THE ROMAN LEE SERIES
"BENEATH DEVIL'S LAKE"
The entire auditorium roared in laughter. Ned grabbed his notebook with both hands and
rocked slightly back and forth. His
mother was abusive towards Ned from an early age when he first wet his bed. She humiliated him constantly. Physical beatings were a regular occurrence. Any object found in the home was fair game to
be used on him. Forcing him to sleep in
the bathtub with the plug drain in so if he urinated he was forced to sleep in
it. His parents divorced when he was
younger. Ned Harris only saw his biological
father a handful of times when he showed in court stating he could not pay for
support and would be remanded to jail.
Ned’s mother kept him isolated. His only source of freedoms were school and
trips to the local library when she was at work. Not having much money school was torturous at
times. He was often made fun of for the
clothes that he wore. It grew worse in
high school. When he finally worked up
the nerve to ask a girl on a date not only was he rejected but humiliated in
front of the school. He found himself
fantasizing about killing his classmates especially the females who talked
about him. He could hear them when they
thought he could not. One time he had planned
on taking one of them near a bus stop when she walked home on a sunny
afternoon. There was an abandoned house
for sale just down the street where she lived.
Ned had scoped it out for weeks and knew exactly the times she walked by
it on her way home. The plan was
abandoned as he was getting the vacant home ready when a realtor and
prospective buyer pulled into the driveway.
Ned began to drink during his teen years sneaking into
his mother’s liquor cabinet. Sometimes replacing what he drank with a little
water or cough syrup to match the color his mother became furious with him
attacking him with a fire poker when it was discovered he had consumed her
alcohol. His library trips were a refuge.
The library only had one computer but Ned knew it well educating himself
with books and video about software and everything to do with them. One day when he was around ten years old he
was crushed to find a sign on the computer stating that it was down and would
be repaired later. With no one watching
he dismantled the machine located the problem and repaired it in ten
minutes.
As if words were needles, Dr. Stanwick’s comments were
striking inflammatory nerves deep inside the voodoo doll representing Ned
Harris’s psyche.
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