Category : Books-Fiction

Sub Category : Thriller

After a long stuggle with cancer, Beths Mother finally passed away. It was exactly one year ago to the day that her Mother had passed.

Her father had died four years before that and together the bond that Beth and her MOther shared, right up to her dying days had been remarkable.
For a mother and daughter who had never seen eye to eye, her fathers death seemed to bring them closer together. They only really had eachother.

For Beth, being an only child, had garnered her a lot of affection and attention growing up from her MOther and Father but as everyone aged, this
seemed to decline. Anna, Beths Mother had always told her that she was ‘Daddy’s girl’. Her Father was quite high up in the Army and had a great pension now. She could have said this with some jelousy and resentment in her voice. It didn’t matter now.
Bethanys father had passed away of Cancer too. Her Father died fairly rapidly next to the slow decline of her Mother. In a way, her Fathers passing had been a godsend for her relationship with
her Mother. This death shook their small unit to the core. Anna seemed to become more ill then not in the years after her husbands passing. Neither of Beths parents were particularly old as such.

Beth herself was 28 now. Both parents were in their 50s when they passed away. Her mother developed Ovarian Cancer the follwing year after her husbands death. It started with a pain around her stomach.

Beth watched her Mother go from home to hospital many times. Like her husband, Annas Cancer had spread as was inoperable and was just a matter of time. Anna died holding onto Beths hand. Both had worked out their
demons in the months previous and were overjoyed to experience the authentic closeness they never seemed to have before that day.
At the time, Bethany didn’t know what to do or where to go without her parents. Her father had relinqished his savings in his will and gave them to his daughter and his wife to be shared equally. It was in Annas
wil lthat Bethany would get the property to do what she saw fit with it. Anna started working as a Primary School teacher a year after her Fathers death. She was unmarried and with no children.

She was essentially free to do what she wanted. She had moved into a small apartment only a mile away from the school and two miles from her parents house. She had put a lot of her Fathers money into the bank

and didn’t touch it. Bethany was a quiet, sensible woman. She was very pretty, even if she didn’t know it. Some may have called her old-fashioned but she didn’t know another way to be. Both of her parents were very traditional, if a little religious but not in a
strict sense of the word.

Now, it was a year to the day since Anna had passed away. Beth spared no expense in getting her friends together and planning the kind of funeral her Mother would have wanted. There was a procession, there was a beautiful coffin
and a very conservative church service. Bethany had a very tight knit group of friends. She was an expert at keeping friends and rarely had any friction within her group.

As soon as the coffin was lowered into the grave, she now had the striking sense of being alone. She was having such an amazing time with her Mother and now it seemed to fade away much too soon.

SHe knew she would have to make some sort of life for herself outside of what she knew and what she was used to. She was rich of pocket at this stage but her heart had a deep yearning for change. She needed not only change but that passion again.

It was the first time in her life she felt true loneliness.
She was the fifth class teacher in her local Primary School. She had come to be very fond of her class. Over the time she taught there, her confidence grew. Beths ability to expand her heart so that every student got the best of her was obvious to see.

Yet, she was tired. She was tired of the routine. She felt like she was getting older and wanted children of her own. Except for having a few short-term flings, there was no-one there that she could start a family with. Much like her parents she craved a traditional lifestyle.

She needed to get away from here. So she did. She sold her parents house and gave in her notice at her apartment. Her landlord was sad to see her go but she felt it was for the best. She kissed her space goodbye.

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Beth came out of her local church at Midday. It was a Sunday so the Church was busy. She relished in looking at all the new faces and shyly introduced herself to some people there. She had lit a candle and said a few prayers for her parents. She had almost picked up where she left off. She was teaching now in a new school. Beth had a great track record and had proven herself to be more then capable of managing the 6th class children.

She found a beautiful apartment within the city. With all the bustling people and cars honking and screeching, she certaintly was in a pretty different enviornment now. This city had 150,000 people, which was easily five times more then where she came from. The shellshock at first, turned to a sense of wonder, amusement
and adventure. She knew her perfect life was somewhere out here. This city had a wide array of people, all from different backgrounds and speaking in different language, yet everyone understood English perfectly as well. 

She made it her business to learn another language on the side.
Beth had neighbors and so far they all seemed fine, if a little unusual. She wasn’t used to people talking so fast and so loud. She wanted to fit in so she did her part to make herself the most likeable version of herself as she could.
Opposite her lived a young couple who had just tied the knot a few weeks previous to Beths arrival. They had a cat that Beth loved. Beth had never had a cat before and she had often thought about getting one as a companion. To her right, there was a man of about thirty-five. Beth thought he looked well-off because of his attire, which was mostly comprised of slick black and grey suits.