PS01 - Tall, Dark & Lonely (14 page)

fangs pressed gently against her skin. Just a taste then he would stop he told himself.

“Don’t say that I didn’t warn you.” She’d been swept up in his kiss and touch until she felt the two sharps points at her throat.

Human or not he was a male. She held onto his hips to steady herself and with a grunt she brought her knee up hard between his

legs.

He roared in agony as he released her. She pushed him away and ran for the door too afraid to look back. She threw her door

shut and locked it and then dove under her bed, praying as she went that the boogie man wasn’t real.

Chapter 8

“Shit,” Ephraim muttered after the last of the nausea left him. He spit the last of the vomit from his mouth and sat back still

cupping his throbbing balls. “Damn,” he groaned, “that was a more effective method than sticking a finger down my throat.”

Not that he planned on doing it again.

Keeping one hand on his balls, he pulled himself up. He didn’t know what was worse, the taste of human food going down or

coming up. He grabbed Madison’s bottle of mouthwash and chugged it. He had to get the taste out of his mouth. There was a

reason why he avoided eating human food. It had to come up. After the last drop, he burped and winced. The sensation sent a

piercing pain to the tip of his penis.

He cringed with the knowledge that the next time he took a piss he would be urinating pure mouthwash. Still holding himself he

stumbled into his room and retrieved his personal firearm. He checked the chamber and stumbled back into the bathroom with

it.

Using the butt of the gun he knocked on Madison’s door. No answer. Not a surprise after what he just did to her. He still

couldn’t believe how close he came to taking her. Thank god she kneed him when she did and took him off guard. He hadn’t

reacted to pain since the dudgeon.

“M…Ma…Ma…” He had to swallow a fresh wave of nausea tore at him. “Mad…Ma-
oh shit
!” He stumbled back to the toilet

in time to see the mouthwash splash all over the toilet seat and floor. “Fuck,” he whimpered.

At least it was a minty mess. He chuckled until it hurt. Ignoring the mess he went back to the door. “Madison,” he said through

clenched teeth. It hurt so much to speak, but he had to do it. He could hear her whimpering, probably under her bed. He

couldn’t stand it.

Taking in a deep breath he forced himself to speak. “Madison, I know you’re upset. I’m,” another deep breath, “so sorry. I

apologize….I don’t want to hurt you…..I
won’t
hurt you I promise! I swear it!”

“Liar!
Ooops!
” she muttered.

He had to smile. “I promise you’re safe here. I promise, but if it makes you feel better I am leaving something for you on the

bathroom floor. Put it somewhere safe, somewhere the kids won’t look. If you have to use it don’t hesitate. I won’t be mad.”

He remained at the door for a minute longer. “I’m sorry.” He stumbled out of the bathroom to his room where he collapsed on

the floor.

******

her moving. She crawled out from beneath the bed and made a mad dash towards the bathroom. She had to pee badly.

She jumped over something black on the floor and found her way to the toilet just in time. Going to sleep with a full bladder

wasn’t easy, but somehow she managed it. Where was that lemony scent coming from? She looked around the bathroom. It was

close by. Ephraim cleaned? She was stunned.

There wasn’t enough time to contemplate what would motivate him to clean. She stripped her clothes off and jumped in the

shower, trying to get the smell of dust and sweat off her. Two minutes later she jumped out of the shower, hoping to brush her

teeth and hair in the same amount of time. Her hand froze mid-grab for her toothbrush.

A note was taped to the mirror.

Madison,

I cannot apologize enough. I will never bother you again. I

also don’t want you to feel afraid. Please use my gift. It’s

yours. Please hide it as soon as you find it. I cringe at the

thought of the one of the children finding it. I wasn’t

kidding when I told you to use it. If I give you any reason to

fear for your life use it. Do not hesitate . You will not kill

me but stop me long enough to save yourself. I don’t

foresee any reason for you to use it.

Your Servant,

Ephraim William Howard Adlard

“Adlard? I thought his last name was Williams.” She pondered that while she brushed her teeth. What did he mean about a gift?

She didn’t see a gift. She heard him say something last night. It was hard to tell what he was saying. It sounded like he was

speaking through clenched teeth. She looked around the counter, nothing out of the ordinary except she was out of mouthwash.

Damn it, she just bought some yesterday.

“What the…” The black thing she jumped over caught her eye. She choked on air.
That
was the gift? She picked the gun up

cautiously, afraid it would go off in her hands. She looked around as if help would come. What was she supposed to do with a

gun? A wooden stake would have made her feel better, maybe even a bottle of holy water.

She ran with the gun into her room and whirled around looking for someplace to hide it. Her closet. The closet was perfect.

She yanked the door open and placed it on the top shelf beneath the extra blankets. Was he crazy giving her a gun?

******

“No shit, asshole,” came another voice.

Madison looked up from her computer. “Hey, none of that now. You’re here to learn from your mistakes…whatever they are.

You only have another hour to go so I suggest that you do some homework.” She looked over her small group of detentionees.

The group consisted of some of her favorite students. They were termed stoners, losers and assholes by the students and even

by the faculty. She didn’t care. She liked them even the kid in front giving her the most exaggerated pout she'd ever seen.

Chris, her constant detention companion, was laid back and didn’t give her any problems. He was pretty funny and didn’t

bother trying to suck up. She was honest with him and didn’t play any games. They respected each other.

“Come on, Chris, don’t give me that look?” She chuckled at his pout.

He was a funny kid. He was what some of the kids called trailer trash, but he was nice. Well, as long as you were on his good

side. There was no doubt he could be a mean son of a bitch and no one in their right mind would provoke him, but from what

she knew about him he never threw the first punch and he never got in someone’s face without a very good reason. Otherwise

he was one of the most laid back kids she’d ever met.

