Trapped in a Broken Mind Read online

  ‘I want you to come back home’.

  ‘What’? He was a little surprised.

  ‘I need you to come back home’.

  ‘Are you sure’? he looked into her eyes.

  ‘Never more so. Like I say, I miss you’. She smiled.

  He leant across the table and they kissed. The passion was still there and he had missed the warmth of her lips. He tasted salt.

  ‘Don’t cry’.

  ‘I’m sorry’.

  ‘Don’t be sorry’. He smiled.

  She looked at him. ‘Can we go’?

  ‘Sure, I will just pay the bill’. He waved at the waitress and made eye contact before pretending to write in his hand. The universally understood signal for getting your bill. The waitress left the bill on the table and Richard paid up, leaving a small tip.

  ‘I’m hungry’. She spoke the words.

  ‘You didn’t want anything’. He looked at her

  ‘Not for food. For you’. She gripped his hand tightly.

  Collecting her umbrella, they left the café together. Although the rain was still falling, Richard had a smile on his face and a warmth in his heart that he had not felt in a while. Tomorrow would be a new day and things were beginning to look up.

  * * *

  As the door closed behind them and the hypnotic tone of the bell rang out into nothingness, Mary Poole walked to the door. There was nobody else in the café and it was closing time. She flicked the bolt on the lock so that nobody could come in and turned the sign to read closed. Reaching downwards to the plug, she turned the switch off and the neon light for the sign went out.

  At the counter, she cashed up the till and made sure that the takings for the day were put in in the safe in the office. She put her head inside the kitchen, which had already been cleaned down. They had stopped serving food an hour ago and Bob had already tided up in here. Mary was the only one left on the premises, but this was not unusual.

  Back in the dining area, she collected up the menu’s from the tables along with the salt and pepper shakers, which she topped up ready for the next morning. She wiped down the tables and walked back through the kitchen and down the corridor past the office to the changing room where she collected her coat and umbrella from her locker. She then headed to the rear exit of the building and out to the poorly lit car park at the back of the building.

  Outside, the rain was still falling heavily and the wind had picked up. She struggled to keep her umbrella upright and covering her head. At the car, she reached down to her handbag and wrestled to find her keys. The water droplets were loud upon the metal roof of her battered Ford but she eventually found them, unfortunately dropping her umbrella as she tried to put it down.

  She bent down to pick it up from a puddle on the floor and the wind whistled. She was not aware that she had been watched from the moment she had come out of the building. She had been watched walking across the car park and fumbling for her keys. She had not been aware that this person had walked, unheard through the weather, across the car park and now lingered behind her.

  As she stood up she became aware of something, but it was too late. Gloved hands held a chloroformed rag to her mouth and nose. She did not struggle for too long before panic gave way to unconsciousness.

  * * *

  His head was slowly turning from side to side admiring his work. He had left the table quite a while ago and was now staring with a solemn understanding at the canvas. Whilst he had been cutting the skin, he had been struck with an inspiration. In the background of the picture there had been something missing, something that would be beautiful. A rainbow.

  In the silence of the room, he looked out of the window and was aware that the rain had stopped. The night was at its richest now. The clouds had gone and the clear sky was pure black.

  ###

  Copyright

  Copyright 2013 Stephen Craig

  Smashwords Edition

  Smashwords Edition License Notes

  Thank you for downloading this e-book. It remains the copyrighted property of the author and may not be reproduced, copied and distributed for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own copy at Smashwords.com, where they can also discover other works by this author.

  Thank you for your support.

  All characters in this story are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental

  FB2 document info

  Document ID: bc232bd7-e417-4bd1-919b-6533ba808c6d

  Document version: 1

  Document creation date: 2.8.2013

  Created using: calibre 0.9.42, FictionBook Editor Release 2.6.6 software

  Document authors :

  Namenlos

  About

  This file was generated by Lord KiRon's FB2EPUB converter version 1.1.5.0.

  (This book might contain copyrighted material, author of the converter bears no responsibility for it's usage)

  Этот файл создан при помощи конвертера FB2EPUB версии 1.1.5.0 написанного Lord KiRon.

  (Эта книга может содержать материал который защищен авторским правом, автор конвертера не несет ответственности за его использование)

  http://www.fb2epub.net

  https://code.google.com/p/fb2epub/