Lila

TRIGGER WARNING: murder/stabbing, domestic abuse/violence, mental hospital setting, suicide references, mild swearing.

Lila by Jess Chance.

Prologue

I've been a lot of things in my life. I've been a Suicide Risk, a Liability, a Disappointment, and I've been, for the most part of the last year, a Murderer. That one's my favourite.

I've killed people before. A man named Alistair Sterling.

But you'll know all about him.

Or you'll think you do.

TRANSCRIPT:

Lila: He was an arse, to put it simply. He hurt his wife loads of times in front of their two children, Lucie and Clara. He was nearly ten years older than her. She is twenty one and he was thirty. She was small and sweet where he was tall and cruel. She is crazy now, and he is dead. That's all there is to the story.

Briar: Do you really believe that?

Lila: Yes.

Briar: The story's finished? Ended?

Lila: Yes.

Briar: But you're still alive.

Lila: Am I? Am I really? Who's to say you're not one of the demons who's been sent to stab me with a pitchfork? Who’s to say this isn’t Satan’s own home? Who's to say I'm not already in hell?

Briar: You think you'll be going to hell?

Lila: Why shouldn't I? I've done bad things.

Briar: I can't disagree. But I can help.

Lila: How can you help?

Briar: I can help you change. Then maybe there won't be little demons with pitchforks where you're going.

Lila: Change? (laughs) This from your psychology degree - or primary school? Like a little caterpillar to a butterfly, Princess. I get it.

Briar: Please don't.

Lila: Don't what? Embarrass you in front of your little classmates? (shouts) I know how one-way glass works!

Briar: (quietly) Don't call me Princess. And there's no one there.

Lila: Of course there is, there's never no one there.

Briar: During the day there's always people there.

Lila: (cautiously) What do you mean?

Briar: It’s three forty-one on a Thursday morning. They take shifts overnight, and I locked the door from the inside when they were swapping over. No one’s watching us.

Lila: Sweet, are we breaking out?

Briar: Well I broke in so I’ll have to break out. And you should probably stay here.

Lila: (smiling curiously) Who are you?

Briar: No one of importance.

Lila: Come on, it's not like I'm going anywhere. It's not like I could go to the police with it.

Briar: (breathes out) I want to know about Alistair Sterling’s death.

Lila: Well, the police found knife wounds on his neck, arms and chest. He was stabbed about twenty times, the first ten or so whilst he was alive, by the looks of it and-

Briar: Why did you do it? It's not like you even knew the family. There was no reason.

Lila: Shut it, I was getting there. (clears throat) Where was I? Oh yeah, the police think the wife ran away with the kids before I got there, they think he hurt her and she did a runner.

Briar: Didn't she?

Lila: Darling if she ran, he would find her. He'd done it before.

Briar: So where is she?

Lila: I don’t know, do I! She left before I got there.

Briar: Did you tell her to leave?

Lila: What do you mean?

Briar: Don’t play stupid. Did you tell his wife to leave the house?

Lila: No. She left on her own.

Briar: Did she?

Lila: (visibly annoyed): I said I didn’t tell her!

Briar: Ok! Ok! I hear you.

Lila: Anyway-

Briar: Wait, you said that she had run away before and he’d found her. She must’ve known that this time it would be safe. That he was going to die.

Lila: Maybe, I don’t know.

Briar: You don’t know?

Lila: (standing up) You can leave now.

Briar: There’s another twenty minutes until they swap shifts.

Lila: (sitting down with a sigh) Why are you even here?

Briar: I’m doing a project.

Lila: And you thought you’d break into a mental hospital and talk to a psycho? Did it ever occur to you that I'm not the most reliable source?

Briar: It’s about the wife. No one knows anything about her. She was new in town, she arrived the same sort of time you did. Were you following her? Like stalking her?

Lila: No! I’ve got about two minutes of real privacy every day you idiot. I wouldn’t want to take it away from anyone else.

Briar: Ok! Ok! What do you know about her?

Lila: She was short and blonde, about twenty one. They got married in her hometown and then moved here. The twins were only one.

Briar: Everyone knows this stuff. What were your motives?

Why did you kill him?

Lila: That’s nothing to do with you.

Briar: Fine then. I’ll just leave.

Lila: Fine! She was called Elise Hart before she got married. She lived in Ravenwood. She had two older brothers, a twin sister and a younger brother. They all had matching dirty blonde hair and grew up in a little blue house by the sea. Her oldest brother died three years ago in a car crash and she got married to Alistair after.

Briar: How do you know this?

Lila: She liked strawberries with chocolate spread on toast on Sundays, before she went to church. She liked swimming at the beach after work. She liked dancing, she liked to sing. She had the most beautiful voice. Nothing like mine.

Briar: Like yours?

Lila: (nods)

Briar: You grew up with her. No - the eyes, the hair. You were the sister.

Lila: Not identical but we always looked similar. She was the talented one, the smart one. I was nothing compared to her. But she loved me, and I loved her. But she loved him more.

Briar: You said she tried to run away before?

Lila: Got to the end of the road before she turned around and walked home.

Briar: Why couldn't she do it?

Lila: She loved him. It's as simple as that really.

(doors slamming open, sirens)

Lila: (teasing) They’re gonna catch themselves a young girl with some papers. Run Princess.

Epilogue

I didn't see the crazy woman again. I typed up the interview, and I sent it to the police. They found the wife, Elise the next week. She was living with her parents in Ravenwood. And the daughters. Lucie and Clara. Lila met up with her sister after a year apart. She finally met her young nieces.