Leticia (14 page)

“Nancy
,
please don’t fall out with your brother because of me
...
”

“
It’s
not just because of you, it been coming for a while, he’s a
jerk, an absolute jerk
, he’s gonna lose everyone
all because of one stupid incident
.
”

“I’m not gonna ask
,
” I told her, shaking my head
.
“
It’s
nothing to do with me
.
”

“I’ll tell you anyway
.
”

“Not now
.
”

“
O
K
then, maybe tomorrow
.
”

“Why don’t you help yoursel
f to something to eat and drink
while
I get
dressed?
”

“I’ll make you a cup of tea too
.
”

“Thanks
.
”

I went back upstairs and got dressed for bed, then pulled my dressing gown on again. I could hear Nancy messing around in the kitchen, the kettle boiling, cups banging together. It was nice to have some company, to hear someone else
puttering
around the house
,
someone
who didn’t mean me any harm. I walked back downstairs and got to the kitchen just as she started shouting, I noticed her phone was to her ear.

“I don’t care, piss off you’re an idiot, you won’t stop being an idiot and it will spoil everything for you
!
You can’t keep treating people like shit just because you still have issues, Jesus Christ Jackson it was twenty years ago...
more!” she yelled
.
“I’m not telling you where I am it’s none of your business
.
I think I’m old enough to make my own decisions...
no...
no...
so what if I am, what’s it to you?
Oh
get lost and grow up!”

She ended the call then looked over at me.

“He will want to know you’re safe
,
” I told her
.

“I don’t care what
he
wants
any more
than he cares what anyone
else
wants. He’s just pissed that I walked out on him
.
”

“I’m saying nothing, you know him better than I do
.
I’ll just leave you two to it
.
”

“Best way I think, anyway, there’s
tea
on the table in the living room for you
.
”

We both flopped down on the sofa channel
surfing
until we found a decent horror film. We didn’t speak
much;
both of us were pissed off and tired.

The following morning I woke up to the sounds of pots clashing together downstairs. I looked at the clock, it was 9am. I didn’t have any appointments for the next two days
and didn’t need to be up too early. I
got dressed and made my way downstairs, the air was filled with the smell of bacon and eggs.

“Morning
,
” Nancy smiled as I walked in the kitchen
.
“I thought since you
were
good enough to let me stay, the least I could do was cook us a good breakfast
.
”

“Mmmm, thank you very much
,
” I laughed
. “
I’m starving
.
”

“
You’re
very welcome
.
”

“Has Jackson
called
you?”

“Yeah
twice actually, but I’ve just ignored him
,
” she shrugged
.
“
Oh
you have some letters on the
table;
your post comes very early doesn’t it
.
”

“Yeah
,
” I said reaching for them
.
“
Bills
most likely
.
”

“Oh the joys
.
”

One
of the letters had my address hand written on the front, it was only just readable, the handwriting was terrible. I opened it and started reading, or should I say reading the words I could make out, it said...

Leticia,

You haven’t changed,
you’re
still as beautiful as ever, but I know that beauty doesn’t run..... your soul, there is evil inside....
...
..
..
.. we must rid the world of things
......
God himself must agree with
me...
......
. such a creature like you, only the devil could
c
reate such
......
.
......
. I will do what I must, I will make it my
...
goal to
....
just....
..
.
.
it
m
ust be
done
. You will be the first....
......
.. be the last!

See you soon

xxx

“What is it, you look annoyed?” Nancy asked me
.

“
Read
it,
if you can
,
” I said passing her the letter
.

“Wow, how the hell am I supposed to read that, is that even English?”

“Yeah
.
”

She stayed quiet for a minute, occasionally squinting and moving the paper
closer
or further away as she tried her best to read the scrawl in front of her.

“I can’t make much of it out, but what I
can
read is horrible. This person is really messed up in the head. How can he expect to take us on and win?” she
asked.

“I want to know why if he is so certain he can kill me, he hasn’t just come around here and tried
.
”

“
Cowards
. Do you want to keep this?”

“Yeah, for a little while
.
”
I put it in the draw under the sin
k. “You know, a few days ago

that would
have
had
really worried me, but now I don’t care
.
I just want to find him, kill him
and
forget about it all. My attitude has really changed
.
” I told her
.

