Okay, I have ruminated on this story for quite some time, and I decided to go ahead with it. Thanks to everyone who supported me in my decision to discontinue The Last Girl for the time being (I will place a HIATUS marker on the story until I have fixed it). I hope I didn't frustrate everyone with that decision. It was not my intention.

Thanks to Shade's Crusnik for reading over this and helping me to feel comfortable enough with it to repost it.

Bear with the first chapter, which serves as a prologue, and merely sets the stage for the actual chapters to follow. I realize that this isn't a normal format for a fanfictional story and certainly not a Gorillaz story, but bear with me. All will be explained in the end.

I love you guys so much, and prize your input. Please read and review for me. Kay?

Marriage was not supposed to be this way. When she was a girl, as most girls did, Esther had often dreamt of the man she would marry. He would be a large man; tall with broad shoulders and long muscular arms that would encircle and protect her as he carried her, laughing through the trials that life managed to toss toward them. Enter David Kavanaugh: the man's man. He was strong, dark, powerful with chestnut eyes and the devil's smile. He was a man who could get what he wanted when he wanted it, and, much to her delight, he wanted Esther. Their courtship had been a short, whirlwind romance, and he had taken her to live with him in Lisheen where he was the production manager of a large mining facility. For Esther, though it was hard at times living with a rough and tumble character like David, she somehow managed to remain content and optimistic.

But that was before Joshua.

Joshua Kavanaugh, the unborn child that had shattered the fragile visage of a happy marriage, the unrealized dream that they had waited five long years and four months for, and the miscarriage that would reveal the hard truth of Esther's inability to bear the son that David so longed for. David wanted a son. But this was not a desire that was borne out of the need to nurture and love a child. It was the desire to display his virility and to carry on his family name. It was a mark of honor, and that honor, in David's mind, lay buried in a tiny grave in Lisheen's West Chester cemetery. With Esther unable to provide the legacy of virility that he so desired, David grew more and more distant from her until finally their day to day life consisted of a dance of neglect and hostility. Eventually, hostility bred violence and anger, and Esther the victim.

She tired to ignore these thoughts and the rants of her husband as the horizon tossed and rolled into the blackness of the night beyond the window out of which Esther stared. She became enamored of the way the headlamp sliced through the landscape, casting a ghostly illumination across the countless trees and shrubbery that lined the country roads between Limerick and Lisheen. The dark of the night and the white of the light moved with each other in a slow dance of light and shadow, mesmerizing her as she filtered out her husband's harsh words.

It was July 16, her nephew's seventh birthday, and she and her husband were on their way back from her brother's house where they had been celebrating not only a birthday, but the announcement that her sister-in-law was going to have yet another boy. "That bastard, d'ya know wot he said ta me?" David's icy voice rumbled from the driver's side of the car, "'Ya can always adopt, Dave,' condescending son of a bitch an with his wife standing not ten feet away blown up like an effing whale. Three effing boys, Esther, three. An' the way he leads us around tha' house like it's an effing castle. I tell ya' it ain' fair. Tha' bastard gets all tha effing breaks," he spat venomously, tossing his cigarette out the window.

Esther nodded her head slowly. She knew better than to completely ignore her husband when he was in one of these moods, so she allowed him to vent his spleen even if he was talking about her brother. At least if he was ranting about him, he would keep his focus, and his hands, off of her.

She continued her scrutiny of the landscape when her eye caught a glimpse of something red and white on the road ahead.

"'I cant believe we're having another boy,'" David continued, mocking her sister-in-law's singsong voice, "Effing bitch... I tell you, Esther, one day those two are going ta push me over the edge, and I swear I'm gonna-"

"DAVID!" She screeched, reaching forward and grasping the dashboard, bracing herself for the eminent impact.

"Christ!" David wrenched the steering wheel to the right as Esther's scream sliced through the air.

