Page 246 of Releasing 10
She was out there.
I could feel it.
The monster had disappeared.
But the scary lady was always watching.
OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE NEW
Hugh
DECEMBER 31, 2000
AFTER THE INCIDENT AT THE POOL, LIZZIE’S MOOD HAD TANKED, AND NOTHINGI seemed to do brought it back up.
I couldn’t pull her out of the darkness that had settled over her, and because I was swamped with school, swim meets, and rugby, we weren’t able to spend as much time together as before.
It broke my heart because Iknewwhy this was happening. The Gardaí’s underwhelming response to our statement about seeing the woman from the woods had triggered memories of her sister’s death. Personally, I felt incredibly irked by not only the authorities’ lack of belief in my statement but our parents’ also. I was still salty as hell over what went down and couldn’t imagine how it felt for Liz to be failedtwice.
They could try to blame it on my girlfriend’s mental health until the cows came home, but I knew what I saw that night, and I absolutelysawthe woman from the woods.
What really rubbed me up the wrong way was when our parents decided to immediately pull the plug on our weeknight swims. They took precautions to prevent what they saiddidn’t happenfrom happening again. A lot like how my parentsdidn’t believeMark was a rapist, while simultaneouslyprohibitingmy sister from going across the street until he moved away.
Better safe than sorry.
The events at the pool seemed to fuel my outrage of my girlfriend’s treatment this past year, bringing with it a roaring surge of protectiveness.
I did my best to be there for her, skipping as many rugby practices as I could get away with to steal a few extra hours with my girl, but Liz was fading fast on me.
Christmas had been a bust, with all the plans we made to hang out evaporating when she took to the bed the second the school holidays arrived.
I slept over at Old Hall House as often as I could swing it during Christmas break, but Mam was on my back over our relationship and didn’t want to leave us in any potential scenarios wheretemptationmight arise.
Still, I managed to persuade her to let me stay with Liz tonight, but I thought that might have a lot more to do with the New Year’s Eve disco being held at the rugby club than Mam having a change of heart.
All the lads from school were heading to the disco and had been blowing up my phone all week, trying to sway me into attending. When they got wind of why I wasn’t going, I took a healthy dollop of teasing for choosing a girl over a night out with the lads.
I didn’t give a shit, and their taunting ran off me like water off a duck’s back, because I was the one curled up in bed with Liz, while they were off getting shit-faced in bushes and swapping spit with randomers.
“What time is it?” Liz asked then, stirring me from my reverie. Draping one long leg over mine, she burrowed deeper into my side, cheek resting on my chest. “Is it midnight yet?”
“Hang on, I’ll check.” Reaching for my phone on her nightstand, I quickly unlocked the screen and read the time out to her. “One minute to midnight.”
“That’s good.” Her voice was barely more than a whisper. “I thought I slept through it.”
It wouldn’t have bothered me if she had. I was relieved to see her get some decent sleep. I knew she suffered bad from insomnia when her mood was low and spent days lifeless in bed with her eyes staring off into nothing.
“Okay, now it’s midnight,” I stated, stroking her hair. “Happy New Year, Liz.”
“Happy New Year, Hugh.” With great effort, she lifted her face to mine and pressed a soft kiss to my lips before dropping back down. “Thanks for staying with me tonight. It means everything to me.”
“And you mean everything to me,” I reminded her, stroking her arm with the one I had draped over her. “Besides, we’ve rang in every new year together since 1994, and I have no plans for breaking the tradition.”
“Is this our tradition?”
“Of course,” I replied, reaching for the remote balancing on my stomach to pause the television running in the corner of her room. I had no clue what I’d been watching all night, but the white noise was oddly comforting. “I’m going to ring in every new year by kissing you until my lips fall off.”
“No matter what?”
