Intoxifresh 4

Chapter Four

Richmond upon Thames

London

3:36 pm

Catherine was screaming like never before as she stared down at her lover. He wasn’t hurt, but she didn’t know that. Enveloped by the sound of her own excruciating noise echoing off every surface in the kitchen, she was startled as someone touched her shoulder. She rapidly turned around and screamed again as she saw George standing there; she’d never seen him look so angry in all their years together. ‘Honey, what are…’ She was quickly interrupted.

   ‘What am I doing home from work so early? Forget that, what’s Jake doing here?’ She could sense he knew something, but had no idea how long he’d been home; perhaps he’d only just got home? She looked at the large black and white squares on the kitchen floor for an answer before making eye contact once more.           

   ‘How long have you been…?’ George slammed the nearly empty pint glass on the wooden table, making everything else on it jump up slightly. A loud crackle surged from outside as lightning began to strike around them, the sound of heavy rain thrashing ever louder against the kitchen window.

   ‘I heard everything, Catherine…how could you? After everything we’ve been through together,’ he said as his nostrils reminded him that he seriously needed a change of underwear. Catherine seemed hysterical:

   ‘I think he’s dead.’ She was screaming and crying, her hands pressed into her cheeks as she shook her head in despair. George held onto her shoulders to try and calm her down.

   ‘Catherine… just listen to me, he’s going to be fine in a little while. Just answer me… why?’ She looked at him as her eyes tightened in a stare of serious disapproval.

   ‘You did something to him didn’t you… what did you do?’ He shook her shoulders a little to regain her attention.

   ‘Just answer the fucking question!’ Catherine knelt down beside Jake and tried to revive him, he was limp and lifeless to her touch.

   ‘Please… Jake… Jake! Wake up!’

   At this point George had had enough; he knew it was all over between them. He turned around and started to walk towards the stairs so he could at least put some clean underwear on. He almost made it to the hallway before a ceramic cup smashed against a wall narrowly missing his head. He quickly ducked out of the way as it shattered into tiny fragments that fell to the floor. He glanced back towards the kitchen and quickly had to move his right shoulder and twist to his left to avoid another flying cup that almost hit a window. Full of anger and with a new level of hatred towards the woman he loved until only a few moments ago, he ran upstairs. Closing and locking the bedroom door behind him he quickly changed his clothing and grabbed a backpack and began filling it with everything he could find that was important to him. He noticed the thunderous weather was intensifying with each second as he strapped the bag to his back.

   Unlocking the door, he half expected to see Catherine standing there with a knife ready to stab him to death, but all he could hear over the deep bellowing sounds and sharp electrical discharges from outside were sounds of someone sobbing not too far away. He emptied the downstairs drawer full of various medicines, including his new inventions, into the backpack and, as he walked back into the kitchen, he could see that Jake was still out cold. He knew it wouldn’t be long before his victim would come around but he didn’t get a chance to say anything. ‘You bastard! What did you do to him?’ Catherine started to grab anything within her reach, regardless of what it was, and threw everything her husband’s way as the storm outside continued to surge. George tried to grab hold of her, to stop her from wrecking everything, but she was quick to swing a frying pan in his direction, missing his face by millimetres. He heard a knock at the front door. He ignored it. Managing to pull the frying pan away from Catherine’s hand the knock sounded again with louder, more urgent thuds. As George turned away to walk to the door, he didn’t notice Catherine removing a full bottle of whiskey from the cupboard. Jake was gradually coming to his senses on the kitchen floor as she threw the bottle as hard as she could, missing her target by quite a way, but the whiskey bottle shattered above the window scattering glass and a flood of alcohol all over the window and half closed curtains that hung downward at either side. That sent George’s building adrenalin into overdrive. He turned around and threw the frying pan back into the kitchen, which missed Catherine and bounced off a wall before hitting Jake on the side of the face, knocking him out cold once more. On the brink of wanting to smash something himself, and before he completely lost control, he quickly grabbed the doorknob and opened it to see Tom standing there under an umbrella. ‘Yes!!’ Tom could see that his friend wasn’t his normal self.

   ‘Sorry George, I just heard noises and thought I’d best pop over to see if everything was alright.’