The car lurched, spinning violently as the rear tires skidded off the road. Esther found herself tossed roughly and would later be thankful that she and David were both strapped into their seats. When the vehicle finally came to a rest, Esther was panting and whimpering. She ventured a glimpse at her husband who was still gripping the steering wheel, his teeth gritted and his knuckles white. Upon looking out the window, she realized that they had completely spun around and were now facing the object that had caused their near-accident. It took her a few moments for what she was looking at to sink in, but when it did, a choked cry ripped from her lips and she scrambled out of the car.

The thing in the middle of the road was a girl of no more than seventeen years old. She walked slowly and purposefully, completely unaware of the chaos that had ensued due to her presence. But it wasn't her presence that shocked, it was her condition. The young girl was completely naked and covered head to toe in a thick red layer of what Esther could only assume to be blood.

Esther's mouth opened and closed and surprise, and she ducked her head to look back at David who was still motionless behind the steering wheel.

"David! Get your coat!"

She ran forward and stopped a few yards before the young woman as David joined her.

"Holy mother of God," he said as he took a step toward the girl. "Miss?" he glanced toward his wife.

"Miss," Esther took the coat from her husband's hand, "are you alright?" The girl stopped. Her blood-soaked hair fell across her eyes, making it impossible to see them.

"Esther, be careful," David grunted as he turned to retrieve the pistol he kept under the seat. His eyes scanned the roadside, searching for any signs that this might be a trap.

"Miss?" Esther said again, reaching a shaky hand, unsure of touching her. She could only guess what had caused this girl to wander the Irish back roads at this ungodly hour and in this condition, but she knew that it must have been horrifying. Though she could not immediately see the cause of the blood that covered the young woman, Esther recognized that the girl must be in need of immediate medical attention, or she would perish.

Finally, gathering her courage, she brushed aside the girl's hair. Bright but blank green eyes stared through her, focused on something beyond Esther, something that could not be seen. The older woman had to admit, the girl was stunning; obviously Asian, probably Japanese, but the ghostly pale skin and white lips that reflected through the red of the blood were disconcerting.

Esther threw the coat around the girl and called back to her husband.

"David."

Her husband joined her at her side, still eying the terrain cautiously.

"We have to take her to a hospital," Esther said to him, unsure of what his reaction would be and bracing herself for another violent tirade. Much to her surprise, David nodded and lifted the tiny girl into his arms.

"Jesus, she's light."

Esther led them back to the car where she opened the back door and climbed in, taking the girl's head into her lap as her husband placed her on the seat.

Though she was unnerved as the girl still stared blankly at the roof of the car, her eyes seemingly unseeing as they drove back to Limerick, Esther found that her eyes kept moving to the back of her husband's head, confused by the dark thoughts that had begun to seep through to her brain.

"What happened?" the nurse gasped as Esther and David flew through the sliding doors of St. Claire Hospital's Emergency ward. She ran to grab the nearest gurney, shouting toward a pair of orderlies taking a short rest in the break room. They sprang to action immediately.

David spoke when she returned, "We don't know!" he was panting.

"We found her walking down N-18 in this condition. We've never seen her before. I think she's in shock."

One orderly reached forward to take the girl from David, who shrank back almost imperceptibly, tightening his grip on the small girl, a deep scowl carving a path down his face.

Esther saw this and allowed her hand to brush David's arm, causing the man to jump. He snarled dangerously but relinquished his grip to the orderly who grasped the catatonic girl and placed her on the gurney.

"Wait here," the nurse barked before casting a glance to the second orderly who nodded and made his way to the phone to call the police.

Esther shuddered slightly as she watched the girl disappear down the hallway and had begun to wrap her arms around her body when she saw the blood on her hands. A wave of nausea washed over her at the sight. She looked around the room almost frantically.

"May I go to the bathroom? I would really like to clean up," She whimpered as she fitfully rubbed her hands on her pants, attempting to wipe them clean.

