Wake Wood by K. A. John

Author:K. A. John
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science Fiction, Horror, Fiction, Fantasy, Zombies, British & Irish
ISBN: 9780099556183
Publisher: Cornerstone Digital
Published: 2011-10-05T23:00:00+00:00

Thirteen

PATRICK DROVE THEM to the cottage. Louise sat in the back cradling Alice, who seemed very tired and sleepy, but wonderfully, blissfully alive.

While Patrick parked the car, Louise carried Alice upstairs into the bathroom. She stripped the bloodstained towel from her daughter and knelt beside the bath after Alice climbed in. Holding the shower head in one hand, Louise gently sponged and rinsed Alice down with the other. The residue of blood, ash and slime washed away easily, leaving Alice’s skin white, clean, smooth and blemish-free.

Patrick followed them upstairs. Scarcely daring to believe what he was seeing, he leaned against the doorpost and watched his wife bathe their daughter.

‘Just look at your hair, Alice. It’s so long.’ Louise finished soaping Alice’s hair and combed through the length with her fingers. ‘And your nails.’ She sponged Alice’s hands, paying special attention to her fingers. Every one of them was whole and unmarked, but that didn’t stop her from re-examining the little finger on her daughter’s right hand – the one Patrick had severed and taken from the grave.

Alice smiled at Louise sleepily through half-closed eyes. ‘Mum, I had the strangest dream.’

‘It’s over now, sweetie. You’re home safe and sound. Nothing can hurt you here.’ Louise continued to shower Alice until clean, unstained water spiralled down the plughole. ‘As soon as we’ve got you dry, it will be bedtime. And this time, I promise, you’ll have the sweetest, not strangest, dreams.’

‘Here.’ Patrick lifted a bath towel from the heated rail. He handed it to Louise, who enveloped Alice in its folds before carrying her through into the room she’d prepared.

Patrick stood back while Louise towelled Alice dry, dressed her in clean pyjamas and tucked her into bed. Alice fell asleep before Louise even began to tell her a story but, unwilling to leave their daughter, Louise lay beside her. She lay looking at Alice for a long while but eventually her eyelids grew heavier and heavier and then she too slept, leaving Patrick to keep watch over both of them.

Exhausted as he was, Patrick simply couldn’t stop looking at Alice, and even when he did manage to turn aside in the early hours he found it impossible to close his eyes. He simply had to keep glancing back at Alice to reassure himself that she was really there – with them in the cottage.

Dawn found him standing in front of the window of the guest bedroom watching the sun rise over the eastern horizon into a storybook illustration of a beautiful clear blue sky. The room was drenched in a marvellous golden light. Birdsong filled the air and in the distance he could hear cattle lowing and sheep bleating. It was a perfect pastoral scene and he wondered why he and Louise had decided to live in the city after they’d qualified. If they’d moved to Wake Wood before Alice’s birth they’d have opened their eyes every morning to views like this one. And maybe – just maybe – there would have been no dog and their lives … and Alice’s … would have been different.

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