The Girl from Pompey: Bloodshed in the Hampshire Cabin

By Bryony Best

Bryony has already experienced a life of trauma and addiction, surviving a dark past after battling her demons through mental illness. Will Bryony be able to overcome her next psychological challenged in life, while being surrounded by stalkers and friends who harbour dark secrets?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bryony Best
• Release date: Feb 10, 2023
• ISBN: 9781739286019

Bryony Best

Bryony Best was born and raised in Portsmouth, United Kingdom. Currently residing in Hayling Island with her fiancé and her much loved Chihuahua dog named Luna. Bryony works as a Holistic Therapist and lives a happy life of mindfulness and wellbeing. Bryony has previously published three memoir books, and her aim is to become a full time writer.

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The Girl from Pompey

Bloodshed in the Hampshire Cabin

Bryony Best

Copyright ©2022 by Bryony Best

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or in any form of retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior permission in writing from the publishers except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Paperback: 978-1-7392860-0-2

eBook: 978-1-7392860-1-9

Cover design by Aethrastic Designs

Cover photo by Bryony Best

Editor Lucie Atkins

www.bryonybest.com

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to dedicate this book to all my close friends and to all the ones who have previously been a friend to me in the past.

I would like to send out a special thank you to all the readers who have supported me on my journey and who still continue to buy my books and offer words of encouragement. Thank you, your support is immeasurable.

Thank you to my Editor and good friend - Lucie Atkins

Thank you to my close friends who have offered feedback and kind words through the creation of this book – Sadie and Gemma

Friendships come and go like buses, sometimes there are none and other times there are too many. Friends can help us to get from one destination to another, or they can carry us when our legs are too weak.

- Bryony Best

CONTENTS

Chapter 01, Part 1, The Present, September 2016

Chapter 01, Part 2, The Past, September 2014

Chapter 02. The Past, Helen

Chapter 03. The Past, Team Building

Chapter 04. The Past, The Zombie Mall

Chapter 05. The Past, Bryony

Chapter 06. The Past, Rachel

Chapter 07. The Past, Leanne

Chapter 08. The Past, Kayleigh

Chapter 09. The Past, Mercedes

Chapter 10. The Past, Dinner Date

Chapter 11. The Past, Simon

Chapter 12. The Past, Home Time

Chapter 13. The Past, Sarah

Chapter 14. The Past, Booking Night

Chapter 15. The Past, Police Statement

Chapter 16. The Past, Cabin Day

Chapter 17. The Past, Saturday

Chapter 18. The Past, Sunday

Chapter 19. The Past, Simon

Chapter 20. The Present, Monday

Epilogue. 5 Months Later

Chapter 1 - Present – September 2016

Blood trickled down the wall like treacle, pooling on the hard wood flooring like a tap dripping to its own beat.

My heart is racing like Nigel Mansell, as is my tormented brain. It feels like my heart may explode out of my chest and land hard onto the opposite wall.

As my eyes dart from wall to floor, then the sofa to the door searching for answers. I can hear a hum like a din ringing in my ears, but that may just be my tinnitus. 

I want to scream and shout but I feel overwhelmed with fear, should I run?

I focus on my breath, in and out, inhale through my nose and exhale through my mouth....

Just breathe Bryony, the room starts to spin out of control and in a flash my world turns black.

The Past – September 2014

I can still recall the day I first laid eyes on Helen, as I glanced at her attire of black cord trousers and a crisp white shirt, I felt nothing. Who is this person? Why is she sat in the staff break room?

I automatically assume she is part of the Bench gang due to her short hairstyle, and the masculinity oozing off her in waves. She wears red glasses and clearly has a skin issue as her face is flaking off like dandruff.  Between her facial skin and my psoriasis, we would make a good match, but my God her breasts are huge. As she leant forward to shake my hand, I remained neutral, it’s not often I like anyone I meet so why would this be any different?

The staff room reeks of tuna, so I show my disgust by screwing my nose up. Who the hell has brought in fish for lunch, the selfish douche bag?

Helen is calm and a bit of a cool cat at first, her London accent has definitely set her aside from the rest of the mundane people here. I wonder if she may just be suitable to make the cut, me and Mercedes do have an opening for a new work friend?

This Londoner has been hired as a new Employment Advisor at the office where I work, supporting the unemployed to find jobs in Portsmouth.  I am a lucky duck though as each day I get to snuggle, kiss and chat with my best friend Mercedes. I have known Mercedes since we were young kids, as adults our paths crossed again and now, we are inseparable. 

