Leticia (47 page)

“Stop, don’t say it.”

“You don’t even know what I was going to say.”

“I think I do, and I want to say it first.”

“Jackson...”

“You’ve shown me how to feel again, you’ve change my life... I don’t ever want to lose you. I can’t bare the thoughts of being without you. I don’t care how long we’ve known each other... I’m absolutely, deeply, intoxicatingly...”

He was interrupted by his phone ringing.

“It’s Nancy,” he said answering it. “Nancy you
’
r
e
on loud speaker, we can both hear you.”

“Good, because you
’
r
e
not going to believe what I’m about to tell you,” she began.
“They have definitely been back to the lab, well, if you can even call it a lab anymore
...”

“What do you mean?” I asked
.

“The place has been well and truly trashed...”

“Did you both go in? Where is Tristan?” Jackson asked her
.

“If you stay quiet for a minute I will tell you
everything
.”

“Sorry, please carry on.”

“Right, as I was saying... the place has been trashed. In the main lab part there were only two chairs left
intact
. There was glass everywhere, papers and books torn up, machinery in pieces on the floor. It looked like a small bomb had gone off in there.”

“It was in pristine condition when we came. The only place that was untidy was one of the offices.” I told her.

“Every room has been destroyed. Even the windows were smashed. We’ve been looking around for ages for something,
anything
to give us a clue as to their whereabouts, but there was nothing
. There’s a large pile of ash at the side of the building, it seems someone’s had a bonfire. I could see the remains of books, but I couldn’t make anything else out. We went back inside to double check everything, and in the end thought we were just wasting
our
time
...
then
we did find som
ething. It can’t help us but...
we found a body.”

“Yeah, Jackson and I did, it was in the storage room at the back of the lab. Remember I told you; it was Charles.”

“No, we saw that one,
or should I say what was left of it. It was
disgusting;
all his flesh had come off his bones and...!

“Hey
,
hey, less of the details please,” I interrupted. “It was bad enough seeing it in the state it was when
I
was there. I don’t need to know about how
it’s
changed and...”

“
OK
,
OK
, sorry, I’ll shut up.” She went quiet for a moment and I heard Tristan talking in the background. “
OK
you’re
on loud speaker here too.”

“Hey guys,” Tristan began. “
Has Nancy told you everything?”

“Not everything no,” she told him “I was up to the part where we saw Charles’s body...”

“Yes but they already knew that was there. Jackson, Tish,
we found
another one.
”

“Where?” Jackson asked him.

He was strapped to a bed,
by the looks of him he’s been tortured and burned... he looked like he’d been there a couple of weeks at least.
”

“Who is it? Is there any way of knowing?”

“Yes...” Nancy took over. “
Now Tish you
’
r
e
not going to like what I’m about to tell you.” she paused. “
He
had...
Luke’s boots on.”

I tried to speak, but no sound came out. My eyes filled with tears.

“People can have the same boots as him, it could be someone else
,
” Jackson told her.

“Luke had light denim jeans on and a blue shirt the day he was taken. By the looks of what was left of the fabric on the body, they’re his clothes too.”

“Oh my god,” I choked,
sitting up and
putting my hand to my mouth. Jackson put his arm around me to try and comfort me.

“Tish are you
OK
? I’m so sorry
,
” Nancy was saying.

“She can’t talk at the moment
,
” Jackson informed her. “Can you carry on telling me?”

“
OK
.
After
finding... Luke, we carried on searching. Still, we found nothing. We were about to leave when Tristan found a room we hadn’t explored. There were five other bodies in there. All of them looked similar to the guys who have been attacking us. They had all
been
shot in their temples. They wouldn’t have suffered, not like...”

“Where are you now?”

“In one of the offices, Tristan is
going to
look at Luke’s body to see if he can find anything to prove it
isn’t
him...
up to now, he hasn’t been able to find
anything
.
I’ll call you back soon
.
”

She hung up.

I was still
silent;
I didn’t know what to say. Jackson held me against him, and tried to assure me that there could have been a mistake. But I knew in my heart that when Nancy called back, it would be to confirm it definitely
was
him.

“He must have been so scared,” I finally spoke.

“I know baby, I know, I’m sorry.”

“All the respect I had for human life has just left me. I mean,
humans
don’t even respect
human
life, so why the hell should I? I don’t care how old these men are, where they are from, what they have or haven’t got... I want every single one of them dead. I don’t want them to be shown any sor
t of mercy. The more pain they’
re
in
when they die... the happier I’ll be.”

