Claire Ladds

Crime and suspense author

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Till You Die (Part 4)

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Welcome to the blog, and to Till You Die, Part 4.

This is the story that is retiring as the FREE e-book that you get when you sign up to my Readers’ Club. It’s free to read in serialised parts here, but no longer as a freebie for my Readers’ Club members. There’s a brand new FREE novella from my Darker Minds crime and suspense series, which I am giving away to anyone who signs up to my Readers’ Club. More details at the bottom of this post.

If you’d like to catch up on any parts of Till You Die that you’ve missed, here are Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

Things are beginning to grow into a nightmare for our poor Joanna. I’ll let you find out how…

Happy reading! 😊

Joanna’s next few days were taken up with trying to listen in on every phone conversation Craig had. Her nerves were on edge, her breath felt shallow and often she found her hands shaking. She hid it from everyone, especially her brother, Mark. She didn’t want to have a conversation about Craig with him. When he’d brought her a Danish pastry and a bag of cheese straws from the bakery, he’d sat there with a cup of tea, and said, ‘There’s something wrong, isn’t there, sis? Don’t try and kid me. Is it the baby?’ She’d shaken her head and smiled, but her lips felt wobbly, and she’d cried on Mark’s chest while he’d growled, ‘It’d better not be that bloody husband of yours who’s upsetting you.’

And she began to convince herself – in fact she was sure – that the watch ball appeared, to her eyes at least, to be changing. Whenever she went into the nursery, she noticed that the threads inside emitted a vivid shimmer, until they combined in the middle to form a kind of glitter, similar to descriptions she’d read on the Internet. It made the glass looked rather like a snow globe. She remembered getting a glitter ball with a resin image of a winter wonderland inside when she was a child.

But she wasn’t living in a wonderland. She was living through a nightmare. It didn’t escape her notice that the only time the watch ball looked different was when Craig was in the house. The rest of the time, when she held it up to the light as she had done in the shop, it looked just like a harmless and beautiful glass ornament. She knew she shouldn’t be uneasy – scared – of her own husband, but that was just how she was beginning to feel. It was stupid, basing her every waking moment on craziness like this, but she couldn’t help it. Something was going on. She knew it.

Joanna should have been making her final preparations for the baby’s arrival – all those things she wrote on her list and stuck on the inside of the wardrobe door when she’d been for her twenty-week scan. But only her suitcase was packed. She watched, elephant-like and helpless, whenever Craig moved. If she’d seen the watch ball glow, she’d examine every expression, every flash of those magic eyes, every smile (was it a smile or a grimace at being with her?). She’d invent ideas about what Craig was thinking, and it left her with awful, disturbing dreams whenever she dozed off in the chair. And she couldn’t shake that feeling which had begun to engulf her in every waking moment that he was watching, waiting, biding his time to do – she didn’t know what. She was beginning to be petrified to be in a room with him. She jumped if he touched her.

‘My God, Joanna, you’re a wreck.’ Craig stood there, shaking his head, as she screamed when he entered the bedroom. She watched his green eyes glow as he continued, ‘What’s on earth’s the matter with you? You’ll end up with a shrink if you carry on.’

Maybe that was what he was trying to do – send her mad, so he could do as he liked while she suffered from a breakdown. And he would be in her Gran’s house, with her money. Stories of Victorian women who had been incarcerated by their husbands filled her fantasies. At night, she imagined scraping her nails on brick walls in the darkness, screaming where no one cared.

Other times, between the bouts of indigestion she dreamt of Craig, hiding in the shadows, waiting round corners, sometimes with a knife in his hand or sometimes, as she came through the door, he just grabbed her by the mouth. She would wake up sweating and the baby would be kicking as if it was trying to get out. All of this was why Joanna began sleeping in the nursery. She told Craig it was better for her back, which was beginning to really ache, and that he would get more sleep without her tossing and turning next to him, seeing as he had to drive to work in the morning. And every time he left the house, she turned the key and left it in the lock the moment his foot was off the doorstep. He couldn’t get back in unless she opened the door. She was sure he couldn’t.

I really hope you’re enjoying this story, and the darker turn that it’s taken!

