PEEL-BEHIND THEIR EYES. Book 1 (Complete)

Chapter 12. Waking

Rays of stabbing bright light speared down from the wind ripped ancient tiled roof high above the deserted storehouse. Victorian red brick walls towered above two unconscious forms that lay in the far corner, their bodies involuntarily shivering among the curtains of shadows. Macy stirred first; she felt her mind clogged by a thick hanging fog as she tried to assemble the threads of her thoughts, threads that swung away as she grasped at them. The terrible sound of screaming dragged her mind closer to full consciousness, the long shrill repetitive screaming pushed needles into her mind. She was aware of a terrible smell that wrapped itself around her, a smell that made her wretch and gag. With each breathe, the rotten aroma flooded her mouth, nose, and stomach, each breathe made her feel as if she was suffocating on filth, she hated fish at the best of times. Her eyelids scraped over saw eyeballs like sandpaper, blinking rapidly, she desperately tried to conjure up enough moisture to banish the pain in her eyes. Now able to keep her eyes open, Macy could see that she was no longer in the small bare room of a garage, but now in a large bare cavernous room someplace else. Macy desperately, urgently, searched around to see if she was alone, and was relieved when she saw that she was not.

"Rebeca" Macy clamped her good hand onto the girl's shoulder and shook. Waiting for Rebeca to wake, Macy crawled up onto her hands and knees, and almost collapsed back down as her broken hand raged with pain, fighting rising nausea she attempted to stand. A chain wrapped painfully around her waist had her locked to the floor. Macy sat down beside the slowly waking girl and began to cry, she knew they were going to die, she had tried to escape and failed, failed herself, failed Rebeca, and failed poor Tina to her death.

Rebeca sat up beside her, rubbed the palms of her hands over her face and released a moan "Uuh!"

Macy placed her hand in Rebeca's and said "We've been moved to somewhere new, I think, it's a lot bigger than the other place"

Rebeca looked around scared "Why? Do you think someone discovered where we were" she grasped at the straws of hope "the monster might have had to shift us fast, maybe the police will find us".

Macy hadn't the heart to bring Rebeca back to the reality of the situation, she wiped the tears from her own face and forced a smile, nodding in agreement, said " Yes, I'm sure they will find and free us very soon", and squeezing Rebeca's hand in comfort, Macy shuffled up to her and held on to her "yes, very soon".

Rebeca, her head cradled in Macy's arms, sobbed, "Why did the monster take Tina, she didn't do anything wrong, she was quiet, just like it asked" Macy felt Rebeca shake "Why didn't it take you instead" Rebeca sat up and pulled away from Macy and pointed back at her "Why didn't it take you, it was you who tried to get away, you who made all the noise, you who made it angry, why are you still alive" Rebeca stared at Macy "you should be dead, not Tina!"

Macy felt the slap of accusation, as well as tears of guilt, she couldn't help but think that maybe it was her fault that Tina was taken, that maybe trying to escape was what had gotten Tina killed. Tears ran down her cheeks as she tried to move closer to Rebeca, but the chains held her back. As much as to convince herself as well as Rebeca, she said "No, I didn't take Tina, or kill her, that was the monster. All I did was try to go and get help. Rebeca, you understand that we have to escape don't you, we have to get out of here before we are killed to"

Realizing that comforting Rebeca with hopeful words was not going to help either of them Macy said more harshly "Rebeca, if we stay here nice and quiet, we are going to die, the monster will come back and kill us" Macy paused, and raising her voice, said "DEAD!"

The rays of light that cut into the gloom slowly grew dimmer as the pair sat separately on the bare floor. Their tears dried, their sobs stopped, they sat silently waiting, alone. The screaming seagulls that made Macy cringe had finally stopped, but now all she could hear was her own trembling breaths, and she thought "at least I am breathing, Tina isn't". Macy heard and felt Rebeca shuffle back over to her, and the girl said: "I'm sorry". The two terrified girls held on to each other as the shadows drew together and a chill settled in, and their terrible ordeal continued.

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Robert sat in the shadows of his office, behind his cluttered desk and stared intently at the empty bottle of scotch that stood on top of the file he had been guarding ever since he had found it among his father's possessions, up the attic back at his childhood home that was now up for sale. He had read through it again and found nothing new, just as he had read through all that day's reports from his team, also finding nothing of use. He had also received and read the coroner's report on the girl's body, now identified as Tina Phillips. Now he was waiting for the DNA results of a single strand of brown hair found inside the girl's dress. He knew it would take time to come back; it would be compared to every police officer who attended the crime scene, a precaution, his own DNA included. More importantly, it would be compared to archived DNA and anyone who could possibly be linked to her disappearance and murder.

Detective's Reed and Grips had found a couple of possible witnesses, but Grips said that their statements were wildly different and that they screamed of wanna-be witnesses, but they would be interviewing them again tomorrow, just to be sure.

Malloy and Sanders had collected DNA samples, hair and tooth brushes from the missing girl's houses, as well as hair, mouth swabs from relatives and friends. All of which they had delivered to the lab earlier in the day.

Muck had collated all relevant telephone numbers and passed them on to the Techies, who were drip feeding them with any interesting Text's, emails and call's, but there was scant few.

Detective Argason had scoured all possible CCTV footage and had found very little.

Everyone who had been interviewed, had alibi's, except for an unlikely few, but Robert had officers chasing them up anyway, due diligence and all that. Now all he was waiting for was Detective Mason to turn up with the physical evidence from Tina Philips crime scene, especially the newspaper, he wanted a closer look at that. Also, he was expecting Muck and Havers anytime now, to give him their report on their meeting with Julia Barringer, who, he had just found out, had denied police protection. Catching the killer had just become even more vital.

Robert's eyes were heavy, his neck ached and his head pounded like a jackhammer. He had sat and watched through the window as the sun set, night was but minutes away, and all he could do was to think "Those girls are still out there, and if I don't do something to save them, they are going to die, same as Tina. I shall have failed them, just as my father failed the girls in the Barringer case". Robert slammed his balled fist down onto the desk and shouted "Fuck". The bottle bounced once, toppled over and rolled to the edge of the desk, where it disappeared. Robert heard it smashed as it hit the floor, and said softly "Oh fuck".

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