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I bite down on my fist to stifle a sob. I can’t take this anymore. She’s gone too far this time. Tearfully, I storm out of the kitchen and march up to our bedroom. “Pack your bags, we’re leaving.”
Nick pops his head out the bathroom, his lips covered with toothpaste. “Baby, what’s wrong?”
“She’s a disgrace,” I spit. “A complete and utter disgrace. The bile that just came out of her mouth… I’ve never heard anything like it. We need to leave here right now and never come back.”
“But darling, what exactly…”
I hold up my hand. “Please, Nick, I don’t want to talk about it. I just want to get as far away from here as possible.”
There’s a quiet knock at the door and my father enters. “What on Earth was all that screaming about?”
“I’m sorry Dad, but we have to go. She’s fucked everything up as usual. I’ve tried and tried to make things work between us, but she’ll never change, I see that now. I’m better off without her. As long as she’s in my life, I’ll never be happy.”
“Jesus, what has she done this time?”
“She wants me to break up with Nick.” I run my finger down my nose. “Look, I can’t really talk about this. You should start packing too, Dad. Nick can give you a lift home.”
“But I can’t just up and leave. It’s Christmas, Carly. Isn’t there any way you could work things out with your mother? Maybe talk things through?”
“Nope, she’s gone too far this time. Look, if you want to stay here, that’s fine, but I refuse to spend another minute in a house where my fiancé isn’t welcome.”
Dad and Nick exchange helpless glances. “All right, I’ll start packing,” Nick says quietly.
By the time we get back to Pimlico, it’s well past eleven. We had an easy drive back because all the roads were virutally traffic free. Nick hits the brakes and pulls the Jaguar to the curb. Above looms his tall, Regency-style house with a white stucco facade and a black entrance door framed by two huge columns.
“Are you okay?” he asks.
I shrug. “Not really, what what can you do? You can’t choose your parents.”
He reaches out and gently strokes my knee. “Just give it some time, huh? Perhaps she’ll come around.”
“No she won’t, Nick. I told you, I’m through with her. There’s no going back.” Unclipping my seatbelt, I clamber out the car and follow him through the snow to the steps of his house. Taking my hand, Nick unlocks the door and leads me inside. He switches on the lights, then we go to the living room and crash out on the sofa. I’m physically and mentally exhausted. All I want to do is sleep. Blinking twice, I wipe the sides of my mouth and tell him I’m going to the garden to smoke a cigarette. He kisses me and tells me not to be long.
I grab my handbag and head towards the door. “I promise I’ll be back in five,” I say.
“Okay.” The sadness on Nick’s face tears me up. I can tell this whole buisness with Mum has really affected him.
I step out into the hall and stride through the conservatory to the garden. As I step onto the steps, I almost have a heart attack.
There’s a stranger in the garden; a woman standing under the snow-covered Chestnut tree. Dressed in robes of scarlet and black, she is hands down the most monstrous thing I’ve ever seen. She is standing very still, almost like a statue. Her skin is chalk-white, her lips parched and cracked, with blood red eyes that are sunken back in her head like a corpse. Cuts and bruises cover her cheeks and forehead, and a revolting purple liquid oozes from a scab above her right brow. Her fingers, if you can call them that, are more like talons, ready to scratch your eyes out at the slightest provocation.
In a daze of horror, I stare at her, my limbs completely paralysed with fear. I want to run but my legs are too weak to move.
And then she flashes a demonic grin, showing two sets of razor sharp teeth, and I fall into vortex of darkness. Worse than her decaying flesh and horrendous face is the sense of pure evil emanating off her; an intense, black hatred that sucks everything good out of me.
I gasp and clutch my throat. It’s like I can’t breathe, like an invisible rope is being pulled tighter and tighter, strangling the air from my lungs.
With a shrill cry, I finally find my feet, bolt back inside the house and race to the living room to find Nick.
“Carly, what’s the matter?”
I collapse in his arms, hysterical. “Oh Nick, it was so awful. I-I saw this h-horrible creature in the garden. She has these horrible red eyes like a devil and… oh gosh, it was just so awful, and those claws!” His body stiffens and he holds onto me more tightly. I look up at him, my eyes imploring him to believe me. “Please Nick, just go to the garden and see for yourself. I’m not imagining it. There’s really something there!”
Calmly, he releases me, sits me down on the couch and slowly walks into the hall.
“Be careful!” I shout.
He doesn’t answer.