I WANT TO SIGN UP TO THE READERS’ CLUB

And if you’d like to take a look at Show Me Dead, the first novel I’ve written in the Darker Minds series, you can find that here.

Show Me Dead by Claire Ladds

Till You Die (Part 3)

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Welcome to Part 3 of Till You Die. Things are beginning to take a turn into suspicion territory for our Joanna. But I shan’t say any more – I’ll let you read it for yourself!

If you’ve missed parts 1 and 2 of this short story, you can find them here:

Part 1

Part 2

Happy reading! 😊

Joanna decided not to relay the details of her conversation in the shop, as they drove home. She did throw in, ‘Wouldn’t have mattered if I’d been a bit longer in that shop, seeing as you were on the phone.’

Craig rolled his eyes. ‘Longer? Seriously?’ Then he shrugged. ‘Just someone from work, wanting to know if I wanted to go out tonight. I said I’d see.’

‘See what?’ She knew she was getting wound up about nothing, really. But she watched Craig’s face intently, waiting for a reply.

‘See if you’re feeling all right for me to leave you on your own.’ He squeezed her knee. ‘You’re looking a bit peaky. I wouldn’t dream of going anywhere if you’re not feeling well.’

‘Maybe it was all that walking about.’ The walnut head hovered in Joanna’s mind and refused to budge. ‘Maybe I just overdid things a bit. That’s all.’

‘Well, I did say so, didn’t I?’ The words sounded a bit abrasive, so Joanna stayed almost silent the rest of the way home, using the excuse of the burger Craig bought her from the drive-thru to keep words to a minimum.

Once they were safely indoors, Craig offered to cook, and she took him up like lightning on the idea. The baby had started playing football on her bladder, so she took the opportunity to sit down with her laptop and trawl the Internet in search of information on watch balls, or witch balls, or whatever they were called. All the time the food was cooking, Joanna was down a research rabbit-hole. She was fascinated by the images she found. The pictures she found of different designs were so beautiful – like hers. She discovered that the Victorians hung them near windows to ward off evil spirits. Then she found a website that said how strongly people used to believe that if the ball changed colour and emitted light, real evil was nearby. A bristle of something strange ran up her spine as she recalled the way the ball had glowed in the shop. She read it again. It was just old-fashioned superstition, she told herself.

Joanna took the ball out of her bag after they’d eaten, and wandered with it up to the room they’d chosen for a nursery. Or, she’d chosen, really. Craig had just gone along with whatever she said.

‘It’s a bit weird. I don’t like it much,’ Craig said when Joanna showed it to him. It was nothing less than she expected, really. He hadn’t wanted her to spend the money on it, after all.

‘Oh, well,’ she sighed, ‘I’ll keep it in here, on the nursery window sill.’ She looked at him, hoping there would be a flicker of emotion at the word ‘nursery’. There was nothing. Her bottom lip quivered as she continued, ‘You won’t see it much in here.’

Craig pursed his lips, but he said nothing about the baby. She hadn’t expected that he would – not really, even though he was painting the walls primrose yellow at her request. Paint spotted on his shirt, and he tutted as he said, ‘You ought to be careful with that ball, here by yourself all day. You could end up in a fire.’

Joanna frowned as she tried to focus on the paintbrush going up and down the wall, instead of Craig’s words. She felt the beginnings of a panic attack; her chest tightened and she began to sweat, but she took in deep breaths and let them go slowly, like the doctor had said, and it calmed down. ‘What do you mean – fire? I don’t want a fire. That’s why we’ve had all the electrics rewired.’

‘Oh, I just meant – can’t sunlight shine through glass and cause fires, sometimes? It magnifies or something. And the wires would have been perfectly fine. But, whatever.’ Craig smiled. Joanna felt sick.

‘This room doesn’t get full sunlight,’ she muttered. But her heart had begun to thump and she moved the ball off the window sill and onto a nearby chest of drawers. She had just put it down when she groaned and clutched the wall.

‘What’s the matter?’ Craig spun round and through her pain, she grinned. At last, some reaction.

‘I’m fine. It’s just Braxton Hicks contractions – I think. You know they come a few weeks before the birth. I’ve had them before.’

