Terminus, p.13
Terminus, page 13
“The big reveal? What the hell are you going on about, Gary? You’re scaring me now. I know it must be strange being at home alone with just Pushkin, but you’re making no sense. Do you need to see your doctor about depression or a breakdown or something?”
Gary barked a laugh. “You don’t understand. After today we are going to be together again, but this time, forever.”
He moved close to Alyson and grasped her wrist. “I have a surprise for you. You’ll see, see what could have been. Come with me.”
Gary tugged at her wrist, extending her arm straight and pulling at the shoulder joint. Alyson stumbled, just keeping her balance. “I’m not going anywhere, Gary. You’re acting so strange. Go, now. I’ll forget this happened, unless you don’t leave and I’ll call the police.” Her glare bored into Gary.
He grunted and stamped a foot. Leaning towards Alyson, until their eyes were mere centimetres apart, Gary hissed, “Don’t spoil this anymore than you already have. Can’t you put the pieces together? I have Annie.”
Gary’s eyes did not leave Alyson’s. Her eyes bulged, a guttural noise escaped her tightened throat, and her hands balled into fists. “Come on, don’t make a scene or I’ll have to tie you up like a pig.”
He stood straight, taking a few steady breaths to calm the hammering sensation coming from his chest. “If you want to see your girl again, come with me now. No one knows where she is, and she’ll not survive long without food and drink. You don’t want her death on your scorecard, do you?”
“You’d best not have hurt her. I swear, when I have her back, you are going to pay, big time. What’s not to stop me from calling 999 right now? I know they’ll make you talk; you’ve always been weak.” Alyson glared at Gary. Now, with her fists on her hips like an angry pair of scissors, her face reddened.
“‘Cos, if you do.” He waved the knife at her. “I’ll leave you here in a pool of blood. You’ll be gone before they arrive. I’ll let Annie know what a disappointment you were. Right before I slice her throat too.” Gary sneered, sweat trickling into his eyes. “Don’t think I won’t.” He reached inside his jacket and pulled out the tooth he had yanked from Annie’s mouth.
Alyson’s face turned ashen. She shook her head sadly whilst looking at the just boiled kettle. Her arm lifted to grab the handle, but changed her mind. With a sigh, she shrugged. “I don’t see that I have any choice. Come on, let’s go.”
“First things first. Give me your mobile.” Gary outstretched his arm and waggled his fingers. Alyson slapped the phone into his hand. “Thanks. See, it’s so much easier when you just do as I ask.” He glanced at Alyson, whose lip was trembling. She bit it to stop tears. Gary deftly worked the screen and buttons, switching it off before dropping it into the hot kettle. “Don’t despair, I’ll get you a new one once this is over and we are together as fate has always intended.”
Alyson scoffed, her eyes stained with red as her fists clenched once more. Gary reached across and grasped her elbow, guiding her with care to the front door. He paused, he spoke softly, almost as if speaking to a young child, “Shoes, Alyson. And a jacket. It’s still January, remember.”
His captive didn’t reply. A simple nod of the head followed while she dressed, ready to leave the house. Alyson stared into space until Gary tugged her elbow. “What’s wrong? It’s as if you were on another planet.”
Alyson flung her arms apart with drama, her hands flicking back at the wrist. “What’s wrong?” she whispered. “What’s fucking wrong?” Her voice rose in pitch, and volume to just under a shriek, “I’ll tell you, Gary bastard Honeyman!”
“Shh! Keep your voice down, woman,” Gary hissed, “Don’t want the neighbours poking their beaks in where they aren’t needed.”
Alyson grunted and stomped a foot. “What’s wrong,” she spat through gritted teeth, “is that a man who I thought I knew well has turned into a complete dickhead. What kind of wanker kidnaps an innocent child in a warped mission to get with that girl’s mother? This is so wrong. You know I’ll never cheat on Mark, and he’s still so ill.” She hit out hard, a dull thud marking impact on Gary’s upper arm.
He grabbed the arm with a wince. “Guess that’s deserved, when you put it like that. Shit a brick, haven’t had a dead arm like that for ages. Let’s make tracks before the cops come sniffing again.”
Alyson stared out of the window as Gary drove. The streets of Newdon flowed past in an unfocussed blur. Sunshine, bright and strong for January, incongruous with the gravitas of the situation, burned her eyes. Less than ten minutes passed before Gary turned off the main road into the grim industrial estate.
