not going to happen Katie. They humiliated me and I think they need to know exactly what that means.’ She moved to the post and grabbed David by the throat, he moaned as she pushed his head against the wood. Katie saw tha
t his shirt was covered in blood and that the man was close to passing out.

  ‘I know that they say this in all the films, but that would make you no better than them Portia, they can be punished by the law not us.’

  Portia looked at her and smiled. ‘There is a difference Katie – the main difference being that I will always be better than them.’

  Katie smiled. ‘I know that.’

  Portia nodded and smiled in return, she moved her hand and Katie saw the glimpse of a blade before it plunged straight into David’s abdomen. There was a horrifying tearing sound as the blade was twisted and then pulled up and Katie felt her stomach twist as she heard the metal clash against his sternum. David screamed into the gag. It was a sound of terror and pain. It was a sound that was wet and clogged sounding and Katie knew that this was his blood. Portia thrust her hand into the gaping wound in his stomach and to the sound of his animalistic cries of agony she pulled out a handful of wet intestine. Portia held it up in front of his eyes for a second before letting it go.

  ‘No, I mean I am better because they never got to kill me!’

  There had been an inquest and so much attention from the press and publishers that Katie had felt that she had been caught in a maelstrom that she couldn’t get out of. However, seven weeks after the events of that weekend she boarded a plane and flew back to Australia. Of course there had been the same attention to deal with but at least she was home and there was nothing outside her window to remind her of what had happened. In some ways, she felt that she was maybe finding her previous self – the old Katie was still hidden, imprisoned by the huge amount of neuroses and fear that she had been left with, but there was a hope that someday, that Katie might find her way into the light again.

  Her family were all pretty much reluctant to leave her alone, as if there was some fear that another monster would come and snatch her away, but as she began to find it possible to smile a little more often, they too began to relax a little.

  Her life was quiet and unremarkable now, and that was the way that seemed to be right. She often woke up terrified, seeing that terrible blood stained face leering at her but even these moments were dying away, like the last ambers of a terrible inferno. Her father was taking it worse than anyone else in her family – the idea that someone could do something so terrible to his daughter was one that would haunt him to his grave.

  ‘Katie,’ he looked at her as they say out in their small garden listening to the night come alive. ‘What happened?’

  ‘You know what happened daddy,’ she looked at him and smiled.

  ‘I know what you say happened – but I think it might have been different.’ He paused and then leaned over and brought two cans of beer from the cooler that was permanently at his feet during the summer months. He handed one to her and then opened his. ‘What happened Katie?’

  ‘Dad,’ she persisted.

  ‘That other girl, Portia, I don’t think that she joined them to kill you.’ He took a long drink and then looked at the sky, it was being painted by the sunset and was almost painfully beautiful. ‘What happened honey?’

  Maddy hadn’t made a sound as her husband had been mutilated and killed. She had just stared ahead and Portia was moving around to face her now. Katie looked around, she didn’t want to stop Portia, not really, after all these people would have done the same to her, but there was a strong part of her that knew that it was wrong.

  ‘Well Maddy, let’s see what we can do with you now?’ Portia giggled as she looked at the bound woman. ‘Should I stab you, burn you, slice you? What would you have done to me first?’

  Maddy simply stared at her and waited for the inevitable.

  ‘Portia,’ Katie looked at the blonde. ‘That’s enough!’

  ‘No it’s not.’

  ‘Look, you don’t have to kill her – she can’t do anything to us.’

  Portia looked at her and shook her head. ‘What makes you think I’m doing this for any reason other than I want to?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Christ Katie, I should have gagged you when you were unconscious. I think I might have to kill you too.’

  She looked at Portia and saw that the woman had a look in her eyes that she had not seen in either David or Maddy. It was a feral look that held a deep and terrifying level of hatred and threat and Katie knew that some of it was directed towards her. ‘Portia, what are you doing?’

  ‘Well Katie,’ Portia sighed, her voice dripping with scorn. ‘I am going to be famous. I’m blonde, I’m beautiful and I’m a survivor. Kidnapped by these monsters and somehow I managed to escape from their clutches and fight back. It’s a modern day fairy tale and I am the princess.’

  As she spoke Portia moved around, out of Katie’s eye line and as the blonde spoke she could hear the tearing of cloth.

  ‘I might as well get something out of this fucking travesty of a kidnapping Katie and if that’s money and fame then so be it. I had thought that I would have to gain their trust by killing you, but thankfully you managed to get me free.’

