Chapter Two
Jackie Ryder had had a bitch of a day.
First of all she had gotten up late this morning because she had gone to bed drunk and had forgotten to set her alarm clock. Then the shower was broken so she had to leave for work without one, her hair looking like a bird had nested in it. Because she had left the house the wrong side of half seven she then got stuck in traffic and when she finally did get to work and hour late she spilled her café latte all over her white blouse. Finally she got the mother of all bollockings from her boss for being late and looking like she had been dragged through a hedge backwards.
By the time six o clock came she was ready to go home to her husband and a good lie down.
At thirty-three Jackie had a stressful job in sales and was now part of the senior management team. Her job often called for her to spend time away from home and tonight she was supposed to be heading for a meeting in London but she was tired and so cancelled. She was going to surprise James with a takeaway and some much needed time together.
As she pulled into her road she felt herself begin to unwind a little, the smell of her chow mein made her stomach rumble and she couldn’t wait to get in.
She unlocked the door to their 1980’s semi and the smell of home made her smile. She was glad to be back. She called her husbands name but she got no reply. She assumed he must be upstairs on his laptop, hopefully writing the novel that would make him a star.
She put the Chinese on the kitchen worktops and decided she would join him upstairs, maybe they could work up an appetite.
She crept up the stairs desperately trying not to make a noise, she knew the surprise would turn him on even more, but she couldn’t stop giggling, she felt like a naughty school girl.
She reached the landing and could hear noises which assumed meant he was on the phone to someone.
If only.
She opened the bedroom door to find James lying naked on his back with a look of sheer pleasure on his face. The pleasure quickly turned to horror as he saw Jackie stood in the doorway.
On top of James was Jackie’s sister Joanne who was clutching her breasts and writhing in the throws of orgasm up and down James’ ever diminishing erection.
Eventually Joanne stopped to turn and see what had caught her lover’s attention.
‘Jack, I’m sorry’ he whimpered pushing Joanne of him and scrambling out of bed.
‘I’m sorry’ he repeated, ‘it means nothing, I love you I promise’.Jackie felt sick. She stood in the doorway for what seemed like an age. She could see James gesturing in front of her, his lips moving but she heard nothing, his limp, small penis flapping about like a goldfish out of water. She could see Joanne frantically pulling her clothes on, obviously wanting to get out as quickly as possible.
Jackie turned and ran down the stairs, out of the front door and towards her car. James wasn’t far behind her.
‘Jack, please don’t go, let’s talk’
‘Fuck you’ she screamed.
‘But I love you’
‘Fuck you’
By now some of the neighbours were looking out their windows at the scene that was developing in their usually quiet suburban street. Mrs Ryder screaming and crying at Mr Ryder who was shivering and naked in the rain, his hands covering his embarrassment, and Mrs Ryder’s younger sister trying to sneak off up the road with her T shirt on back to front and a shoe missing.
Jackie got into her car, reversed off the drive just about missing James’ Audi TT and sped off into the dark stormy night.
She decided to go to her moms, it wouldn’t take her long to get there and sure enough half an hour later she passed a sign,
‘Welcome To Congleton’.
Chapter Three
Chief Inspector Leslie Parker sat slumped in his leather chair. A grave look sat upon his chubby pock marked face.
Mark Scott had just tried to call him for the seventh time that evening and for the seventh time Parker had told Alice on reception that he was not to be bothered.
‘Scott’s obviously seen the news’ Parker thought to himself as he spread a dozen files out across his mahogany desk.
Parker knew that Scott could be trouble, he needed keeping quite. Whether it was by gentle persuasion or by force Parker didn’t care. He was in no mood for a public panic at this time in his career, he had enough on his mind without the Congleton blue rinse brigade lobbying outside his station.
Parker slouched back into his chair and looked at the file he held in his hand. It was dated 1987. He flicked through the mass of forensic pictures in the file and a familiar sickening feeling appeared in his stomach. He took a good long look at the last picture of a mangled body. All of the internal organs missing, the chest and windpipe crushed and most of the victims face was gone. He threw the file back onto his desk in disgust.
He couldn’t believe this was happening again.
Chapter Four
Mark walked back up Vicarage Hill growing angrier by the minute. He had just left Mandy Crawford’s house, Jessie Pritchard’s girlfriend. He didn’t get a great response, he had assumed as much anyway. He pretended to be a good friend of Jessie’s from the pub and said he wanted to drop off some flowers and give her his condolences. Mandy, although an emotional wreck, was able to prove something that Mark had already knew, that there was no relative who had been arrested and that Jessie had not been in a fight with anyone that night as far as she was aware. Moreover, and more disturbing to Mark, the police were not allowing Mandy to see the body. He decided not to press her anymore as she was now crying uncontrollably and her mother asked him to leave.
Upon leaving the house Mark had tried to contact Parker again but for the seventh time the very polite lady on the reception had told Mark that the Super Intendant was not available.
Mark was now convinced that the police were up to something, some kind of cover up, because there was no way Jessie had just been stabbed to death he had been mauled and eaten by something that was not human.