“That’s a good thing, I understand you don’t like killing people, but sometimes things like us have to
.
”

“I know
,
” I sighed
.

“At least you saved one
.
”

“Adam
.
”

“Yeah
,
” she smiled
.
“I just hope it doesn’t come back to haunt you
.
”

“So do I
.
”

“So what do you want to do today?”

“I don’t know
.
”

“Do you
want to go for
a walk
?
It’s
a nice day
.”
She
said
,
pointing out of the window
.

“Why not
?
”

We had breakfast, washed up and set off towards Dovestones Reservoir. We looked at the boats for a while before heading up the road towards Saddleworth Moors. Once we reached the straight stretch of road, we got bored and decided to trek through the grasslands instead. We reached a point known as Featherbed Moss
and
were chatting away when suddenly Nancy grabbed my arm and pulled me down to the floor.

“Shhh
,
” she whispered, pointing in front of us
.
“
Listen.
”

The land dipped a few feet before us, down one of the
hills. I
leaned forward
as
far
as I could without being spotted and saw five men
sitting together
, all of them with guns beside them.

“I don’t like this
,
” the blonde guy was saying
.
“I know I need the money, but the thought of going after a woman like this kinda makes me feel sick
.”

“Apparently she isn’t a
normal
woman though is she
?
” the ginger guy
replied.

“What exactly does that mean though,
not normal
?”

“I dunno I didn’t ask, I know what you’re saying though, I feel like shit for it
.
”

“Me too
,
” another said
.

“I personally don’t care
,
” an older looking dark haired man added
.
“Nobody’s cared about me for years, why the hell should I give a
crap
about some girl. Let’s do the job, get paid, and forget about it
.
”

“You’re a heartless old fool
,
” a younger voice said
.
“
It’ll
come back to haunt you
.
”

“When do we attack?” The ginger guy asked openly
.

“When the others arrive, apparently this girl could take us all on and win, so we need back
up
. Ha! She’s just a girl for Christ’s sake
,
” one of them replied
.
“We just have to wait for them to turn up, they know where to meet us and when.”

I ducked down and turned to look at Nancy.

“This isn’t good
,
” I mouthed silently to her
.

“I know
.
”

“We need to get out of here
.
”

She nodded and we both crawled away from them as quietly as we could, as soon as we were at a safe distance we ran back to the road.

“You can’t go home
,
” she told me
.
“
N
ot at all, you need to come to mine
.
”

“No, no way, no
offence
but I’d rather face all of
them
than Jackson
.
”

“
Don’t
be stupid Tish.”

“I said no! I know every nick and turn of these hills
.
I know the land surrounding my house so I could use that to my advantage, and I have a secret basement that I can hide in if necessary until they piss off again, so I’m staying put
.
”

“Please
?”

“You need to go, go home, I’m not taking you back with me
.
”

“I’ll get the others
.
”

“No, no Nancy, please just stay away, stay safe
.
”

I didn’t say anything else, I looked to see if any cars were close by, luckily we were alone
.
I changed into wolf form right in front of her, put my front door keys in my mouth and ran away, across the wilderness, back towards home. I felt awful leaving her, but I knew she would get home safely, she would call Jackson. She’d tell him everything even though I didn’t want her too
;
he would come and get her, and then... god only know
s
what
they’d
do. I now had other things to think about.

I got to my front door and changed back to human form before entering the house. I ran upstairs and pulled some clothes on, then got to work. I locked and double checked every window in the house, then pulled the curtains closed. They had guns and so they could easily shoot them
out
and get inside
.
I put drawing pins and nails on the floor in front of the some of the windows. I had a bag of marbles, I poured some of the
m
in front of the other windows, hoping they would fall and maybe crack their heads on the wall if they climbed through. I made another concoction of vinegar and lemon juice, but this time, I also poured half a bottle of bleach into another bowl, and placed them both on the shelf above the back door. I tied thick string around them both and lead it down and around the door handle, one slight
ly
more loose
than the other, so that it would, with a bit of luck, affect more than one of them. I went in the cabinet draw
er
in the living room and pulled out the gun that Jackson had given me, I tucked it halfway down the back of my jeans. I looked at the
clock;
we’d been out longer than I thought
.
I was shocked to see it was now 4p
.
m
.
, but I guess it had taken me a while to set the traps too. I sat on the sofa, waiting.