Run

In a dark, lonely woodland, I stopped to catch my breath and reflect on the past. 

The last few months in particular. 

It had all started when lockdown was announced. The days would be long I imagined, but pleasant enough. I was furloughed from my restaurant job, but my husband, Brandon, was still able to do his. We couldn’t go out or see anyone, so there would be plenty of home cooked meals when he wasn’t on shift with glasses of our favourite wine and something on Netflix to accompany. His favourite show Line of Duty, a show about corruption in the police force. He never tired of telling me how he would do it differently if he was in their position.

He wouldn’t get caught for one thing.

It wasn’t as I imagined it would be, though. I couldn’t pinpoint exactly when all went wrong. Brandon gradually retreated into his shell, spending hours on end in his self-proclaimed “man cave”. I wanted to tell him social distancing didn’t extend to those you lived with, but I would’ve had to see him to tell him that.

Days lost their meaning and soon began to merge into one another. Time meant nothing and neither, apparently, did our relationship. Brandon was unreachable. His mobile switched off half the time. My love for him, which I thought would never change, began to wane. Our wedding vows crumbling before my very eyes. I was consumed with wondering what I had done wrong. So consumed, in fact, that I almost missed it. A camera nestling between several books on our bookcase. 

I had had the unsettling feeling of being watched, but I never imagined Brandon’s gaze would be turned on me. There were other cameras in the house, which I thought were for our own protection, but it was the one I found in the bedroom that really made me wonder. He was keen to remind me of the dangers outside our door, which he came across on a daily basis, but now I knew that there were dangers inside as well as out.

My husband was not who he made himself out to be.

I shook myself from my reverie and looked over my shoulder, but saw nothing but trees and shrubs behind me. I listened out for sounds of his pursuit. A crack of twigs beneath unwary feet perhaps or his breath if he was close. I wanted to believe I was alone, that my husband was still back at home, but I knew different. This and the belief that Brandon had done nothing wrong were no longer valid. I had followed him into his man cave that evening and, while he was distracted with something, I took the opportunity to snoop around.

I was strangely prepared to find a desk filled with monitors from every camera in the house. It wouldn’t have surprised me to find walls filled with money as we had seen in some of the cop films he watched. Street Kings was another favourite of his. I thought that maybe he aspired to be Keanu Reeves’ character, but I now knew it was Forest Whittaker he looked to for inspiration. It wasn’t just corruption though, that I would’ve taken over what I actually found. 

My feet stirred and a twig broke beneath my heel. I stopped and covered my mouth, but it was too late. It was too loud. I looked down and tried not to see a human bone there, but it was hard not to. The man cave had been full of them. My breath caught in my throat”. It was impossible to think that Brandon, my husband, was a serial killer, but the facts didn’t lie. 

There had been dozens of bones on display, ranging from big to small. God knows how many were hidden away. It was fear that drove me from that room and the house, but he came after me as soon as he saw me fleeing on camera. He couldn’t let his little secret get out.

Not so little.

I hadn’t noticed how quiet it was around me until now. There were no bird calls, no animal sounds, not even the rustle of leaves in a breeze. The whole forest seemed to be holding in its breath. I knew the tree behind which I was hiding could only disguise me for so long. My hands clung to the trunk, seeking out its strangely comforting groves to hold on to. 

I’d read somewhere that rivers could easily disguise your tracks and hoped that was true as, once I’d removed my socks and shoes and rolled up my trouser leg, I waded in. The river was freezing and it was only going to get colder now that summer had faded into autumn. Luckily it wasn’t deep here. I wouldn’t drown or be taken away on a undertow, but it could give me a nasty cold if I wasn’t careful. 

I dashed across to the other side and flung myself, shivering, on to the opposite bank. There was no time to get warm. A cold was preferable to what waited for me back there. Ahead of me was a small clearing, but it didn’t look natural. I knew the forest well from my many walks through it and I couldn’t remember there being one in this particular part of it. I stepped cautiously into it and almost tripped over something protruding from the ground beneath my feet. 

A decomposing head peered up at me through one sightless eye socket. 

I saw long hair and knew it was a woman. Her life cut cruelly short. Who knew what Brandon had coerced her into doing before he killed her. Without the discoveries in his man cave, I might not be able to believe my husband of such an unspeakable act. Now I knew different. I also knew this wouldn’t be the only body. It had been uncovered by an unknown forest animal in search of some food or I might not have noticed it at all. The victim was young enough to be our daughter. 

I had always wanted kids, but Brandon didn’t and it was clear why. It was also obvious why he’d made us to live alone in splendid isolation. His words not mine. I could still feel his hand on my arm, around my waist. His eyes looking into mine, breaking down my carefully constructed barriers. I’d been in abusive relationships before, but he had promised an end to all that. Shaking myself from my reverie, I knew I couldn’t do anything for this woman and feeling guilty for leaving her behind wouldn’t help me in my predicament. I whispered a quiet “sorry” and, turning, I plunged further into the forest.

The crunch of a heavy foot or feet made me stop, the hairs rising on the back of my neck. Brandon was close. I could feel it. His desperation not to allow his carefully constructed life to fall down around him rippled through the uneasy woodland. The thought of ending up like the woman from the clearing spurred me on.

Screw you Brandon.

