The Last Breath Of Reggie Warrington

Chapter 2: A Step Daughters Nightmare

Finally, I began to see the familiar sights as the bus turned down a street close to where I lived. I must have pressed the bell three or four times until the driver stopped the bus for me to get off. I leapt off and started to run down the street as I took the corner on to my road, I quickly checked my watch. I had plenty of time and I continued to run. I could see my house approaching. I sprinted towards the door and opened it.

The door which was usually locked, was open, which was something I felt strange. I thought maybe Derek, had drunkenly left it open, but as I entered the house, I began to feel something wasn't right. I called his name and no reply, but I knew he was in. I mean, where else was an unemployed, unemployable, drunken slob going to be on a Friday evening. No money for the pub only scrounging his job seekers allowance on what vile cheap brandy he could buy from the Tesco supermarket down the road.

I took my jacket off and hung it on the coat rail, before calling his name again. The sound of the television blared from inside the living room which made me think the useless old fart was at home after all. And there was me thinking he'd done everyone a favour and vanished into thin air!

I could hear the theme tune to the Jeremy Kyle show. Everyone else in the house thought it was a tacky awful show and as Derek was the only one who watched it, it was obvious he was home. I opened the door into the living room, but the stench of stale alcohol hit me in the face. It stank worse than a brewery, but it was about to get much worse. A lifeless shape lay slumped in the old armchair in front of the tv. A broken bottle of brandy on the floor by his feet along with several empty bottles of what appeared to be painkillers.

"Oh no! Oh no!"

I ran towards him and slapped him around the face to see if he was alive.
"Derek! Derek! It's mums birthday tomorrow, you can't do this!"

'If someone's unconscious, what do hit do? If someone's unconscious what do you do?'

Pulse! You check their pulse.

I placed two fingers on the side of his neck and managed to feel a slight pulse. He wasn't dead, but if the loser ever did something like that again, or didn't get through it, I would have flaming killed the sod!

I grabbed the landline and dialled 999.
"Hello, I think my stepdad has tried to commit suicide, he's drunk half a bottle of brandy and I think he's taken some paracetamol. I don't know how many. The address is 77 Hunstanton Road."

The wait for the ambulance felt like forever, but thinking about it now, I think it was only a few minutes. The front door was already open and I heard the ambulance outside. Two paramedics entered and I watched as they placed him on a stretcher and carried him out. I stood for a moment while the loaded him inside. The male paramedic turned to me and asked me if I wanted to go with him to the hospital.

"I can't. I've got stuff on." Was my rather selfish reply.

The female paramedic tapped her colleague on the shoulder and handed him a few envelopes.
"Chloe?" Asked the lady, "Mr McGee would like you to have these. He said they're important."

Before I could reply, the envelopes were in my hand and off sodding Derek went to the hospital. I had no sympathy for him whatsoever. If he cared about our family, about mum, Maddison, Lilly and Bradley, he wouldn't have even thought about that. He'd tried to take the cowards way out and I assumed the letters the paramedic gave me were suicide notes.

As I looked at them, I noticed they were each addressed to our family, Mum had her own, my name was with Maddison, and my two younger siblings also had a joint one. No, you don't! I wasn't going to have my mum and my brother and sisters come home to find those notes, so I did what every sister/daughter worth her salt would do in that situation. Without opening them, I shoved them in next doors bin.

Damn!

With everything I'd had to deal with that day, I'd completely forgotten about Lilly and Bradley, who were at after school club. I locked the door behind me and started to walk down the road to their primary school. Thankfully it wasn't that far away and it didn't take me very long. I knew they'd want to know why it was me picking them up and not Derek, who hadn't failed to pick Brad up since he started school two years ago.

As I approached I could see them waiting with a school teacher who I recognised since I was in Primary. She was a nice older lady who was also a lot of fun, I'm sure they would have been fine staying there for a while longer.

"Hi Mrs Adams," I said

"Hello, Chloe and how are you?" She said with a huge smile across her face. She tucked a stray strand of heather coloured hair back behind her ear.

"I'm very well, thank you."

"And how's Liberty, and that funny young Reginald?"

"They're fine." I said, almost snapping at the woman who used to be my favourite primary school teacher, "come on kids, we need to go. Say bye to Mrs Adams!"

"Bye bye Mrs Adams." Said Bradley and he waved to her. The lady waved back and we began to walk down the road to our grandmother's house. Grandma Joan didn't live far away from the school. It was the same school my mum went to when she lived with grandma and it was only a few minutes walk away.

For some reason, we walked in silence. My mind was on the party, but my siblings were much quieter than usual. Normally Lilly would be telling me all about her many friends and what they did during the week. Whereas Bradley would usually be talking non stop about his lessons and P.E. But the silence didn't last forever.

Lilly looked at me, her blue eyes stared. "Where's Derek?!" She folded her arms and looked like a little spoilt brat, even though she would be going to secondary school next September.

I had to think quick. She may have been younger than me, but she was most definitely not stupid.
"He's, err, gone to see his mum for a couple of days. He'll be back soon. Right, come on Brads, off to grandmas. She'll probably get the Scrabble out if we hurry."

Bradley looked at me as if copying Lilly. Unlike myself and my sisters, Derek was his biological father and he wasn't stupid. He knew something was wrong.

"Where's Daddy?!" He asked, for what would be the first of many times on the short walk to grandmas.

"His mums," I said

To be entirely honest, I didn't know if Derek even had a mother and at that moment, I didn't really care. As long as he didn't think the father he looked up to and whom he adored had tried to kill himself, that was fine by me.