Storymania - The Resurrection Of Amelia D. Taylor by Jacqueline P Ervine

The Resurrection Of Amelia D. Taylor (7)
Jacqueline P Ervine

She thought for a moment. She knew he would have to murder someone to get what he needed. As for who it was, Amelia had some people in mind.
“I know of two people I wouldn’t mind you getting those materials from, William.”
“Amelia, by materials I mean---”
“I know what you mean,” she interrupted.
William grunted and got a very serious look on his face.
“Who are they?”
Amelia smiled slightly, but her expression faded. It hurt too much to show anything right now.
“There’s a man and a woman. The man is Alexander Harris Taylor. The woman’s name is Jane. I’m not sure of her full name, but I’m not certain whether I care,” Amelia paused. “You’ll surely find them together.”
William went to say something, then closed his mouth for a moment to think. Amelia had been Alexander’s wife. Isabella Grace had been her mother. William smiled.
“Amelia Diane Grace.”
Amelia raised her eye brows at him.
“Yes?”
He chuckled and turned around to walk out of the house.
“Grace: it suits you generously.”
Amelia wanted to smile, but she couldn’t. She was smiling on the inside though. She laid back into the chair and closed her eyes. Silence, once again. When William walked out of the house, she reached around her neck and pulled the golden locket Maggie had given her. She opened it carefully and read it over again. “There’s a bit of hope in every bit of despair.” Amelia needed that advice.
As William headed down the road toward the small town, he kept in his mind the hatred Amelia had to feel towards Alexander and Jane. William had a helpful tactic, he would hoard all of that hate she felt in him, and use it when he was committing the deed. Already, killing two unsuspecting people was hard enough for him. Killing again.
What am I coming to?
He kept walking, quick paced. He didn’t have much time, and he didn’t have much material. He figured he would find them someplace there were actually materials to use as supplies. Otherwise, it would take that much longer to wait until they were somewhere.
He didn’t feel that this was wrong in anyway. He was doing this for Amelia. No shame in that. He was hurting the people who hurt her. He thought of it as, she just couldn’t do it herself, so he was helping her out. That was his mask for disguising any guilt he felt.

Chapter 18

Alexander leaned against the frame of his fireplace looking at Jane. She sat on a long white couch at the opposite end of the room. She was reading a book from Francis Vachler. He watched her eyes jump across the page, her fingers moving along with her eyes.
The book was standing up on her stomach. She was about seven months pregnant. Alexander guarded Jane and their unborn baby Natalie with his life. Jane looked up from her book and shot her eyes in the direction of a window near Alexander. He caught where she was staring and looked out the window from where he was. Nothing but stars. He looked back at Jane and narrowed his eyes. She gestured her head at the window.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“I just feel like someone is out there. Like someone’s watching me…”
Alexander walked over and looked outside. Nothing. No one. He turned away from the window and walked over to Jane. He pulled the book out of her hands, setting it on a table beside where she was seated. She looked at him and smiled a thin smile. Alexander kissed her forehead and laid his hand on her stomach as he always did.
“It’s late. We should get some sleep.”
Jane nodded and Alexander helped her up. They went upstairs and soon fell fast asleep.