I could feel myself running out of steam, but I still kept going. I bounced painfully from one tree to the next, my breath wheezing in my throat. I had tried my best to go in a straight line, because I was sure the main road was dead ahead and my salvation, but I had no idea where I was going or when the forest would end. It was just a sea of trees and foliage as far as I could see. 

I needed a sign, something to tell me I was on the right track. The sound of cars travelling on an as yet unseen road gave me that clue. I doubted my own sanity initially, but then the tree line finally ended and there was a highway. I raced out on to it without a plan in place. Cars threatened to mow me down until I backed away. I waved my arms frantically, but no one stopped. The fact that it wasn’t safe to didn’t pass me by, but I needed their help more than anything in the world right then.

Around the corner there was the smallest of lay-bys. It was on our big enough to fit one car in it, but there was a vehicle parked inside. It was a police car, its interior shrouded in gloom. My heart raced. Salvation was at hand. I made my way over. The door opened and someone stepped out. They turned on a torch and shone it in my direction. I was blinded. The scuff of their shoes grew louder as they walked towards me.

‘Help me please,’ I said. ‘My husband …’

The person chose that moment to step from behind the torch and my breath caught in my throat. 

‘Your husband, what?’

The man, the monster… my husband, the policeman was there. Brandon smirked when he saw my terror. 

‘Where do you think you’re going?’ he asked. 

I stared at him in horror. 

‘You’re sick, you know that? All those … bones back at the house, what were they? Trophies?’

‘You wouldn’t understand.’

‘You’re damn right I wouldn’t. I can’t believe I let myself be fooled by you into thinking you were a good man. A decent man. A policeman for God’s sake.’

‘I should thank the other men in your life for softening you up for me,’ he said. ‘You were ready to believe a police officer might be the sort of man you could see yourself with. Let those old wounds heal, but boy were you wrong. I only joined the force to keep an eye on them and lead any investigations away from me. I couldn’t have them getting too close to the truth.’

‘I found the body.’

‘One of many,’ he said. ‘Shame you’re going to have to join them. I didn’t want to have to kill you, but you dug your own grave when you involved yourself in my business.’

My mind reeled. I couldn’t believe how close I’d got to escaping only to find myself further away from it than ever before. I was worried that he was going to carry through with his threat, but then the passenger door of the car opened and someone else stepped out. Brandon tutted in annoyance.

‘I told you to stay in the car,’ he said.

If the person heard him, they showed no sign of having done so. They kept on coming. My heart beat heavily in my chest. Was this person going to help me?

‘Isn’t that your wife?’ the unknown partner asked. ‘What’s she doing out here?’

‘I was just asking the same question.’

‘Did you know you’re partner is a sick fuck? He …’ I began to say.

In the time it took me to say those few fateful words, Brandon had covered the space between us and was grabbing hold of my arm. I looked up at him and saw a horrific look playing across his face. It was something that would haunt my dreams from then on if I made it out alive. His partner mumbled something, but I was too caught up in the moment to pay it any heed. Brandon half-turned.

‘What?’ he asked.

‘I said I know,’ his partner replied. ‘I’ve known for a while, but I needed evidence before I could make a case.’

‘You should see his man cave. There’s all the evidence you need inside.’

Brandon backhanded me, my head snapped back and I landed in a heap on the floor. Then he stalked towards his partner. I saw him lift the police radio in his hand to his mouth as Brandon closed the gap between them.

‘You make that call and I’ll gut you like the pig you are.’

Brandon’s voice oozed danger and his partner recognised this, pulling his police-issue baton from his belt. He only got part way through this movement before he was lifted off his feet. The radio dropped to the floor and the man landed heavily on top of it. He grunted in pain, but he wasn’t by any means done. He grabbed Brandon and brought him down to his level. 

‘You should go,’ he said.

But I couldn’t, because I was frozen to the spot as I watched them fight and my head pounded with the early signs of concussion. I had never seen anyone go toe-to-toe with my husband. I was desperately willing him on. His partner glanced at me. 

‘Don’t just stand there,’ he said, ‘run.’

I was shook from my reverie. My legs pumped away, slipping and sliding on the gravel. I managed to gain some traction and put distance between them and me as the fight intensified. I heard a scream and knew it was coming to an end. I wanted to see who the victor was, but my body wouldn’t stop.

It was only when I happened upon another lay-by, larger this time, that I allowed myself a second to regain my breath. A thought, which had been bugging me ever since I’d heard the awful sound, crystallised in my mind. The scream hadn’t been my husband’s. I was still in danger. I saw a truck nearby, it’s driver smoking next to it and I made a beeline for him. 

‘Help, please help me,’ I said. 

He crushed the cigarette butt beneath his shoe and glanced over at me.

‘What’s the matter, love?’

‘My husband is trying to kill me.’

‘Your husband?’

I could tell he didn’t believe me or he needed some convincing.

‘Yes, he’s killed before, but I found out and now he wants me dead,’ I said, ‘I don’t have time to explain, but if he finds you with me he’ll kill you too.’

‘Ok, well, you’d better get in then.’

I collapsed into the cab and he started the engine. The truck roared into life. I looked back the way I had just come in case Brandon appeared. I couldn’t see him, but it didn’t mean he wasn’t there lurking in the lengthening shadows ready to strike.

‘Let’s get you to a police station then, shall we? And you can tell them what you just told me.’

I turned to him, wide-eyed and trembling.

‘No, no. Anywhere but there …’