‘Really?’ he asked, as he turned and continued with the painting.

She stared at his back while she waited for the pain to subside. When would he show some interest? Would he ever show any? She only had a couple of weeks to go but he just blanked it all out whenever he had the chance. She wondered if he discussed it with others – his mum, perhaps, or someone at work?

Craig’s mobile rang. Joanna watched how he jumped, flung down the brush and looked frantically around for something to wipe his hand on. ‘Damn. Keep ringing.’

‘Want me to answer it?’

‘No. I’ll do it.’ He flung down the brush.

‘Want me to get it out of your pocket, then?’

‘No, it’s fine.’ He thrust his hand inside his jeans, leaving paint on the pocket.

‘Hello?’ Joanna watched him stifle a smile, then he spoke very deliberately, clearly for her benefit. ‘Hello, Mum. What’s up?’ He turned to Joanna. ‘I could do with a cuppa. And it would get you out of these paint fumes.’

Joanna said nothing. She glanced at the watch ball. Its colours shone out from the tangle of threads, beautiful and bright, just as it had when the old man had given it to her. She left the room. Craig wouldn’t have noticed the welling tears stinging her eyelids.

Joanna picked up the phone on the kitchen worktop. She rang a familiar number.

‘Hello?’ queried Craig’s mum at the end of the line.

I really hope you’re enjoying the story so far, and especially the character of Joanna. I have to say that I very much enjoyed writing about her. Expect to see her appear in a Darker Minds book sometime in the foreseeable future.

If you’ve read the other parts to the story, you’ll know that I’ve written a new novella, Beneath the Flesh, which is the welcome FREE gift for new members of my Readers’ Club.

My Readers’ Club members get all the latest, exclusive updates on my upcoming books, other exclusive behind the scenes info, news of any offers I may have from time to time, and also the chance to become a part of my Advance Reader Team for new books. There’s other exclusive fun stuff, too.

Fancy joining? Just click the button or image below to head to the signup page.

I’D LOVE TO JOIN THE READERS’ CLUB

Till You Die (Part 2)

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Welcome to Part 2 of Till You Die. So far, you’ve been introduced to Joanna and her husband, Craig. Now you can see what happens when Joanna decides to peruse the strange shop without her disinterested spouse…

If you haven’t had a chance to read Part 1 yet, you can find it here.

Happy reading! 😊

Joanna pushed open the door, alone. It was how she had felt much of the time in the last few months – ever since she had dragged Craig away from shooting at strange little critters on his phone by literally snatching it from his hand, to shouts of, ‘Oi! I was nearly on the next level, then! And that’s my phone.’ She’d sat him down with a steak and a bottle of wine, waited until the food dragged him out of his huff, then told him she was pregnant.

A huge bell clanged over her head as she walked into the shop. Very, very different to the silence which had met her over that steak and wine. The baby kicked and Joanna held onto her chest, to prevent her heart pummelling its way out through her ribs. She breathed hard, gathering her composure, but also unsure which was actually worse – this sudden clang or that lingering silence.

She had to blink a few times to accommodate the dimness inside the poky room. As her eyes began to get used to the dark corners and equally dark walls, shelves and floor, slowly, exotic-looking figurines came into view: a shelf of incense and josticks; candle holders in shapes of something resembling gargoyles; books with black leather bindings; other objects she had no clue about. Flickering candles perched, arranged in a line along the ash-wood counter, their glazed candle holders emitting an intense glow which cast green shadows around the walls. As Joanna did a full, slow 360-degree spin, the glow caught on the dangling glass ornaments hanging from cords all around her. ‘Hmm, magic green,’ she muttered to herself.

The place would certainly have given Craig the creeps, and she was pleased, now, that he hadn’t come in after all. But something about the place with its eery colours and claustrophobic arrangement intrigued her, and she wanted to stay, just for a while.

‘Do you like green? It is supposed to be a witch’s colour.’