   In a move that could go down as one of the dumbest in history, Tom, cigarette in mouth, poked his head inside to see for himself, but as he did a slight gust of wind from outside sent a few bright orange fiery strands towards the alcohol-saturated curtains. Before anyone could move, the curtains were engulfed in flames that rapidly spread to every alcohol-fuelled area. At that moment George gave up, as he was quick to realise the household insurance had recently expired. He’d been too preoccupied with the development of his new pills to renew the cover. He sensed defeat and felt like he was on his way to going completely mad.

   ‘Well do come in Tom, it’s nice and warm inside… well, it is now.’ George held the door open as more light wind helped the flames to build and spread.

   ‘I’ll call the fire brigade,’ Tom said, still with cigarette in mouth.

   ‘No, no don’t worry about that.’ A wave of insanity swept over him as George pulled his friend inside. ‘I’m sure we can sort it out, you may want to go and collect your brother from the kitchen though, he’s on the floor.’ With the flames growing ever higher and the bottom particles of the curtains dripping smaller flames onto the carpet below, the three of them stood in the kitchen just staring at each other. As George slumped himself down at the table, Tom asked what his brother was doing there and why he was lying unconscious on the floor with a red mark on the side of his head. George had no idea about the red mark, but looked up at his friend. ‘Good question; I think you’d better ask Catherine as she has all the answers.’ They both moved their heads to look directly at Catherine, but just as she was about to say something they all heard a murmur coming from the floor. Jake was scratching the side of his head where the red mark was; all eyes were quickly upon him.

   ‘Oh Christ, what the hell happened?’ Jake asked while staring at the ceiling.

   On the outside of the burning building passers by could see the flames and the front window blackening. By this time the fire brigade had been alerted and a small crowd had now gathered on the opposite side of the road, clutching their umbrellas and chatting with one another as they took in the spectacle.

   The flames had now reached the stairs and were forcefully wrapping themselves around the wooden banisters. Tom went to help his brother stand up as George was left wondering what the hell had happened in the last few hours. His whole life had changed in ways he had never thought possible. Catherine didn’t know what to say now that Jake’s brother was on the scene, and Jake wasn’t going to be much use either in his delirious state. George held open the back door that connected the kitchen to the garden. ‘Its beginning to get a little smoky in here don’t you think? Lets all go and sit down under the gazebo, it’ll be comfortable and dry under there.’ He was getting slightly wet but was also overwhelmed with a feeling of insanity.

   Surrounded by absolute chaos, they all sat down under the gazebo. Tom was the only one who had no idea what was going on as George, Catherine and Jake commenced with even more arguing, but it wasn’t long before he understood. He stared at his brother with a look of fury. ‘How the hell could you do that Jake? George is a very good friend of mine… of ours!’ Jake was still rubbing his head as Catherine was about to say something, but just then an upstairs window violently burst with a loud explosion, sending small fragments of glass over the garden. They all heard the loud siren and had to raise their voices to be heard. A blue light intermittently lit up parts of the gazebo and most of the wall next to them. There was a sound of lightning striking not too far away as Catherine blurted out the truth.

   ‘I’m sorry,’ she said looking at her husband, ‘it hasn’t been going on for long, only a couple of months, that’s all.’ George was seriously annoyed at this moment in time, and after the day he’d had, he didn’t know what to believe anymore. Jake then spoke up.

   ‘Oh come on Catherine, we may as well be honest here.’ He looked at George and Tom before staring at Catherine directly. ‘We love each other; we have done for a long time now.’

   Just then the gate swung open as a tall fireman ran over to them and told them they had to move to the front of the house, that it was far too dangerous to be so close to the building. Only Tom had an umbrella, but the rest of them didn’t care about getting soaked; the neighbours had offered shelter, but they all had more important things on their minds.

George, Catherine, Tom and Jake joined the ever-growing crowd and were helpless as they watched the house suffer complete destruction from the force of the fire. If they had only phoned the fire brigade themselves it may have been a different story… but a few hours later, as they stood there with the harsh rain still pouring down from the clouds and the charred remains of the house expelling grey smoke upwards, a teary eyed Catherine turned to George. ‘What happens now?’ she sobbed, ‘I don’t have anything left.’ Still staring deeply at the pieces of broken window frames, fallen broken bricks and burnt out interior, George calmly said:

   ‘You can have the house’.