The Real World Book Project: An experiment in fiction

‘Mum,’ Kimberly said with a soft voice, ‘I’m sorry for what happened. I trust you if you, I … I …’

‘Yes, Kimmy …’

‘I want to stay here with you for a while if that’s OK.’

Kimberly opened the shower door and poked her head out to look at her mother and to give her a repentant smile, but was stopped by something she couldn’t really believe. Her mother was holding an extremely sharp meat cleaver, with a line of fresh blood on it which dripped from the blade onto the floor. Kim was utterly speechless. What was worse, the symbol she had seen earlier was there again, lit very brightly. The look on her mother’s face was not one she had ever seen before; it was one that conveyed a lost element, or a lost cause. It was somewhat blank, as if in deep shock, yet formed well enough in intent that she seemed to know exactly what she was doing.

‘Kimmy, won’t you come out of the shower dear, I have something to give you,’ she said, ‘I think you will like it honey; it’s something that your father should have given you when you were a little girl.’

This was not the same woman she had known her entire life, not the recipient of the University of Queensland best ‘Academic of the Decade’ award. Surely not. There was no time to analyse the situation, as her mother appeared to be closing in on her. In one hand she had a meat cleaver drenched in blood, presumably her boyfriends, and in the other she had what appeared to be brain and skull fragments stuck to the back of her hand. Across Eunice’s face was a thin wispy spray of arterial blood that speckled her wrinkled cheeks, giving away the fact that she had just ended her boyfriend’s life. Almost immediately Kimberly thought she was having another hallucination, but it couldn’t possibly be, this seemed so real. The look in her mother’s eyes was one that sent a shiver up her spine. Dark rings had formed around her eyes and the skin that was visible on her arms was bubbling slowly. It was as if some thing inside her was trying to break itself free of her mother’s body but couldn’t.

‘Oh dear Kimmy,’ Death said through Eunice, ‘Time for you to get the chop.’

Without warning Eunice walked briskly over to her daughter in the shower and made a quick grab for her through the door that Kimberly had shut, smashing it to pieces. Eunice was cut in the process, squirting blood around the white tiled bathroom. Kimberly, in a state of panic, tried to push her mother out of the space she had so aggressively invaded, but she was far too strong for her. Eunice somehow had her pinned to the shower wall with one arm and was now raising the meat cleaver above her head.