Darkness Dominates - Chapter 4

A few minutes before Mr. Linfield’s history lesson ended, he wrote down the words ‘Local legends’ on the white board. He then turned to face the pupils, reclining against his desk.

“What do these two words mean to you?”

The general question prompted a minute of silence from the whole class.

“Anyone”     

Katy was the only one to put up her hand. Roger swiftly noticed.

“Yes, Miss Lonsdale, please enlighten the others”

“Tales to do with Alvenshire’s history”

“Precisely – folklore...stories stemming from mythology! These tales have originated from historical events. They started out as factual, but became something exciting, more mysterious. We have a term that describes these stories – ‘Chinese whispers’.”

He wrote those very words directly under what he’d written less than a minute before.

“Does anyone know what is meant by ‘Chinese whispers’?”

“Each of those passing the stories along adds something new to the tale” said Nigel Raymond, his hand already up.

“Yes – each one added different details to the story. Well done, Nigel!”

“Geek” Alicia mouthed to Rosie, unseen by Mr. Linfield.

Rosie wasn’t really paying attention to her friend’s lip movement. Her eyes were firmly fixed on one of the boys in the classroom – Jake Thompson. She’d had the hots for him for the past six months, when his parents moved here and he started school. However, neither of them had really made a move towards them becoming a couple. Alicia noticed what was going on and gently tapped Rosie’s left elbow. She then mouthed to her “Ask him out”. Rosie didn’t mouth any words back in case Mr. Linfield suddenly looked in her direction. He didn’t, but the corner of his right eye did spot Jake gazing at Rosie.

“Eyes front, Thompson” commanded Roger.

He did as he was told and then looked down at his exercise book.

“Now, does anyone know the oldest legend surrounding Alven?”

Once again, Nigel demonstrated his knowledge.

“The legend of Leola”

“Who’s Leola?”

“Why isn’t your hand up, Miss Trennell?”

She thrust her left arm in the air, holding it erect.

“Okay, you can put your hand back down now”

Rosie laid it back on the desk and subsequently folded her arms.

“For anyone else who doesn’t know who she is, Leola hailed from around the time of the Battle of Hastings and the Harrying of the North.”

“Is she a babe?” asked one of the male pupils.

“I don’t know, Lincoln – nobody does. There are no known sketches of her; cameras didn’t exist until the nineteenth century – so she’s not featured in any Instagram accounts.”

His comment triggered laughter from the whole class.

“Didn’t they have tapestries during that time?”

“They did indeed, Nigel; however, none that were made ever depicted her. The reason Leola became such a legendary figure was – and you fans of US supernatural dramas will like this – because she was believed to be a vampire!”

Smirks and titters went from the front of the classroom to the back.

“This is nonsense of course! What it does tell us, mind you, is that time and folklore can muddy the waters of historical accuracy. Tall tales can easily take over from the truth. Sometimes, though, historical records can’t always provide solid, unquestionable facts. Skeletons and artefacts can often reveal more about the sources of numerous legends. Can anyone tell me a famous example of human remains being found in the in the 21^st century?”

“Richard III” said Rosie, after remembering to put up her hand this time.

“So you do watch the news after all” said Mr. Linfield.

Laughter echoed across the room a second time. It mingled with the shrill sound of the school bell. Roger started gathering up the books he’d brought with him.

“Right, tomorrow afternoon we’ll be talking about the transition from the Saxon era to William the Conqueror’s rule.”

One after the other, the pupils placed the exercise books onto his desk. Rosie, Katy and Jake were amongst the last of them to do that.

“See you in the schoolyard” Katy said, giving Jake and Rosie a sly glance each.

“I’m so gonna have to teach her subtlety” Rosie said to Jake.

“I thought her walking off was a bit too convenient”

“She’s like well up for seeing us getting together – Katy wants me to...”

“Do you want to go out with me?”

Rosie was stunned with the suddenness of his question. She asked him to repeat it, which he did, word-for-word.

“I...I...”

At home time, Katy and Alicia absorbed the answer Rosie said she’d given Jake.

“You really said that” said Alicia.

“I can’t believe I did, Ali – it slipped out”

“I’ll get back to you – why didn’t you just say yes?” said Katy.

She was dumbfounded by her friend’s indecision regarding Jake.

“I don’t think I’m ready to go out with him”

“Oh come off it, Rosie” said Alicia boisterously. “You’ve been ready to be his girlfriend like since he first started wearing the uniform!”