I am an Employment Coach, so I design and deliver lesson plans all based around skills required to find a job. I have worked here for many years and can do the job standing on my head, as their top member of staff I find the role easy. The job does hold many challenges, as it is not as simple as teaching a person how to search and apply for jobs. I take a holistic approach with my clients, motivating them and changing their mindset. One of the reasons for my success is because I tackle issues like letting go of baggage and building the clients self-esteem.

Some of the biggest barriers we face are for clients who have medical issues, no education or drug addictions. As a person who has previously been diagnosed with mental illness, addiction, and alcoholism I felt I was the perfect teacher. I also left school at a young age, being raised in a low-income family with an alcoholic father definitely puts education on the back burner. I was notably gifted in school but was made to leave early as earning a pretty penny to pay rent was at the front of all needs.

Many other staff at work struggled to support clients with uncommon issues and tissues but not me, I excelled! Mercedes was good at her job too, she had not exactly experienced a luxurious upbringing either, making me and Mercedes an unstoppable duo.

Mercedes is my best friend and confidant; she has supported me through thick and thin. She is my favourite drinking partner to slam whiskey down my trap. I was known as a bit of a party animal, which is putting it nicely. A more accurate description is a raging alcoholic with an addiction to sex and escapism. My world was dark, and my heart was darker, I partook in drugs and sloshed down whiskey like it was the Holy Grail to ease my pain.  I had been raised in a poor household with my mother and alcoholic father. My older brothers Brand and Arren still lived at home, but my older siblings Vikki and Elijah had moved out. I was raised in Portchester but moved at the age of nine to Paulsgrove. Now as an adult living in Portsmouth with Brand, sharing a house together and I am slowly recovering to becoming a normal human being.

What is normal anyway?

I express this word to indicate a person who doesn’t rely on alcohol or drugs to make it through the day!

I am far from normal; I speak to the dead for a start. I have always seen and spoken with spirits ever since I can remember. I hardly drink alcohol now, and my doctor recently deemed me as sane, so I assume I am the closest to normal that I have ever been.

My life consists of going to work and rocking it like Slash, exercising in the evenings and teaching spiritual development one night a week. Friday nights are reserved for me to take down the mask and party the night away. The weekends are wasted dark days, consisting of me being hungover and sketchy. I hide inside my small, dark room and summon all my strength to cling onto whatever shred of sanity that I have left.

The Present

Ouch, my back hurts.

As I open my eyes it takes me a minute to focus and remember.

I must have fainted, let’s say blacked out as it sounds less pathetic.  As I scramble to my feet, I use the sofa to steady myself, I am shaking but I feel calm. I must be in shock; I thought my little nap would have steadied my adrenaline but nope it’s still here.

Tick tock, tick tock, it is 4.11pm which means new arrivals to the other cabins will be checking in soon. I witnessed the guests of the cabin next to us leave early this morning with their suitcases, I wish I had left with them. 

I slowly turn my head towards the ceiling of high beams, dark stained wood, and a previously brilliant white ceiling. Blood has seeped down through the upstairs floorboards, travelled along the ceiling, and made its pathway down the cold bare wall.

Chapter 2 –The Past -  Helen

Hello Monday, the mundane and predictable. Little details may change but it is just the same day repeated for eternity.  I happen to dislike change so the continuity gives me comfort, a welcoming feeling of security in knowing what will happen. A similar feeling is like when wearing my favourite dressing gown, warm and familiar.

I do not always welcome knowledge with open arms; my psychic abilities do often give me insight into situations or predictions of others. However, this is normal for me, these abilities serve me well when it comes to trusting people or making new friends. Take Helen for example, I knew we would enjoy many great times together. I am glad that Mercedes felt the same, we invite Helen to many of our nights out, plus she is a paver too which helps. A paver is the opposite of a cock-block, she is the friend who paves the way for men to approach. We first discovered this on a night out at Kingsley’s Bar in Portsmouth, which holds a reputation of its own, but I have always enjoyed a good night there. Men were too scared to walk up to a group of hot women like us, quite rightly too as we were bitches. The sweet spot is Helen the paver, a female who has our back, who is clearly not on the market for male attention. Helen is unintimidating and welcoming, she dresses like a teenage boy and if it weren’t for her gigantic breast others would mistake her for a man!

