Chapter Two

The Glasco-Masons

18-year-old Savannah Glasco-Mason watched from her bench in the play park in her hometown, Fareview - a large, English market town - while her seven-year-old brother, Theo, ran around playing tag with his friends after school. Savannah was tall and slender and had shining, golden blond hair plaited in tight pigtails. She watched her brother through her cutting, lightning blue eyes, her lightly tanned skin reflecting the late afternoon sun. It was a chilly, October evening, the wind was biting and the sky was fading into darkness. Theo drew regular gasps from her, coming within inches on multiple occasions of colliding with the parents around them who were far too absorbed in their conversations to notice the young boys torpedoing around them.

Theo was an energetic young boy, but one not without his troubles. Small, skinny, and mousy, he was the fussiest eater. Despite his limited diet, Theo had rosy cheeks, a face full of life, and never ran out of energy. He resembled his mother - dark, curly hair and large, maple brown eyes - and retained very little of his father. A kind, thoughtful, and considerate young boy, it was rare for Theo to make a fuss about anything beyond eating and abandonment - he hated being on his own. This was something Savannah presumed was simply as a result of him being the youngest child and therefore used to constant company.

Savannah’s sister, Alexis, sat next to her on the bench. As usual, she was absorbed in her phone. She was 16 years old, tall, with a lean, toned, athletic body and a beautiful face - eyes of deep blue that appeared almost purple and shone with amusement ninety percent of the time, cheekbones and a jawline a model would envy, and gorgeous, electric blond hair which flowed down her back in elegant curls. She wore ripped black jeans and an expensive, black leather jacket with her school jumper beneath.

Alexis laughed at a text and Savannah eyed her. Was she meeting another boy today? She smelled strongly of her favourite lavender perfume which she tended to wear if this was the case.

Alexis's twin, Aaron, was playing football with his mates on the field behind the play park. He was running up and down the left-wing, scoring goal after goal without breaking a sweat. She pitied the opposing team; he was humiliating them as usual.

Aaron bore a few differences to Alexis: he was more muscly and less agile than his twin, and his hair, pushed up at the front in a quiff, was brown rather than blond. They were similar in looks, though Aaron was more reserved in his opinion of them.

His friends weren’t a good lot. Aaron himself was meek and enjoyed films and video games. His friends, however, were unsavoury and spent most of their evenings and weekends at this park drinking and smoking weed. Aaron claimed that he didn’t partake in either; Savannah mostly believed him (after all, he did come home early most nights and rarely went out on the weekends), although there was the rare night he’d come stumbling through the front door in the early hours of the morning, stinking and incoherent. Savannah caught herself; she’d been there. Perhaps not to the same degree, but she couldn’t be too judgemental.

Still, Aaron was a good lad who put a great deal of effort in at school - unlike Alexis, who preferred to seduce the ‘nerds’ with promises of a hug, kiss, or a date if she’d exhausted the first two options (which, in most cases, she had) in order to get them to complete her assignments for her. Regardless of which approach she used, she always received good grades.

Theo ran over to Savannah, laughing his head off. He jumped onto her lap and burrowed into her. ‘Savvy, please, protect me!’

His friend, who was faster than him, was ‘it’. This shrewd strategy of using an adult for protection was always one he employed when this happened. Savannah, giggling, tickled Theo, who howled. ‘Stop!! St-stop!! It’s not funny!’

Theo squirmed from her grip. He stomped, gave her a stroppy glare, and ran off. Savannah continued laughing, drawing Alexis out of her phone-induced trance at last.

‘What happened?’ she asked, looking from side to side and seeing no one else there. ‘Why are you laughing to yourself, you freak?’

Savannah gave Alexis a playful hit on the arm. ‘Watch who you call ‘freak’.’ Alexis’s face lit up, her crystalline smile breaking free.

‘Which unlucky soul are you flirting with this time, anyway? Tom? Bryce? Sam? Or all three?’

Alexis grew a gleam in her eye. ‘None of the three, they’re old news, keep up. Today it’s Josh, he’s in my Physics class. Tomorrow, I’ll probably do something with Tom… I’ll see how I feel in the morning.’

Savannah sighed and rolled her eyes, but couldn’t prevent a grin from spreading. ‘You’re awful, you know that, right?’

Alexis shot her a smirk. ‘I know. It’s all part of the charm.’

She turned back to her phone. ‘What about you, anyway? Is there anyone on the scene with you? Last I heard was that Matthew had left you for some other lass - I hope you got your own back there.’