William was the first thing to break the silence. As the door quietly creaked open, he thanked God in his head that they were home and not somewhere else. He left his shoes outside and walked in his stocking covered feet. He slid slightly across the floor, but he didn’t make a sound. He looked around the house for a kitchen. He could see the living room, dining room, staircase, and, there it was, the kitchen.
He pushed the door out of his way and walked into the kitchen silently. He couldn’t turn on any lights, so he felt around with his hands. He found a drawer, and pulled it open. He felt around inside and pulled out a long cloth.
Perfect.
Now he would need a knife. He lightly ran his hands along everything in the kitchen. He felt all sorts of weird little things, but no knives. He went looking in other drawers, suspecting that maybe they kept them safely hidden somewhere. No luck. William, running out of places to look, felt around the room once more. A few seconds in, and he could feel the slice of metal on his hand.
“Here’s my knife,” he whispered to himself. He picked it up and carried it with the sharp end pointed down. Just a safety precaution. He was missing something, but he wasn’t sure what it was. He looked around the room, which evidently, did him no good since it was pitch black. He stood still for a moment to think, then it dawned on him.
He knelt on the floor and crawled around on his knees, feeling inside cabinets. He pulled out a bottle of liquid and opened the cap. He stiffed the liquid and pulled it quickly away from his face. He found what he was looking for. It was just a cleaning fluid, but it’s smell was potent enough to do what he wanted with it.
He took the materials with him out of the kitchen and started walking upstairs. There were only two rooms upstairs, which helped William out a lot. He opened one of the doors and looked inside. He could see a crib and a rocking horse. A rocking chair, and a bunch of books stacked up on a shelf. He was starting to feel the deep regret again.
Oh, come on…They have a baby…
He walked over and looked into the crib. There was nothing in it beside blankets. He thought it was strange: a crib at night and no baby inside. He was starting to fear that someone was awake. He didn’t hear anyone though, so he just pushed the thoughts aside, hoping they would go away.
He left the room and closed the door behind him. He opened the only other door upstairs, and looked inside. Two people lay in bed. When William saw the two, he realized something. He only needed one person for this job, and here, he had two. One of them would be killed, and the other would live. That could be a problem. He knew which one he wanted, and that sickened him. He would kill the girl, and just leave the man on his own. He would wake up in the morning and find his woman dead next to him. And what if she woke up while he was trying to kill her? What then?
He walked over silently and slowly. He stood over the woman and pulled the blankets away from her body. His face went white seeing her swollen stomach.
She’s pregnant.
He bit his lip and folded the cloth as many times as he needed. He kept reminding himself that Amelia was at his house dying, and this was the only way he could save her. He opened the bottle of fluid again and poured a generous amount of it onto the cloth. He closed the bottle again and set it on the floor. He kept his knife however, setting it inside his coat pocket. He leaned over the woman and placed the cloth over her mouth and her nose, hindering her ability to breathe.
Jane stirred and shot open her eyes. The moment she saw William, she made short shrieking noises. William just pressed the cloth firmer against her face to muffle the noises. She could writhe all she wanted and shrieked all she could, she was going to die, and that was the end of it.
She hit Alexander, who was fast asleep next to her. He opened his eyes and rubbed them, starring at William.
“What the hell?”
Alexander got up out of bed and slugged William across the face.
“Get off of her!”
He tried to pry his arm off of Jane, but that only made him press the cloth to her even rougher. Jane screamed and Alexander stopped. Instead, he wrapped his hands around Williams throat in an attempt to strangle him. With his free hand, William pulled out his knife and stabbed Alexander just below his chest. Jane gasped and took in a lot of the potent liquid. She coughed and screamed at the same time. When she was done coughing, she cursed William, although her words were muffled. She was crying now, and she was breathing hard.
William tried to comfort her, but he knew he couldn’t, so he at least said the truth in a comforting way.
“Shhh, it’s alright. It’ll all be over in about sixty seconds.”
Jane just closed her eyes and muttered to herself.
“Oh God…Oh God…” she stumbled over her words. Her crying made it harder for her to breathe.
“Go ahead and cry, you’re actually doing me a favor.”
Jane’s body stiffened. Her eyes were closed, and he was glad. He didn’t want to have to see her eyes while he was tearing her apart. He wiped his knife off on the cloth. He didn’t even pay attention to Alexander’s body laying on the floor.
He threw the comforter off of the bed and onto Alexander. He didn’t need to be worrying about him while he was worrying about Jane. He started with her face, making a small cut in her cheek and cutting away the skin in small pieces. Blood flowed over the bed as he worked his way down her body.
When he got to her stomach, he stopped. He put his hand over her stomach and felt the baby inside kicking ever so gently. He knew the baby would be dead before long. He skipped over her stomach and went right on skinning her legs. He realized he didn’t have anything to carry the flesh in. Without even thinking, he pulled off his coat and threw the skin inside. He wrapped the arms of the coat around and tied them. He figured he would just carry it over his shoulder like a bag. He had nothing better.
He picked up the flesh filled coat and hitched it over his shoulder. He made a quick departure of the house. Outside, he put his shoes on and headed down the road toward home. He was missing Amelia now. He wanted to be with her, just to make sure she was O.K.
William thought to himself. Tonight, he set out to kill two people, he only needed to kill one, and he ended up killing three. How any of this worked, he wasn’t sure. But so far, so good.