  Katie heard a muffled squeal of pain and Portia laughed. ‘I really didn’t want to have to spend any time as their sex toy. Even though it might have made quite a good story, the idea of having this saggy bitch over me wasn’t appealing.’ Maddy screeched into the tape that was over her mouth again. ‘I did have it all pictured in my head – a final escape from the squalid sex dungeon that they kept me in, my story, coming here and finding the bodies. It would have been sensational but the public like a heroine and this works actually.’

  As Portia talked and did whatever it was that she was doing to Maddy, Katie had managed to find a small piece of metal that had fallen to the floor. It wasn’t big but it was sharp and she began to pick at the ropes that were around her wrists. Thankfully Portia had seemingly spent her time on David and Maddy, making sure that they were secure and the ropes around Katie were tight but sparse. Perhaps Portia had assumed that she didn’t need to bother too much with her, maybe she hadn’t been left with enough time but as the strands of hemp began to loosen Katie felt her hands pull apart. She hoped that Portia was too busy with Maddy to notice that she was escaping.

  As her hands slipped free from the bonds, Maddy squealed and Portia hissed at her to behave herself. Katie kept her hands behind her back but moved her feet to such a position that she could work on the knots.

  ‘You should see the look on Maddy’s face,’ Portia chuckled. ‘You would think that it never occurred to her that this might happen. If they had given me more time, then I could have persuaded the late David to do this to her but of course you fucked that up by trying to escape you stupid bitch.’

  Portia moved into her eye-line, she was smiling and there was blood on her face. However as soon as she saw Katie and what she was doing, her expression hardened.

  ‘What the fuck are you doing you stupid bitch!’ She hissed and began to move forwards, a blood drenched screwdriver in her hand. Katie held her hands up to protect herself and as Portia lunged towards her, she saw the shard of metal in her hand glint…

  YYY

  CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

  ‘I don’t know how it happened Dad, but the metal that I was holding caught her in the throat. It was stupid dumb luck because the fucking bitch was going to kill me.’ Katie paused, realising that she had sworn and looked at her dad’s face. His eyes were hooded in the darkening sky and his expression was guarded. ‘Sorry dad – I didn’t mean to swear.’

  ‘That’s fine Katie.’

  ‘There was blood everywhere; it just fell from this tiny, tiny wound.’ Katie paused and took a drink of beer. It was cold and felt good as it slipped down her throat. ‘She fell onto her knees, the dress that she was wearing was white and the blood just stained it and – dad it was everywhere.’

  ‘You must have caught an artery honey,’ he nodded. ‘I’ve seen it happen before – there was nothing that you could have done.’

  ‘I didn’t want to do anything though dad.’
Katie shivered as a breeze drifted across the yard. ‘I was quite happy to see her there, on her back and struggling for air. I hated her and wanted her dead.’

  ‘What happened next honey?’

  ‘It was weird dad; I was more concerned for Maddy, the woman, than I was for the girl that had been kidnapped with me. I got up and went over to see what I could do and…’

  Maddy’s face had been ruined, the flesh on her cheek hung loose like a flap. The meat and bone beneath it glistening under the strip lighting. Her blouse had been ripped and torn off and Portia had slashed and cut all across Maddy’s breasts. There was blood everywhere. Above the torn cheek was a raw and red wound where her eye should have been.

  Maddy had looked at Katie with her one eye.

  ‘She was dead dad, I didn’t know what to do – I was so – so lost that all I could think was to set fire to that horrible fucking place. It seemed right dad, I knew you’d be angry because I destroyed all the evidence and everything but I just couldn’t bear it standing and …’ Katie felt a sudden rush of pure unadulterated emotion sweep through her and as her dad folded his strong arms around her she cried. For the first time since it had happened, Katie howled and wept into her father’s chest and he held her. For over an hour, he held her and when she had finally stopped the flow of grief , sadness and anger he smoothed her hair.

  ‘Katie,’ he said in a quiet voice. ‘I’m glad that you burned that place down and – if she was still alive when you did it then I’m happy.’

  ‘Dad, it’s all on video. They recorded everything they did.’

  ‘I know,’ he said in a flat voice. ‘The police in the United Kingdom have seen it, they told me what had happened, and this case, they don’t care. They found so many bodies in the garden that they don’t blame you for what happened. in fact, the cop that I’ve been speaking to thinks you should get a medal honey, and so do I. I’m proud of you Katie, you’ve gone through Hell and you’re still the same sweet girl that you were before you were taken by those horrible bastards. I love you darling – we all do.’