Lord Have Mercy.


Short Story. 


Six in the morning, Police are at the door. Philippa answered it with a dressing gown draped over herself. 

“What is it?” She barked. 

“Madam, can we come in, we need to talk to you and your husband?”


Philippa let the two male officers in, one was very young, and the other was in his forties, looking like he’d had a long night. She showed them to the living room and went upstairs to wake her husband. 


Rewind many years…..


Lord and Lady Collyer were products of the UK aristocracy. Born to the manor, some would say they had won the lottery. Inheriting titles, money, land and a beautiful country mansion. Surely this is everyone’s dream. 


A dream, however in reality it was a nightmare. 


The Lord had always lived in this mansion, other than when he was at boarding school. The house was huge and as a child he loved to investigate, searching around the grounds looking for anything exciting. One day when he was eight he found the basement, it was dusty and damp and smelt a bit stale. Under some plastic coverings were some large picture’s. They were really odd and quite scary, they had figures that looked like they were being tortured and in pain. This intrigued him and he spent ages just staring at them. 

He couldn’t believe someone might have to go through all of that pain. 


When he was twenty his parents went to mainland Europe for a break, but unfortunately they never made it back. It was 1987 and they were travelling back to the UK on a car ferry. As it left the port of Zeebrugge in Belgium the ferry capsized, the bow doors were left open which allowed water onboard. 193 people died that day including his parents. 


Overnight he took his father’s title and became Lord Collyer, he was now a Viscount. He was extremely young to take this responsibility but that was the life they led. 


Let’s not forget about the death of his parents, he was now an orphan. He got on fairly well with them, he was closer to his father. They used to walk and climb together in the Lake District. Those trips were some of the best times he’d ever had. His father was a very traditional man and at times their relationship was formal, but not of the trips to Cumbria. 


After a few years of cosplaying as a Viscount, he needed a wife, someone to live and share this life with him. He was set up with various “rich little princesses“ but couldn’t take their entitled behaviour. He was too impatient and wanted a nice humble girl. He took a fancy to a petite cleaner at his house. She was a brunette, thin, blue eyes and had a few tattoos that he noticed. Was it lust or love. 


The Lord took a chance and they got closer and closer. It was love, however his peers didn’t agree as she wasn’t from their background, she was a commoner. Her name was Emma (yes, different to the lady at the start of the story).

Dressed up, Emma looked every bit a lady, she looked elegant, some said she resembled Audrey Hepburn. However, under the surface was a young girl with a history of crime and drug abuse. Emma hid it from her new husband, he was naïve when it came to the streets. He had been protected his whole life. Maybe the mystery was part of the attraction. 


Together the Lord and Lady had three children, Henry, Lily and Edward. The children were farmed off to boarding schools and Emma got lonely. When an ex-drug addict becomes bored they tend to go back to what they know. She was rattling around in an huge house with nothing to do. Emma went back to using heroin, it was easy. The Lord was always away on business and she didn’t have to break the law anymore because she had money. 


Some people are able to use heroin and continue a relatively normal life, it’s called being a high functioning addict. She would smoke it so she didn’t leave any track marks on her arms. Emma loved using, she would sleep for days on end, it was as though she was in hibernation. She was taken away from any pain and memories of her difficult upbringing. Emma had been burying these memories for years. 


One morning the Lord left for London, Emma called her dealer to drop some drugs off. Dave the dealer knocked at the door, as she opened it two masked men rushed her, she fought back and in the fracas she smashed her head on the marble floor. She died. Blood spilled out covering the marble, it was a horrendous scene. The perpetrators panicked and left in a rush before they could steal anything. They were never caught. 


A 10 year old boy, a 13 year old girl and the oldest Henry were left without a mother. The Lord was devastated, his wife had been taken in such awful circumstances. She was so kind and gentle. It shocked her husband when he finally found out about her drug use. After the post mortem the toxicologist report showed that Emma had Opiates in her blood. The Lord was distraught and turned to the deadly drink, it took him a while to get back on his feet, and when he did he met Philippa. 


Philippa was a divorcee and was friends with a colleague. She was charming and pretty and would fit the title of Lady. The wedding was a success but was missing one person. His daughter, Lily. 


Lily had been off the grid for a few years. She’d attended the University of Brighton but after that she stopped all contact. The Lord had paid Private Detectives to find her but they never did. The last he’d heard was that she was a drug user, like her mother. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. 


Back to the six o’clock police knock…


The Lord and Lady sat there, nervous and dreading the news that was just about to spill out of these public servants mouths. 


“I’m sorry to have to tell you this but we’ve found your daughter Lily. We found her dead at a house in Brighton. 

Your son Edward was also at the house and he’s been arrested for supplying the illegal drugs that caused her death”. 


The Lord fell back on to the sofa and his wife hugged him. He couldn’t move, he was paralysed from the neck down. Was he going to lose two children in one night?


The police continued, “When we got to the house, Edward was hysterical and was screaming one word over and over again”. 


“What was it officer?”


He just kept screaming, “Cas or Caosh, we couldn’t tell !”


The Lord moved his head to face the officers and said,


“It was Chaos, my beautiful daughter was known as Chaos!”