In a low voice with sadness tainting her eyes, Alyson murmured, “Of all the places. So close to home. I’m here now, baby. Mummy’s here to get you.”
“Arms out, wrists together,” urged Gary, causing Alyson to jump in her seat. “I’m securing your arms so you can’t do anything silly.”
With no resistance, Alyson held her arms out and let Gary zip-tie her wrist together. “You’re going to have to open the door for me. I just want to get Annie home.”
Gary sighed. “Well, that all depends on what happens next, doesn’t it? It’s in your hands now, Alyson.”
He ambled round to the passenger door, though Alyson noticed Gary’s drooped shoulders.
“Come on then.” Gary put a hand under Alyson’s elbow to help guide her out of the Mercedes. “Watch your head.” Once out of the car, and the vehicle secured, Gary put an arm around Alyson’s waist. It took a lot for her to not cringe and pull away. Instead, Alyson tilted her face to the sun, desperate to feel the last rays of light before going into the darkness of captivity.
Gary twisted the padlock key. It unlocked, as it had numerous times before. For the first time, he tossed the lock onto the floor and pulled the door open. He waved an arm as if in a hurry, which Alyson didn’t need asking twice despite the churn in her guts to take her cue, and entered the warehouse. She stood for a moment, trying to let her eyes adjust. Gary closed and bolted the door, causing the light level to plunge. Alyson gasped at the sound of the bolt shooting home.
“This way.” Gary propelled Alyson with a hand on the small of her back at speed.
She stopped dead, causing Gary to stumble, then fall in a heap. He yelped when his wrist bent back double on impact with the concrete floor. Brushing himself off as he stood, he grumbled, “What did you do that for?”
Alyson stared forwards, to the seated figure of her daughter. “She really is here. My baby. Why is there a bag on her head, and so much blood?”
“Sit on the other chair. I’m going to tie your legs to it and arms too so you are nice and safe,” Gary pointed at his chair, and waited for Alyson to follow the instruction. After securing his new prisoner, Gary started up the generator to harshly light up the sad scene.
On seeing Annie properly, Alyson’s skin tingled with discomfort and her eyes widened as though the lids had been forced apart. “Annie?” Her voice shook. “Annie? Is that you? It can’t be my beautiful angel.” She glanced at Gary, returning her eyes to Annie.
“Gary?” Annie’s weak voice called.
“Yes, it’s me. I have our special guest.” He whipped off the hessian sack, tossing it onto his tool box. “Oh, hang on. Let me just pop the wig on.” Gary retrieved the long raven black hairpiece, tucked Annie’s own hair in, and manipulated the wig until it sat just so. He stepped back six paces and stared at Annie, admiring the handiwork. “You have done an excellent job with the makeup. It’s just like looking at your mum in the nineties.”
“Mum! You’re here! Oh, thank you Gary so so much for bringing her here. That means we can go now?” Annie looked up at Gary, a sparkle in her eyes for the first time since being captured. She chewed her lower lip, waiting for him to speak.
Gary’s lips clamped together as he suppressed a smirk. He ignored Annie and smiled at Alyson. “What do you think? Doesn’t she look amazing? This is how you should have looked that year, instead of turning into a clone of everyone else.”
Alyson scoffed bitterly. “If it weren’t for you cheating with Susanna, who knows what the future would have held. You’d have got your dream of being with me. Instead, you had to spoil it all. Then to top it off, you drove her to suicide.”
“Don’t say that. She knew she could leave if she wasn’t happy.” Gary grasped his stomach as though punched by Alyson’s spat words. “That’s a spiteful, untrue, thing to say. Susanna was depressed.” He knelt before Alyson and stroked her face with the back of his hand. Alyson’s face flushed. As the redness faded, a mottle effect remained.
Annie sighed heavily. “What’s the point, Gary? I think you hate and love Mum in equal parts. It seems that love is unrequited. Just let us go. Please. Mum won’t report you to the police and nor will I. Will you, Mum?” She stared at Alyson, her eyes open wide and a discreet nod.
The older woman looked away, up to the rafters. A pregnant pause followed until Alyson spoke. “I’d love to say ‘fuck you, Gary,’ but seeing as Annie asked so nicely, and I can’t see any other choice … just let us go. Please.”