The orderly pointed to the small bathroom down a short hallway, and Esther followed his direction, locking the door behind her.

She turned on the sink and rubbed a healthy dose of soap between her bloody fingers, and began to vigorously scrub her hands, attempting to rid herself of the blood that covered them. She frowned, it shouldn't be this hard to get blood off, but she found that it had already dried to her skin and seemed as hard as concrete in some places. After several minutes of scrubbing, her hands were red and raw, but it seemed that the blood was gone. Sighing, she sat down on the toilet and ran her hands through her short blonde hair, trying to gather her mind around what had happened that night. Who was this girl, and why was she wandering that road alone? Who could have done such a horrible thing to such an innocent-looking child? She didn't know, and she was sure she didn't want to know. There were some crazy people in this world and few of them would hesitate to victimize a young woman as pretty as the girl they had found.

Her face darkened when thoughts of how her husband had victimized her through the years flowed slowly like a river of blood through her tired mind. He could be so cruel, so hateful, so violent, and, try as she might to appease him and make him happy, he blamed her for everything.

A foreign emotion began to rise in her gullet; a dark, ominous emotion that scared and exhilarated the normally timid woman: Rage. Rage directed toward the man who had promised to love her "till death do us part" began to swell in her bosom. In that moment, she found it intoxicating, liberating, but she knew it wouldn't last. She knew it would flee from her as soon as she placed her hand on the doorknob and left the bathroom to return to her husband's side, but for now, she enjoyed it and the dark images it fed her. Dark images that all involved blood and violence. Dark images that ended with her husband staring back at her with glazed lifeless eyes.

A knock at the door shook her from her reverie. She jumped off of the toilet and yelped.

"Esther, what the hell're you doin' in there? Hurry the hell up!" David barked at her from the other side of the door.

"Oh, I'll be out in a minute, honey. I was just resting me eyes," she laughed sheepishly. "I guess I was tireder than I thought."

There was silence for a second, "Well, the orderly got us some o'those doctor clothes. Said something bout us tracking blood all over their precious effing hospital. They also gave us these Haz-mat bags to put our old clothes in."

She cracked the door and her husband peered at her.

"What you been doin' in here all this time? Ya still got blood all over ya effin' hands."

She lifted her hands in front of her face and saw that he was right. Her hands were still covered in blood. She gasped, "My clothes." She grasped at her jacket and shirt and saw that the girl's blood had soaked through her husband's coat to her own clothes. Washing her hands, she realized would be futile until she changed. She stepped back and allowed him to bring the scrubs in and place them on the back of the toilet.

He laughed, "They're sure gonna be pissed at you, Este. You got blood all over this effin' bathroom." He turned and scrutinized his wife for a second, "Hurry the hell up, will ya? The cops will be here any minute, and I'm sure they'll have lotsa questions for us." He stalked out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

Sneering, Esther jerked the lock closed and turned to look at herself in the mirror again. She began to peel her bloodied blouse off of her body, gasping as she did. Her skin was painted with the blood as well. Panic that it would never come off consumed her, and she frantically began to rip the rest of her clothes off. A small cry issued from her lips as she looked and saw that the blood had soaked through to her bra and panties. They had to go too. She needed to get everything she was wearing off. Everything associated with that girl had to go.

Once she was fully nude, she grabbed a handful of paper towels and wet them. She began to frantically scrub at her skin, desperately trying to wash away the blood. It was everywhere: In her hair, down her legs, on her arms.

Tears began to fall down her cheeks as she grabbed another handful of tissue and began to scrub until she was beginning to wonder if the blood she was trying to rid herself of was her own.

"No, officer," David grumbled into his hands as they rubbed his tired eyes, "for the thousandth time, we never seen this girl before in our lives. We found her walking down the road on the way ta Lisheen."

Officer Linde frowned, "I understand what you're saying, Mr. Kavanaugh, but what I don't understand is how a young woman winds up buck naked and covered in blood in the middle of nowhere."