Rosie was about to reply, when she saw her mum’s car head into the school grounds. Once Pippa had parked it, she turned off the engine and got out. She exchanged waves from a couple of teachers she was friends with as she closed the driver’s door. Rosie nudged Katy to make her aware her mum had arrived. The two school friends walked over to her.

“Hi mum”

“Hi love”

“Hi Mrs. Trennell”

“Hi Katy – listen, Rosie, I’ve got to go back to work.”

“Why”

“I need to check on something. It might take me about an hour, maybe two, before I’m back at home – I’ll need you to make your own way back to the house.”

“Okay mum. By the way, would it be fine if Katy came round to do some revision?”

“When”

“After seven tonight”

“It’ll be fine, yes, but only for a couple of hours – it’s a school night. Doug’ll have to drive her back.”

“That’s cool”

“Now that’s sorted out, I’ll see you later”

Waiting for her in her office was Tim. He was coming to the end of a phone call he’d gotten a few minutes ago. Thinking she’d returned because of the Hicks’ family, he said “They’ve been at it again!”

“Who’s been at it again?” asked Pippa, caught off guard by his announcement.

“The Hicks: one of their neighbours found his windscreen damaged!”

“Does this make enough incidents to take action?”

“I’m hoping so”

“We might get some opposition from Councillor Gilbert – he’s got a lot riding on this housing scheme. A possible eviction might derail the project.”

“I hardly think that’s likely. The Hicks are simply one example of hellish neighbours.”

“Roy will be worried about the adverse publicity”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, Pips. How did it go with your visit to Sudfield?”

“Not how I expected it to”

“In what way”

“Ms Farnham said she and Skye argued because there was no room at the inn.”

“Eh?”

“Forthcoming arrivals meant she had to leave the place”

“So she went anyway”

“Which doesn’t make sense to me – if she was arguing about leaving, it suggests she wasn’t happy about the decision. She’d stick to her guns and find a way to remain there. I think the row was about something else entirely.”

“What about the other halfway houses – don’t they have any places?”

“Diane said she’d phoned round, but she told me they were all full.”

“She told you that”

“Yeah”

“Well, that isn’t the case”

“It isn’t”

“There are a couple of vacancies at Greaves Park”

“That place is in Ralham – which is nearer to Alven than Canroth. Why would she say there aren’t any vacancies, when there clearly are?”

“Perhaps she forgot to – there are over eighty halfway houses in Alvenshire. It’s easy enough to overlook one, maybe two, when you’re making that sort of enquiry. I’ve done it myself, you know!”

“You have”

“Yeah, I was checking up on a matter that one of the social workers brought up. I’d written a list of the halfway houses I needed to phone, but I accidentally left a couple out”

“I’ve never known you to make mistakes like that”

“Oh I have, the same as you; I’ve just never mentioned them, unless the need to do so ever arose”

Pippa took a moment out from the conversation to think.

“Who’s the social worker attached to Sudfield?”

“Anne Tenby”

“Is she still at work?”

“I think she’s at a conference”

“Shit! I really could’ve done with speaking to her!”

“So what’s your next move?”

“Diane and one of the voluntary staff members – Holly Pearce – mentioned maintenance was being carried out on the top floor – do you know anything about that?”

“I’ve not been aware of any renovation at Sudfield, but I can check for you. Why do you want to know about that?”

“Holly said that the entire top floor had been cordoned off to the staff and residents, and that Diane was the only one permitted to go up there.”

“So?”

“Just as I was about to leave, I looked up and I thought I saw someone in one of the rooms at the top of the building.”

“Here we go”

“What”

“CID envy. I can’t help wondering whether you regret not following your mate Jennifer Stoneham into the police force.”

“I don’t regret it at all, Tim. I’ve got a girl staying with me who ought to be in a halfway house. All I’m doing is getting the answers that’ll help me with moving Skye into one of them. It’s good, though, you mentioning about the free spaces at Greaves Park. If I can secure a place for her there, I won’t need to arrange council accommodation”

“It’ll be necessary when she turns 18”

“Like you said a few minutes ago, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it!”

Councillor Trennell turned on her laptop. In less than 30 seconds, all the computer systems had been booted up. She typed Sudfield in the search engine and clicked on the magnifying glass symbol. Pressing the left side of the mouse twice, Pippa had accessed the halfway house’s official website.

“What are you looking for?”