Gary slowly shook his head. “No way. She works for the cops, anyway, and you lied to me before. You weren’t meant to tell them I was coming for you. I can’t trust you to not lie again.”
He crouched and searched through his toolbox. “Yes! I knew these were here.” He held a rusty pair of pliers high like a trophy. “Look, Alyson. This is up to you now. Either you agree to marry me, and we leave here as a happy couple as we should have been in the nineties, or I get to work.”
His lips twisted, eyes flitting between the women. “While you look at your beautiful daughter, I’ll pull your little finger nails off, I think. Or maybe extract a tooth or two like I’ve done to Annie.”
Gary looked closely at Alyson’s pursed lips. “Open your mouth. I’ll see what’s rotten in there apart from your breath and decide what to do.”
Alyson opened her mouth a tiny bit. “More than that! Come on Alyson, don’t be a silly little bitch all your life.”
She made a guttural noise, almost like a growl. Hatred flashed across her eyes. She sniffed and hocked up a phlegm ball. Annie’s eyes widened in surprise and tracked the grolly as it flew from Alyson’s mouth onto Gary’s shoe.
“Classy! This is the feisty Alyson that I know and love. Let me look at those lovely teeth.” He sat on her lap and peered into Alyson’s mouth.
“Shame about the light in here. They all look a bit discoloured in the artificial light. Lemme look closer.”
Gary lowered his face so his eyes were inches from her wide-open mouth, and sniffed her perfume. “You actually smell good, sweetheart. Being this close to you is kind of arousing.”
He lifted his hand from the chair’s arm and placed it softly onto Alyson’s breast.
She gasped, retracting her head in horror before closing her eyes and swiftly smashing her forehead into Gary’s nose. There followed a dull thud, followed by a loud crack and splinter noise along with blood streaming from his nose hinting at high pain. “Fuck you, Honeyman. I hope that hurt!”
Gary slipped off her legs and dropped gracelessly onto the floor, grasping his face. Blood ran between his fingers, pooling on the concrete. “Jesus, Alyson! You’re a psycho bitch. Why did you do that? It’s not like I haven’t touched your body before.”
He took off his shirt and pressed it against his nose, hoping to stop the bleeding. “I think you’ve broken my nose, darling.”
Gingerly, Gary explored his nose with his fingertips. “You’ve lost none of your fighting spirit. That was so wasted on Mark.” Gary sighed. “How is he, anyway? Dead yet? The shock when you tell him you’ve left him for me will probably finish him off. You’d be doing him a favour. Just think, that energy you have bottled up you can use in the bedroom.”
Annie groaned and shivered. “Look, Gary, it’s obvious that Mum has no intention of being with you. Let me get out of this pantomime costume –”
“Pantomime costume?” Alyson’s eyes darted to her daughter. “I’ll have you know that’s a very expensive designer dress. I had it specially made. It suits you. You wear it better than I would have.”
“Don’t mind me while you girls have a little chat. You’re right though, Alyson. Annie looks quite delicious, doesn’t she?” He dabbed at his nose, satisfied that the blood had stopped running for now. “While you’re at it, you can tell her all about our baby that you murdered.”
“It’s a good job that you aren’t in head-butting range again,” Alyson mumbled. She looked at Annie for a second before diverting her gaze to the darkness beyond the harsh industrial lights. “She doesn’t look surprised, so I guess that you’ve told her already. “But did you tell her the truth? I’m betting that you didn’t.”
“The truth? Of course I told her the ugly truth. You had finished with me, got with that loser Mark, and didn’t want to be burdened with a baby because you’d said that Mark wouldn’t want baggage, so you made an appointment behind my back and killed our baby.”
“Mum, is it true? Even if it is, don’t worry, I think nothing bad about you. What happened?” Annie spoke smoothly, as if trying to lessen the emotional trauma on her mother.
Alyson swayed as much as her bindings would allow, slowly from side to side and back and forth. The edges of her lips turned down. With a deep sigh, she looked across at Annie. “Sweet heart. It’s really not as he makes out.”