The words came suddenly out of the corner of the counter. Joanna jumped and held her chest while she caught her breath, her eyes flitting around, seeking the voice’s origin…

‘Oh, I am sorry. I did not mean to frighten you.’ A little man with a walnut-crinkled face grabbed Joanna by the hand. Joanna hated being grabbed, spooked, and she stifled a squeal and began to pull away. But she froze as the green glow shone on his face and on the baldness of his tiny, shrunken head.

‘You called it magic green, did you not?’ He smiled with his thin, dry lips, and Joanna thought how strangely he spoke. ‘What are you seeking, my dear?’ The walnut face frowned. Now it looked like a dead person’s brain. ‘Protection?’

Joanna smirked as she stroked her belly. A little late for that, she thought. ‘I was… well, actually, I was looking for some sort of ornament for my new house.’

The man held out a sparkling gold and glass angel in the palm of his hand.

‘A guardian angel. See how she sparkles?’

All Joanna could see was how the green glow reflected on the glass. It was starting to make her feel a little bit queasy.

‘She will protect you.’

‘I don’t want a guardian. I don’t need protecting.’ Joanna took a step back.

‘Are you sure?’

The old man’s intent stare left her shifting from foot to foot. ‘I have my husband to do that.’

Joanna jumped again, as she heard a rap on the window. She spun round to see Craig’s face peering through. As she did so, her eyes alighted on several baubles hanging around the window on thick, golden cord. She motioned to Craig to wait another few minutes, as she moved in to hold the closest of the baubles. Resting it between her finger and thumb, she noticed that, what little light from the window there was, shone right into the glass. Inside were the strangest of threads – strands really – which lit up the ball in an array of stunning colours.

‘Unhook it, please do,’ the old man said. Joanna smiled and did precisely that, bringing it to her face for a closer look. She touched the glass, fascinated, trying to trace the threads. And, as she watched, the ball began to give off the faintest of light.

Joanna sensed the old man was standing right behind her, watching. ‘What is this? It’s beautiful.’ Joanna rolled it in her fingers as the strands continued to captivate her. The man didn’t speak. Joanna turned to face him, her face filling to the brim with beaming delight, and thinking he hadn’t heard properly. But, even through the green shadows, she couldn’t help noticing the colour drain from that walnut face.

‘It is a watch ball. Some have called it a witch ball in centuries past.’ He took the ball from her hand and the baby kicked hard.

A tap rattled against the window once more. Craig stuck his face to the glass, poking at the face of his watch. Through the tiny panes of glass, she heard the muffled, ‘Hurry up, Joanna. I’m getting leg-ache out here.’

The ball emitted a low glow as the baby continued to wriggle inside her. Joanna’s discomfort multiplied, inside and out.

Joanna felt strange; her head began to whir, and she grasped at the counter to the sound of the walnut head murmuring, ‘You must breathe. Breathe. It will pass.’ At least, she thought the old man was speaking. Maybe she was imagining it. She knew that she’d been worked up lately. The last few months had been filled with chaos. The scans of the baby had terrified her each time, just in case they had discovered anything wrong. By the time they had offered her the amniocentesis, Craig had made it quite clear that he didn’t want to know – buried his head in the sand. Even his mum, each time she rang after every scan, couldn’t get anything out of him. She didn’t help matters much, though, by constantly saying, ‘As long as it’s healthy, that’s all that matters. A perfect little baby for a perfect little family.’ Joanna wished that she wouldn’t ring quite so often.

It had been at about this time that Joanna had begun to notice the mobile calls. She’d answered Craig’s phone a couple of times when it had been charging in the kitchen. It had gone dead quickly. The other week she had plucked up the courage to ring the number, and, as her baby kicked and jostled inside her, she had heard a woman’s voice answer. She’d hung up too quickly to notice if she’s even recognised the voice.

The squeeze of her hand reminded her of where she was. The little man offered up the ball that she had admired so much.

‘Do not worry about the payment, my child.’ His face was deadly serious. ‘When the ball glows, it means there is trouble. You may come to harm.’ Joanna watched him glance towards the window. He put his hand on her bump and she flinched. ‘He will try to hurt you. Be careful, my dear. He will harm you. Take the ball. Watch it. If it glows, find someone you can trust.’

