Dead Broken - Psychological Thriller / Horror
Page 29
The police car dropped me off at my front gate. A policeman was still standing guard, but the press appeared to have gone. I didn’t care anymore. I opened my front door to hear Karen hoovering up the stairs. As I walked through the hall I noticed a large brown package lying on the sideboard. I picked it up and looked at it. It simply had my name on it, no address, no stamps. I stared at it numbly.
Karen popped her head around the banister.
“Hi, there. Are you OK?”
“Yes.”
I put the package down and started to walk towards the kitchen, Karen hot on my heels. “I got us chips.” I had my back to her. I didn’t want her to hug me, or anything like that.
“Come here,” she said. I didn’t move I just stood with my back to her opening the chips. She wrapped her arms around me and gave me a hug.
“I didn’t get them to put any brown sauce on your roll.”
“Are you OK?”
“Yes.”
*
It was about the size of a child’s shoebox. Karen had reminded me about it, shortly after eating the chips. Apparently it had been lying in the porch on her returning from the shops. I slowly unwrapped the brown paper to reveal what was indeed a shoebox of some description. For a second I jumped on the back of a manic thought and started to panic. Was it a bomb? It could quite easily be a bomb. I removed the lid quickly, suddenly not caring.
No bomb.
Instead, lying on top of a layer of scrunched up white paper was what looked like a business card. I picked it up and read it out loud: “A balm to soothe a wearied mind. See you soon.”
The card had nothing else on it.
I looked down at the crumpled paper, reached in and removed the package within, placing the box down on the sideboard beside me. I slowly opened up the folds.
Fuck! I dropped the contents of the crunched up paper onto the floor, almost gagging. I stood back, staring at the hideous furred creature on the floor. Was this some kind of sick joke or something? It looked like the desiccated head of an animal.
I staggered backwards, placing my hand down hard onto the shoebox, flipping it over onto the floor. As it fell something shot out and skidded across the floorboards. I stared at it. It looked like a collar of some description. I bent down and picked it up. At first I thought it was a dog’s collar, but it wasn’t. A disc was attached to it with an address on one side and a name on the other. It was a cat’s name. And I knew it well.
The End.
Acknowledgements
I need to thank the following people for either proof reading the book, providing me with ideas, or for helping with edits. In no particular order: Jim Chaytor, Gareth Edwards, Des Cummings, Scott Bailey, Scott Mckirdy, Don Patterson, Terry Quin, and finally Greg Shepherd.
A special thanks to Jim Chaytor for designing the cover, basically writing the blurb, and for helping me come up with a title.
I also need to thank Leila Cutler for kindly allowing me to use her photograph.
Last but not least, I must thank Katerina Frogpond for all her help and encouragement over the years.
I thank you all.
Copyright
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system, copied in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise transmitted without written permission from the author. You must not circulate this book in any format.
Table of Contents
Part 1: The Broken Society
Chapter 1: The Invitation
Chapter 2: Monsters
Chapter 3: Bipolar
Chapter 4: Darkness Falls
Chapter 5: The Cat
Chapter 6: The Morning After
Chapter 7: Bullocks
Chapter 8: Things Kick Off
Chapter 9: The Serial Killer's Brother
Chapter 10: Black Dots On The Bones
Chapter 11: The Perfect Alibi
Chapter 12: The Wraith
Chapter 13: Messages
Part 2: The Nightmare
Chapter 14: Into The Dark
Chapter 15: The Welcome Meeting
Chapter 16: Fridge
Chapter 17: All Hallows' Eve
Chapter 18: The Fall Of Rome
Chapter 19: Room 101
Chapter 20: Getting Clean
Chapter 21: Bunches
Chapter 22: The Headless Cat
Part 3: Yesterday, I thought I had problems
Chapter 23: The Lady Detective
Chapter 24: Interrogation
Chapter 25: The Monster Always Comes Back