AN: I've had this idea running around in my head for a while but never really got around to writing it but tonight I managed to scribble notes down and wrote this short prologue, this is a brief introduction to a story I have planned. I hope you enjoy this small piece and I hope to continue it.
Summary: Nineteen year old Pamela Swynford de Beaufort finds life after the WW2 difficult to handle and decides to leave America in search of a new life in Sweden as a cleaner to a millionaire, but she discovers dark secrets along the way that may change her path forever.
What Lies Beneath
Prologue
Pam:
Five long years had come and gone since the victorious announcement that we had won the war had been broadcast through our radios, we had ended the reign of brutality that Hitler had once viciously thrown in our faces as he stood high on his murderous pedestal. It was over, no more suffering, no more meaningless torture. The skies had cleared and we were basking in our glory, it was the time of our lives.
I had remembered the first year, when the sea of soldiers arrived home with pride in their faces as they held their heads high enjoying every moment of praise that rightfully flew in their direction. And among the brave stood my father, George de Beaufort, when he had come home from Germany he brought back stories of courage and terror.
His smile was wide as he described fighting alongside the French soldiers, he had been born and raised in Marseille and so it had been exciting returning home. I adored the memories that flew through his eyes as he sat with me on his lap, creating pictures for me that were unbelievable. That first year had been amazing.
But when the second year came around it became apparent that although my father had left the war, the war hadn't left him. I remember waking up every night to his screaming, the crying of my mother as she tried her best to comfort him through the horrific nightmares that I couldn't even begin to imagine. That had been hard for all of us, especially when he began to drink and come home in the early hours of the morning screaming abuse at my mother.
I remember being terrified of him, that one day he was going to snap and do something he would regret – the war had ruined him. Doctors were calling it shell shock, I didn't quite know what that meant at the time but I had an idea that it was something to do with disturbance to the mind after warfare. But my father would never admit that he had a problem, he was a proud man and in the end it was the pride that had killed him.
When year three came around, my father was no longer recognisable. He had changed completely, he was no longer the sweet natured popular Frenchman who kissed his wife every night and sang lullabies to his children. He was an alcoholic and abuser; I remember hearing him hitting my mother at night when I had been asleep in bed with my younger brother.
I remember glasses breaking and crying, I remember the blood stains on her dress in the morning and the black eyes that she tried to hide with makeup. And I remember her screams when he held a gun to his head and blew his brains out...
Those three years had been the best and worst of my life, I welcomed my father home from war only to bury him due to the demons that had poisoned his mind. And now, two years later I was still adjusting to life without him – and I couldn't do that in Seattle. When I lay my head down at night in my mother's house I was reminded of the breakdown of my family, I still heard his screaming and my mother's crying even now. The ghosts of nightmares remained in these walls and I needed to get out.
So I decided to make the boldest and scariest move I had ever taken, I was leaving the country. In three weeks I would arrive in Sweden by ship with the promise of a job as a cleaner in a millionaire's mansion, my father's brother had good contacts from around the world and I couldn't thank him enough for giving me this opportunity.
I had never been in Scandinavia before, but I had been taught the basics of Viking history in school and it interested me so I was beyond excited. This would be an experience of a lifetime, and hopefully it would get rid of this dark cloud that hung over my head. At nineteen I had never been on my own before, it was intimidating but maybe this was the push I needed to move on with my life.