Alyson sobbed. She gazed down into her lap. A heartbeat passed before she held her chin high and defiantly glared at Gary. She turned back to Annie. “This is what really happened. Gary and I went to London for a gig in July 1996. And we stayed over in a hotel. I became pregnant that night. Not long after, we’d broken up anyway before I found out that I was in the family way. It didn’t matter to me that I wasn’t with Gary. I was over the moon to be having a child of my own. I remember this like it was yesterday. On Monday, the twenty-third of September, I went for my twelve-week scan. Everything seemed ok, and they offered me a Triple Test. Do you know what that is?”
Annie frowned. “Yes, I think so. Wasn’t it to see if there was anything wrong with the baby?”
With a lick of her lips, as they felt dry and in danger of cracking, Alyson nodded. “Yes, that’s right. They told me when the results came back that I was at high risk of having a Down’s Syndrome baby. I wanted to carry on, and have the amniocentesis test. But that arsehole over there, Gary, told me I wasn’t allowed, and that I had to have an abortion. That’s the real reason. Isn’t that right, Gary?”
“That is the truth, Annie. Damn it, I didn’t think Alyson would admit it to you. Perfect little Annie, only child.” Gary motioned with his head to the coffins. “I see that this time for small talk is over. Say your goodbyes to each other; I am not going to prison for this. I simply wanted to get back with you, Alyson. Is that such a bad thing?” He tossed the pliers back into the toolbox and retrieved the Stanley knife.
“Alyson, you decide. You or Annie first? Slow or fast? Bit by bit or a nice clean throat slice?” He paced back and forth, stamping along as if about to explode.
“Gary. I have something to tell you, before you go any further.” Alyson nodded to the free seat. “Maybe you should sit for this news.”
She half smiled at Annie. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. This involves you too.”
Gary stopped in his tracks and sat. Alyson said, “Can I have some water, please? My face feels as though it’s burning from the inside.”
“That depends on what you’re about to tell me, Alyson. Make it good. I’m in the right frame of mind to put right all the wrongs that you’ve caused. There’s no going back.”
Alyson stared at Gary with tunnel vision, her heart pounding. “Do you remember that birthday party in May 1997? I can’t even recall whose birthday it was. We ended up getting pissed as farts.”
Gary dabbed at his nose with his fingertips and scrunched his forehead. He pursed his lips and scratched his cheek. “No. I can’t say that I do, to be honest. It’s so long ago now. Why? What’s so special about then?”
“Right, so what if I gave you more clues?”
“Go on …”
“I remember like it was yesterday, Gary. Don’t you recall checking out the back seat of their car inside a garage next to the house?”
Gary hesitated and nodded once. He wiped a hand over his face. “It’s ringing a bell, Alyson. I don’t want to make Annie cringe, but I seem to remember having to pay for a valet of the upholstery.” Gary blushed, a scarlet mask of embarrassment.
“Oh, my god! Please, Mum, no more gross memories like that.” Annie bit her lower lip, eyes darted between Gary and Alyson. “Hang on. Mum, are you saying what I think you’re saying? I was born in February 1998.”
Alyson closed her eyes, took a sharp breath in, and exhaled slowly. “Yes, I’m saying what you think. Gary, you are Annie’s father. You don’t have any siblings because your dad was, is, infertile. I never told him you weren’t his, just said that one swimmer must have made it through. It would have broken his heart to know that you aren’t his biological daughter.”
“It can’t be true!” Gary stood quickly and promptly tripped over his feet. He landed on the toolbox, which broke and tools scattered away. Rubbing his chest as if there were a rock inside him, he sighed deeply and plunged his face into his palms.
He looked up and across to Annie, his face crestfallen. “I am so sorry, Annie. If I knew the truth, I would never have hurt you.”
Alyson spoke with a sneering voice. “It’s a good bloody job that you didn’t know. The triple test said that Annie was at high risk of having Down’s Syndrome. I absolutely couldn’t go through the pain and heartache of a termination again.”
Both Gary and Annie stared at Alyson, mouths dropping open and closed.
“So, let me sum this fuck fest up,” mumbled Annie.” Mark is my dad but not my father, and he’s in the hospital in a bad way and may have no meaningful life again. My mum has just told me he isn’t my biological father. But the bloke who knocked her up on the back seat of someone else’s car is a psychopath. He’s kidnapped me, broke my toe, starved me, amputated my finger tip and blasted screaming babies into my ears. All to get back at Mum for having an abortion, but he also wants her to get back with her and have a happy ever after ending.”
