Chapter one
If you asked me today, I still couldn’t tell you why I did it. I guess it was just cold and I wanted to get home. Or maybe I was just simply stupid. Either way, I did it, and it happened, and I found out some stuff about myself I wouldn’t have even imagined. My life got turned upside down and inside out. And it certainly wasn’t for the best.
I’d had a hard day at work, idiotic customers screaming in my ears every five minutes, moaning about how much we charged for a beer, complaining about the lack of cigarette smoke, nattering on about their own bloody ignorance. I hate working in The Admirals’ Arms. Most people are jealous, they say “Gosh Jasmine, I can’t believe you work in a pub, you must get drunk all the time!”
Not quite.
Old Evan owns The Admirals’ Arms, and he is the most grumpy, stingy, old git I’ve ever met. He docked poor Mary-Ann’s wages once when she smashed a glass, and when Mel came in last month, crying her eyes out over a broken heart, he simply spat “You’d better not lose any punters. Stop blubbing and toughen up!” I only have this shit job for a few more months now, just until I go to uni. I can’t wait to hand in my resignation and skip off into the sunlight. If it wasn’t for the girls, I would have left ages ago. I’m too quiet to ever say anything back to Evan, unlike the others. My boyfriend, Dom, is always moaning at me to stand up for myself. He hates Evan even more than I do. He worked at The Admirals’ Arms for a while himself (which is how we met) until he couldn’t deal with Evan anymore. As far as I know, Dom served an underage kid after accepting a very clever fake ID. Evan, as usual gave him an earful, but Dom had had enough. I’m not really sure what went on after that, but following that night he was not only Jobless, but was banned from the Pub.
Anyway, I digress. I was walking through the park, which was an insanely stupid thing to do. Both of my parents work for the police, they are always warning me not to walk through dark places at night, especially not crappy old run down parks like this one. Strangely enough (stupidly enough?), I wasn’t scared, or worried in the slightest. The slight chill of the night was calming, in a strange way. I suppose I’m one of those people who just think “It wont happen to me. It’ll happen to someone else. I wont be brutally murdered. I wont be raped. I wont catch a horrible disease and die painfully, alone in bed.” But it has to happen to someone, doesn’t it?
The gentle, cool breeze made me shiver, and sent a thousand bits of rubbish flying into the air. I looked up above me, feeling the calmness of the sky beam right back down on me. The stars seemed to twinkle at me, teasing me with the knowledge of something I didn’t know. The sky seemed so big and open, as if it held all the secrets of humanity. The trees whispered amongst themselves, creaking and groaning from a combination of extreme heat and torrential rain - typical British weather. The grass was soft beneath my feet and I could smell the cool damp scent of a summer rainfall. I almost wanted to lie down in the grass and be at one with nature.
I could make out the shadowed shapes of the rusty old roundabout and creaky swings through the gloom. They brought back memories of being a kid, before the park became a run down mess. They took me back to the days when I used to play here, happy in the sunlight. I smiled.
In the distance, I heard a dog bark. It was comforting to know somebody else was up at this ridiculous hour. Behind me, I heard a sudden snap of a twig. All my optimism and ‘It-wont-happen-to-me’ spirit shot out of my body like a bullet from a gun.
snap, snap. pause. snapsnap. crunch. pause.
I listened carefully. “It’s nothing” I told myself “Probably the guy who owns the dog. He’s probably just looking for it.” I thought carefully about home, with my nice comfy warm bed and familiarity.
SNAP.
I froze. This time the snap had come from in front of me. I strained my eyes, trying to see through the darkness. My eyes played tricks on me and phantom creatures seemed to race towards me, teeth barred and gums drooling. Now I was scared. I shook my head, willing the demons in my head to go away. “There’s nothing there”, I told myself, but In my heart I knew it wasn’t true. The entire park seemed to brace it’s self. It knew as well as I did that something was about to happen that would change things forever.
I closed my eyes and tried to calm my breathing. I was past all the playground part now, and had a clear run to the clearing where I would finally be out of the park and onto the street, just mere steps away from my home. I was never doing this again. Eyes still closed, I started to run, figures leaping out through my fear and darkness, panic erupting within my brain.
Then suddenly, I was stopping, my feet ripped from the ground. For a moment I thought I had tripped, but then my mind registered the full shock of what was happening. Hand were grabbing my wrists, binding them together. Another hand, clasped over my mouth, stopping the panicked screams escaping my lungs. More arms, countless amounts, lifing me up. A painful sting in my arm.
Then darkness.
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