Joanna held the ball. It was beautiful, fascinating, secretive. The threads glinted as the old man pushed it down into the palm of her hand. ‘Be careful. Protect yourself.’

Joanna left the shop, clutching the glass ball. Her eyes blinked rapidly against the sunlight and it was only then that she could see just how stunning the threads really were. A watch ball. Or a witch ball?

There was Craig, leaning up the railings opposite her, talking on his mobile. She watched as he laughed and talked. She was too far away to hear. The shop bell clanged behind as the door closed and she jumped. So did he, she noticed.

‘Call you later,’ she heard him say. He smiled as he hung up and strode over to her. She put the ball in her bag, out of sight. She didn’t want any trouble, not just now.

‘There you are. What kept you? Did you find anything?’

Joanna forced a smile.

‘There wasn’t much inside that we would both have liked,’ she replied. ‘I just got a small thing – a glass ball. It’s pretty.’

Craig grunted. ‘Told you it was a waste of time. Do you still have cravings for cheeseburgers, or can we go home now?’

‘Craig,’ Joanna blurted, before she could stop herself, ‘do you love me?’

She waited for the irritated sigh or the roll of his eyes. But instead, he turned to her and looked her right in her face, his magic eyes staring straight into hers. ‘I’ve told you before, I love you, more than I’ve ever loved anyone. I’ll love you till you die.’

Joanna wanted to laugh and say that he’d have to put up with her for a lot longer yet, like she normally would. But she didn’t. Craig began to walk away, back to the car, and she followed on behind.

As I mentioned in my previous post, Till You Die is now replaced as the exclusive downloadable story for those who sign up as my Readers’ Club members. The new FREE book is a novella in the Darker Minds series, called Beneath the Flesh, and is part of my Darker Minds crime and suspense series.

My Readers’ Club members get all my updates on my latest projects, early and exclusive news on what’s going on behind the scenes, offers that I may have from time to time, and other exclusive goodies. It’s completely FREE to join.

Ready to join? Just click the button below to go straight to the signup page.

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Till You Die (Part 1)

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In the run-up to the release of Show Me Dead, I have been busy creating a new FREE book that anyone who joins my Readers’ Club receives when they join. The new book is a novella in the Darker Minds series, called Beneath the Flesh and I’m having a lot of fun with it. This means, though, that I have now retired Till You Die as the exclusive Readers’ Club story.

Till You Die

The watch ball warned her. But why would heavily pregnant Joanna be in danger? And who could possibly want her dead? Not her own husband, surely…?

The story is a short domestic psychological thriller with just an inkling of the supernatural. I’m serialising Till You Die here over the next few weeks. That means anyone can read it as it appears. But if you’d like to get your hands on the e-book, and have the entire story in one place to read whenever you wish, I’ll explain how you do that at the end of this post.

The first part of Till You Die is below. I hope you like it! 😊

Till You Die (Part 1)

‘In here, Craig. Come on.’ Joanna Fowler yanked at her husband’s jacket sleeve. ‘Oh, I’ve got to look in this one.’

Joanna’s heart sank a little as Craig eased the suede out of her grasp, breathed hard through his nose, and smoothed down the material, stroking it as if it was a prize pedigree dog. She tried to pretend to anyone who was walking through the pedestrianized town centre that she hadn’t noticed. But it wasn’t the first time. And she had noticed.

‘Careful, Joanna. It creases. What do you want to go in another shop for, anyway? Haven’t we bought enough today?’

Joanna saw Craig’s eyes scan over the bags he was holding, and she searched for the shine in them that always used to be there when they were out anywhere together. But it was absent, in the same way that the summer sunshine she had been trying to enjoy over the last few weeks had taken refuge behind a solitary thick billowy grey cloud. A strange pang lodged itself in between her ribs and stubbornly refused to dissipate.

‘I can’t carry any more baby things, Joanna, and the car boot’s already full. What else can you possibly want?’ There it was: that false laugh Craig had a habit of using with her when he was actually being very serious. ‘You’ll soon get through all that money of your potty Granny’s if you carry on like this.’

