Hellbound: The Tally Man Read Online Free PDF Page B

the chair, wiping her hands on her jeans. “Oops,” she remarked, not having realised how dirty they were. She looked up at her mother with wary eyes.
    “Come here, you,” Eva said playfully, wiping her daughter’s hands with a damp cloth before gently hitting her on the bottom. “Go and cover your Dad in flour.”
    The little girl skipped towards the stairs, humming a tune Aoife didn’t recognise as she went. She stopped when she was on the third step.
    “Daddy’s already up. Quick, hide!”
    Ellie liked to hide whenever she had not seen either of them for a while, either when they arrived back from work or came downstairs on a morning. Eva had always thought it was very sweet. And she had gotten better at hiding too, having always hidden in plain sight when she was younger, not realising that she could be seen through the gaps in the clothes horse or when underneath the table.
    As she raced off to conceal herself in the cupboard, Eva cleaned her hands and put some cutlery by the plate of food. Walking around the breakfast bar that housed the cooker and hob, she stood to welcome her husband as he came round the corner of the stairs that led from the kitchen to the first floor.
    Obadiah recognized her as the woman from the photographs, noting the look on her face - one of interest and familiarity, not fear and panic. Not the look of someone with a stranger in their home.
    “Morning, Obi. You’re just in time for breakfast.”
    Eva moved towards him and leaned in to kiss him on the cheek. He instinctively pulled away at the alien gesture, noting her surprised expression as he did so.
    “What’s the matter? Are you okay?” The hurt in her voice at his reaction was apparent.
    “Who are you?” Obadiah demanded. “Where am I?”
    Eva took a few steps back, startled by his sudden behaviour. “What do you mean?”
    “Where am I?” he repeated sternly.
    “Obi, you’re scaring me.”
    Obadiah marched forward and grabbed Eva’s arm, betraying his usual sense of logic and introspection. “I want to know where the fuck I am.”
    “Let go of me, Obi,” Eva insisted. “You’re hurting me.”
    He let go of her arm, surprised at himself for the acquiescence. He never thought that a woman giving him an order could garner anything other than an unfavourable response. Yet, something in her voice made him relax his grip, his hand rising to his temple to massage away the pressure he felt there.
    “Obi, you need to go and lie down. Have you taken your tablets this morning?”
    Obadiah stared at Eva, his expression one of blank acknowledgement. “What day is it? What date?”
    Eva’s voice took on a gentle, concerned tone. “It’s Saturday. Saturday the eighteenth of March.” She moved back towards him, gently touching his forearm. “I think I should call the doctor. He said if you ever complained of feeling unwell in anyway, we had to let him know.”
    Obadiah sat down on a step. Eva knelt on the floor in front of him maintaining her contact with his arm. “No, no doctors. March eighteenth? That means it’s been seven months. It seems like only a few minutes ago. I must be then…. The priest must have been right.”
    His random comments confusing her, Eva leaned closer. “Obadiah, what are you talking about? Who was right? What priest? I’m calling the doctor.”
    She rose and moved towards the bench where the phone sat. Halfway through dialling the number, Eva felt his hand firmly on hers. “I said no,” Obadiah insisted.
    Looking in her eyes, Obadiah saw fear. But it wasn’t the fear he was used to seeing. Not the fear he had savoured so often in the past, as he had moved within kissing distance of his victims, allowing them to burn the image of their destroyer into their minds. This fear was different. It was fear for his wellbeing.
    He still possessed the black void where his soul belonged – completely free of internal restraints, with no pangs of conscience. People always assume that conscience is