Junk Mail

Chapter Twenty Two - Maniacs, Misery and Murders

"Oh, Ben!" Hillary cried, practically falling into Ben's house with all of her suitcases. "Wren, Hen... both of you get into the house quickly. Who knows when that crazed maniac will come out to strike! Who? Who knows? We have to get to safety! Quickly now!"

Ben sighed for the fifteenth time since collecting his mother from the train station.

Andrew Davis had been missing for a total of three days and no one had been able to track him down. On the second day, Ben had received a letter stating that Andrew Davis was going to come after everyone that Ben cared about so Larry had taken it upon himself to shelter everybody that was a potential victim. As Davis was supposedly coming after all those Ben cared about, Ben wondered why his mother and siblings were in the house (or in da house as Wren was repeatedly saying). Ben also thought Andrew Davis was not seriously going to go after anybody Ben even remotely cared about, as the man wasn't that much of a crazy psycho.

"Are we all in?" Hillary asked. "Let's do a quick head count. One and two. Okay, Wren and Hen you're both here. That's good."

"Why did you bring so many suitcases?" Ben grumbled. "And why do you keep coming back and irritating me? I'm going to go grey before I even reach thirty."

Hillary laughed as though Ben was making a joke, though he really wasn't. Ben had spent that morning analysing his hair. He'd finally gone shopping the night before and an old lady had told him he had split ends whilst he was buying apples in the vegetable section, and it had really messed with his self confidence. Ben had also remembered a time when Ara had taught Ben and Pepe el how to cut their split ends, and Ben ended up missing his friends. He had gotten so angry at the old lady for bringing up split ends that he taken the apples, stuck a barcode from an MP3 player on to the fruits and then cleverly put the apples into her handbag (as all old ladies carried handbags - all old men too, Ben thought, as he didn't want to generalise). Anyhow, the old lady (whose name had been Blaze, Ben had later found out) had gotten to the doors and then been caught. Ben assumed she had gone to prison but he later saw her in the car park, where she waved at him using only her middle finger. But even after she had left and Ben had gotten home and then finally woken up the next day, he still remembered the split ends. Ben had spent the morning analysing his hair and had found two grey ones at the very top which was all Hillary's fault.

"Ben honey, I'm going to need to borrow some cash," Hillary said after she'd finished applying her indoor lipstick. "What if that maniac turns up and tries to kill me? I need some money so I can bribe him and survive."

Ben turned to look at his mother. "I've gone bankrupt. I don't have any money right now, so I guess you'll just have to take your chances."

"Ben!" Larry scolded. "Don't speak to your mother like that. She's only here for a few days, just the Christmas period. The police will probably catch Andrew Davis soon and then you won't see your family again for ages. Doesn't that make you even a little bit sad?"

Ben shook his head and walked on upstairs. He didn't really understand why his mother needed to be here for Christmas. She would ruin the dinner, demand presents without giving anybody else any and then annoy Ben's twenty year old neighbour by chasing him with mistletoe in her hands. Ben thought his mother was a disgusting member of society and wondered why his father was even bothering with her. Ben also tried to remember why he hated her so much but couldn't remember exactly; he just knew that she was only nice when it benefited her and that she didn't act like a proper mother so could not possibly be a good person.

Ben wondered if he was a good person. He knew that good people had to donate to charity and speak sympathetically about those that were less fortunate than them, and could do all manner of terrible things and still be considered good people if they covered up the bad things with charity. Ben knew that he had given money to good causes, like the Daffodil Society which gave lonely people daffodils so that those people could care for the plants and distract themselves. The Daffodil Society had once given him daffodils, so Ben felt that he should give back to the charity.