Elizabeth watched her alarm clock until the LED display switched to 01.00.
Suitably wired on Pro Plus, she rose from her bed.
Her parents would be asleep now, and her brother was at his girlfriend’s, so she moved through the house, removing the batteries from the fire alarms and the carbon monoxide detectors.
In the kitchen, she prepared a warm meal, and a hot drink, which she set at the dinner table. She sprinkled the contents of several sleeping pills, taken from her dying mother’s supply, into some soup.
After checking the time again, she went to the front door to wait for Laura.
It’d be a disaster if anyone saw her lingering around outside.
As she waited, she thought of all those years as a child in which she’d admired Laura Wilson.
Despite being underweight, and quietly spoken, rather like herself, Laura had carried herself with great poise. Some saw it as a stern, almost aggressive demeanour, but Elizabeth believed it to be a steely determination in a man’s world.
Laura had been broken by her involvement. She’d spiralled into addiction, and eventual homelessness. Not that Elizabeth felt any sympathy.
After being released from her institution last week, Elizabeth had located her, sleeping rough in Leeds City Centre. Elizabeth had paid for some accommodation and food for several evenings.
Laura, wracked with guilt, had confessed all, in detail, to Elizabeth.
Elizabeth had nodded sympathetically to coax everything from Laura, but inside, her heart was in flames. It was then, at that moment, she wanted Laura to experience, like her, how it felt to truly burn.
You should have known better, Laura. You were orphaned, bounced between foster homes… yet, even with nothing, you carved out chances…
The world gave you hope, Laura, and how did you repay it?
By destroying the lives of others. Lives that shared similarities with yours.
But don’t believe that depression, addiction, homelessness, is a big enough price to pay for what you’ve done. Please, don’t believe that.
Not for a second.
Laura arrived and Elizabeth embraced her at the front door.
Hold tight, Elizabeth. This act… this nauseating display of forgiveness and affection… it’ll end soon.
‘Thanks… again…’ Laura said, speaking quietly, so as not to wake Elizabeth’s parents. Elizabeth had told her that James wasn’t in this evening and was staying at his girlfriend’s. She’d never have come otherwise. ‘Are you sure that James—’
‘He’s out.’
‘I haven’t eaten all day.’
You’re desperate… I understand, Laura… but there it is again. That uncontrollable impulse to use others.
‘Come and eat,’ Elizabeth said and watched her eat the food she’d already prepared.
Afterwards, Laura started to cry. ‘I don’t deserve this.’
No, you don’t.
‘He manipulated me.’
Elizabeth nodded, offering a sympathetic look. Not an excuse.
‘I wish I could give you more. I wish I could tell you where your child was.’
Elizabeth considered the pages of notes she’d scribbled down during Laura’s confession in the hotel room. The locations of the children remained a mystery. Although heavily involved, the details of the transactions made with the purveyors of children had been a guarded secret by James, and she’d not even been paid well for her contributions!
But, with time, Elizabeth would unlock the truth and bring accountability to everyone who deserved it. And she’d find her own daughter.
It’d happen. She knew that now. As certain as the sun rose. One day, justice would be served, and she’d be reunited with her daughter, and save her from this vile world.
After Laura had eaten, they sat together on the sofa in the lounge for a while.
Laura let her head droop on Elizabeth’s shoulder.
Repulsed, Elizabeth ran her fingers through her matted hair.
‘You know you can never do anything, Elizabeth. You know that they’ll kill you if you try.’
‘Who?’
‘The company that closed all of this down. They’re powerful. So, so powerful. I’m sorry I can’t give your daughter back to you, Elizabeth. But if you confront them, they’ll silence you.’
Let them try.
‘So, tell me, again, about my daughter,’ Elizabeth said, stroking Laura’s hair.
Tell me again, you lying bitch, about the girl who was too deformed for me to look upon.
Laura, through a mouthful of tears, told Elizabeth about how her daughter had a lot of dark hair, and a beautiful button nose.
I dreamed about her. I saw her. I saw you carrying my crying child away from me.
It wasn’t long before Laura was asleep.
She stared down at the nurse.
She was older, of course, but they had similar slight builds. Their hair was also the same dark brown, and their eyes, green.
She stroked her face.
Soon… you’ll be all gone. And I’ll find them all. The children… the parents… all of them. Even if it takes decades.
She headed upstairs to her brother’s room.
Having spent the last couple of nights searching it, she knew exactly where to go.
The back of his wardrobe.
So much money.
Two bags full.
More than enough to lie low, until a suitable time to emerge from the shadows. Laura had dropped from the radar two years ago, so maybe she’d leave it another two years before taking on her identity. Time for her to research new passports, and photo identities. She lifted the bags and smiled. She certainly had enough to fund such illegal processes.
Moving forward, if she needed to make the money last, she could get a job as a nurse. It may be prudent to do some refresher training, because it’d be all new to Elizabeth, and she imagined those long shifts were full of challenges. But this was something for later. Much later.
As she carried the heavy bags downstairs, she thought of the private investigators she could now afford to help root out the truth.
She knew it’d be a long, arduous road.
But if it took years, so be it.
If it took decades, so be it.
Downstairs, she took one last look at Laura, sleeping on the sofa, and then grabbed the petrol canister she’d stored around the back of the house.
Then, she doused the stairs in petrol, and set her home alight.
As she walked, leaving three poisonous entities to their demise, she thought of her brother.
The evilest of them all.
She could wait.
She’d watch over his life, ensure he was miserable, and when she finally knew everything, she’d tell him that it was she who ruined his life. Then, he’d die knowing that the truth was coming, and his whole existence was a shameful mess.
Oh, how I’d love you to suffer.
Just like she’d done.
From a distance she watched the house burn, and the monsters die, and realised that the pleasure she felt wasn’t normal.
Her bloodline was not how she’d always believed it to be.
The Sykeses were evil.
And the world would benefit – it truly would – when they no longer sucked like leeches from the world around them.