This week we thought we'd give you some examples of our creativity, in the form of a couple of short stories. The first one, below, is by Cara and for those of you who know Cara it may take you by surprise. The inspiration for the story came from Cara's friend who was prepping, boiling and blending summer fruits. Her hands, as you would expect, 'were blood red and sticky'...
Innocence
Her hands were blood red and sticky; a knife lay on the counter. There was a knock on the door.
‘Shit,’ she said aloud and looked around for something to wipe her hands on. The person at the door knocked again, longer and louder.
‘Ok ok, I’m coming.’
Kath surveyed the mess in the kitchen, grabbed a towel and made her way to the front door, closing everything behind her as she went. When she reached the front door, she took a deep breath and opened it. Standing in front of her was a little girl from down the road holding a box.
‘Can I help you?’ Kath positioned herself in such a way that made it clear she had no intention of inviting the girl in.
‘I’m raising money for my school…can I have some money, please?’
‘Oh…sorry…I haven’t got any money in the house.’
The girl looked surprised at Kath’s response and shifted awkwardly on her feet. Kath could sense the girl’s uneasiness and smiled down at her.
‘I promise I’ll give you some money if you come back tomorrow.’
She moved and closed the front door abruptly, hoping the girl would get the hint to go away. Kath stayed where she was and looked through the peep hole in the door; she watched the girl walk down the path. When she’d gone through the gate and was back on the pavement, Kath breathed out and made her way back into the kitchen and the mess she’d left behind.
Standing in the doorway, she took in what was in front of her. Knives lay discarded around the room. A saw was lying in the middle of the floor. Most shocking though, was the smell that hit her. It filled Kath’s nostrils and took her breath away; even after all these years, the stench of a decomposing body never failed to turn her stomach.
‘Get a hold of yourself,’ she said aloud as she moved into the room. The odour would remain in the house for weeks after the body had been disposed of, but that was the least of Kath’s worries at the moment. Disposal of the corpse and the clean-up of the murder room were more important right now.
Working methodically, Kath moved around the kitchen bagging up the body, part by part. Within 30 minutes, she’d managed to place everything into black bin bags and piled them up by the back door. She’d have to wait until dark before moving them into the shed at the bottom of the garden.
The body in the bag was the third person Kath had killed this year; her seventh in total. It wasn’t like she enjoyed killing people. She had no control over her actions when the voice in her head was at its strongest; the voice which had been with her for the last ten of her 42 years.
The murdering had begun with small animals and insects; ‘Nothing wrong with that’, the voice had told her. ‘Everyone kills spiders and ants and beetles.’ Within a couple of years though, the spiders and ants and beetles had become neighbours’ cats and dogs. Three years ago, Kath killed her first human.
She always made sure that the people she killed wouldn’t be missed by anyone as it meant there was less attention when they disappeared. The last thing she wanted was for a major police investigation. She didn’t fancy answering questions and being under suspicion because she knew the victim. Picking ‘nobodies’ made things a lot simpler; the voice liked things to be simple.
*
It wasn’t until much later that Kath felt it was dark enough to move the bags down to the shed. During the intervening three hours, Kath had thoroughly disinfected the kitchen, cleaned and returned the knives and saw to their usual hiding places and even managed to catch up on the goings on in ‘Eastenders’. That was the thing; as soon as the killing process was over; Kath returned to her usual self and continued living a normal day to day life. No one would ever suspect that the middle aged woman living at 67 Red House Lane led a double life.
As she opened the back door, the noise made next door’s cat jump off the fence, startling them both.
‘Bloody thing,’ Kath muttered as she stepped out and made her way down the garden. Using a wheelbarrow, she dumped the bags in front of the shed door; she reached into her pocket and found the three keys needed to unlock the padlocks that hid her secret. Once unlocked, Kath began her routine. Light switched on. Bags placed next to the chest freezers. Door closed and bolted. It was as though she was operating on auto-pilot. Freezer lid opened. Bags untied. Piece by piece moved from the bag, into the chest, joining the umpteen other frozen body parts that had accumulated over the course of three years. Quite a collection, really. Kath smiled to herself as she closed the lid. She then performed the earlier routine in reverse and five minutes later, was back inside the warmth of her house.