Savannah winced; it wasn’t a pleasant memory. Three months ago, her boyfriend she’d had since she was 14 decided that he’d had enough of her and would prefer to work his way through her friends instead. It was still a source of pain, but was not as pervasive as it used to be.

‘That, like all the boys you’ve strung along up to now, is so far in the past. I don’t care anymore.’ This wasn’t true, but there were more important things to worry about. ‘Besides, what d’you mean, ‘got my own back’? I hope you don’t mean hurt him, physically or emotionally.’

Alexis clicked her tongue. ‘Christ, you’re too soft. Far too soft for your own good. He’d have been grovelling on his knees if he’d done the same to me. No, not physically, they’re never worth the violence,’ she shot Savannah another grin. ‘I just mean, did you get your own back and… get involved with his best friend? Works every time!’

Savannah frowned. ‘No, I didn’t do that and I never would, I’m better than that.’

‘Alright, little Miss Perfect,’ Alexis tutted.

‘It’s probably best that I never come to you for relationship advice if that’s the sort of solution that you default to.’

Alexis frowned and placed a hand on her chest. ‘Hey, listen, my advice may result in damage for others, but… it’s always worked well for me’. She burst into a fit of contagious, fruity laughter. Savannah joined in, laughing more at her sister’s selfishness than anything else.

‘What have I missed?’ came Savannah’s favourite voice. Her best friend, Lauren, had perched herself on the armrest of their bench.

‘Lauren!’ Alexis and Savannah cried in greeting, getting up together to hug her. From across the park came another, louder, scream of ‘LAUREN!!’

Savannah broke the embrace to see Theo hurtling towards Lauren like a bullet train. He leapt up into her arms and she wrapped him in a crushing hug.

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Lauren was in Savannah’s year at school. She’d only lived in the town for a year, yet she and Savannah had struck up a close friendship. Lauren was an inch taller than Savannah, standing at 5’11, and her body was slightly more filled out. She was blessed with chiselled facial features - not unlike Alexis - and platinum hair which poured down her back like a river of liquid silver, gleaming in the late afternoon sunlight.

However, the most prominent of Lauren’s features was a pale, narrow scar that stretched down the left side of her face, beginning above her brow and ending at her chin. She couldn’t remember how she’d acquired the wound; her theory was that it must have been from a childhood accident that she had since repressed.

She was tanned (to Savannah’s envy) having spent the previous two years living in Spain. Her stormy grey eyes drank in the scene. She was adored by Savannah’s entire family, aside from Jeremy, who wasn’t a big fan of her and tended to steer clear of the house whenever Lauren was around. In fact, he wasn’t keen on his actual family, preferring to spend the majority of his time off work in the local Wetherspoons, drinking the days away.

Thinking of her father reminded her that if she disregarded the slice containing him, she was grateful for her upbringing, particularly when she recalled Lauren’s.

Her parents had died in a car accident when she was 2 years old. From that day on, she’d lived with her Aunt Irene. They’d moved around, first living in Australia, then Greece, followed by America and Spain, before finally settling in Fareview.

Last year, Lauren suffered additional upheaval. By that point, Savannah had known her a month, though only by name. On the night of November 17th, that all changed.

Irene suffered a heart attack. Lauren found her Aunt as the heart attack was in progress, and with no one else to turn to, she called Savannah in hysterics. Savannah and Lyra, had hurried to her house, calling an ambulance as they did so.

Upon arrival, they’d found Lauren clutching her Aunt’s now dead body. Savannah had pulled Lauren away from her Aunt’s corpse so Lyra could check Irene’s vital signs, and refused to let go.

Lauren, heartbroken and numb, had returned home with Savannah and Lyra, electing not to accompany Irene to the hospital. She then stayed with the Glasco-Masons for weeks afterwards, before moving back down to her Aunt’s to live on her own, where she remained to this day.

The solitary silver lining that came from the devastating event was that Lauren and Savannah had been best friends ever since (which, in turn, led to Lyra adopting Lauren in all capacities except official). Despite this, no one ever spoke about that night, nor mentioned Irene.

Lauren placed Theo back down on the ground and ruffled his hair. ‘Hello, my little cherub, how are you?’

Theo, grinning from ear to ear, nodded. ‘Good! Do you… wanna play tag with me?’ He shuffled from foot to foot..

‘I’d love to. I’ll play in ten minutes,’ she held up ten fingers. ‘I’m just going to talk to Savannah and then I will, okay?’

Theo looked down at the ground. ‘You promise? Just ten minutes?’

Lauren smiled at him. ‘I promise. You go and play with your friends for just a tiny bit more and then me and Savannah will come and play tag with you, how’s that sound?’

