chapter 3

supernatural tale

Chapter 3

 

 

I hate today.  It was funny how you mind works, it was Tuesday, should be just another Tuesday.  I was going to do the same things I did every other Tuesday.  Except one number made it all so, tragic, I suppose.  Just a date made everything feel so hard.  Time heals they say,  I was waiting for it, and god I needed it so much.  I wanted that day to come when I just woke up and I wouldn’t feel the pain.  I wanted that magic switch inside my head to turn off and she wouldn’t be my first thought.  Today was the first anniversary; I didn’t need a reminder to remember, since the date seemed to be engraved on my mind.

 

The dream the other night made it worse, the memory of her still fresh in my mind, almost as if the year had never happened.  I wished I could have stayed cocooned in my warm blanket but sounds coming from my front room alerted me.  I managed to ignore overly loud telly sounds but loud and constant banging was an alarm bell.

 

I, very disgruntled got out of bed, and threw on a t-shirt from the floor over my shorts.  I quickly headed straight for the front from knowing exactly who the culprit of the noises was.  The culprit was easy but what exactly he was doing to produce the racket was the frightening thing.  As soon as I walked into the living room it was obvious.  Preacher was stood in front of the television banging hell out of it with his fist.  I immediately lost my temper.

 

“Oi.  What the hell do you think you’re doing?”  I shouted at him.  I reached out and roughly grabbed the hand that was doing the damage.  “It cost me money, Jesus.”

 

“Fixing it.”  He stared at me as if I was the one who was in the wrong which didn’t help my mood.

 

“You don’t fix it by banging hell out of it.  You’ll knacker it.”  I snapped.

 

“You did, last night,” he pointed out.  Actually he did have a point, the telly had lost its picture, and as normal right in the important bit.  I banged it in temper and I did bang it.

 

“Yeah, but I know what I’m doing.”   I bluffed.

 

“Didn’t look like it.”  His voice had the start of a sulky tone to it.  “Fix it.”

 

“What’s wrong with it?”  I asked.

 

“No little men.”  He grinned at me.

 

“Great, no picture.”  I tried changing channels, but every channel contained the same blank screen. .  I crinkled my eyebrows in annoyance, damn telly, I knew the guarantee had just run out.  “Great it’s bust.” 

 

“Fix it.”  Preacher, now looked slightly panicked.

 

“I can’t.  I’m no good at electrical stuff.”  I shrugged at him.

 

“New one?”  He said.

 

“You have to be joking?  Money don’t grow on trees.”  I glared at him.  “Oh yeah, you wouldn’t know that since you just steal mine.”

 

He didn’t look a bit guilty or apologetic at my dig, or make an attempt to deny it.  He looked at me with a depressed look on his face.  He threw himself backwards onto the sofa and sighed loudly.  I rubbed my eyes still feeling very tired and went into the kitchen.

 

“Coffee?”  I shouted into the other room.  I got no answer in return.  “Sulking isn’t going to help.”  I still didn’t get anything more than an unintelligible grunt.  I clicked on the kettle and waiting for it to boil.  I bent down to pour water into my cup when I nearly scolded myself as he pushed me in the back.

 

“Ffs.” I tuned around to glare at him.  “How dangerous was that?”

 

“Pub?”  He looked at me with hopefully.

 

“9am”  I replied.

 

“Your point?”  He looked confused.

 

“Too early.”

 

“I guess.”  His dejected reply came, I sighed, knowing full well he wanted to watch the tv down there.  My own mood was spiralling downwards as I started to drink my coffee.  I knew I had to bring up the subject of living arrangements since he hadn’t.

 

“You’re going to have to find somewhere to live.”  I said to him, trying to sound casual and making sure I didn’t say somewhere else.

 

“I can live here.”  He said brightly.

 

“How are you going to pay to live her?”  I asked him folding my arms.  Since he had been here, he had no attempt to find a job, actually or to leave the house.

 

“I have to pay?” I looked at me surprised.

 

“Well yeah.  You got to pay your way.”  I looked at him.  “What you been living on all these years?”

 

“I’ve forgotten.”  He said quietly.

