The Dark Place (#FrightFest2016 Gold Winner)

The Dark Place - Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

1

Alan Stephens pulled up outside the house just as the light rain turned into a downpour.

Shit, that's all I need, he thought.

He climbed out of the car, grabbing the copy of the Eastlake Echo from the passenger seat and held it over his head to shield it from the rain.

The bin men had done their usual best to aggravate him. They had developed the annoying habit of leaving the empty bins directly behind the gate, so he moved them out of the way before pushing it open.

Stephens ran up to the front door feeling inside his left trouser pocket for the keys. He brought his hand out and smiled. The keys were wrapped in the pair of pink, cotton knickers that Sarah had taken off in the derelict house by the lake. He put them to his nose and breathed in her scent. "Stupid little tart," he grinned as he slid the key into the lock.

He was a relieved to be back inside again. Even though he had only been caught in rain for a short time, it had been long enough to soak him through to the skin.

First things first, got to get out of these wet things. He unbuttoned his shirt and walked towards the stairs.

Stephens switched on the shower, threw his shirt into the wicker laundry basket and undid the button on his trousers. When he pulled the zip down he noticed the traces of lipstick on the light beige material, left from when Sarah had unzipped him earlier with her teeth. He smiled and lifted the girl's underwear to his nose for a second time. She was only a dumb kid but she really knew the right way to get him ready for action. He remembered the warm wet feel of her mouth as it hungrily worked on him. With an air of urgency, he removed his shoes, socks, trousers and boxer shorts to find the telltale marks left by her lips on his fresh erection. With Sarah's underwear still in his hand he climbed under the warm jets of water and closed his eyes. But behind the eyelids the face that he saw was not Sarah Wilmot's, but that of his own daughter, Penny.

2

4:15 p.m.

Penny looked through the windscreen towards the thick black clouds. The street lights were not due to go on for hours and everything up ahead looked dull and grey, as if the rain had washed all of the colour out of the world.

They left the Burger Palace shortly after Tamicka and her father. The next stop had been the locksmiths on Flanders Road. The spotty, young man behind the counter told her mother that they were quite busy at the moment, but if it was an emergency they would be able to send someone around first thing in the morning to change the locks. Penny was more than a little worried about that and she knew that her mother was frightened too, although she showed no sign of it to the young man.

She wanted to forget about shopping for outfits, scared that he would return home before they did, but her mother had insisted so they spent a couple of uncomfortable hours spending over four hundred pounds of his money between them. Her mother had even spoken about going for an evening meal and when Penny had protested, telling her that the animal could be back at their house at any time, her mother just smiled and reminded her that he had not been back home before twelve for the past five days. It was only when Penny reminded her that he had never left his wallet behind before that her mother had decided maybe it would be a good idea to start heading back after all.

The car turned right, into Granger Street and Penny carefully scanned from one side of the road to the other, looking out for his car, but she didn't need to. Even from the end of the road Penny could see that all of the lights were burning bright in their house.