(AN) Hello and welcome to the next chapter of Straw Dogs: Reimagined; hope you all enjoyed.
In this chapter the workmen begin to show their more evil side, we establish more characters and the chapter ends with a nasty surprise for Karen.
Disclaimer: I don't own Straw Dogs; all characters and locations are owned by their respective owners.
Chapter Two
It had been a few days since the Sumners had arrived in Wakely and so far, everything had been mostly peaceful with the exception of the workmen. Apart from Bobby, the others had barely done any work on the roof and spent most of their time talking or making fun of David.
David was currently hiding himself in a little study area; trying desperately to avoid Charlie and co. This had unfortunately led to him ignoring Amy and Karen, much to their frustration.
David's ears suddenly pricked up at the sound of approaching footsteps. The young man swivelled round in his chair and saw Karen and Kitty entering the room. "Hello there?" he said cheerfully. "What do you want?"
"Mum's taking me to visit Mr Hedden and his family," answered Karen. "Do you want to come."
"Sorry, Karen, I'm a bit busy at the minute." lied David.
"You're not busy; you're just hiding in here so you don't have to deal with Charlie and the others." pointed out Karen with a hint of frustration.
David flinched at those words. Karen may have been eight, but she could always tell what was happening if it was something an eight year old could understand.
"Karen, I really don't want to deal with them at all," explained the maths teacher. "It's just much safer in here."
"But you're their boss essentially, so you need to make them learn." pointed out Karen.
"It's not as easy as that." claimed David.
Karen sighed in defeat before stomping out of the room just as Amy entered.
"She has a point you know," pointed out Amy as she came to stand beside her husband; a sympathetic smile crossing her face. "You need to stand up to Charlie and the others and show them that you're not afraid of them."
"I know, I know, but I just don't want to cause any sort of trouble," muttered David darkly. "I thought you said Charlie was nice."
"I never said that," replied the middle-aged woman before wrapping her arms around David in a hug and giving him a kiss on the cheek. "Charlie's nice, but he's always had that habit of tormenting others that are smaller than him. Just stop hiding away and ignoring me and Karen."
"I'm sorry," apologised David. "I'll try my best."
Amy gave David another kiss before exiting the room.
The brunet looked down at Kitty, who was eyeing him with an irritable look.
"What are you looking at?" questioned David grumpily.
The black cat simply hissed before running off.
Amy and Karen soon arrived at the Heddens' house, where they met Mrs Hedden and her and Tom's other children, Bertie and Emma. Mrs Hedden was a middle-aged woman with tan skin and short, red hair. She wore round glasses. Emma was eight and had long blonde hair, while Bertie was in his twenties and had short blonde hair.
The group were currently sitting in the living room, talking.
"So, tell me what's been happening since I've been away?" asked Amy curiously.
"Oh, nothing much to be completely honest," replied Mrs Hedden. "The only notable thing is that Tom now has it in for Henry Niles."
"Henry Niles?" said a slightly confused Amy. "I heard about what happened to his parents; nice people."
"Yes," agreed the other woman. "John has been looking after Henry. Anyway, there was an incident a short while ago where some girl accused Henry of touching her inappropriately; all nonsense of course, but Tom and a few of the others still believe Henry to be a danger."
"Why would they think that if it turned out he didn't do it?" asked Karen curiously. "That's like if my dad accused my cat of using his laptop as a litter box even after it turned out that she didn't."
"Well, because Henry Niles is autistic and that means that he thinks and acts a bit differently than other people," explained Amy. "But that's not a bad thing and it certainly doesn't make him a danger to others."
"So, how have Bobby and the others been getting on with the roof?" asked Mrs Hedden.
"Bobby's actually been quite helpful," commented Amy. "The others; not so much. They've been lazing about and picking on David. I keep telling him to fire them, but he doesn't want to cause any trouble."
"Well, he shouldn't be standing for that," said Mrs Hedden sternly. "I hope Bobby hasn't been joining in on the bullying."
"No, no, he hasn't." assured the blonde.
Mrs Hedden smiled at this.
Soon after, Amy and Karen left. The car rolled into the farmyard and the two Sumner girls hopped out. As they began approaching the house, Scutt suddenly let out a cat-whistle. "Lookin' good, Mrs Sumner!" he called out.
"I beg your pardon!" snapped Amy as she whirled round to face the men sitting on the roof.
"Relax, beautiful; it's just a compliment!" hollered Cawsey before laughing.
"Don't tell me to relax you pervert!" retorted Amy.
"Hey, what's going on here?" asked David as he came running out of the house.
"Cawsey and Scutt were hitting on me!" said Amy, who felt very uncomfortable.
"What!" cried a shocked David before turning to the men on the roof. "Cawsey, Scutt, it's 2011; you can't just hit on a woman; especially my wife!"
"Just havin' a bit of fun." retorted Cawsey.
"Come on, let's get inside." insisted David before steering his wife and daughter into the house.
"David, you need to fire them!" insisted Amy hotly as the trio entered the living room. "I will not be treated like that!"
"Don't worry, I'll try and have a word with them," promised David. "Maybe they won't do it again."
"David, burying your head in the sand won't help," retorted Amy. "Besides, I don't like the idea of Karen being around men like that."
The young man nodded in understanding.
Meanwhile, Karen had gone into her bedroom and had gotten a water pistol from her cupboard.
