Watching and Waiting

I was right

Her life is pretty boring

At the moment she’s working on her thesis. She’s an English post-graduate, mainly in English literature but she says she likes writing a little as well. Her thesis is on Gothic themes on modern fiction, or something like that.

This was more boring than when I didn’t have a ward.

In the mornings she would get up go for a run and then head off to university to research some more and help first and second year students studying English literature. Then she would go home and read through more research.

It was boring and safe.

There wasn’t anything to protect her from. I don’t know why I was even needed. She said it was nice to have someone to talk to when she’s working. Guess that’s something.

The weekend came along and I already knew she didn’t go into university because I never saw her walking through the park then. I was kind of excited to find out what she did, though I was sceptical that she did anything but study.

“Daimon” I heard her shout from somewhere in the house on Friday night. I was in her room, I didn’t really like leaving it. The rest of her flatmates would just stare at me except the one angry girl, she was kind of creepy.

“Come on, pack whatever you have we need to leave in ten minutes.” I didn’t really have much, a few changes of clothes, I had only been here for three days now.

I missed my place though, it was much bigger and quieter, I also had a lot more freedom.

I packed my things as she grabbed anything of value and locked them in a safe in her wardrobe, I guess they weren’t all that friendly then.

When we left it was about 6:30pm and after a few trains and a bus ride it was 10pm and we were deep in suburbia, scary perfect suburbia.

We got to a house that looked absolutely perfect, just like the others and it looked exactly like every other house on the street, very scary. All the lights were off and it was dead silent. She unlocked it and we crept inside.

The house was as perfectly clean as her room. She opened the first door to her left to what looked like a ten year olds room.
“This is my room, this one you can’t stay in. The spare room is across the hall, just remember to always keep the door closed.” She whispered and then pushed me out into the hall.

This was all really creepy.

The spare room was a little dusty. The sheets were clean and so was everything else, but it looked like no one had stepped foot into it in a few years.

That night I couldn’t sleep, it was too quiet and I didn’t really know where I was.

I waited with the curtains open as the sky lightened and the gardeners started tending the many perfect gardens.

At around 7:30 I heard movement and then smelt wondrous food being cooked
“Wakey, wakey” there was a knock across the hall, I just waited.
“Rosey, honey breakfast is ready” this must be her parent’s house. Her mother must be happy she’s home, especially since she’s spoiling her like a young child.

I heard the mother leave and then her door open. She opened my door without even knocking.
“I need you to do something. Can you go outside and knock on the door like you just arrived, when my mother answers say you’re one of my teachers from school. Say we’re doing something at school and you need to observe me at home for it, she’ll believe you.”

With that she opened my window and gestured for me to climb out of it, she really was strange like that.

I did exactly what she said and her mother believed me, she then set me up in the spare room and cooked me extra French toast for breakfast.

I must say her mother was a little strange. Not only was she spoiling Rose like a young child but she was treating her like one.

“Well since you’re here...” she had already forgotten my name and I had only told it to her five minutes previous.
“Daimon Guard” Rose came up with the last name too.
“Yes, Daimon, I’m glad you’re here because I haven’t had the chance to go shopping yet, so if you don’t mind I’ll just pop out and you can watch Rose while I’m out, that would be great.”

She didn’t wait for me to reply, she grabbed her keys, kissed Rose goodbye and left.

“Something’s not right with your mum and this whole situation.”

“Yeah you’re right. I have some this to explain...”
“You know that chopped up, dead, decaying body found when I was ten?” I nodded, not really wanting to know what was coming next.

“That was my father.”

Her eyes glazed over with tears as she looked out the back doors

I was ten at the time.

We had first noticed my dad missing on Friday, he didn’t turn up to pick me up from boarding school for the weekend. I had to go to boarding school because my mum wasn’t mentally capable of taking care of me all the time, so it was just best if I wasn’t alone with her for that long.

By Sunday I was becoming restless wanting to know where my dad was. My mum tried to distract me by tending our vegetable patch.

It wasn’t technically a vegetable patch then as we had only dug it up a month previous in another attempt at my mum trying to distract me while my dad was catching up on some work.

We went to the garden store and she brought me whatever I wanted to plant and grow, when we got home she laid everything down and then sat watching as I went about planting.

For the first ten minutes I was having the time of my life, I was planting away and imaging how proud my dad would be when he saw what I had done and then as we watched it all grow.

I remember the whole thing perfectly, I was digging a small hole with my left hand and holding a broccoli seed in my right hand. The ground was still freshly turned so it didn’t take that much effort for me to dig a whole with my hand.

I had just gazed up at my mum who was looking really worried when my hand came into contact with something cold and hard. I couldn’t see the object because it was still covered in dirt, I was curious to what it was so I dug down and pulled it straight out.

It was a hand. A left hand with a wedding ring still attached. I screamed. I screamed louder than I had ever before and louder than I had ever heard anyone scream before.

My mum raced over and then she started digging. There was no reason for her to keep digging but she did, I still wish she hadn’t have. She dug a little deeper and pulled out the image of my nightmares.

It was his head.

She didn’t scream at all, she just fainted, lying there looking lifeless next to my dad’s decapitated head...

She blinked away the tears and coughed to clear the lump in her throat. A second later it seemed as if she was back to normal.

“She still doesn’t remember it. She still thinks my dad is still alive. She even thinks she can see him sometimes it’s that bad. She stuck in a time where I’m ten and my dad is still alive. She’s allowed to stay at home because she’s not a threat to anyone. She still looks after herself and the house. As long as I come home every weekend she’s stable,”

She sighed and then started clearing away the breakfast dishes taking one last glance outside to the bare patch still looking freshly turned.