PREQUEL TO ''ALONE''

PREQUEL TO ALONE, THE SHORT STORY OF SELBY, HOPEFULLY ANSWERS SOME INTRIQUING QUESTIONS

HIM...(prequel to Alone)

Gareth Jackson rolled over in bed, stretching his already tall frame even further. A smug smile of satisfaction creased his face as he took in the bedroom around him; kingsize bed, satin sheets..some expensive, yet tasteful furnishings, also reflected throughout the rest of the house, along with the smell of a full cooked English drifting up the stairs..perfect, just what he felt he deserved. He had been sofa-hopping until he had met Lucinda. The memory makes him shudder. No man like him should be reduced to that! She may be a boring-assed wench but she was one hell of a cook. He had actually met her in a cafe. She was the manager there but loved and got involved in all aspects of the job. She had been working the till the first time he came across her.Danny, his best mate, had filled him in on a few details that had immediately grabbed his attention.

''Financially well off by all accounts. Her parents got killed in that pile up on that back road a few years back..you know the one I mean yea?''

Gareth nodded, encouraging Danny to continue.

''Well, they left her a shed load of money. Rumour has it the father of the that kid she got was paid off by the parents to stay away. I ain't seen him since so may be some truth in that. Was handy with his fists apparently. anyway, few years later the brother of hers gets killed in a housefire; wife, kids..the lot, burnt to a crisp so when the parents got squished it left her in a decent position. Except for having no family 'course.'' Danny finished with a smile. his incessent chatter would normally set Gareths nerves on edge but today he welcomed his friends gossip. after all he had just pointed out exactly what he needed. He smiled back at his long-time friend and nodded, already making his plan of action to get what he felt he deserved.

It took three more visits to the cafe for a fry up before he managed to get his date with Lucinda. Raven headed, full figured and a smile that could light a room but none of that mattered to him, really wasn't what he was after anyway.

                                 ************************

Married life suited him. He had Lucinda waiting on him hand and foot. as far as Gareth was concerned she should be grateful, after all, he had married her, taken on some strangers kid..made her look respectable. Kids of course was never a part of his plans. He believed they were just a drain on the resources, resources he could put to much better use than silly books and posters! He had married her, therefore the money and house was his!

He had been the same as a child. If he saw something he wanted he took it..simple. More than once this attitute had seen him spend time at her Majesty's pleasure. He never learnt; except to get more clued up on how to get what he wanted without it being so obvious.

''Luce..coffee and sandwich. Come on shift that a*s!'' Gareth, as usual, lay stretched out on the settee, control in hand, channel hopping.

''Please Gar..I feel unwell, could you just do this one? I need to conserve some energy for Selby when she gets in. I have hardly spent any time with her recently.''

Lucinda was sat in the chair by the window, watching cars pass back and for. Her skin was ashen. The chemotherapy really knocked her about. Medication had caused weight gain which didn't help as she felt so weak a lot of the time.

''Stop being such a wimp lucinda! You got all them pills and morphine for f***s sake so don't tell me you hurt with all that s**t in your system.S**t I take on your daughter and you can't even be assed to make me a sandwich..''

Gareth glared, not used to being told no but determined to get his way.

'''Anyway, if you're so damn tired why do you want to waste what energy  you got pissing about with Selby for?!''

''Because she's my daughter Gareth and I may not have much time left too. I have hardly spent any quality time her recently. She's 13 year's old. She still needs me.'' 

''Alright for some kids in it! You forget I love and need you Luce, you know how bad things were for me. I need you!'' Gareth pleaded, giving her the look he knew would force her around to his way of thinking. People were so gullible he thought. Fall for any old rubbish! His childhood had been bad but why should that effect him now?

Lucinda sighed. Guilt rushing through her. She pushed herself painfully to her feet and carefully made her way to the kitchen she had once loved so much, not seeing a smug smile settle on Gareths face behind her, thrilled he had once again got his own way.

                           ******************************

It wouldn't be long now; all the nurses at the hospice said so.

Lucinda had been admitted three days ago and had been pretty much unconscious for the last two of them. Gareth was sure they gave her something to put her in this state, not that he cared, quicker the better as far as he was concerned. Then the money, the house..it would all be his. There was just one problem..the girl.

He had been thinking constantly how to get rid of her. She was taking a huge chunk of what was rightfully his. He couldn't kill her, that would look too dodgy. He didn't want to send her elsewhere to live as that would stop him getting access to her money...but he couldn't bare the thought of bringing her up. He hated kids, truely didn't see the point of them. Nothing but trouble, one and all.

