After a few delays, I’m posting the next two chapters on consecutive days, as together they’re over 2,000 words… short chapter today.

I’m still juggling life problems, so it’s been tough writing my next Freedom Flights episode. I’m aiming to post it by the end of the month.

Now enjoy another Fevered Fuse chapter. Links to previous chapters can be found via my updated Snowdon Shadows page on the left-hand sidebar.

*Comments and constructive criticism are always welcome.

FEVERED FUSE

A Snowdon Shadows Mystery

by

Roland Clarke

(Police Procedural Fiction)

***

Chapter Four

Revenge

Friday 1st April 2016

Images, memories flicker on the edge of my mind as I skim stones.

The smell of musk and jasmine.

A name hovers out of reach as warmth floods my chest, and invisible fingers tease my body.

Someone I loved. I stare at a white mark on my finger. From a ring? Am I married?

My first love?

I tap my bracer, and letters tumble out.

Gwawr had signed ‘Enigma Code’. A nudge – a clue.

C for Cryptology – my Cryptograph. My weird juggling of the initial letters of clues to get an acronym.

But who hovers in my past?

B for Bran Blevins – my secondary school’s star rugby player.

Sunlight scatters across the llŷn.

Bran was not the first. Not musk and jasmine.

N for Nerys.

Nerys Jernigan kissed me – another girl. We fell in love. Shared lips and secret fondles.

Faced our fears and the taunts. Who realised? I knew how to stay low-key – as a Goth. My identity – at first.

Nobody discovered my first tattoo – or even the second. Except Nerys.

But we were outed by the bullies. C for Cadell.

Cadell Pryce, the choirboy-look-alike from Hell with the manic smile. He wielded the school bullies like a gang leader. They called us ‘dykes.’ D for Dykes and Degenerates.

A threat we thwarted. O for Outsiders and Organised.

My defiant words echo in my head.

“We have to stand up to them, resist—”

R for Resist and Rebels.

Nerys persuaded me to teach our friends Jiu-Jitsu.

At first, the situation didn’t escalate.

The bullies were suspicious. They sensed the change. We stuck together whenever we could – deterrence. Created a Goth patrol. Stalemate for a few weeks.

Our black garb spread, as did our concealed thorny-rose tattoos.

Mine is visible now on my naked ankle. I caress my rose, remembering fingers tracing its leaves. My caresses climb up my legs, between my thighs – until I shiver.

A chill wind stirs the lake, fractures the peace, shatters the calm. It disturbs my lonely urges. I tremble and glance around.

Can’t I have such drives? What do I need?

Water calms me – cools my confused feelings. Another swim.

Swimming in a lake is safe – safer than a pool.

The stink of chlorine makes me shudder and remember.

Bodies bomb me, hands grab me, push me underwater. That acrid taste fills my mouth. I lash out. Wriggle free – but no escape.

Dive deeper and away.

They follow. Trapping me with their bodies and arms. I can’t breathe. Water engulfs me. My vision glazes – after I see a leering face.

A black arrow darts past – grapples with an attacker. Then another arrow shoots past.

Hands pull me onto the side. Lips reviving me.

Is that a tongue?

Focus through the fog. Musk and jasmine disperse chlorine. The tongue is teasing and tasty. I want more.

We made time for more – three weeks of passion on the beach. Secret and forbidden.

Forbidden in the Welsh chapel eyes of my nain and taid.

Something, someone, forced us apart. Changed us.

I shudder and clutch my body, pressing my left breast to calm my pounding heart. Through tears, I remember my taid’s words. ‘In the eyes of the Lord, we can’t be the judges. But our reputation in the community.’ I perjured myself in the eyes of God. I pretended to like a guy.

Did one weakness destroy another? The shakes don’t settle. My pounding blood floods my head.

 The ‘C-O-R-D-O-N’ I let divide us. C for Convert. O for Organised. R for Resistance. D for Degenerate. O for Outsiders. N for Nerys.

Was my enforced ‘change of heart’ so easy? Did I conform? Get married?

B for Bran Blevins. The perfect match in my family’s and God’s eyes. Leaving Nerys as a doomed first love. A schoolgirl crush – betrayed.

But R is for Revenge. Whose? Nerys? C for Cadell?

I stare across the llŷn needing answers.

***

657 words