Chapter 19

Amelia was in the same spot she had been when William left. It hurt her too much to move. She was still messing with the necklace she had. She was staring at the floor, waiting patiently for William to come to her rescue. It wouldn’t be long now, it couldn’t be. She bit her lip and turned the locket over and over in her fingers. She was so gentle with it. Just like she’d been with the porcelain doll.
She heard footsteps coming from up the wooden porch. She figured it was William and he would let himself in, so she was slightly surprised when she heard a knock on the door. She was contemplating whether or not to get up and get it, which was almost pointless. She wasn’t exactly presentable, and it would literally kill her to get up and walk.
To her relief, William walked in. The first thing he did was apologize for taking so long and for knocking on the door. Amelia just sat and listened, staring in the same spot she had been. She glanced up and looked at William. Then she looked at his coat, which was draped over his shoulder.
“William.”
He looked at her slightly wide eyed.
“Yes?”
“You’re coat is bleeding.”
He raised his eyebrows at her then looked at his coat. He remembered he hadn’t washed the skin before he threw it in his coat.
Not a smart move, William.
Now there was probably a trail of blood coming from Alexander’s house to Williams., and anyone could follow it and track him down. He walked into the kitchen and set his coat on the counter, untying the arms. He pushed everything off of the table, not even caring about the mess he was making.
He rummaged through the cabinets underneath the counter and took out half filled jars of formaldehyde, and some of the “glue” serum Damien had given him. He would be careful with that for now on. He knows what it did to Carolina.
He walked back out into the main room and picked up Amelia, carrying her into the kitchen and setting her down on the table. He paced back and forth for a long moment, and Amelia just laid there silently. He turned to her and asked her if she could undress herself. She almost laughed.
“I would, you see, but I can’t even sit up properly.”
William nodded and took his knife. He quickly cut down the center of the dress Amelia was wearing and cut open the sleeves. Now she was bare, and William could get a good look at the rest of the damage. He couldn’t think about much else at this point. Had she not been burnt, William probably would have complimented her until there was nothing left to say, but this image was grotesque.
“Now Amelia, I’m going to start, but you need to know that this will be the most excruciating pain you have ever felt. No exaggeration.” Amelia nodded. “Also, you can’t move. I don’t care how much it hurts, you cannot, under any circumstances move an inch.” She nodded again and William cleared his throat. “Then let’s begin.”
He turned around and soaked the skin in formaldehyde. He then took a jar and a cloth, and washed off Amelia’s body with it, making the skin that was left peel away. When he was completely done, he set it on the counter and stood over her.
“Did that hurt much?” Amelia didn’t move. “You can nod it you need.” Amelia nodded. William didn’t want to tell her everything was going to be O.K. He was sick and tired of lying to her.
“The pain will only get worse. Be aware.”
Amelia made a small groaning sound and closed her eyes. William turned to the skin soaking in the formaldehyde solution. He took out a piece and dipped it in the serum.
“This is, and forever more will be, the resurrection of Amelia Diane Taylor.”

Chapter 20

Amelia was scared. Who wouldn’t be, though? She was practically dead and being brought back by some guy who just killed for her. That was both the most generous and most cruel thing anyone had ever done to Amelia. She watched as William prepared the pieces of skin. It looked weird. She knew it was flesh he was handling, but then it didn’t look like it. It was sickening.
She caught a glance of her body. She looked awful. It really looks like she was dead. She felt like crying, really, but she couldn’t. The formaldehyde that she’d been doused in earlier had burned her worse than the flame. She wondered why William just wouldn’t let her die.
William walked over to her holding a small piece of skin.
“Close your eyes if you want.”
She did, but it didn’t help. As he put the skin over her left cheek, it burned her so bad. It made her feel like fire was just sitting over her cheek. He went on, doing the same with the rest of her body, and Amelia just laid there screaming inside her head, but being completely silent. William hesitated when it came to her chest. That’s where he’d lost Carolina, and he didn’t want to lose Amelia now too.
Yet, Amelia was getting impatient. She was in excruciating pain, and he was hesitating to finish off the job?
“William, go on.”
He was still hesitating.
“William!”
Amelia was near screaming, and William understood that she didn’t want to wait on him. He laid the piece of skin out over her chest to complete her. She still looked awful, because the flesh was all cut up and looked as if she was a puzzle. And her stomach was still burnt. But he had no skin to repair that much. He didn’t care, she would be clothed so that no one would notice, anyway.
He draped a thin sheet over Amelia and left her alone. He put away everything and cleaned up the kitchen so that it looked like nothing had happened. All the books and papers he had knocked over onto the floor were now set in neat little piles against the wall.
William noticed something gleaming on the floor, and he bent over to pick it up. He noticed that it was a golden locket picked it up and carefully opened it. He read the tiny engraving.
“There’s a bit of hope in every bit of despair.”
He sighed and closed the locket, muttering quietly to himself.
“There’s no hope In this.”
He set the necklace down and got up off the floor. He was exhausted. He walked back into his room and laid in his bed. He closed his eyes, but he wouldn’t fall asleep. He had too much on his mind for sleep. The resurrection had gone by fast, since there were no mistakes and her body hadn’t gone into shock like Carolina’s had. He was relieved that it had gone by successfully. He didn’t know what he would do if he had lost Amelia.