Don’t get me wrong we were not using Helen, it just happened to be a happy perk of her friendship. Girls like to go out and dance the night away, giggle and pee together but sometimes we just want to find a good fuck. I was always on the lookout for a good fuck, but my other girly friends were usually seeking a mate, a relationship of some sort. I am not judging, so whatever floats their boat, whether it is holding hands or swimming in a sea of sperm.

I have become fast friends with Helen, we work together, and both have a love for adventure. Whether it would be attending a place of interest or chasing zombies through an abandoned shopping mall in Reading. She is a bit of a rubbish lesbian in my eyes though, on a rare occasion when we change our clothes in the same room as her, she turns her back to me and Mercedes.

Helen is in a long-term relationship with a doctor who works at St Marys Hospital, a pretty good surgeon intern by all accounts. They moved to Portsmouth from Scotland after her partner Claire had finished studying. We have both worked in hospitality too which is another thing we have in common, although Helen worked at a fast-food burger restaurant for many years. 

Talking of lesbians, my other good friend Sarah has recently started working at my office; I was never really friends with her before now. We both worked at a call centre in Portsmouth town, she worked in the Human Resources department, and I was a salesperson. Sarah is tall with bright red hair, and she would always turn around if Mercedes and I were undressing. Sarah is sensitive, she is opinionated, and regularly advocates for saving the planet. We all have that one friend who cares about the environment and likes to educate others on what is happening to the world. I enjoy litter picking with Sarah, we save the world together one step at a time with each piece of litter we remove from the streets.

I adore my Sarah; she is an eco-warrior, and the world would be a much better place if we all played our part in saving it. 

Sarah now works as an Employment Advisor, but she is not as loud as the others, she is good at her job and makes a great addition to our team.

Tonight, is our staff night out with the big boss Jon, he is a loud and obnoxious man who is openly gay and loves to snort cocaine. We are heading to Gunwharf tonight for a night of bowling, although as we arrive it is a strange atmosphere. All staff were told to attend and between the office politics and the three bosses it is bound to kick off. I am just happy that my friends are there too, Mercedes and Helen are working the crowd while Sarah is downing shots at the bar. I have opted to be sensible and have set myself a three-drink limit. It is a weekday and we all have work tomorrow, I will never understand why they plan parties for a weekday. So, let’s call the bosses the three stooges, we have Graham, queen bitch Katy and the senior boss and coke head, Jonathan. I personally happen to love Katy as she is my kind of person, she openly calls herself a cunt. Katy is funny with a dark sense of humour but has a heart of gold underneath her witches’ hat. Graham is very blahhhh, he also worked at my previous job at the call centre and is friends with Sarah too. I have never really got to know Graham, but he seems a bit of a dick at work, he is in charge of the employment advisors and Katy is in charge of me and the employment coaches. Katy and Graham fight like cats and dogs, loudly. You could cut the tension with a knife tonight and it appears big boss Jon is asking staff for sugar, which is his code word for cocaine!

As I glance over the team of misfits it is obvious that Steve drools over Mercedes, like a dog salivating as his food is being prepared. Then there is stuck up little Rhona who is the biggest bitch of them all, she is pretty looking with blonde hair and a devil’s tongue. She is the office slut, who loves to lead men on and kiss girls to get a rise out of the male staff. God knows why Rhona bothers to make a scene, as all the men in this office are pig ugly. I am sure she is married too, but it certainly didn’t stop her from sleeping with one of her co-workers at the last party. I decide on downing some green stuff, a sour drink that slides easily down my throat. Bloody hell it’s only 8.00pm when Big Boss Jon slams a company credit card down on the bar, no fair as I have a three-drink limit tonight.

Fuck it, I throw caution to the wind and declare that three drinks is not possible anymore. With a shiny plastic card on the bar, who would I be to refuse free drinks, I am no Mother Teresa! The staff party turns into a proper shit show as we all lose our inhabitations, dancing and singing like a bunch of weekend party animals. It is not the weekend though and I do have work tomorrow, so before Bryony the whore could make any bad decisions, I took my ass home.

As I opened my eyes the next day, I felt sick, dry mouthed and fully clothed. I had to somehow drag this behind out of my cave and into the real world. It was a cold and miserable walk to work, but I did have the right mindset, one foot in front of the other until home time. As I gingerly creep into the office I can see I am not the only one who drank one too many apple sours, a flash back of ordering thirty of the green monsters enters my brain. Oh my God, when will I ever learn?

I was the