Edward's Dead

“Edward. Look what I’ve got.”

“Jenna!” Ben spun round to face his pink t-shirt wearing demon. His cousin Jenna, her glistening blonde hair flailing in the wind, stood facing him, waving his jacket at him.

“Jenna!” he called to her, “give that back, it’s mine.” He set off after her, but could not progress quickly, as he was extremely unfit. Anyway as soon as he began moving, Jenna sped off again. For a twelve-year-old girl, she could certainly move swiftly.

From the other side of his vast garden he heard her shout, “Do you want your jacket back Edward? Well you better catch me then!” Her voice was deceptively innocent.

My name’s not Edward, he intoned silently in his head. My name’s Ben. You know that Jenna.

It was unsettling that she called him Edward anyway. Edward was the name of Jenna’s older brother, who had died six years previously. “Be nice to Jenna”, his mother always said to him. “You know what’s happened to her. I don’t think she’s ever got over Ed’s death.” So ever since then Jenna had come over once a month to their house to torment, tease and harass Ben. Or “spend time with her family” as Ben’s mother called it. And it was Ben’s job to look after her.

Ben wished he had more friends. He wished he wasn’t so unpopular. It was embarrassing at fourteen years old to still have to hang around with his younger cousin. But no one wanted to be friends with him. He was overweight and had intense acne.

Apart from her habit of calling him by her brother’s name, Jenna never acted like she was deeply traumatised. If she had, maybe Ben could have more sympathy for her. As she never called him Edward in front of anyone else, Ben felt she only did it to rile him. In front of others, she adopted an innocent, harmless attitude. Alone with him, however, she seemed to think that she had permission to act whatever way she wanted. She was the thorn in his side, the metaphorical pain in his life. And he knew she hated him. He just knew it. He didn’t know why, he had never asked her but he knew she did. He supposed it was because she needed someone to torment.

“Jenna, you little witch, you better give me back that jacket now or I’ll make you pay!”

“Ben!” his mother stood at the doorway that led from the kitchen into the garden. “Did I just hear you threaten Jenna?”

“She’s got my jacket, Mum! It’s freezing.”

“She’s only having fun, Ben, why do you have to be so moody?” His mother fixed him with a questioning look. “I hope you haven’t been bullying her. I know what you’re like.”

“I don’t bully her.”

His mother arched her perfectly groomed eyebrows. “I think you and me have to have a little talk don’t we, Ben? Now go and get Jenna, it’s time for her to go home.” She turned and went back into the house.

Ben felt anger surge through his body and he wanted to bawl, “It’s not fair! “after his mother’s retreating back but he said nothing.

And he heard Jenna’s tinkling laugh pierce the cold winter afternoon’s still.
Ben’s body tensed up. That laugh was eerie. But who had heard of anyone being scared of laughter? “Jenna!” he called, “it’s no time for games anymore. You’ve got to go home. My mum says.”

“Come here Edward,” she called, her voice still sweetly saccharine. “I’ll give you your jacket back.”

Her voice seemed to be emerging from behind the bushes. Ben followed it and after tackling the obstacle course that was his mother’s privet hedges, he saw Jenna standing there with his jacket rolled up in a ball under her arm.

“God, Jenna,” he said with frustration when he saw her. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“I’m sorry Edward,” said Jenna, smiling sweetly. “But you did like those games we used to play remember?"

“Jenna, I’m not Edward.”

Jenna giggled but it sounded threatening to Ben’s ears. “Oh Edward, don’t be so silly.”

“Jenna, Edward’s dead. You know that.” He hadn’t meant to say it that way. Even to his own ears, it sounded harsh and brutal.

Jenna said nothing. A flash of a grin shot across her face and she said, “Catch me if you can, Edward. You want your precious jacket back don’t you?”

She made for the shed. Ben followed her. She pulled open the door of the unlocked shed and he saw a shimmer of golden hair as Jenna threw the jacket inside into the darkness within.

He groaned angrily as he saw her and heard her laugh as he passed her and entered the dimness. The shed was diminutive and there was barely room for him to bend down and grab his jacket. As he did so, he heard the hefty wooden door of the shed slam shut.

“Now Edward,” whispered Jenna from outside, as if she was telling him off, “You know you must behave. I’m only shutting you in here for your own good.”

“Jenna,” hissed Ben, abruptly, crouched in the darkness, “Open the door. This isn’t funny, y’know.”

Jenna laughed and it sent a shiver down Ben’s spine. Her laugh was grimly sinister. And once again he felt that fear. Her laugh could send him into madness.

“I don’t think so Edward.” The key turned in the lock.

“Jenna!” he called, “I won’t be angry with you if you let me out. I'll play your silly games, if that’s want you want.” He didn’t want to stay cramped in the dark any longer than he had to. He hated the dark. He would never admit it but he was...scared of the dark.

“I know what you’re called, Ben,” said Jenna and the sweetness had left her voice to reveal something hard and antagonistic. “I’m not that stupid that I don’t know who my own brother is.” Ben heard Jenna pull the key out of the lock.

“So stop being stupid then. Let me out for God’s sake.”

“No.” He heard footsteps crunching away from him and knew what that meant.

He kept calling her name, he kept shouting for help. But none came. He kept banging his fists against the door, unwilling to submit to the darkness, to let it envelope him. Hours passed and yet still he was there. Still shouting, still calling. He was terrified. The darkness filled his head with narcotic fear.

Ben felt the coldness seep into his bones as he crouched in the darkness. How long until someone realised he was missing? What if Jenna came back and let him out? But in her eyes he had glimpsed insanity. She would happily let him rot, he knew that.

So he sat, curled up in a ball and waited.

It was only a matter of time.