I grip the pint and I want to throw it. As I try to swallow a gulp, it doesn’t taste as it should. I could stop her suffering. I could stop it right now. I could follow Terry home and I could call the police when he goes for the woman. I imagine her, locked in a cold, wet shed, shivering. I knock my pint over as I leave.
‘Thanks for that,’ the server calls as I run through the fog, catching up with Terry. My heart pounds. If anyone ever treated my daughter, niece or sister in that way, I’d kill them. I’d go guns blazing, like Billy the Kid. Straight in there with a bullet to his head.
I can’t stand by and do nothing…
Chapter One
12 years ago
Halloween
‘Where am I? Help! Let me out.’ She began to feel around in the dark, flinching as something sharp pierced the skin that divides nail and finger. ‘Let me out!’ Banging on her surrounds, she hoped that someone was listening. With quickened breath, she tried to turn one way, then another. With every turn she bumped her elbow, toe or knee.
As she went to wiggle, she cried out as the muscle in her neck tugged, sending a sharp pain across her shoulder. Cold so cold and damp, and trapped. With trembling fingers she felt the gritty rainwater that had soaked into her midriff, right through to her tights and underwear. Each muscle burned with every shiver and she couldn’t feel her toes. This couldn’t be happening. Maybe it was all a dream and she was snuggled up in bed.
She inhaled sharply as a tear rolled down the side of her face, then she wheezed as if someone had stamped on her chest. This wasn’t a dream. She banged and kicked until the sound of her toe cracking sent a sickening wave through her body. While struggling to breathe, she grappled for anything but there was nothing to grab hold of. Even though she couldn’t see, she knew her head was spinning. The constant throbbing as blood pulsated through her body threatened to deafen her. Her head was going to explode with the boom, boom of blood whooshing through it. Banging and kicking, this was her last chance to escape before her own lights went out. She closed her eyes – not that that made any difference – and she willed the spinning to end. Her chattering teeth felt as though they’d shatter if she didn’t try to stop them.
‘Stop.’ She forced herself to inhale, hold her breath, and then exhale. A few moments later, her mind was beginning to clear. What did she know? She was in a box made of wood, old damp wood. She ran her fingers over the rough grain and let out a small cry as another splinter pierced her fingertip. Someone had hurt her, maybe hit her over the head, if the constant pounding was anything to go by; then they had placed her in something wooden… a box, a… a coffin. Screaming, she hit the sides and the roof.
‘Help, let me out.’ Tears spilled out and her nose filled. As she continued thumping everything, she felt a weak spot in just one part of the wood, the part above her belly that was leaking. Thudding and pressing, she managed to crack a piece. As she pushed at it, harder and harder, gasping for breath, she felt a tickle on her midriff that made her jump. If only there was a little bit of light, then maybe she could take a good look at where she was and what was on her now. Her mind filled with large eight-legged freaking spiders, woodlice, worms, centipedes; everything that gave her the creeps at home. She was never able to deal with creepy crawlies; her parents had often had to come to the rescue.
With trembling hands, she reached out and screamed as she grabbed a handful of earth. It’s just earth, not a spider. Wait – wasn’t that worse? She’d cracked the box and now it was filling up with mud and grit and… water. She could hear a drip, drip, dripping, as it seeped through the gap – the coffin would fill up and she’d drown.
Do something. Think, think. A whirl of thoughts flooded her mind in what felt like lightning speed. Do what? She banged on the roof and then came the thud, followed by muffled laughter. There was someone out there, watching