Mist Always Covers Mystery

Ember

It was starting to get dark and Ember knew she would have to sleep soon. It was the end of the week and while for most people that meant a break, for her, it meant that she would have to go out to gigs with unsigned bands and help with the set-up. She was a roadie. But she was definitely proud of it.

But there was one thing that was niggling at the back of her mind. She had a plan, and she was keeping it a secret from Gerard. He wouldn’t understand.

Ember grinned. After all these many years of sharing everything with her husband, it was nice to have this secret because it was something of her own and she hadn’t had that, not ever. Even as a child she had to share everything, with two brothers and one sister nothing in her house had been private.

The plan she had come up with, had been a big step for Ember. She has known for a long time now that having a child of her own was out of the question. So she was going to adopt one. She just hoped Gerard would like her idea, it just niggled at the back of her mind that the reason she wasn’t telling him was because she knew deep down that he wouldn’t like it.

But he had promised. He had promised to do anything she wanted. The marriage vows had to mean something, no matter how long ago they were.

She rested her head in her hands and picked up her phone. It was probably too late and nobody would pick up now. Surely?

She held it to her ear waiting for the answer phone to pick up. Only there was a woman’s voice at the end.

“Miss Hattie’s house for girls, how may I help?” The voice said brusquely.

Ember was taken aback for a moment, she hadn’t expected an answer.

“Umm… Hello, this is Ember Way. I’m ringing to see if the child we have discussed would be available to be picked up soon.” She whispered.

There was a silence on the other end of the line for a moment, and a subtle shuffling of papers that made Ember think it was fake.

“Of course, Mystery will be the perfect child for you Mrs. Way.” The woman said with a sickly sweet tone.

Ember scoffed slightly.

“I’ll be by in the morning to pick her up then.” Ember said, silently praying that Gerard’s reaction would be a good one. Forging his signature was easy; she’d done it all the time when he was meant to be signing fan mail for the fans of the band.

From what she’d heard from Sylvia Hattie, Mystery was a sweet child who had had a troubled past. She would be perfect to fit in with their little family, she hadn’t met her yet and she knew that that wasn’t what was supposed to happen, they had skipped over a few of the legalities and while it was still above board, it wasn’t exactly what was normal regulation. But she had become desperate, and this was her final chance of a child and she would do all she could to get one.

Gerard was sure to see it as it was, a lovely surprise and a chance for them both to be happy. She just knew it was going to be alright in the end. It just had to be. Because there wasn’t anything else she could do. She was exhausted, mentally and physically. It was tough having to have this perfect persona of happiness, and she had to be strong for Gee. He thought of her as the perfect woman. If only being perfect was easy.

If only being normal was easy.

Mystery

They didn’t understand how much their words could hurt. They didn’t understand how every ignorant thing they said inflicted more pain than the blades drug across innocent skin where no one could see. Maybe that was why Mystery had resorted to putting herself through the self-harm, to give herself something that hurt left.

“Myst, do you understand what I’m saying?” Sylvia asked, her voice faking concern but her face looking nothing but completely bored by this situation.

“Do you think I’m stupid?” Mystery hissed in reply, slouching in her seat since the effort of this conversation was draining her. Somehow despite this her brown eyes still managed to shoot daggers at the social worker. “Of course I understand and I’m not going.”

Sylvia sighed, “You don’t get a say in the matter, Myst, you’re getting adopted and that’s final.”

“For fucks sake, stop calling me ‘Myst’! You’ve never earned that fucking right since your nothing but a cunt to me so I am going to do everything in my power to make your life a living hell like you’ve made mine and if that involves staying her e for the rest of my god damn life that’s what I am going to do.” Mystery screamed at her jumping to her feet and knocking over the seat where she’d been sitting.

“Just go to your room, I’ve got no time for this behaviour. Pack your bags since you’ll be leaving very soon.” She replied not flinching at my words or even looking up from her computer screen.

Smiling sweetly, she shoved the computer. It fell off her desk with a satisfying crash. Turning on her heel Mystery left the office, ignoring Sylvia’s hysterical shrieks and violent remarks, but no longer was Mystery bothered. Yes, she would leave, but her last hours would be spent making complete hell in this place and make her go down in orphanage history.

She knew that once she was finally out of this place then there was nothing that anybody could do about the chaos she had caused. The orphanage was a rotting hell hole, yet somehow it managed to remain open after all the checks. Mystery smirked to herself. Yes, she was going to enjoy herself for the first time in sixteen horrific years.

The orphanage was next door to a small farmhouse. There were plenty of gaps in the hedge that she herself had climbed through several times. The target of her actions were the small chickens that ran around the garden.

Surely they would prefer to be running around inside the orphanage? Mystery knew that she would if she were a chicken.

She shooed a few of them out of the gap in the fence and into the Orphanage garden. This was going to be fun.

Opening the back door Mystery then chased them inside and into the living room. Screams erupted from some of the younger children at the sight of the chickens. As they social workers ran towards the noise Mystery effortlessly slipped passed them and into the kitchen. Rummaging through the freezer she pulled out three frozen chickens and began decorating them. She arranged them on a plate whilst around the outside of them she drew cultic style symbols with blood red icing and placed some decapitated dolls from the ‘Lost and Found’ box in sexual positions amongst the dead chickens.

In the other room the screams were starting to die down so Mystery hurried into the dining room, grabbing a tub of black paint along the way. Settling the chickens in the middle of the table around it she scrawled in messy writing ‘Burn in hell you fucking cunts’ then some random, gothic quotes from songs and books she had memorised during her long days of being alone.

Hearing the feet heading towards the backdoor with the chickens in toll, Mystery swung her skinny body out the open window, grabbing onto the practically prehistoric fire exit ladder which lead to her attic bedroom. Climbing up with ease Mystery grabbed her suitcases from under her bed and threw clothes from her wardrobe around the room to make it seem as if she had been packing all this time. It was obvious that the prank had been pulled by her; no-one in the dump had the creativeness nor the disgusting language or intelligence really, but as she heard even louder screeches erupting from the bottom floor she really didn’t care.