“I can understand that.”

“And when we find this Roger, nobody is to touch him, do you hear me?”

“Why?”

“Because that bastard is mine!”

I pulled my clothes on and walked outside. It was a cloudy night and we were so high up that we were right in the middle of it. The clouds rushed past me, carried by the wind. It was spooky, but I didn’t care. I was kinda hoping someone would jump out at me just so I could take my anger and upset out on someone. Jackson shouted for me to come back inside, but I didn’t want to, I wanted to be alone and I needed air. I was so
upset;
all those years I’d spent hating Luke, when all the time he was in trouble. Why hadn’t I persisted in looking for him before I fled? Why did I believe the scientists when they said he didn’t want to know me anymore? If I’d have stuck around longer, I could have found him, n
one of this would have happened
and he would still be alive. The guilt I felt was almost unbearable. I blamed myself for everything, if only I’d kept my mouth shut and not told him what I was.

Tears rolled down my cheeks, I couldn’t stop them anymore. I closed my eyes and whispered. “Luke, if you can hear me, where ever you are... I swear I will find them, I will get revenge if
it’s
the last thing I do.”

If these creeps wanted to drive
me
into despair, they had pretty much succeeded. But oh god, they
would
pay for it.

Jackson had now managed to drag me back inside, but only because Nancy was on the phone again.

“Tish, can you hear me?” she asked
.

“Yeah.”

“I’m sorry, but it seems it is definitely Luke in there. Tristan cannot find anything at all to prove otherwise.

“
OK
.
”

“Listen, we’re not staying over, neither of us think it’s safe. It seems to us that nobody has been to the lab for weeks and if
they’re
not here then they must still be close to our house. We’re setting off now and should be home in a few hours. The roads will be quiet, so it should be a straight forward journey. Stay
alert;
we will call you when we’re a few minutes away.”

“No problem,” Jackson told her. “Take care.”

“We will.”

He hung up and then went in the kitchen to make us both a hot drink. I was sat on the sofa staring into space when he went to hand me the mug.

“I’m sorry about Luke, I didn’t particularly like the guy but I didn’t want anything to happen to him,” he said sitting beside me.

“I know, I just wish...
well, I wish for a lot of things...”

“You’ll get your revenge Leticia, I promise you.”

“Oh I know I will, I won’t rest until I do.”

“There is nothing we can do right now. Let’s wait
un
till they get home and we’ll start planning our next move. The time for action is now.”

“I agree.”

I finished my drink and curled up with him again. We didn’t speak, we just held each other. The TV was still on, but although I was looking at the screen I wasn’t really paying attention to it. My mind was all over the place. The same questions and thoughts ran through my mind over and over again, playing a like broken record.

In the end I must have fallen asleep, the next thing I knew Jackson’s phone was ringing.

“
You’re
on speaker again.” He answered.

“We’ll be home in about ten minute
s
, put the kettle on will you, I’d kill for a cup of tea. We’re just coming off Snake’s Pass now. Oh, actually, can you make us a coffee, we all need to talk and to be honest I’m tired, I’ll need...”

Nancy’s voice was drowned out by the deafening sounds of an explosion.
My heart jumped into my throat, my body instantly started to tremble.

“NANCY!” Jackson shouted, sitting upright
.
“NANCY
!
”

The line went dead.

Betrayal coming soon

Leticia has had her fair share of hurt and hardships, but it seems things are about to go from bad to worse. Her ex-lover, originally thought to be behind all this upset and pain, is dead. Two of her friends are missing and presumed dead, and the attacks on her and the new man in her life, Jackson, are becoming more ferocious. Who is doing this to them? When will they discover who the man, known to them only as ‘Boss’ actually is? Will Leticia and Jackson’s love stay strong through it all? It seems there is nowhere else to run, nowhere else to hide. They must fight, even if it means to their death... who will win is anybody’s guess.

I have lived in Droylsden, Manchester, all my life. I live with my parents
and my younger sister, Cheryl.
I never knew what I wanted to do with my life until I be
gan writing. This is my dream.

I get most of my inspiration from music, I’ll sit there listening to it and suddenly I’m no longer in the room. My stories play like videos in my mind, then I go and write them down.

I’m a very dark person, I love anything spooky, supernatural, or unexplainable, and so that’s the genre I want to write in for the rest of my life. I love watching scary films, although I find it very hard to find one these days that actually frighten
s
me.