*
Just as Kath sat down to have her lunch; there was a knock on the front door. Taking a quick bite from her sandwich, she went to see who it was. Standing on the doorstep was the girl who had called yesterday evening, asking for money. Kath had completely forgotten she’d told her to come back today. She smiled at the young girl, trying to make up for her rudeness from yesterday. The smile seemed to settle the girl and she visibly relaxed.
‘Oh hi,’ Kath said. ‘I’d forgotten you were coming back. I’ve got some money for you today though, so don’t worry.’
As she said this, a cat darted in through the door, making both her and the girl jump.
‘Oh, Storm! I’d wondered where you’d got to!’
‘That’s your cat?’ the girl asked. ‘She’s been playing in our garden but we thought she was a stray ‘cos she didn’t have a collar. She loves being played with.’
Kath still felt embarrassed about her behaviour towards the youngster yesterday and realised the cat could be the perfect way to make up for it.
‘Do you want to come in and feed her? She seems to like you!’ As she said this, Storm was weaving her way in between the girl’s legs, clearly wanting to be made a fuss of.
‘Would that be ok? I love cats. One of ours went missing last year and we never found it. Ziggy was my cat. I loved her lots.’
A look of sadness passed across the girl’s face as she bent down to stroke Storm, making Kath start. She thought back to her victims from last year. There had been a few cats mixed in with the humans, but she never thought about the killings after they’d been done. She remained completely detached from the things she killed. The voice had always told her that remaining cold and distant was the best way to behave. They were dead. There was nothing she could do now. They couldn’t be brought back. End of.
The sight of the girl making a fuss of Storm sent a chill through Kath. What was happening? She’d never felt like this before. Guilty. She didn’t like it. It unsettled her.
‘You alright?’ The question snapped Kath back into reality.
‘Yes, yes. Sorry. Was just thinking back to when Storm was a kitten. That’s all.’ She tried to smile but the look of pain on the girl’s face had disturbed her. She couldn’t shake the image from her mind.
Kath moved to allow the girl into the house, with Storm leading the way into the kitchen. She closed the door and followed them.
‘Get a grip, woman,’ the voice told her as she moved through to the back of the house. ‘You’ve come too far to start getting emotional. I won’t let you.’
*
The girl, who Kath had discovered was called Emily, hadn’t stayed for long, much to Kath’s relief. She’d given her £10, smiled and waved her goodbye and was immensely relieved when she was finally alone again. Just as she’d done yesterday, Kath watched Emily leave through the peep hole in the door. When she was certain she’d gone, Kath locked the front door, went into the sitting room and sat on the sofa, staring into space. She still couldn’t get rid of the feelings of guilt and she couldn’t work out why she was feeling like this over a bloody cat. It made no sense. She couldn’t even remember what the cat had looked like. She’d never had any feelings of guilt or remorse before. So why now?
Over the course of the next week, the feelings slowly subsided and before long, another week had passed and Kath hadn’t even thought about Emily or her cat.
Kath continued to live as she’d always done: rarely speaking to her neighbours, rarely leaving the house, rarely making contact with anyone in fact.
*
It was precisely a month after she had first visited, that Emily returned to 67 Red House Lane. Kath was in exactly the same situation. Blood splattered the worktops. Knives lay haphazardly around the kitchen.
The knock on the door made Kath jump. She remembered what had happened last time she was interrupted. That couldn’t happen again.
She remained motionless but could feel and hear her heart beating. She hoped whoever it was would realise no one was in and leave. No such luck. There was another knock.
Again, Kath stayed stationary, this time praying whoever it was would go away. A drop of blood from the knife fell down onto her shoe. Kath didn’t even notice it.
Another knock. Another desperate prayer for the person to bugger off. Another drop of blood fell, this time onto the floor.
No knock followed and Kath breathed out in relief. She lowered the knife onto the worktop and took in what was in front of her. The knock had interrupted her flow and she had to try and remember what bit came next.
A noise outside made her look up and what she saw made her scream. It was Emily. Standing outside the kitchen window. Looking in. Rather than screaming though, Emily smiled. Both stood staring at each other; Kath in bewilderment, Emily in amazement. Getting caught mid-cutting process had always been Kath’s worse fear, and now it had happened.