“The real reason Skye did a runner”

Scanning the sections spread out at the top of the screen, she clicked on ‘Admissions’. This one contained a vertical list of highlighted years, going back to 1987. She moved the arrow symbol to the top of the list and selected 2015. Besides each new resident of Sudfield was the date they arrived. Four names down, she found two residents that shared a surname. Across to the right was their arrival date.

“Bingo!” yelped Pippa.

“What have you found?”

“They arrived a few nights ago”

“Who did?”

“Emma and Sophie Walsh”

Coming out of that section, she accessed the one marked ‘Departures’. Like the previous one, this part of the website had a list of years going down. Again, she clicked on ‘2015’. At the top was Skye Linton. The date of her leaving was entered in as being two days after the Walsh sisters’ arrival.

“Look at this, Tim” she instructed.

He studied what Pippa had just been reading.

“It could be a coincidence.”

“I’m 99% certain it isn’t”

“Are you going to tell Doug what you’ve found out?”

“Not yet. I want to talk to Skye first. I was right – she misled me over why she’d bolted from Sudfield. I’m going to the truth from her this time.”

After the evening meal at Sudfield, Emerald Hyford was in the recreation room watching TV. She was staring moodily at it, showing zero interest in the programme currently on. Emerald twirled her auburn hair twice, an outward sign of her boredom. Behind her, Rob Massey and another young man were playing table tennis. The noise of the ball being hit drowned out what was being said on the TV set. She turned up the volume. That began to irritate Sally North, who was reading her copy of ‘Divergent’. She thrust the bookmark into the page she’d reached and stood up, a grouchy expression on her face.

“I’m trying to read” she snapped.

The volume was then turned up from 23 to 44.

“You’re a selfish slag” said Sally.

She was given the middle finger gesture by Emerald. Instantaneously, Sally snatched the remote from her right hand. Opening one of the windows looking into the huge back garden, she threw it out. Luckily, it landed on grass rather than concrete. Emerald propelled herself off the sofa and got in Sally’s face.

“Get it back, you tosser!”

“Make me, skank face!”

“What the fuck did you call me?”

“Deaf as well as being thick as pig shit – I’m so not surprised!”

Darting past Sally, Emerald picked up the paperback belonging to her, and started flicking through each page cockily.

“Tris Prior didn’t know how to react to Four’s mood swings, so she took it up the arse!”

“That so isn’t in the book!”

“You’re totally right – it isn’t!”

She ripped out that page, smirking contemptuously at Sally.

“Well, your mum knows all about getting it up the arse!” she yelled venomously at Emerald.

Sally was given a fierce slap for her remark. She wasted no time giving Emerald one in return. As the adverts came on, the two girls grabbed hold of each other’s hair.

“Lezzer fight!” yelled Rob excitedly. “Hope they get their tops off – I so wanna see their baps!”

The battling teenage girls tumbled to the carpet, still engaged in vicious hair-pulling. They rolled back and forth. At one point, Sally’s right hand nearly got wedged under the back of the sofa. Her fingers were nimble enough to avoid getting stuck there. All five of them banded together, delivering one more slap to whichever of Emerald’s cheeks was undefended. She tumbled backwards from the impact, her arms flailing. She was all set to get more violent with Sally, when Holly and Ben came in. He grabbed hold of Emerald, while Holly secured Sally’s arms. The teenage girls’ legs were a different matter. They were still able to kick out at one another.

“I’ll get Emerald to her bedroom” Ben said to his female colleague. “You take Sally to the kitchen.”

Holly frogmarched Miss North out first. Ben waited a few minutes before taking Emerald up to the second floor.

“I’ve locked her in there for a bit” Holly said, tossing the bunch of keys they were responsible for to him. Ben caught them with his right hand.

“Get off me, you paedo!” yelled Emerald.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah” said Ben, taking this insult on the chin. “I’ll let go of your arms when you go upstairs willingly”

Emerald moodily capitulated, saying “I fucking well know where my pissing bedroom is!”

Ben kept behind her, to make sure she didn’t get past him and run off. When he was sure she was far enough inside her bedroom, Ben said “Sorry, Fiona – I need to lock Emerald in here until she cools off!”

“Yeah, stop fingering yourself, you lezzer, and leave the room!” said Emerald.

“Go fuck yourself, you slapper!”

“Knock it off, the pair of you!” shouted Ben.