Joanna smiled at Craig, whose hands were turning a shade of purple as the handles of the bags dug into his hands, and she pretended to herself that she forgave him – yet again – for the way he always spoke about her Gran. She swallowed hard and tried not to let her emotions begin to bubble to the surface when he muttered, so far under his breath she was sure he didn’t think she could hear: ‘Then there won’t have been any point in her snuffing it, will there?’

Joanna stroked the massive bulge where the view of her feet used to be.

‘I just want the house Gran left to be right. And if we don’t do it now, before the baby’s born, who knows when we will? She always wanted me to be happy there.’ Joanna touched Craig on the arm.

‘I want everything to be right. Is it?’

The huff was audible, and the roll of his eyes couldn’t have been any more obvious. Emerald eyes. Magic, she had called them, when they first got together. ‘More like a bloody Warlock’s,’ her brother, Mark, had grunted, when he had first been introduced to Craig. He still called him creepy.

‘Do you know,’ she said, trying to avoid watching the expression in his face, ‘that we don’t even own a single ornament of our own. And I’d like some before the baby comes, to make the house look nice.

Craig tried, amid all the shopping, to fling his hands in the air.

‘Whatever for, woman? The baby won’t care whether we’ve got ornaments or not.’

‘You mean you don’t.’ There was a prickly sting behind her eyelids and she blinked rapidly to stop it turning to tears. She felt his eyes upon here, looking her up and down, and then came the frown that he used when he was concerned. But Joanna couldn’t help wondering if the look was genuine. This time. Anymore. She sighed; maybe she was getting a bit too overwrought. Paranoid, even. Craig loved her. He had since the moment he’d met her in the solicitor’s office, with Gran, and he’d showed them into a private office.

‘It’s about time you sat down, anyway, or you’ll be giving birth outside that grotty little shop you’re so eager to set foot in.’ Craig grimaced at it. ‘What is this place, anyhow?’

Joanna turned to face the shop properly. Its crumbling brickwork was shockingly different to the studded artificial walls of the large department stores they had traipsed around all afternoon. She stifled an involuntary grin as she watched Craig screwing up his nose at the dark green paint that was peeling off the door and the weather-beaten window frames. Craig had painted over their front door as soon as they had moved into Joanna’s Gran’s house, removing the deep, dingy green and replacing it with black. He said it went better with the iron gate. In fact, he’d made a few changes to the house, so that it was how he wanted it. And she had let him, because she loved him, and because she hadn’t wanted him to think about the possibility of an amniocentesis.

‘Mustn’t have any green that might compete with his beautiful eyes, must we?’ Mark had said in his sarcastic way, when he came to visit. ‘Don’t let him take over, Joanna. He might well be married to you, but this house was left to you, not him.’ She shivered as she recalled Mark’s expression as he continued, ‘And so was your inheritance money.’

Joanna shrugged off her thoughts of Mark. He could talk. He was out most nights, down the pub or clubbing. How many of his conquests had left their knickers in the house Gran had rented out to students, or stuck their claws into his half of the money, she wondered? And she tried not to feel bad for retorting, ‘You’re only jealous.’ She really hadn’t meant that. She knew he wasn’t. Not really.

‘Okay,’ sighed Craig, ‘if you really want to go in there, then do so. I’ll go and dump all this stuff in the car. I’ll be back shortly.’

‘Oh, won’t you come in?’ Joanna’s disappointment showed, despite herself, as Craig sneered and cast his eye back over the shop. Joanna turned her gaze back to the window.

‘It’s not my kind of place. All weird figures and charms and stuff hanging there. And my fingers are about ready to snap with the six million things you’ve already bought. I’ll wait for you out here, when I get back from the car park.’

‘OK, then. I’ll see you…’ Joanna turned to kiss Craig, but he had already begun walking back through the precinct.

Part 2 will be on the blog in a few days. If you’d like to claim a copy of my new FREE novella, Beneath the Flesh, you might want to join my Readers’ Club. It’s completely free to join and you get all my writing updates, early (and exclusive) news about my upcoming and latest releases, offers I might have from time to time, and other members-only goodies. As a welcome gift, you can download your FREE copy of Beneath the Flesh, to read on any device of your choosing.

Ready to join? Just click the button below to take you to the signup page.

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