Dark Soul (SoulScape #1)

CH 5

Amanda recorded the news broadcast of Alec Strom's execution and watched it multiple times over the following days. It took repeated viewing for it to sink in that the evil thing posing as her son was truly dead. Gone from this life. She hadn't set foot back at the asylum after taking Alec there for the first time. The few conversations she'd had with his doctor were conducted over the phone –she'd refused to go back, to lay eyes on that devil child.

The nightmares came frequently since leaving Alec at that place –nightmares of the boy escaping, wreaking revenge on her for locking him up like an animal. But that was where he belonged –in a cage. Locked away from the world. She didn't know what he was, if the evil had been in him when he was born...or if it had somehow entered him afterward. Maybe it had come from his father. Amanda had barely known the man. A drunken one night stand. She didn't even know his name.

The origins of the evil no longer mattered. It was dead. Finally. Maybe now the nightmares would stop and she could regain some semblance of a real life again. Perhaps even meet someone...fall in love for the first time in her life. Surely women her age could still find true love. Wasn't love timeless? Ageless?

She hadn't yet gone through menopause but there was no fear of becoming pregnant again. After leaving Alec at the asylum, she soon after had a hysterectomy. Simply having her tubes tied weren't enough –sometimes they untied themselves. Even having them cut and burned wasn't 100% fool proof. She had heard of women whose tubes had actually grown back after such a procedure. It was quite rare, but it could happen. And Amanda couldn't take the chance. The thought of having another child terrified her, and intensified her nightmares.

Five days after Alec's execution, she was finally absorbing the reality that everything was finally over. Two years ago, just after Alec had been convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of the female doctor, Amanda had received a call from Dr. Harlan. The man had expressed deep remorse and sadness that he had been unable to help her son and –as he had throughout the years –refused to acknowledge that Alec was pure evil. Amanda didn't share his delusions and had told him that she was just thankful it was all over. She got the impression that the doctor wasn't as thankful. He had seemed bent on proving that Alec possessed some level of humanity –and his brutal act of murder had in turn killed the doctor's quest. But it had been a futile quest from the start.

What she found most pathetically sad was the emotion she heard in the doctor's voice when he spoke of Alec. Had the man actually developed a sincere affection for her son? Even love? It was surely a waste. Evil had no concept of love. Alec would have never returned the doctor's affections, had he lived many more years on this earth. He wasn't capable. There was nothing in him but darkness.

Amanda shut off the small television set mounted beneath the kitchen cupboard. She wouldn't watch the recorded news cast again. It was time to start a new chapter in her life story. The "villain" was finally dead, she could breathe easy and put the horror behind her.

With a fresh pot of coffee brewing, Amanda began to mentally plan out her weekend. Maybe even cash in on her sick days at work and take a real vacation –something she had never done before.

A steaming cup of coffee in her hand, she went out to the front porch and sat down in the wicker chair and watched the lazy activity of the neighborhood. Even the sun appeared to shine brighter, as if Alec's very existence had cast a dark shadow over the world.

"Goodbye and good riddance," she whispered and sipped her hot drink.

The car that pulled up to the curb and parked behind her old Pinto was a plain model for which she couldn't pinpoint –she didn't know cars. She watched with interest as the driver door opened and a man stepped out. He was nicely dressed with short, sandy hair and sunglasses. Amanda surveyed his body as he stepped up on the sidewalk and cast a casual glance around the neighborhood. Late twenties, at most, he had a decent build and appeared to be a good six feet. Amanda liked tall men...and young.