Short Story
Coke and Tears
Welcome to the wonderful world of Edward, or Ed as everyone else apart from his father called him. Ed was a spoilt brat but there was a caring side to him. Born to Lord and Lady Collyer, they lived in a Manor Estate in Dorset. His father was an important man and his title was the fourth highest in the British peerage system. He spent most of his time at the House of Lords, making money for old rope and socialising in private clubs.
Ed was sent to boarding school like his older brother and sister, it was a beautiful school in the countryside of West Sussex. It became home because Ed only went back to Dorset for the school holidays. It was always nice for Ed to go home but he would often get lonely because his sister and brother were older and didn’t want to hang out with him. They had better things to do.
The house was great for hide and seek, there were so many nooks and crannies to get lost in. However, it did get a bit eerie at night with the wind making howling noises down the corridors, on some nights it sounded like a pack of wolves. There were gothic features which fascinated him and the art work in one particular room had five Doom paintings. These depicted the Last Judgment from God, horrific and gruesome, they were painted to scare people into behaving or going to hell. Ed loved and loathed them depending on his mood. There was a lingering smell in the house he would never forget, it smelt like flowers, lilies maybe.
When Ed was ten his mother passed away. He would never talk about it. It had such a terrible effect on everyone close to her. She was such a kind person, his father met her when she was only eighteen, she had a difficult start to life but Ed was never privy to the details. Ed’s sister, Lily took the tragedy worse than anyone, she went off the rails and disappeared, but that’s another story.
The Lord didn’t mourn for long and remarried just eighteen months later. Ed found it hard but on the few occasions he met his stepmother she was kind and left him to his own devices. By now Henry, his older brother was twenty two and after graduating he moved to North London and worked in the city. Ed was surprised and saddened by how easy his father and brother had moved on.
In school, Ed had to share a room with Mason, they got on well and loved sneaking out and exploring the old buildings, looking for underground tunnels and bunkers. The school was called Christ’s Hospital and the students were made to wear long dark blue coats and yellow socks, it was very traditional as these places usually are, it was older than the United States of America. Mason was from Essex, his father was a surgeon, Mason was a bit wild and would smoke cigarettes and weed, he even introduced Ed to cocaine. This was a bad move, Ed loved getting high, it changed him.
School flew by, Ed was obsessed with football, he played and was pretty good, he captained the school team. Life was good, he wanted for nothing, he was even in a band. The problem with having it all on a plate was that Ed and his chums felt superior to others. They would be rude and offensive, maybe a politician in the making. Deep down Ed still wasn’t really happy, there was something missing.
Ed became an undergraduate at Exeter University. By now, like many people his age, he started partying hard. Three, four nights a week they were out getting drunk and high, it was chaotic. Ed loved it, he became confident and was able to meet girls, he would be the life and soul and his exploits became legendary.
Ed had always loved Exeter and it wasn’t too far from his home. Ed joined a band at University called “Butterscotch Envy”. They were fairly funky with a great lead singer, Ed was on base guitar. They played at local pubs and clubs and were getting noticed online but it takes a lot of luck to make it big. The posh boys would dress up in second hand clothes and mess their hair up to try and look working class. They were worried about their privileged lives being exposed and ruining any street cred they had.
Ed liked a drink with his mates and now a few grams of cocaine became the norm. It was like the icing on the cake. The buzz was addictive, Ed became a different person, he felt super human when he was high, he floated above the crowd. When Ed wasn’t, he was depressed. He had to play a straight bat when he was at home as his father couldn’t find out. He even wore long sleeves to hide his self harm cuts. The gravy train would be stopped just like with his sister. By all accounts the heir, Henry was now engaged and doing “super” well. However, poor Lily hadn’t ever recovered from losing her mother, and had all but stopped contact with the family. She was supposed to be in the Brighton area, Ed really missed her but she was an adult so had to make her own path, but that didn’t stop him worrying about her. When their mother died, Ed would sneak into Lily’s bed for comfort, he would never forget that, he loved her. Ed had heard that Lily was on heroin, it broke his heart.
After graduating, Ed stayed in the band and they organised a UK tour. “Butterscotch Envy” was going all the way up the UK via, Bath, Bristol, Swansea, Cardiff, Manchester, Liverpool and then back down to Coventry, Birmingham, Milton Keynes, London and the final date was to be in Brighton. It was going to be messy. They had a minibus and would stay in cheap hotels.
The tour was a lively affair. Most of the venues were a sellout. The drugs were flowing and a few of the group had a visit from the ambulance service. Stomach pumped, lack of food, sleep deprivation and the lows were so bad that the only way to pick themselves back up was another hit of whizz or coke. They were on the fast track to dependency. They didn’t know they were addicts until they nearly died from it. When Ed was using he didn’t care whether he lived or died, he believed it helped him.
The last gig was in Brighton, it was at the Concord Club. As usual the boys went out and performed with vigour and passion, they were still buzzing after the encore. The crowd screamed for more and swayed together like the ocean. Afterwards they went to a house party in a run down house or was it a squat . It was packed full of people drinking, smoking weed and dancing. Ed was on coke as usual and steaming; he went upstairs for a pee, he went into the wrong room and there was a young woman lying face down on the bed.
Ed wanted to wake her to see what she looked like. He prodded her and kept telling her to wake, he went to the bathroom and came back with some water. He was convinced the water would wake her so threw it on her head, nothing!
When he couldn’t rouse her he got his hands under her left shoulder and turned her over. The young woman’s hair was messy and all over her face, Ed moved it to the side and then realised who it was.
Ed froze, this woman wouldn’t move, wouldn’t wake, this woman was dead. This woman was his missing sister, his beautiful Lily.
Her friends called her Chaos.
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