He escorted Fiona from the room quickly. Using his other hand, he gestured to Emerald to back off. When he’d closed the door and locked it, Emerald dropped Fiona’s bedside lamp onto a hard surface out of pure spite, smashing it.

“What am I meant to do for an hour” asked Fiona. Her face was as moody as Emerald’s.

“Watch TV, read something” said Ben.

Still wearing a petulant expression, she went downstairs. Ben was about to follow her, when he heard Diane’s voice, one floor above.  He casually climbed the stairs. Ben was near the top step when he heard her say “I’ll bring you some more tomorrow”. There were then four short beeps, followed by one that lasted two seconds. These sounds were repeated a moment later.

Seeing her a few steps up, Ben asked her “Are you talking to the workmen?”

“I thought I told you that I’m the only one allowed up here, Ben” said Diane brusquely.

“Sorry, it’s just that I heard you talking to...”

“Why have you disobeyed one of my rules?”

“I can explain – I had to put Emerald into hers and Fiona’s bedroom. She and Sally were fighting again. Holly’s locked Sal in the kitchen”

“Who I talk to is none of your business!”

“I never said it was: listen, didn’t you hear what I said about Emerald and Sally scrapping, Diane?”

“If I catch you or any member of staff setting foot beyond the second floor, they’ll be sacked – is that clear?”

“Totally clear – so, what do I do about Sally and Emerald?” enquired Ben, as he followed Diane back downstairs.

“You know the health & safety regulations, Ben”

He was getting tired of Diane ignoring his efforts to talk about the fight that had happened, so he said “Can we please talk about Emerald and Sally?”

“When I told you about the rules regarding the maintenance, I’d hoped you’d listen!” she said sternly.

“Why should I – you’re not listening to me!” replied Ben.

“Excuse me?”

“You heard – you’re way more interested in what’s happening on the third floor than the ground one!”

“Right, you’re sacked!”

“I’m what?”

“Sacked – you can collect your stuff and get the fuck out of Sudfield!”

Ben couldn’t believe his ears. This was the last outburst he expected to hear from Diane.

“You’re sacking me for telling you about a fight?”

“I’m sacking you because you can’t follow health & safety procedures!”

“This is fucking unbelievable! I tell you two of the female residents are knocking seven bells out of one another, and you accuse me of being irresponsible. I’ve always followed every rule in this place!”

“You could’ve fooled me!”

“Who are you and what’ve you done with Diane Farnham?”

“Oh, you think it’s funny, do you?”

“You know what, I don’t! I’ll save you the bother of firing me – I fucking well quit!”

“I want you gone in half an hour!”

“I’m gonna be out of here sooner than that!” he replied angrily.

Several minutes later, his final walk out of Sudfield was witnessed by Holly. She was in the recreation room with Fiona and Rob. Holly only became aware of his departure when she glanced towards the room’s door frame.

“Wait in here” she said to Rob and Fiona.

She followed him out of the building and onto the driveway. Holly saw that he’d changed back into his casual clothes. Lifting her arms up level with her shoulders, she enquired as to where he was going.

“To find another job, Holly”

“What?”

“I don’t have to spell it out, do I?”

“She’s sacked you?”

“Yeah”

“What for”

“For contravening health & safety rules or some such bollocks”

“That’s way mental!”

“Tell me about it – I’m trying to let her know that Sally and Emerald are about to kill each other...the next thing I know, I’m out on my ear!”

“This so doesn’t make sense!”

Ben turned and continued walking off the premises. Holly tried to run after him.

“Where are you going now?”

“To do what I did the last time I got sacked – get hammered!”

“Stop a minute”

Unwillingly, Ben did. He turned to face Holly.

“I so don’t get this – she was always praising you”

“Yeah, up until those two sisters got here – after that, everything went tits up!”

“Anyway, they’re not here at the moment! Besides, nothing’s changed that much!”

“Get real, Holly – the atmosphere at Sudfield is fucking depressing! I’m so glad to get out of here!”

“What about me?”

“Leave this shithole behind – you’re a volunteer, she can’t sack you!”

He left the grounds, without saying goodbye, heading to the nearest bus stop. Turning away, Holly found herself looking at the same spot Pippa had. For four seconds, she glimpsed someone passing by the round window. Holly then stared at Diane through the doorway, as she walked up the stairs to her office.

“I’m way sure you’re hiding something” Holly said quietly to herself, her voice not exceeding beyond a whisper.