A Night To Forget

The wind blow violently through the church-yard, wiping the hair off of Abi's face, as she looked down at her mothers grave. At the corner of a church a man with dark hair and piercing green eyes stared across at her. â€Å"It's no good girls we are going to have to call it a night. It's been absolutely fantastic, hard to believe it's my last night as a single woman, but I will be in no fit state to get married tomorrow if we don't go now,† wailed Jeannie. The mob of giggling girls tumbled out of the night-club, none of them noticing the tall dark man who floated out after them. Wanna lift home Rachel, we're all taking a cab,† screamed one of the girls, clutching on to Jeannie with one hand round her neck holding her upright. â€Å"No, I'm fine you lot, I've drank a bit much, perhaps walking home will clear my head. Anyway it's not far. † â€Å"Ok Rachel, we all know you can look after yourself,† said Jeannie with a wink, and a fit of laughter met her words. With a last fleeting look at the remnants of the wild hen night, Rachel turned to walk the few streets home. Rachel turned the corner, humming softly to herself reminiscing about the night and her friends, † I cant believe there's only one of us left who's still single,† she spoke the words with slight regret, â€Å"At least Jeannie found the man she had always wanted†. â€Å"Pete wouldn't be too happy about the man that was paying me rather too much attention, in the night-club. I wish he was going to be home tonight, we could talk more about, perhaps, getting married ourselves†. She hugged herself at the thought, perhaps it would be her turn to get married next! At that moment two men in the park caught her eye both walking quickly but far apart from one another. One had a huge German shepherd which wagged its tail at the sight of her, but as the man bent down to reprimand it, and she smiled to herself, â€Å"There are loads of people out tonight must have been something big going on†. She debated if she should cut through the park, â€Å"Should I, shan't I, well it'll be quicker. † She crossed the street and entered the park, the swings were squeaking, and the wind whistled through the trees, picking up speed and making her hair cover her face. Someone coughed behind her, she jumped in the air, peering around she breathed a sigh of relief, it was only the butcher Frank. She greeted him and carried on home, the wind continued whistling around her. There was a huge rustling in the evergreen bushes near her feet, she held her breath and looked pointedly up at the increasingly darkening sky, until she felt something brush her hand. She looked down suddenly at the wet floor, the black tarmac path covered with a festering film of moss and the sight that met her eyes was very surprising as it was the great shaggy head of the German Shepherd she had seen earlier. Rain started pouring down in droplets the size of 50 pence pieces and began running of gutters and roofs, the rain plastering her hair to her sweaty face as though buckets of water were being repeatedly dropped on her head. The moon which had given her light, now became covered by the heavy black storm clouds, and it was the occasional lightening strike which seemed to land increasingly closer each time which gave a second of illumination before plunging the street around her into darkness yet again. The sound of a fire alarm rang in the distance but she focused her mind it wasn't something for her to deal with tonight. She started to walk quicker, and glanced behind her but the man seemed to be the same distance away, she broke into a frantic kind of run, her face contorting as she tried to keep her mind, she was so close to the end of the park. As she rounded the next bend, only two streets away from her house, she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. She peered over her shoulder and was more than a little bit surprised to see the man who had been walking across the park behind her. His hair was dark, and he was exceedingly tall, was he the man who had flirted with her at the night-club? His face was covered in shadow and his eyes were looking at the floor and his hands were in his pockets. She sighed, of course, she did live in a busy area it wasn't that odd for someone to be walking this way. She carried on walking checking behind her every now and then and becoming increasingly worried that after several minutes he still was following her, this couldn't possibly be normal, could it? She started humming again but the tune was slightly distorted as her breathing became shallow and she had to gasp for air as her throat was constricting. She plunged her hand into her bag, it crawling around searching, searching for her keys. Pete always complained that she could never find her keys, suddenly her hand grasped around then. The lights in the house were out, her flat mate wasn't in either, she sprinted up the drive to the house, one last lightening strike making her panic stricken face light up, â€Å"shit, shit† she cried thrusting the bent key into the lock. She gave one vital turn on the key and hear the lock snap open, she threw the door open and slammed it shut behind her and leant back on the door her breath coming out in great rasping breaths. She gave a huge sigh of relief and sunk down onto the rough, wooden floor. â€Å"He was probably innocent and wasn't doing anything wrong but, phew that was just too scary†. Rachel, slowly got to her feet and climbed the winding staircase made of old pine with the creaky first step. As here feet found there way to tiled landing floor she pushed open the door and slowly made her way through the catastrophic mess of books and clothes that was her bedroom all scattered over a periwinkle blue carpet. She then slowly tiptoed through the junk to the bathroom and leant over the bath to turn on the exceedingly rusty, hot tap. A sound met here ears which could not have had anything to do with her, the step at the bottom of the stair had given