Ugly Heart: Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten: Dead Calm!

Leo Hardy stood at the airport gate waiting for his best friend to return from his honeymoon. It had been two weeks, it had been hell! Makayla had started stalking him again and he'd limited his time with Izzy, only going round to hers and refusing to let her stay over at his place in case Makayla tried anything. Leo was relieved that his best friend was back, he needed his support at a time like this! As Charlie and Amanda came bounding through the gate, the relief washed over Leo like a wave and he began to calm a little. A tiny hand clasped his own and he looked at Izzy who stood next to him and smiled, "It's going to be okay now!" he reassured her as she nodded and grinned at the sight of her big sister.

"Leo!!! You look pasty as ever!!!" Charlie chuckled and pulled him in for a hug while slapping his back roughly, almost knocking the wind out of him. Amanda and Izzy reunited too as Leo could have sworn he saw Makayla hovering around the Costa Coffee kiosk.

The drive home was tiring, lots of chatter and catching up as Leo and Izzy dropped Charlie and his bride off at their new flat. All Leo wanted was to get Izzy home safely but she wanted to see the new place and the furniture and Amanda's kitchen! Leo shoved his hands in his pockets nervously as the girls giggled and walked around the kitchen. Charlie handed him a bottle of lager and then pulled it away, remembering he was driving. "Nice wheels by the way!" he nodded. "Finally took the plunge eh?"

"Well, it's safer for Izzy than walking!" Leo mumbled and looked down at the linoleum.

"Right you! What's up?" Charlie nudged him roughly.

"Makayla!" Leo replied bluntly. Charlie stood silent for a moment before sitting down on the nearest stool and sighed.

"What the fuck Leo? You're not still..."

"WHAT??? NO!!!" Leo looked disgusted at his friend's line of questioning. "No, she's back! She's stalking me and worse than that she's after Izzy and I don't know what to do!"

"Call the police???" Charlie raised an eyebrow at him and took a large swig from his bottle.

"I can't I already wasted their time, false alarm! Now they'll never take me seriously! Honestly Chaz I...I'm lost!"

Charlie and Amanda had been back a couple of days and when Leo wasn't around, they picked Izzy up from work and made sure she was safe. Leo was on his way to meet Izzy that evening when he saw Makayla perched on a wall a few houses down from his. All he could feel was utter rage and he marched straight towards her, she stood up and smiled at him as he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her down the little side lane between two houses slamming her roughly against the wall. "Ouch, Leo!!! I like it rough but come on..."

"SHUT UP!!" he spat as she let out an evil, spine chilling cackle.

"Baby, wow! You've really missed me haven't you?" she leaned in to kiss him but he shoved her harder against the wall, her head cracked against it with a sickening crunch of bone connecting with brick. "Leo, that hurt!" she squeaked and felt the back of her head, her hand came back down covered in blood. He'd hit her a little too hard and now she was bleeding, badly. "I feel sick!" she muttered and slumped down onto the ground with her back still against the wall. Leo could see where her head had been, a spatter of blood marking the place. And yet he didn't care, he wanted her dead!

"I want you to stay away from me Makayla, but more importantly I want you to stay the hell away from Izzy!!!" Makayla looked up at him with watery eyes and a twisted expression.

"NO! You're MINE!!!" Leo dragged her up onto her feet by her jacket and slammed her into the wall once again, this time the crack reverberated up and down the lane and her head dangled lifelessly as her body fell onto his. He pushed her head back, her eyes were open but they looked different...hollow and dark...like the light had gone out! He tried to find a pulse in her neck, to check if she was breathing, and he couldn't feel a thing...

"And so I told her that I would like to do a bit of songwriting and she laughed, can you believe it? Leo? Are you even listening to me???" Izzy elbowed him as they lay on her bed, wrapped in each other's arms.

"Yeah, course!" Leo's heart was still pounding in his chest as he tried to block out what had transpired before he arrived at Izzy's house. As she continued to moan about Tina in the coffee shop, his mind was on Makayla and where she was at that moment in time. He had no idea what he was going to do, no idea whatsoever!

"LEO!!!" Izzy shouted and pulled away from his embrace. "Will you tell me what's wrong please? Is it Makayla?" her name sent shivers down his spine and he sat up to face Izzy.

"Isobel, I've...I've done something terrible!"

"What?" she gulped nervously and scanned his face, was telling her the right thing to do?

"I...got angry with her tonight and I...hit her head off of a wall!" Start slowly...

"Well she deserved it! Not that I condone violence against women in any way but she's no ordinary woman! Leo forget it! If she goes to the police I'll lie and say you've been with me all night okay? No harm done! Look it's time we stopped letting her rule our lives, I mean..." as Izzy babbled on, Leo squeezed his eyes shut, picturing Makayla's body curled up in the boot of his car, when she fell against him after that fatal last blow he had dragged her back to his car in the dark and thrown her in there. He had checked to see if there was anyone around, but it was after 10pm on a Sunday night, the street was quiet. He wanted to tell Izzy, he really did, but to all intents and purposes he was a murderer! Makayla was dead! He had killed Makayla!!! "...and it would suit me fine if she had got brain damage because then maybe she'll forget you exist and we can have some peace and quiet!!!" Izzy finished as Leo lunged forward and kissed her hungrily. She pushed him gently away and blinked at him in surprise. "Leo! What was that all about?" Leo frowned and stroked her cheek, then whispered,

"You don't half go on sometimes, I just wanted you to be quiet!"