After filling the water pistol with water, the blonde exited the farmhouse and approached the garage, she then aimed her water pistol at Cawsey and Scutt. "Oi you perverts, stop hitting on my mum!" she hollered.
Karen then pulled the trigger and sprayed water at Cawsey and Scutt, who both yelped in alarm. Charlie also got a bit wet and Bobby simply laughed.
"Karen!" cried David in shock as he and Amy came running to see what the commotion was.
Karen stopped what she was doing before turning to face her parents with a sheepish smile. "What?" she said. "They were hitting on you, so I decided to shock them."
"Yes, I know, but you can't go around soaking people that upset you." pointed out David sternly.
Cawsey glowered down at Karen with a look of pure hatred. "That little brat is a meance!" he muttered.
"Take it easy, Cawsey, she's just a child." said Charlie in a calming manner.
"A nasty little demon more like!" hissed Cawsey.
"Hey guys." called out David. "Listen, um, I'm very sorry about what Karen did; n-no hard feelings?"
One by one, Charlie, Scutt and Cawsey climbed down from the roof and approached David.
"None really, Mr Sumner." said Scutt coldly. "Anything else you'd like to add."
"S-stop hitting on my wife." said David nervously. "A-and get the roof finished; Bobby's doing his part."
"Whatever you say, Mr Sumner." snickered Charlie.
And without warning, Charlie shoved David to the ground before laughing along with Scutt and Cawsey before heading back to the garage.
David simply groaned as he lay on the ground; tears streaming down his face.
The next day, Karen was sitting on a swing set in the farmyard with Kitty on her lap. The young girl was currently watching the men mucking about on the roof, which was why she'd failed to notice the rat that was slowly crawling towards her. Kitty raised her head and began observing the rat. The cat then pounced and caught the rat before eating it.
"Kitty, did you catch a rat," cooed Karen as she looked up and noticed her precious cat chewing on something. "Good girl."
Kitty fully swallowed her meal before meowing.
"HEY!" shouted Cawsey as he suddenly came charging towards the two. "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!"
"Sorry, Mr Cawsey, did you want to deal with the rat?" asked Karen innocently as the rat exterminator stormed over to her; his face red with rage.
"That was one of my rats your cat just ate!" snapped Cawsey furiously.
"You keep rats as pets?" asked Karen in astonishment. "Why would you want to do that? Mice are better than rats."
And without warning, Chris slapped Karen across the face. "You wouldn't understand you arrogant little brat!" he barked angrily before grabbing the blonde and shaking her, making Karen scream in alarm.
"Hey, leave her alone!" snapped a horrified Amy as she and David ran over.
Amy quickly snatched a shaking Karen from Cawsey and wrapped her arms around her as she began sobbing. Charlie, Scutt and Bobby came running over.
"What's going on?" asked Charlie as he wrapped his arms around Cawsey's chest, preventing him from charging at Amy.
"Her cat ate one of my rats!" snarled Cawsey, pointing a firm finger at the young girl.
"It's a cat, that's what they do!" retorted Amy. "That doesn't give you the excuse to hit and throttle my daughter!"
"Amy's right!" agreed David. "You know what, Cawsey; you're fired!"
"What!" cried a shocked Cawsey.
"You heard me!" snapped the maths teacher firmly. "You've not been working on the roof and have just been l-lazy and you just assaulted my daughter!"
"Am I going to get paid?" asked Cawsey.
"You'll get paid," promised David. "Now get out of here."
Cawsey glowered at David before storming off. Amy put Karen down.
"I'm so sorry about him." apologised Charlie sheepishly.
"Don't apologise for him, Charlie," said Amy. "He doesn't deserve it. Thanks for stopping him from hurting my daughter any further."
"No problem," replied the young man. "Hey, where did your cat go?"
Amy looked around and suddenly noticed that Kitty had vanished. "Oh, I'm sure she ran back inside." she said.
But it soon turned out that Kitty was not inside the house or anywhere in the farmyard. By the time they'd finished searching, night had fallen.
The Sumners were currently sitting in the living room. David had his arm wrapped around Karen in a comforting manner.
"Don't worry, Karen, I'm sure we'll find her," assured David in a comforting manner. "She can't have gone too far."
"What if Cawsey found her and did something to her?" suggested Karen. "He was really angry that she ate his rat."
"Surely not." replied a horrified Amy.
There was suddenly a light knock at the front door. Before she could be stopped, Karen sprang to her feet and ran over to the door. "Maybe somebody's found Kitty!" she cried excitedly.
The young child opened the door, but was surprised to see nobody there, she then looked down and her eyes widened in horror before screaming in terror and crying with distress. David and Amy raced over to the open door and Karen leapt on to David before sobbing into his shoulder.
"Oh my god!" cried a shocked Amy.
Lying on the doorstep was Kitty's dead body. Her eyes were frozen in fear and there was a piece of rope wrapped around her throat.
(AN) And that will do it for this chapter of Reimagined; hope you all enjoyed.
Sorry for the delay: took me longer than expected to figure out how I wanted this chapter to play out.
So yes, the death of Kitty the cat is a bit different in this story and actually a bit closer to the original novel. In the original novel, Karen is the one who finds the dead cat right outside the farmhouse.
In the next chapter, we get to the hunting trip, but most importantly, we get my interpretation of THAT scene.
Until then, this is TimeLordMaster108 signing out.