 

“How can you forget what you been doing for twenty years?”   I asked, I guessed he was about twenty, and I made sure he knew I didn’t believe him.

 

“I don’t know.”  He turned around now staring at my telly.  “I have to go now?”  He managed to fill those three words with as much loss as possible.  I should have said yes at this point, he clearly wasn’t going to pay his way and I wasn’t a shelter for the homeless.  Unfortunately I still felt a bit sorry for him and decided to give him a bit more time.

 

 “I suppose you can stay for a few more days until you get a job.  I have a few conditions, though.”  I suddenly remember the pile of bags cluttering up my hallway.

 

“Anything.”  He had turned around and was smiling at me.

 

“You can help me take some stuff down the tip, for a start.”  I said.  He made a face that looked like he didn’t want to be helping me but he nodded in agreement.

 

“You must have family.”  I asked.  “Someone must be missing you?”  I wondered.

 

“No.”  He looked at me sharply as he said it.  I got the impression he was being truthful about that.

 

“You might have forgotten that too?”

 

“No I would remember.”  He said softly.

 

“If you’ve forgotten everything.”  I tried thinking of a way of saying wanted I wanted sensitively but I failed.  “Plus you’re not that smart.”

 

“I wouldn’t forget I have no one.”  He said but with no hint of sadness or self-pity, just a statement of fact.

 

“You have family?”  He asked me.  I shook my head at him quickly, I didn’t want to get into a conversation about my family, and he just nodded. I wanted to get out of the flat and I thought It‘d make sure he wouldn’t weasel e out of helping me with the stuff.

 

“Grab the bags in the hall and we’ll take them down now.” 

 

“Mcdonalds?”  He asked hopefully considering he decided to hit hell out of my telly maybe he was wondering how far he could push his luck.  As much as he annoyed me I needed the company if I was honest.

 

His obsession with the television was ridiculous and was starting to border on the obsessive.  I tried getting him a job, well I actually got him one, but I hadn’t managed to get him to for more than one day at a time.  I had enough money, I wasn’t short, and however his lack of responsibility got on my nerves a lot.  I knew the reason why I didn’t chuck him out, despite my assurances to Jade, I wasn’t really coping.  I could just about go to work.  I could go to social occasions if pushed but I seemed to have lost the ability to enjoy them.  Except with Preacher, he never really asked questions I didn’t want to answer.  We never really had proper conversations but it suited me.

 

Jade hated him, and lately she never even bothered to hide it.  I never really understood why.  Possibly. Jealously, but then she had her own life so what difference did it make to her? Or maybe she felt put out.  Sometimes it annoyed me though.  They couldn’t get on.  It was like two little kids arguing constantly.  Preacher didn’t really help either; he seemed mostly to go out of his way to do things that would annoy her.  I found that harder to understand than Jade; at least she had a reasonable, well sort of, motivation for her actions.  Preacher on the other hand, liked her, I could tell from the first moment he stared at her.  It made even less sense considering she was the only other person he had contact with.  Although in his defence, I’m not convinced that he had matured beyond a 12 year old child.  I wondered if he had a mental disability or something.  Or maybe he just got hit too hard on the head.

 

“We could go see Jade.”  

 

“She’s working.”  I said, his face dropped slightly.  “You like her don’t you.”  I asked.

 

“I like her telly.”  He said with a smile, I looked at him and tried to work out whether this was true or not but it was impossible to tell.

 

 

Reviews

[Francesca]

I like how no matter how much Preacher seems to annoy him, Jack needs him around. I'm interested to see what the connection is between them, and the watches. I wanted to ask, however, how far away this is from the last chapter? Has Preacher only been there for a few days, fresh out of the hospital, or has it been a while? And the last time we saw him, he disappeared with the watch. How did they meet each other again after that and get to the hospital? And it would help if you explained Jade more, like how they know her, why she would be jealous, her relationship with Jack, etc. Also I wish there was more description on characters' actions and appearance.
You write really well. You explain characters' thoughts very creatively, for example when Jack is dreading the date and thinking about Preacher's living arrangements/possible mental disability. I'm getting really into this story :)

[Anon135]

You're pretty talented, I like all the dialog in your story.