I must be going mad, there is nothing alive in England that would maul a person like that, let alone eat one clean.
Once Mark got home he took up his vigil at his bedroom window but he soon realised it would come to nothing, even with the light off the fields were pitch black and too dense to see anything worth while. So he decided to go to bed and see what the next day would bring. He drew his curtains and walked away from the window beginning to undress.
If he stayed a second longer he would have just about made out the headlights of Jackie Ryder’s mini cooper on the outskirts of the village.
Chapter Five
Jackie hated Congleton almost as much as she hated going to her parents. She had been bought up and raised in the village and returning just bought back memories of her bored upbringing. Nothing ever happened in Congleton, the most exciting thing ever to be written in the Congleton Gazette was the fact that the vicar’s wife had sold half a dozen rock cakes at the parish fete.
Then she remembered her friend Daniela. She had been murdered when she was eleven. It was claimed that she had been stabbed to death by her uncle but that never seemed right to her. Jackie had met her uncle and he was a nice kind man, genteel and quiet.
Nothing was ever really made of the murder it was all kind of hush hush which Jackie just took as the village norm.
As the reality of what Jackie had seen earlier that night began to sink in she grew angrier and angrier. She knew in a few hours the anger would turn to hurt but at the minute she just wanted to kill them both for doing what they had done.
The rain was coming down heavier and as she entered the narrow country lane that would bring her into the village her visibility was down to practically nothing. All around her there was a darkness that seemed to seep into the car and envelope her in its stifling grip. To her left and right lay miles and miles of barley fields, fields she used to play in as a girl. Now they were the last place she wanted to be. Thick trees lined the road and rose into the dark sky like mini skyscrapers blocking any light the full moon tried to shine down in front of her. She drove on into the night knowing that in around five minutes she would be at her parent’s house.
By the time she saw the deer in the road it was too late.
She screamed and threw her foot hard onto the break pedal but with the ground being so wet she just skidded into the animal hitting it head on. The deer flew up her bonnet into the windscreen cracking it with its weight. Jackie screamed and tried to keep the car going straight but she couldn’t see a thing. Eventually the car came to a stop and the deer rolled forward back into the road where it lay still. The deer’s blood covered her windscreen making Jackie wretch, ‘For fuck sake’ she screamed, smashing her fists on the steering wheel, ‘can today get any worse?’
She clambered out of the car into the torrential rain that was now coming down in sheets and walked over to the deer. Jackie wasn’t particularly bothered if it was dead or not, it was just in her way. To her this deer was just another bloody annoyance that came with visiting that god forsaken village.
She bent down to inspect the animal and as she suspected it was very much dead. The impact had probably broken its neck. She stood up to contemplate how she was going to move the damn thing when she heard a rustling in the field to her left that startled her. She turned quickly but saw nothing and so assumed it was either the wind or her imagination. Then she heard it again but this time it was followed by a blood curdling growl. She still could see nothing but decided it best to just get the hell out of there. She would have to just drive over the damn deer.
As she sat in the drivers’ seat she looked out in front of her as much as she could and she could have sworn she saw something in the road but upon looking again she saw nothing except for the deer. Accepting that she must just be tired and upset she grabbed for her car keys.
Suddenly the car shook with a thud and as she looked through the window two large, deep set red eyes were staring back at her. She screamed in panic and threw her keys at the ignition, missing it and dropping the keys on the floor of the car. She bent down without moving her eyes from the red ones staring back at her. The creature on her bonnet snarled menacingly but did nothing else. She thought for a moment that it was trying to find a way into the car but she realised that that was obviously just stupid. Suddenly it pounced and was gone from the bonnet, Jackie screamed in fear again as it landed on her soft top, the weight of the animal leaving a huge imprint. She realised she needed to get out of there quickly. She finally grabbed the keys and put them into the ignition but she turned the key before it was fully in position and the key snapped in half.
Jackie couldn’t believe her luck but she had no time to think, she looked up and saw that the roof was coming away from the car. She screamed throwing her hands up trying to pull it back into place but whatever it was, was certainly stronger than her and within a few seconds the gap was just big enough. A paw the size of which she had never seen before came down on top of her. She felt five razor sharp claws pierce her skin, the paw rose back up out of the roof taking her left cheek with it. The pain she felt was unbearable. She threw herself to the other side of the car as the paw came down for a second attempt. Grabbing her face she felt the blood gushing from what was once her cheek and onto her coffee stained blouse. Crying and screaming she knew she had no way out and in sheer panic she fled from the car. Somewhere at the back of her mind she knew this was the wrong thing to do but at that minute she wasn’t thinking clearly.
She managed to run about a meter before the creature had jumped onto her back, it felt like a ten tonne weight as it threw her to the ground, her jaw cracking and breaking on the tarmac. For a second Jackie blacked out.
As she came round she could feel a pain unlike no other as the creature took chunks out of her lower shoulder. It had already bit her neck, she could feel the blood pumping out of her as she eased in and out of consciousness and she hoped she would die soon, so the pain could be over.
Jackie was already dead when a second black shadow emerged from the field and ripped into her lower abdomen, within ten minutes they were gone.