David bared his teeth as he glared at the officer, "We. Don't. Effing. Know."

"Is she alright?"

Esther, who had been silently looking at her hands throughout the entire questioning glanced up at the officer who was now in a staring contest with her husband.

"What?"

"The girl, is she alright? Will she be okay?"

Linde opened his mouth, fully intending to make a snarky comment toward the shrinking woman when a knock at the door distracted him.

"Officer Linde, may I see you?"

He sighed and lifted himself from the table and addressed the other officer in the room, "Keep an eye on them."

He followed the doctor who had interrupted the interrogation through the door and into an adjoining conference room, folding his arms across his chest.

"We have finished our examination of the girl," the doctor began, glancing up from his clip board at the officer who raised an eyebrow in response. The doctor cleared his throat and continued, "Our examination has revealed that the girl is in perfect health. Not a scratch or bruise on her. Pelvic examination shows that she has not been sexually assaulted. Chest x-rays, CAT scan, EEG, EKG, all came back negative. Medically, she is one of the healthiest people I have ever seen."

"So the blood, it belongs to someone else? Should we begin a search for an injured party?"

The doctor shook his head, "That's the strange part, officer. As I said, she doesn't have a scratch on her, but the blood," he paused while he tried to fathom what he was saying. "blood type results have come back and confirmed that the blood she was covered in the same type as her own."

Linde furrowed his brow, "How is that possible? From what you and the Kavanaughs have said, there was enough blood on that girl to fill a horse. Now you tell me that she's as healthy as one, and you want me to believe that this girl is covered from stem to stern in her own blood?"

"I don't want you to believe anything, Officer Linde. Those are the facts."

"Shit" the policeman cursed under his breath as he ran his hands through his hair. It was just his effing luck to wind up with the hard cases. "Well, we ran a check. There are no reported cases of a missing Japanese girl with purple hair and green eyes. We have no idea who she is." He eyed the other man for a minute, "Any sign of abuse?"

"As far as we can tell, no. As I said: Medically, there's nothing wrong with her."

Nodding his head, Linde walked out of the room. With no injuries or any other indications that she had been abused, he had no reason to keep the Kavanaugh's any longer. Walking back into that room, however, was not going to be pleasant in the least. There was something wrong with that couple. They had nothing to do with the girl, of that he was sure. Their stories matched perfectly, but there was something that made him uneasy about them. He felt it when he walked in that room. There was a black aura that seemed to radiate from them, and there was something dangerous in the way that woman looked at her husband. He couldn't put his finger on it, but just looking at that woman sent chills down his spine. A bad feeling was no reason to hold the couple any longer, unfortunately.

Sighing, he finally opened the door to the couple's room and studied the two.

"Well, I guess you're free to go, but don't think about going anywhere but home until we get this all sorted out."

"Bout effing time," the man growled, jerking his head back to his wife, "Let's get the hell outta here, Este. See if I ever help anyone again. Four effing hours for bringing an effing girl to tha effing hospital, and what do we get? Interrogation for four effing hours!" Linde could hear David's rants as he walked out the door and stomped down the hallway.

Esther rose quietly and began to follow her husband. She stopped at the door and looked back at Officer Linde with a strange look on her face. It was an expression that hovered somewhere between a smile and a smirk, and it unnerved the seasoned officer. He watched the seemingly timid woman as she walked down the hallway and disappeared out the door. There was just something that wasn't right about that woman.

LIMERICK POST

MAN FOUND DEAD: WIFE MISSIING

Sunday, June 17, 2010

34-year-old man was found shot to death on the side of N-18 early this morning. The police have identified the man as David Kavanaugh, a production manager at Lisheen's iron mine.

While there is evidence of a struggle, police have no reason to suspect that the death was a result of a robbery.

His wife, 30-year old Esther Kavanaugh is missing and being sought for questioning in relation to the murder...