He cheered, jumped up and down, and hurried off to inform his little friends of the plan.

‘Wish he got that excited to see me,’ Alexis huffed, looking darkly over her phone.

Lauren raised an eyebrow. ‘Well, if you paid attention to him once in a while, maybe he would!’

Alexis considered this proposal. She shrugged. ‘Nah, too much effort.’

Savannah hit her arm again. ‘Stop it! He’s just a kid.’ She turned to Lauren. ‘What brings you here, anyway?’

‘Oh, nothing, I just figured you’d be here and would want someone other than Alexis to talk to.’

Alexis’s mouth widened in mock horror. ‘What d’you mean?! I’m fantastic, and you should both be honoured by my presence. You should revel in the fact I even talk to you two… inferior beings. Bow, bitches.’

‘That’s never gonna happen. How’s things at home, anyway? How’s Jeremy been?’

Alexis scoffed and returned her attention to her phone. Savannah shrugged.

‘They’ve been better. Jeremy’s only ever at work or at the pub getting hammered, same as usual. And…’ Savannah glanced around, making sure Theo wasn’t around to overhear. Also conscious of the surrounding parents that likely knew her own, she continued in a low voice. ‘He’s been hitting mum again. Comes home late at night in a rage at the world and takes it out on her. She never defends herself or anything, but… she’s getting worse herself.’

Lauren’s eyes narrowed. ‘How d’you mean?’

Savannah sighed and stared into the distance. A tightness in her chest she’d been dimly aware of until that moment dissipated as she spoke. ‘Her depression. She’s started drinking - heavily - she’s always crying by the end of the night and again in the morning - whether Jeremy’s hit her or not - she’s losing cases which she never does… hell, she barely even has the energy to look after Theo, hence why we’re coming here all the time. It’s vicious. Mum’s getting worse because of Jeremy and Jeremy’s getting worse because of Mum.’

‘Yup, in short, both our parents are depressed alkies, except we’re fortunate enough to have one that’s violent,’ Alexis said with a sardonic smile.

‘Can’t she go to the police about him? Surely she has friends there.’

Savannah shook her head. ‘She doesn’t feel up to that, she feels like it’s betraying him and the family they’ve built. We’ve told her we want her to report him… but she never will.’

Alexis groaned, stretching her legs out before her. ‘She’s pathetic. I’m sorry, I love her, but she is. I don’t get why she has to be so downtrodden by him when all she has to do is pick up the damn phone and ring the police. Fuck the whole ‘staying together for the kids’ bullshit. As one of the kids, I’m telling you it’s not beneficial in the slightest for us and Jeremy deserves prison. Mum should grow the balls and make it happen, or at least bloody divorce him. I’d have killed him by now if it were me.’

Savannah knew better than to get into an argument with Alexis, and to be careful with her words. ‘Alex… she can’t ring the police because one: she still loves him and two: she’s probably terrified of what he’d do to her if she did.’

Alexis opened her mouth, ready to start again, but Lauren cut across her. ‘Okay, you two, that’s enough, let’s not argue about this. The situation’s bad enough without you two compounding it by falling out. Is he hitting any of you?’

‘Nah,’ Alexis answered. ‘He threw a beer bottle at Aaron a couple weeks ago - Aaron caught it and launched it straight back at him. Taught him his lesson, that did, which is what Mum needs to do. If she’d just stand up to him…’

Savannah crossed her arms. ‘Oh, so you’re proposing she starts throwing bottles at him now, are you?’

‘Wouldn’t be the worst idea in the world,’ Alexis answered in a sing-song tone. Lauren placed a hand on Savannah’s shoulder and gave her a look that said ‘don’t push her’.

Alexis got up without a word and left the park. Savannah and Lauren shared a perplexed look. ‘I didn’t think I’d upset her, what the hell? ‘

Lauren looked behind her and smiled. ‘Yeah, I don’t think you did.’

Savannah followed her eyeline and saw Alexis walking up the street, arm-in-arm, with a boy from school.

‘That girl, honestly.’

Lauren laughed. ‘Let her have her fun - god knows she could use it, by the sounds of it.’

‘Still, there’s better ways of dealing with it than going off with random strangers all the time,’ Savannah pointed out.

‘I suppose. I know she’s young and I’m happy she’s… oblivious, or at least doesn’t take things in a bad way… I don’t know, it would just bother me more if my mum was struggling. I wish I could be that unfazed.’

Before they could continue their conversation, Theo came over and informed them that their time had expired. The two girls chased Theo and his friends around the park for half an hour, the lot of them laughing the whole time.