The Last Breath Of Reggie Warrington

Chapter 16: Gold Dust

"COLLLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN!!!" He yelled as if the whole world was as deaf as a post and needed to make them hear every word he spoke.

Colin? One of my most hated boys' names. I couldn't understand how anyone could have an innocent little baby and burden him with a name like Colin. At least with Trevor, another name I detested, you could shorten it to Trev, but you'd struggle to shorten Colin. It was so yuck it made porridge look nice.

Hold on a minute. The name Colin was impossible to shorten, but could easily be changed to something similar. Something like Cole. Knowing that the twins father was actually a Colin, was something I found rather amusing.

The old walls of the Victorian terrace shook with the slam of an upstairs door and stairs quivered as someone hurtled down them. I had no idea who or what to expect, as the shape of a teenage boy ran out of the darkness.

Face covered by a filthy stained hoodie, jeans so loose they looked more like poo catchers and with a waistband of dirty grey boxers clearly visible, I immediately thought druggy. Our eyes met and forced a cold shiver to run down my back. I could feel my eyes widening as I just stood and stared at him like so sort of gormless freak, barely unable to say a word. He took one look at me and turned to leave as quickly as if someone had farted, but I knew what I saw.

"Ethan?!"

The second the boy's mouth opened to say something, the ogre of a man butted in.

"Ethan? Naah darlin' fink you're mistaken, love. No Ethan lives here. That's Willy, Colin's brother."

"W-Willy?" I said, almost sounding like a deranged chimp or some sort of halfwit.

"Oi little Willy, where's ya bruvva?"

"Gone to sign on I think, Dad." He replied, but I had questions and whatever Ethan, Willy, or whoever he was, wanted, I was determined to get answers.

Wow. An unemployed, unemployable waste of space called Colin. My sister had brilliant taste in men!

The man, Ethan/Willy's Dad, took Maddison into the kitchen so they could discuss Cole/Colin, giving Ethan/Willy and I, a chance to talk. He, like all confusing cowards, turned to return to his lair. I waited a few seconds, even opened the front door a bit to confuse him into thinking I'd gone, before heading up the stairs.

Well, I'd never seen anything like it, yet I didn't have a teenaged brother. Pants, socks, horrible unmentionable things littered the staircase and the landing outside the rooms. The smell, like old stale piddle, imagines a hamster or ferret who's cage hadn't been cleaned out for a good few months, then someone might understand how badly the upstairs of the house stank.

There were only three doors to chose from, well I say three, but the bathroom door was missing and so was the toilet seat. Old towels, streaked in what I hoped was rust, lay in a pile near the loo. But that's as close as I really wanted to get. I knew if I actually looked closer at the toilet I would probably have had nightmares until I was at least 80, followed by counselling every day for the rest of my life.

"Willy..." I called "come out, come out, where ever you are...! Chloe wants some answers!"

I listened carefully to any sound that might have given me a clue to Willy W*nker's hiding place. Silence. With the sleeve of my pastel hoodie pulled over my hand, I opened one door. A grotesque, sickening thing sat on the unmade bed. I slammed the door shut.

Perhaps I needed that counselling!

Door number two and this time I knew it had to be this one. Sleeve still pulled over my hand to avoid any nasty bacteria, I shoved open the door. There he sat, on the bed, his back turned towards me. However, I couldn't help noticing a suspicious looking rainbow coloured magazine partially hidden under a pile of pants under the bed.

I stepped into the room, well, only a foot inside and knew by the two single beds that he obviously shared a room with whatever his name was.

"So then, Ethan?" I started, "or should that be Willy?"

But the boy stayed silent.

"Fake name for a fake person, is that right? I mean you say you're straight but we all know you're gay!"

He leapt off the bed as if someone has set alight his undergarments. "Shhhhhh! Keep your voice down!"

"Aah, so you're in the closet?"

I watched as he slumped back on to the bed.
"I'm not gay, but I'm not straight. I don't know who I am or what I am, but they can't know." His big eyes looked up at me, but the feelings I had for him before I saw the video of him with another guy, weren't there anymore so his 'let's try and be cute' routine, just didn't work for me now.

"Fine, but that guy you were within the park a few weeks ago, he wasn't your brother, was he? I mean my dad has a brother and when they were our age they didn't go around holding hands and they're twins."

He shook his head, "Stan, Stan Tully, he's my boyfriend."

"So you are gay?"

"I'm still alive, Chloe. Trust me, if I was what you think I wouldn't even be alive. You don't know my family, you don't know my brother. My dad's been in the nick for years for violence."

That didn't surprise me at all, but one thing I didn't get was why the name change.
"Why Ethan? Will isn't a bad name if you're actually a William. I think it's quite popular, you know, Prince William, William Shakespeare, Will-I-Am, there's loads of cool Williams."

I watched as his head fell into his hands.
"I'm not a William, Chloe."

"Not another fake name, surely. What do you want me to call you next, Gavin Rodwell?"

Name Unknown, crossed the room and opened a drawer. After rummaging around for a moment, he pulled out a sheet of paper and handed it to me.

I'd seen something like it before and knew straight away that it was a birth certificate. There in black and cream in front of me was all the information I needed to know. Name, Little Willy Wigglesworth. Oh dear. With a name like that I could clearly see why anyone would choose a different name, but where did he get the name 'Ethan Campbell' from. Then I saw it, under name of mother, Dolly Campbell. Well, that was one question answered, now onto question two.

"What happened after the party?" Perhaps I should have asked that one first instead of going on about stupid stuff that didn't matter while Reggie's killer was still out there. A not so polite shove and I found myself back onto the landing with a door slammed in my face. He's lied about so many things, of course, the whole Prince Charming thing was going to be a load of crap.

I nipped back downstairs and out of the front door. Everything about that house, that family, gave me the creeps and I couldn't wait to get home. Seeing the taxi waiting patiently outside for us, I climbed inside. But it wasn't until I sat down to text Maddison where I was, that I realised I still had Ethan's birth certificate. It is was gold dust. If I wanted to, I could have used it however I wished, make him suffer for being such a sod. But no. I wasn't Reggie. That's exactly what he would have done. Ethan would curse the day he made a twat of Chloe Leighton, just how I was going to do that was something I was yet to plan.

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Author's Note
Ha, to all those who said this story was predictable. Bet you didn't see that coming, did you? Ethan isn't actually Ethan's real name, who would have guessed? So, how do you find the story? What do you think of this latest plot twist? Are you #TeamEthan or #TeamChloe? Remember we're yet to find out who killed Reggie. I'll update soon.

Oh, quick hi to AlphaRoseAwakens sierra_hudson and downrightdelinquents hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. If anyone wants to be tagged in the next update. Please let me know.