He ended up staying the night at Izzy's, he wanted to lose himself in her, and lose himself he did. Usually they refrained from any sexual acts while her parents were under the same roof, but Izzy couldn't seem to calm Leo any other way. He didn't want to go home anyway, knowing what waited for him inside his car! As he lay wide awake in the dark, listening to Izzy breathing, he remembered the way Makayla's body just flopped around, like a rag doll, she was not breathing at all! He wanted to tell Charlie, get some help! Maybe he would go to the police, no that was stupid! When morning finally arrived, Izzy made him pancakes but he just shuffled them around his plate absent-mindedly. "Leo, for God's sake are you not hungry or..." Leo shook his head and pushed his chair back loudly.

"Sorry Iz, I have to be somewhere!" He stood up and kissed her cheek, put his jacket on and left her feeling confused and extremely annoyed. Leo walked home slowly, head down, trying to think of a logical thing to do with Makayla. Calling Charlie was an option but could he keep quiet to Amanda? No way! So he was on his own! He turned the corner onto his street, seeing his car parked outside his house made his stomach lurch and his heart race. a long and agonising walk later, he was looking down at the boot, key in hand, gathering the strength to do something. He couldn't open it here, not in broad daylight and with the threat of his neighbours passing by. He jumped in the car and drove down the street, heading for the woods.

Deja-vu, standing over the boot of his car this time in the secluded woods, key in hand. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath as he pressed the button on his car key to open the boot. It opened with a pop and he gripped the lid with both hands ready to hoist it up and take a good look at Makayla, he just held it there for a long time until he had the outrageous thought that she might grab his hand and pull him in, so he threw the lid open with all of his strength. He closed his eyes again, scared to see her body, but when he did look down...the boot was empty! No Makayla! "Fuck!!!" he muttered as he stared at the space where he could have sworn he'd thrown her body into the night before! Did it really happen? Had he just imagined the whole thing? He drove home in a blur and as he arrived at his house, his mother was sitting on the steps at his door.

"You changed the locks!" He approached her warily, still angry with her over her comments a few weeks before. "Was that really necessary?" she laughed softly but his glare made her stop. "I guess it was!"

"What do you want mum? I've got a lot on my mind right now..."

"Yes I'm sure you have, Makayla can be quite a handful!" Leo stopped dead with his back to her, He felt numb.

"What did you say?" He heard his mother approach him and felt her hand on his shoulder.

"It's alright my darling, I got rid of her for you!" he turned around slowly to face her, fighting the urge to vomit. "Putting her in the boot? Sloppy!" she wagged a finger at him, "Not closing it properly? Very sloppy! But not making sure she was really dead...well that's just plain careless!!!"

"Mum..."

"Now, this can be our little secret! Izzy will never know, we will never speak of this ever again!"

"Mum..."

"She put up a fight for such a little girl, now I know why you had so much trouble with her!" his mother frowned and tilted her head to the side, staring into space. Leo's mouth was dry and his stomach was doing somersaults.

"How..." he mumbled.

"Oh, she followed you and so did I. I needed to make sure my boy was looking after himself, I missed you! Lucky thing I was because when I saw you two go up the lane, you were so angry! I've never seen you like that Leo, and I certainly didn't raise you that way, to assault a woman no matter who she was! But I understand, you were at the end of your rope so to speak eh?" she chuckled sadly. "I watched you take her to the car, and when you left and the boot was lying half open...I took a peek and she was whimpering in there. When she saw me she went for me, well what was I to do? I slammed the lid of the boot on her head and it seemed to do the trick." Leo sat down on the steps and struggled to breathe as his mother joined him and stroked his hair, he couldn't believe how calm she was. "You don't need to know any more, just that she won't be bothering you again! Now, as I said, we will never speak of this again, understood???"

FIVE YEARS LATER...

Isobel Hardy sat next to her husband, snuggling in, as they watched their son playing with his new toy in the garden. "I wonder what ever happened to that Makayla!" she said out of the blue as she rubbed his arm and a shiver ran down his spine.

"Who knows eh!" he muttered. It was true that they had never heard from her for over five years, she just disappeared. Tara, Leo's mother came outside from the kitchen with a tray of drinks.

"He loves that digger doesn't he? You love granny's present don't you Adam???" Leo stood up and went to join his two year old son as Tara sat on the porch step with her daughter-in-law.

"I was just saying to Leo, I wonder what happened to Makayla!" Tara chuckled and replied,

"Oh well after Leo murdered her we buried her in the woods!" Izzy stared into Tara's eyes with disbelief...then she laughed.

"Oh Tara! Really you have a warped sense of humour sometimes!" Izzy continued to giggle and joined Leo and Adam who were using his digger to bring up soil from the rose bed. Tara took a sip of her tea and sighed, Izzy was a sweet girl and she had given her a lovely little grandson who was the image of his father, a second chance for Tara to do things differently with this boy. Also Izzy made her son happy, Leo had come on leaps and bounds since he met her and he no longer hid away in the shadows. His scars were now part of him and he embraced them confidently. It was true that her relationship with Leo was strained, it was never the same after she got rid of Makayla's body five years before. Izzy would have questioned him if he'd stopped Tara from seeing Adam, so Leo was stuck with her in his life. She knew she was a constant reminder of what they did...although he hadn't ended Makayla Lorde's life, he was an accessory and Tara made sure he remembered that. She laughed to herself quietly at the thought of how much more strained their relationship would be if he knew that the rose bed his son was so obsessed with digging, was actually where she had buried Makayla!!! But she had Adam now, her bond with Leo may have been broken but that child was still untouched by her mistakes and it was going to be perfect this time!

Leo looked over at his mother while his wife and son continued to play with his prized possession. She was smiling, he didn't trust that smile, it always had a hidden meaning...an indication that she was up to no good! Izzy distracted him from Tara's impish grin as she gasped and exclaimed,

"Leo, there's something under here!"

The End!