The Dark Place (#FrightFest2016 Gold Winner)

The Dark Place - Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen

1

Cassandra Blakely, or 'Mad Cass' as the locals of Eastlake liked to call her, was twenty-two but years of rough living had conspired to make her look older. Her long, black hair was stringy and unkempt and her skin was a grimy grey colour. Her eyes were dull and lifeless and the stink of stale sweat and dirt radiated from her. She hated her life but there was little she could do to change it.

It was yet another uncomfortably hot and cloudless afternoon when Cass finally climbed out from her cardboard box, under the Marington viaduct, just outside Eastlake. The disused, Victorian, redbrick structure had been her home for the past two weeks but she knew that it would only be a matter of time before the kids found her again and chased her away from this place as they had chased her from all of the others. The best place had been the lake. It was spooky out there with all the forest sounds at night and all of the lost ones that came to her looking for justice, revenge or just someone to understand them.

The young woman stretched, yawned and had a good scratch before she petted her cat.

"Hello, Jasper. And how are you today? Looks like it's going to be another scorcher, doesn't it?" He purred contently as she ran the back of her bony, filth-encrusted hand against his cheek and scratched behind his ears. "I suppose you'll be wanting your breakfast now, let's just see what we have in here then shall we?" Cass rummaged through one of the two white, plastic carrier bags, which contained all her worldly goods, and pulled out the remains of the cheeseburger that she had retrieved from one of the rubbish bins in town the night before. She ripped it in two, removed the meat from one half and held it out for the cat. Jasper wasted no time snatching it from her hand. Within seconds he had eaten the whole thing and was slinking back and forth against her knees and meowing for more.

Cass smiled sadly as she ate the stale bap from which she had extracted his meal. It was chewy like rubber and tasted awful but she was used to that now. She knew that she had to eat whatever she could scavenge and for the moment the stale burger bun was all she had. "Sorry pal," she stroked him again and popped another piece into her mouth, "hunting might not be too good today so we have to put something aside for later." With this, she rewrapped the other portion of the burger and put it back into the plastic bag. "Come on then you, I think we'd better get into town and see what the pickings are like today." She hid the soggy cardboard box, which served as her bed, in the dense undergrowth, picked up her two bags and started the long walk into town.

2

Tamicka sat on the bench in the garden, where she and Penny had rested the day before, and waited for her father or Mrs. Hughes to call out to her.

Things had been so weird in the months that had passed since her mother's death but they were beginning to get better now. For the first time in ages she felt as if she could finally see some light in the dark void which her life had been trapped for so long. Everything was good again.

Tamicka looked back towards the house and saw her father watching her through the open doorway. She held a hand out to him and, without a word passing between them; he walked towards her. With his long, steady strides it wasn't long before he reached her and sat down beside her. Tamicka still found it hard to believe that he had changed so much towards her. She rested her head on his chest and enjoyed the warm flutter that pulsed through her as his strong arm went around her shoulder and hugged her close to him.

"I love you, Bunny. You do know that, don't you?"

She nodded her head against him and closed her eyes. "I love you too daddy."

"I'm not going to make any excuses for the way I've treated you. I know that it was unforgivable, especially the other day when I..." He broke off when she put her small hand softly onto the arm that held her. "I don't know why I did it."