an almighty creak, her head shot up and she turned to face the door on to the landing. â€Å"That couldn't have been anybody. No I must have imagined it. † Rachel then slipped out of her pale lilac, dress which had rested a couple of inches above her knobbly knees, and pulled on her woollen dressing gown. The water flooded into the bath as she made her way out of the room and slowly descended the old staircase and stumbled into the kitchen, â€Å"I must have drunk far too much† she moaned softly slightly slurring each word. She reached for kettle to fill it with water only to notice the tap was dripping. That couldn't have been her, so she leant forward to turn it on properly. The door creaked behind her and she spun round, no one was there but the door was swinging slowly. Open, shut, open, shut. She crept to the door, but before she had got two paces across the room she uttered a small, quickly stifled shout. She felt something-soft winding itself between her legs. It was Emily, her cat. Rachel got back up from stroking her scary little friend to turn the dripping tap off. No longer was it dripping. She shook her head violently, blond hair cascading over her face, â€Å"no one is in here, its fine. † She cautiously, walked through the door into the hall and felt the soft sheepskin rug rub between her toes, her heart beating hard against her ribcage, and her palms oozing sweat. She turned the corner to climb the stairs, and silently ascended the stairs yet again, and she walked into the bathroom. The water was no longer running, this was no longer a joke someone had to be in the house? â€Å"Raquel are you here? Please tell me your joking around? Its not funny you know, please come out,† she cried into the silence her breath coming out in short gasps, her eyes flitting from the landing and the stairs to her bedroom, the two closest places to her. She fled down the stairs to the kitchen her feet echoing loudly, on the wooden steps. â€Å"No. No, who's in here,† her shouts went unanswered in the big house. She leant back wards against the kitchen ledge and put her hands behind her each on a part of the kitchen worktop. She squeezed her hands against the rough marbled side, and felt some thing rustle under one of her palms. She picked it up, a single scrap of paper and turned round to read it on the kitchen side. Looking forward to seeing you again sweetheart. Her hands began to tremble, and the hairs on the back of her neck stuck up. Bang! The door swung open on its hinges. â€Å"I told you we would meet again†. He said smirking at her, his eyes looking her up and down, his gaze then lingering on her face. â€Å"Y-y-you, shouldn't b-be in here†. She stammered. â€Å"What do u mean I shouldn't be in here, darling. I'm in love with you. We are destined to be together. † â€Å"You've no right to be in here, how'd you get in† Rachel said her voice slightly stronger now, as she regained her senses after the shock of seeing him there. â€Å"Why, do all, of the girls say that, I hated it when the other girls said that! † he said, his greasy voice becoming less cosseting and more fierce. W-w-what do you mean by others,† the stammers returned, her fears now staring her in the face as she realised what he could do. â€Å"Oh, I just meant the other women I liked, not that they are still around anymore. They decided they didn't like me. † His voice suggesting that this was nothing out of the ordinary. â€Å"There was, Miranda, Polly, Florenec and, oh, Abi. † He said counting them off on his fingers. â€Å"W-what do you mean there not around anymore? † she asked tentatively. â€Å"What do you think I mean darling? † he replied. Trying to placate him she responded, â€Å"oh, I expect you mean that they just moved away. † He laughed, â€Å"course they did darling, moved to heaven or hell. † Rachel realised that the man in her house was seriously deranged and that she was in mortal danger. She knew she needed to get away from him, as quickly as possible, but with legs that felt like jelly she wasn't sure how she would achieve this. A strange clicking noise could just be heard coming from the direction of the hall they both turned to it, he asked sharply, â€Å"what's that? She replied, â€Å"Oh I often here that noise I don't know what it is, don't worry about it, knowing that it was the door bell with its nearly flat battery. Rachel knew that all she needed to do now was get to the doorbell with out alerting his suspicions. Suddenly with no warning he lunged forward, wrapping his muscular arm around her defenceless neck. He hissed in her ear, â€Å"Do you think I'm stupid there is someone at the door isn't there? † Rachel slumped forward, her weight catching him unprepared, he staggered under her weight. Suddenly a sharp pain shot through his lower body, he stepped backwards shaking his head, moaning â€Å"what's going on,† not quite comprehending what was happening and completely unprepared for the next sharp blow that struck him over the head knocking him to the floor. There was a huge commotion at the front door, clearly somebody was trying to open it without the benefit of a key. The door suddenly gave way and several huge men powered through the door looking around, in there midst was a familiar hairy face. As the men dealt with the now unconscious would be attacker, Rachel buried her head in Rex the German shepherds shaggy coat. She took a deep breath and turned to her colleagues to ask, â€Å"what the hell kept you. † Her inspector patted her on the back saying, † well done Sergeant you played your role well, the way you stumbled home those orange juices must have been very strong but at least this murdering bastered will soon be under lock and key. â€Å"By the way sergeant exactly w2hat did you do to him before we got here? † she replied smiling, â€Å"that's what comes from having a boyfriend who's a Karate 6th Dan. The operation went smoothly enough, mind you I though Rex was gonna blow our cover when he came to see me through the bushes in the park! â€Å"