He looked at Selby now, long raven hair just like her mother's, pale skin with blue eye's so dark at times they looked violet. She was gripping her mother's hand as though she could make her live through pure force of will. Tears streamed unchecked down her cheeks. Pure desperation etched into every inch of her face. He hated her with a passion. Money draining b***h.

He knew what he had to do. All he needed to do was tie up the loose ends.

                           ******************************

A few days later had found Gareth removing every object from Selby's bedroom, securing wood over the window. He left nothing, not even a pencil. As far as he was concerned a mattress and blanket were more than enough for her. Hadn't harmed him only having that as a child.

He heard the slam of the front door. Selby was home. He could barely contain his excitement as he callled her up the stairs. She came traipsing up, almost pleased to be acknowledged, a look of apprehension on her usually sad face. She briefly wondered if he decorated her bedroom to cheer her up. she and her mum had been discussing it not long before she died. She went to her bedroom door as he had directed and stared in utter confusion. It was entirely empty. She stood just inside the door, shocked. What felt like a hand slammed into her back sending her forward and to her knees followed by the slam of her bedroom door. she was in darkness. Panic set in, she leapt up and ran to the door, slamming her fists against it to the sound of Gareths laughter as he walked down the stairs.Plan sorted. 

                           

                                     

Author's Note

Hope this helps clear up a few questions that the short story ''ALONE'' had raised, comment and criticisms welcome :)

Reviews

[Wolf_Lord]

Wow... Just makes me yearn for more... I will have to check out 'Alone' when I get the chance. What a wonderful break down of the Peter Pan Syndrome this is. You nailed it. I hate this character already. One sign of a great author is the ability to get the readers to Hate/Love/Respect/Sympathize with the characters they are writing about. You did all that with just the intro...
Excellent Job.

S**t I take on your daughter and you can't even be assed to make me a sandwich..'
Ummm... assed? Typo or direct character generalization?

Wolf ,'', ^@@^ ,'',

[hcarson]

Thank you so much for your fantastic review wolf, your question about "assed"...over here, Britain, we say "cant be assed" when someone cant be bothered to do something...make a sandwich in this case. I forget that people are fom all over the world on this site and may not always get the slang etc so i apologise about that. I would be very interested in hearing your opinion about "ALONE" if ever you get the chance as i really appreciate your opinion alot, thank you.

[Chris]

I dig the storyline to this one, too. It's pretty awesome that we were able to see into the mind of the villain. It definitely gave some clarity. Also I like that you didn't make Gareth just a dark, plain character. He gets excited and happy and that makes a villain even more intriguing. Overall the story is pretty good. I'm excited to see what other future characters you create!

[hcarson]

Thank you so much for your review, i really appreciate it

[reluctantsyren]

I like this very much. I didn't read the other story, but this one stood alone.

[hcarson]

Thank you reluctantsyren, i wasn't going to write this one at at first but there was curiosity to the male character so thought i would also try and find out who he was haha, glad you liked it :)

[alanwgraham]

Thanks for cheering me up first thing in this morning. It was obvious that Gareth was a b*****d but I was a bit surprised at the ending. I thought his first priority was be finding another woman. Too many guys like this!
Well written and I look forward to chapter two. Let Selby give him what he deserves.
You might like to read my story volcano. Not too different.
Cheers,
Alan

[hcarson]

Hi alan, thank you so much for reading and yor review...if you go to my list the other chapter to this is called ALONE....i will definitely read your volcano. I hve college right now bit could you read request me it so i see it when i get home and dont forget...my memory i so bad haha..thank you once again for reading :)

[Sangeetha]

i wanna kill his guy so much who does he think he is...sorry Ms Helen i know this is just a story but i cant take anymore of this jackass. so thats what really happened! it was again a story that was very powerful and moving and was of course very well planned. i do like the idea of how you started from present than moved back to the past. its a technique of story telling i always enjoyed. but of course im fully aware this component is to save the confusion from the previous chapter but i still feel that raw emotion that you express so well. i love it becaue its brilliant writing, hate because the guys an a*****e.

[hcarson]

Thank you sangeetha, you are correct, he is an arsehole of the highest order, thinks far more of himself than anyone else ever could...hopefully we will see him get his comeuppence in the next chapter!! :) thank you so much for your words much appreciated :)

[Sangeetha]

Yaaass no problem Ms H because you know, that if there's one thing im good at its sassing people to death... let me sass him to death plsss hahah. Can't wait to see what happens in your next chapter!!!

[Marvin Thomas Cox-Flynn..]

