by Keeley Smith
Cool air encased his body, cocooning him. It sucked out any kind of warmth it tried to produce. The cold sank straight down to his bones until even they shivered and became brittle. He was afraid one more shiver would shatter bone.
As well as the freezing temperatures, his shoulder ached, it throbbed with each beat of his heart and the itch of flesh whilst he tried to heal annoyed him, it was good that it was healing, whatever Lester had done had worked miracles. He resisted the urge to scratch it and sat up instead.
Rolling his bad shoulder, he felt the damaged muscle spasm. He didn’t know if it would ever be 100% again and knew that this would affect his performance in school sports but at least it would be a constant reminder that life was too short. If he was to learn anything from this little quest so far, it was that.
If they ever got out of this place he was definitely going to make more of an effort to live his.
He could see from the light of the dying embers of the fire that Deyna and Phillip were still asleep. They were huddled together to ward off the cold. It was his own fault he was so cold. Lester’s tale had affected him more than he wanted to let on so he’d moved away from his friends to digest the whole thing. He’d never felt so torn between his head and his heart.
Lester had ended the conversation with the massive revelation of his wife’s murder. Deyna had taken this rather badly which had resulted in Phillip comforting her. Stephen could have comforted her but usually, within their circle of friends, Phillip comforted, Stephen got his revenge on the person who’d caused the tears.
He’d also moved away to save face. Tears had pricked at his eyes when he thought of the look on Lester’s face as he’d told them of his wife’s death, the pain on Lester’s face made it look like someone had smashed their hand into his chest, grabbed his heart and ripped it clean out. He could imagine what it felt like in that single second where you looked the person in the face, your body cold with shock as you watched your beating heart come to a stop. Imagine that, and you had something close to the look on Lester’s face.
He knew he was experiencing what Lester felt. He couldn’t deny that Lester had dearly loved his wife but the whys of the whole thing still plagued him. If his wife had been murdered by someone else then the heaviness Stephen felt in his heart was okay.
But what if Lester had in fact killed his wife? His head wouldn’t let this go. He couldn’t figure out what was the truth. Lester’s side had sounded highly convincing but it would, the man had been lost in limbo for years, he’d had plenty of time to make sure his story was straight.
If his story had been a lie then Lester deserved a BAFTA for that performance. Stephen had seen and felt the man’s love when he spoke of Marie, his entire face lit up. He’d also seen the hatred as his lips pulled thinly and his eyes turned to deadly slits when he spoke of Lee. Not knowing the ins and outs of this story was rather annoying. It unnerved him because he hated not knowing how to feel.
Sighing, he shook off the cold and stood. As he walked past the fire he threw on some more wood to keep the cold off the others and made his way to the raging river. He was cold as it was but a smack of cold water on his face would help wake him up. The lack of sleep was really starting to have an effect on his body. Everything hurt like hell, his head throbbed, his eyes itched. He stopped in his tracks when he spotted Lester floating near the river’s edge, his light shimmering brightly.
Stuffing his hands in his pockets, he strolled over to the man.
“Good morning, Stephen.”
“Morning.”
Stephen stood next to Lester feeling at a loss for words.
That was a first for him but what could he say? ‘Sorry your wife was murdered but I still don’t know if you did it.’ Yeah, that wasn’t quite the response Lester would appreciate.
Last night had ended strangely, what with Deyna trying not to cry and Lester coughing as he tried to push aside his own emotions, the awkward silence as he’d left.
“You don’t believe me, do you?”
Well, that was straight to the point. He looked at Lester and noticed that his eyes seemed to stand out on his face, the sorrow all the more evident there.
“Honestly?”
“Honestly,” Lester nodded.
“I don’t know, I’ve thought it through, tried to see it from your side but there are holes in your story. For example, why you didn’t know your wife was in the stock room even though that would be the first place you’d check when you start up on a morning. I assume you did your stock taking during the first few hours of the morning?”
Lester nodded, his lips pulled thinly.
“So why didn’t you do it that morning? I know you can’t say...” He sighed swallowing the fresh surge of annoyance. “You also have no alibi; you were home, alone, with no one to say whether you actually did go out and murder Lee and Marie.”
“I can understand your reservations, since we’ve met I’ve not been entirely honest with you and I didn’t tell you about the map or about this place. I can understand and I accept the way you feel.”
Lester was finally admitting to all the secrets that he was keeping. He just wasn’t coming forward with any of the answers yet.
“Are you going to tell me where we are?” He pushed, hoping he would finally get his answers. He wasn’t going to hold his breath. Something told him Lester wasn’t going to tell him this easily.
“I can’t.”
He nearly laughed out loud. Lester was becoming too predictable, even to him. He’d thought they’d overcome a barrier last night but obviously Lester was still unwilling to let him in.
“How do you expect me to believe you when every time I ask a question you don’t answer it?”
“It’s not that I won’t answer them, it’s because I can’t.”
“What’s stopping you?”
There was something stopping him, maybe someone with more authority.
“It is no one. I just-”
“Did you kill your wife?” Stephen asked interrupting him.
“No, I didn’t kill her.”
“Who did?”
“I don’t know.”
Stephen glared at Lester.
There was something in Lester’s tone that told him what he needed to know. Okay, so maybe he didn’t need the answers, he just needed to figure out Lester’s tones of voice and what they meant. This was going to take some time, time he knew that they didn’t have.
“You’re lying,” Stephen snapped.
“I can’t know for sure...” Lester said, his voice drifting off.
“But you know who is it?”
Stephen edged closer to Lester sensing the name was on the tip of his tongue. He was caving, finally.
“He-”
Lester’s answer was cut short. A high pitched scream echoed across the vast space, making him eat his heart. Lester turned, sparks flying as he shot towards the camp at high speed. Stephen followed and sprinted towards Deyna’s terrified screams.
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CHAPTER SIXTEEN