Chapter 21

As the sun rose, Amelia stirred under the sheet. She lifted it off of her and sat up. She yawned and rubbed her eyes. She jumped up off of the table and looked around the room.
“What the…”
She could stand, she could sit. She was moving like normal. No pain. Amelia smiled and almost screamed in excitement. Then she noticed something a little out of the ordinary. She was bare, and she was cold. She quickly grabbed up the sheet and wrapped it around her. She ran into Williams room and shook him.
“William. William!”
William turned over in his bed and looked at her. He smiled.
“Hello, sunshine.” he looked her over. “You look great.” Amelia giggled and William sat up, scratching his head. “I mean, from yesterday you look, well, normal and I just---”
“It’s O.K,” Amelia laughed slightly, “I get it.”
William nodded and stood up. He started to walk out of his room when Amelia stopped him.
“William, can I ask you something?”
“Sure, what is it?”
Amelia moved the sheet just so that William could see her stomach. It was burnt, and didn’t look like it was even hers.
“Why is my stomach still like this? Why didn’t you fix my whole body?”
William was hoping she wouldn’t get to this. He didn’t really want to explain it. He knew he had to though.
“Well, Amelia…” he hesitated, “Jane was pregnant. And I could give you the skin off her stomach because it was all stretched out.”
Amelia just shrugged.
“I knew she was pregnant.”
William looked at her in almost disbelief and confusion.
“What do you mean you knew?”
“William, the whole reason Alexander left me was because Jane was pregnant,” she said, “I’ve known for ages.”
Amelia went to walk out of the room, but William grabbed her arm and pulled her to him.
“You should have told me.”
William’s voice was cross. He felt like yelling, but he didn’t.
“Why? It doesn’t make a difference.”
“Amelia, I killed an infant! It didn’t even have a chance!”
“Then why does it matte? It didn’t feel anything.”
William looked at her with a certain look of disdain in his eyes.
“If that was your child, I wouldn’t let anyone touch you. I killed her and her baby.” William let go of her arm, and she just stood there staring at him. “Never again.”
Amelia nodded. She wasn’t planning on him doing anything like that again. Why would she? Honestly though, she didn’t care whether or not their unborn baby lived or died. She didn’t care whether or not Alexander and Jane were killed. Regardless of whether or not they were going to have a baby.
Amelia walked out of the room and headed towards the basement. She walked carefully down the stairs and looked around. Everything was untouched, other than where she had burned herself. She could still see the broken shards of glass and porcelain on the floor. She wondered if William had noticed.
She walked to the bureau and looked in the mirror. She smiled at her reflection, knowing that this was how she was before. It’s as if nothing had ever happened. She leaned over the top of the dresser and looked into the mirror. She saw black on her skin and small hints of blood. She blinked a few times then looked again, and all she could see was pale skin.
She wondered if Carolina was gone, or if she was still in the room. Well, she knew Carolina was still in the room, but she wondered if she would still be able to talk to her. She hoped not. She really, really hoped that she was gone for good. Amelia opened the music box and hummed along to the lullaby. She couldn’t get enough of it. It was her lullaby. Her mom had sang it to her every night before she had died, even when her mom had gotten sick.
She hummed along with the lullaby, watching the figures inside dance along with the melody. She was waiting for a second voice to start in. That was almost becoming a normal thing with Amelia: voices joining in with her. She heard William walking down the steps and closed the music box. She turned around and smiled at him. He didn’t smile back.
“Come now, William. No reason to ruin my good mood.”
He nodded and handed her the necklace Matilda gave her.
“Right. I’m sorry, Amelia.”
“Don’t be, really.”
William nodded again and gave Amelia a brief smile.
“You really ought to get some more sleep. That’s the only way your body is going to get back to normal.”
“Alright then.”
Amelia walked over to the small bed. She hadn’t slept for almost two nights. Last night, her and William both had only gotten about five hours worth of sleep. Amelia had dreamt of shadows last night. She didn’t know why. She could hardly remember what her dream was about. Something about falling, though.
She closed her eyes and listened as William walked back up the stairs into the main room of the house. He would be going back to sleep. Amelia figured she would do the same.

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