Not quite sure what to do, Kath attempted a smile. Maybe she can’t see inside. Maybe she’s smiling because she’s found me. Thoughts ran through Kath’s head as she tried to make sense of the situation. A half dismembered body lying in her kitchen and a young girl standing outside, looking in. What the hell was she going to do?
Emily moved from the window towards the back door and Kath watched as the handle moved downwards. Shit. She couldn’t remember if she’d locked the door. She hadn’t. Emily walked in.
Kath was frozen to the spot, completely unable to move. Emily looked silently around the room, taking in everything in front of her.
‘What you doing?’
Kath had no idea how to reply. She opened her mouth but nothing came out.
‘Are you making dinner?’
Again, Kath’s mouth opened, but nothing came out.
‘Can I help? I haven’t got anything to do and I’m bored at home.’
This time Kath’s mouth opened in shock. Here was a young girl, maybe 10 years old, asking if she could help ‘prepare’ dinner. How could she not realise what was going on inside the kitchen?
‘I help my mum with dinner normally, so I know what to do. I promise I won’t get in the way. What you making?’
How do I reply to that? Kath asked herself. And what do I do now?
Without realising what she was doing, Kath moved to the kitchen door and reached for a spare apron. She passed it to Emily who smiled and put it on. The situation was beyond surreal, but Kath had stopped trying to analyse it.
‘I’ve just about finished cutting the…the…meat,’ Kath managed to say. ‘Do you want to help me tidy up?’
Emily nodded and smiled again. She looked genuinely happy to be here.
*
For the next hour, the two worked together to tidy the kitchen. Kath still couldn’t believe what was happening. Emily chatted away, oblivious to what she was really doing. Fortunately for Kath, most of the body had been placed into black bags before she’d been interrupted. The odd pieces of flesh that had been left out could easily be mistaken for steak.
Kath glanced up at the clock and noticed how late it was.
‘Don’t you need to be getting home for dinner, Emily? It must be past your tea time.’
Emily shook her head and continued to spray the disinfectant.
‘Nope. I ate before I came round to see you.’
‘Won’t your mum be wondering where you are?’
‘Nah. She knows I’m here with you. She said she’s happy for me to be here ‘cos she trusts you.’
Kath raised her eyebrows as she wiped where Emily had sprayed.
Another hour passed before the kitchen was completely clean. The bags had been piled into a heap by the back door, ready to be moved when darkness arrived.
Kath, who had managed to calm down over the last couple of hours, had actually enjoyed herself. The voice, which usually appeared and kept her company whilst she chopped and tidied up the body, had disappeared, much to Kath’s surprise. It had been nice to spend time with someone else and to have a conversation. She hadn’t realised just how lonely and isolated she’d become.
By the time Emily left, it was dark enough to move the body down to the shed. Kath threw the bags into the wheelbarrow she’d left next to the back door and wheeled them to the bottom of the garden. When she reached the shed, she pulled out the keys, unlocked the padlocks and entered. The usual routine followed and ten minutes later, she was sitting on the sofa with a cup of tea.
*
Months passed and Emily became a frequent visitor at Kath’s. She clearly enjoyed helping Kath clean up the murder room. She never asked any questions about where the bin bags went after she left and Kath never told her. There was no need to complicate things. They worked slowly, talking to one another about every day, mundane subjects. It didn’t really matter what they spoke about; it was the company that Kath enjoyed. It was a relief in some ways to know that someone else knew what she was doing, but that they wouldn’t tell anyone.
It was their third clean up together and were just ten minutes into the process when there was a knock on the door. They both froze. They looked at one another in silence. There was another knock. Emily opened her mouth but Kath shook her head, silencing the girl.
They carried on standing. Kath was waiting for another knock. It didn’t come. She breathed out and relaxed. Emily did the same but the look of terror on her face remained.
Kath gave a reassuring smile to Emily. It was as much for her own sake as Emily’s. Why couldn’t people just leave her alone?
The pair resumed their cleaning. Neither said anything.
Ten minutes passed and there was another noise which made them both stop suddenly. What now? Kath thought. Then she realised what the sound was. It was the latch on the side gate being opened.
Super!!
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