“Miss. Soloman, come on now. You know this is bullshit. That little preppy bastard beats the shit out of his girlfriend over the

weekend and we're paying for it.” He gestured to his friends and the two unfortunate bystanders who got pulled into the fight.

They were decent kids too, very quiet so she was very surprised when she found out that they voluntarily got into the fight.

Madison leaned back in her chair. “Tell me what happened.”

Chris nodded. “See, it’s like this. That little shit Mike gets away with too much. He steals, he cheats on every test, his parents

hire tutors who do his homework, all the teachers know, but they look the other way because of his old man and he’s on the

football team.” She’d heard rumors before but no one was ever willing to confirm them.

“He also likes to slap girls around. I warned him in the past to watch it, but clearly he thought I was fucking kidding. I found

out this morning the little shit beat the hell out of Carol. When I asked him about it he told me to fuck off and no one would

believe me. Carol tries to hold him back and right in front of me while the teachers’ backs were turned he pushed her to the

ground.”

“He’s not lying, Miss. Solomon,” Ed, a very shy boy, said. He hardly ever looked up from his book. That in itself let her know

Chris wasn’t lying. Plus he never bothered lying to her in the past. He took his punishment like a man when he got caught. Not

once since she’d taken this position had he complained over the circumstances of his punishment.

“I don’t understand why Mike isn’t here along with you,” she said.

They all scoffed in disbelief. “Look at us,” Chris gestured to their worn out clothes. “They’re not going to listen to us over that

preppy prick. He and his friends come from money. They don’t care what we say and they lied about Carol. They said Mike

was protecting her from me if you can believe that shit.” She didn’t. Chris would never hit a woman. Everyone knew that.

She nibbled on her lower lip and looked at her classroom door to make sure that it was closed. “Okay, guys, everyone move to

the back. Talk quietly and you can play those video games I know you have hidden in your bags. If that door opens pretend

you’re doing something constructive.”

Chris winked at her. “Heart of gold, Miss. Soloman.” They quickly went to the back of the room leaving her to her search.

She scrolled down the webpage she found on the Adlard family. Surprisingly there was a lot of information on the family. The

family was old and noble. It could be traced to the Roman invasion, but thankfully she didn’t need to go that far.

After two months of avoiding each other she got tired of waiting for answers. So this morning she dug the note she kept out of

her purse and decided to see what she could find.

It was his fault. Every time she waited to talk to him or left notes he ignored her. He walked right past her with only a polite

hello. If that was the way he wanted to act so be it. She could find her own answers. She didn’t need him.

She limited her search to the nineteenth century. Ephraim probably used a fake name on that note. He probably forgot what

surname he was currently using. She would find out.

“Aha!” She found his name.

“Is someone coming?” Ed jumped.

“No, it’s fine,” she said without looking up. He probably stole the name. That was it. She read about his supposed father first, a

Duke. Yeah right. According to this webpage his first wife was attacked by a mad man when she was pregnant with one

Ephraim William Howard Adlard.

She read on. The Duke remarried a woman who was rumored to beat Ephraim and call him “the thing”. Odd. His second wife

gave him five more children, three girls and two boys. According to family history she pushed the Duke to disown Ephraim to

line her own son in third place for the title. The Duke initially refused.

Hmmm, interesting. Ephraim suffered from a weird medical condition that left him looking like a little boy until the age of

sixteen. At sixteen he went into a coma. The website at this point touched on some rumors.

One story stated that he woke up from his coma changed into a man. He didn’t resemble his brothers or father. He attacked a

maid and was dragged off by Magistrate Nichols. She wrote down that name. His second brother inherited the title and brought

his brother home twenty years later. He still looked young, but died a few years later.

The second story was simple. They had him dying in the coma. Nothing helpful there. The third story continued from the first,

but had him die at the hands of Nichols. The author believed the first story because of compelling evidence below.

“Oh, a picture.” She clicked the thumbnail. A large portrait popped on the screen. It was of a man and woman and eight

children. That wasn’t helpful. She was about to close the page when she saw the "next" button. She clicked it and gasped

loudly.

She didn’t need to read the description to know who the young man was standing next to a much older man, woman and five

kids. It was Ephraim. His hair style and clothes were different, but that was him. According to the caption he was posing with

his brother, sister-in-law and their children. Ephraim was reported to have died two months after the portrait was finished.

Shaking her head in disbelief she typed in Magistrate Nichols. What she read there turned her stomach. The man was sick. He

was compared to Jack the Ripper several times. He lived to torture and kill and loved the fact that the government encouraged

him. He went missing in 1835. Years later a secret entrance was discovered leading to his famous dudgeons where skeletons

were found in small cells. In a room that could only be described as a torture chamber they found a dozen skeletons. One of

those bodies they believed was Nichols’ body based on a pendant found among the bones.

It dawned on her. Ephraim lived in the dudgeon. He lived in one of the tiny cells she looked at now. He survived years of

torture and somehow came out whole. She couldn’t believe it. It broke her heart to think of the things he lived through.

“Are you okay?” a voice whispered.

She jumped, startled and looked up into kind green eyes. Chris was leaning over her desk watching her. She cleared her throat.

“Yes, I’m fine, Chris. Why?”

He picked up the box of tissues on the desk and handed them to her. “You’re crying.”

“Oh!” She wiped her face quickly. “Just a sad story on the web.”

Chris nodded slowly. He didn’t believe her, but he wasn’t going to push. “Stick with puppies and rainbows then, Miss.