Your heart penned to page has scrawled an image of a ghastly man so egotistically narcissistic and selfish that I doubt the truth of just how bad his childhood was from his telling of it, as often times character defects such as these were already present in such men from childhood, learned in schooling themselves in how to control and manipulate parents, siblings, friends, and others, to justify their wickedness by rearranging and rewriting the history of their childhood to suit the path they have chosen for themselves as what they are, walking, talking, breathing, eating, pieces of s**t, if you will pardon my Texas French ... Now, as for the prequel, I enjoyed it, but am more than somewhat puzzled at those whom you indicate had questions of what and why regarding your excellent story, Alone ... Much was left to the imagination of the reader in the story, but this was exactly what made the story such a mystery, allowing the reader to imagine in the inquisitiveness of his/her mind to ponder upon why this step-dad would do such a thing? ... Was it pure cruelty? ... Was it to force the girl to sign papers so he could get money? ... Was it to starve her into submission of some future planned sexual advance from him? ... There were many avenues that your reader could wander down in his/her mind to arrive at their own conclusions, which I thought was a lovely way to end your story in perfection of allowing your readers to fill in those gaps for themselves, be it the back street of the money hungry centered mind, or the darkened ally of those filthy minded and mentally perverted ... Readers will always draw their own conclusion about what they think we meant by what we wrote, regardless of what we have to say or try to explain about it ... I would cease worrying about what questions they have, and allow them to stew in their imaginary juices ... Just my thoughts, but this piece is well done and gives, Alone a direction that now requires a followup story of some kind, even though the girl has died ... There are plenty more evil men in the world doing the same kind of things to helpless children ... Occasionally an evil woman of the same piece of s**t sort, so ... Write about it! ... Inspire yourself to greater heights and tell the world the evil that goes on behind closed doors ...

[hcarson]

thank you marv for reading and your in depth review, very much appreciated :) you are ttally correct in that another chapter is now required, potentially to see the scum get his comupence etc hopefully,..however, today i'm slightly hungover so may leave it till i'm feeling a little more human haha...

[Inject Positivity]

Okay I guess I'm late to review this one, I had to go back to the first chapter and get a birds eye view of it... As for your new chapter, I think you planned it very well... The first chapter raised some questions which was natural as the story didn't end there... You put lot more information in this one as to light up the whole story... I enjoyed the unique character of Gareth, he was totally organized in this...

Dear frnd I have found out that you have made some typing errors in this piece... I will try and point out as much as I have noticed....
No 1) the spelling of the title I think you wanted to write as 'prequel', as I didn't know the meaning of it so I checked it's meaning and found out that it spelled with 'e'...
2) in the first para there is an extra the in the sentence "She had been working the till the first time he came across her"
3) in the same paragraph in the line "Gareth nodded, encouraging danny to continue" danny's d should be capital.
4) in Danny speech the second line sounds little uneasy to read, I think you have written an extra 'the' with 'that'
5) in the last sentence of the first paragraph 'non' should be 'none'
6) in the second para in the sentence "you got all them pills........" is it "all them" or "all the"? And there is an extra 'l' in the word 'telll' in the same sentence....


Well well well, this was very well done dear frnd, I'm happy to see your work, I wanted this story to move on, and I'm glad you are continuing it.... Absolutely loved it and looking for its new part.... Full ratings....

[hcarson]

ah yes..i love my extra letters haha..it's this keyboard, it's really sensitive (thats my excuse anyway ;)) that is a spelling mistake in the title ..hadn't even noticed that one , will change asap, however some of the things are dialect, so although it doen't sound like it reads correct it is just to show how they speak..i kept going back trying to re-ad al the capitals as i kept forgetting to hit the button haha guess i missed danny's so glad you pointed it out as i will go correct them immediatly. prob was with this i wrote it quick after another writer asked some intrquing questions about gareth so quickly tried to make sense of his charactor with this. guess i best go and correct them mistakes now..half of which i will totally miss again knowing me haha, thanks for reading, much appreciated IP :)

[Adesanya Yewande]

i have not seen the first one,but i will check it,i love this new one.

[hcarson]

Thank you so much adesanya, will do third one soon :)

[Adesanya Yewande]

i love the first and second ones.....looking forward to the third

[Shannon]

Will definitely read the first part now. The fact that he justifies this to himself, using his own childhood trauma really resonates!

[hcarson]

Something many do unfortunatly...and it usually works in courts as well, poor boy,he deserves sympathy not punishment...gets to me at times!!

[Sir Drift & Mr. Pulse]

i Im gonna have to read th first one again, I dont remember having confusion, but ill double check it, I finally see another story! yes!

[hcarson]

There wasn't confusion exactly but someone wanted to know more about the whys etc that would make a person do this si did this one to try show why i suppose lol :)