I try to push Izzie back inside but she bustles her way past me down the dark hallway, her touch remarkably strong for one so small. I can’t bring myself to look down at Merriel, to see what we have done. We need to garner our strength, Izzie and me. We need to pull together and finish this thing.
Behind us, I hear a groan, a rustle of clothing against the concrete floor as poor Merriel stirs. Later. We’ll deal with that later. The here and now is what we need to concentrate on.
The small figure in the distance grows larger, her features coming into focus, the scowl on her face, the fire in her eyes. That look. That dark, menacing look that seems to have taken over her entire self. I know it well, recognise it for what it is – pure evil.
‘Move her inside. Get her out of sight. The pair of you, move. Now!’ She is shouting, her usual poise diminishing, her finger pointing down at Merriel. She is losing it, that control she has wielded over us. Her grip is weakening and she knows it.
Izzie nudges closer to me, our bodies melded together as one, the heat from her tiny frame filling me with hope that we can do this. We can stop her doing whatever it is she has planned. Yvonne continues running, almost reaching us, a combination of anger and desperation written all over her face. This is a new look for her. No more the powerful one, she is now reduced to this – an equal. Less than equal. No drugs to keep us quiet and placid, no weapons to use against us, no utensils handy to bind us and hold us captive. One against one. An equal footing. I can’t count on Izzie in this battle. Unassuming, diminutive Izzie who is scared witless. It’s just me and Yvonne. She has the advantage, I know that. She’s stronger, fitter, in better shape with no broken bones and gaping wounds. I just have to hope Izzie steps in should things go terribly awry.
‘No.’ I keep my tone even. No raging fury or resentment, no signs at all that I’m scared of her. No signs either that I’m about to blindly follow her command. No more of that. Today is the day I stand up to her, give as good as I get.
‘I said move her!’ She has dipped a full octave, shock at my refusal showing in her face. Her eyes are screwed up, her jaw twitching as she continues striding towards us.
I almost laugh, suppressing the spontaneous burst of amusement by biting down on my bottom lip. It’s heartening seeing her like this – a lonely-looking, desperate creature who is losing it.
‘And I said no.’ My throat feels sore, my head is throbbing, a painful ache is twisting at the muscle and sinews in my upper arm and shoulder. I’m the weaker one here but I won’t be beaten. Not any more. The time has come for me to rise. For us to rise, Izzie and me. And Merriel. I have no idea why she is here, how she got the key to open the door, what made her dash across to this derelict old building in the first place, but I do know that I won’t let this monster do to her what she did to us. Enough is enough. The balance of power is finally shifting. Time to knock Yvonne off her pedestal, let her know that her lowly prisoners are finally rebelling.
She stops, softening her face, her posture, and sits down on the grass, her legs crossed. I try to not look shocked. This is a ploy, an act to make us lose focus, make us think she’s given in.
‘What the hell are you—’
I hold out my hand to quieten Izzie, my fingers bent in a silent plea for her to remain quiet. It works. She stops, her shoulders slumping, her face staring up at me, eyes quizzical.
Yvonne pats the grass next to where she is sitting. ‘Come on. Come and join me. We can chat about the old times. Come on, Jenna, come and talk to me.’
‘I’m not Jenna.’ My reply is firm, my voice flat but powerful. I won’t be pulled into one of her silly little tricks, the imaginary world she inhabits where we are all one big happy family. I pray that Izzie doesn’t fall for it, get sucked into that warped fantasy that Yvonne has going on in her head. I move even closer to her, try to give her a look that says, don’t do anything!
‘Oh, don’t be like that! We’re sisters, aren’t we? It doesn’t matter what happened in the past. We need to stick together.’ Her smile is fading, a look I can’t quite fathom beginning to take hold in her eyes. A look that I don’t care for. When she’s in this sort of mood, her strength seems to grow a hundredfold. When the madness takes hold of her. It’s an endless pit of nothingness in those eyes of hers. Dead shark eyes. No emotion. No kindness or empathy. It’s like somebody flicks a switch somewhere inside her head and suddenly she has gone, the normal Yvonne, somebody else occupying the space in her brain where she used to be. A small strand of insanity that grows and multiplies before taking over completely.
She scrambles to her feet and starts to move even closer to us. My heart starts up. I’m furious at myself for feeling frightened. She’s just like me – another woman. We’re equally matched. Except we’re not. I know that. She is super fit. I’m badly injured. Izzie is tiny and dehydrated. Merriel is unconscious. For all I know she could be dying. A frisson of terror pulses through me. I did that to her. I may have killed an innocent woman. My head thumps, a vibrating realisation running through me. Except I can’t think about that now, those consequences, Merriel’s pain and fear. No time for anything but honing in on Yvonne’s next move. Being prepared for her. Ready to protect us and stay alive.
She is now only a few feet away from me, her eyes glinting, her smile a crooked split across her face. I gulp, a rush of bile burning my gullet. I tighten my hands into fists and stare at her, refusing to break eye contact. She’s almost upon us, so close I can smell her putrid breath, feel the heat of her insanity and rage as it gathers momentum, increasing exponentially with every passing second.
What now? What the fuck am I going to do now? Behind me, I hear a low moan. Beside me, I feel Izzie flinch, her body tensed, ready for that fight-or-flight moment, her adrenaline surging. I push out my chest, arch my back slightly, give myself a better, firmer footing should Yvonne decide to run at me. She doesn’t. She creeps closer, her jaw jutting out, teeth bared.
‘You stupid cow. You’ll wish you’d taken more notice of me when we were younger.’
I block out her words. They’re meaningless, hollow phrases designed to distract and topple me.
‘Nobody had any idea, did they? Not a fucking clue. They all thought they knew but they didn’t. All those educational psychologists and support workers. They were completely fooled by our family, weren’t they?’
Again, no reaction from either me or Izzie.
‘Say something!’ A shriek now, spittle flying out from her mouth, drool running down her chin, glistening in the sunlight.
It repulses me, the wetness on her skin, the small rivulets gathering beneath her bottom lip. Still, I don’t look away. That’s all it would take – one second, one infinitesimal lapse of concentration and she will have me knocked flat, her fists pummelling my already enfeebled body, knocking what little strength I have left out of me. And then it will all be over. Even with Izzie fighting for me, it wouldn’t be enough. We need a head start. I’m still bleeding. I’m exhausted. Whatever we do, it’ll have to be swift, catching her on the back foot.
‘Say it! Admit that we’re related.’
‘No. I am not your sister. We are not related. Now why don’t you just turn around and fuck off!’ I don’t intend for it to come out as a roar but it has an effect, causing her to stagger slightly. She soon rights herself, moving even closer to us, seemingly growing in stature, her anger causing her to rise like some sort of monstrous being. Ugly and unstoppable.
‘Yes, you are. You’re one of them. Just like me. We’re meant to be together. Now say it. Say it!’ She tips her head to one side, smirks and spits on the ground.
My stomach roils. I do nothing, say nothing. It irks her, I can see that, her face twitching in annoyance. She needs that response, craves it like a druggie in need of their next fix.
‘I left the key in the door, that’s how she got in.’ She juts out her bottom lip in fake sympathy. ‘Silly of me, wasn’t it? As you know, I’m usually very precise, in control of everything. I was in a rush, you see. Under pressure and feeling slightly out of kilter. Still, she hasn’t come out of it that well, has she? Serves her right, wouldn’t you say?’ Her eyes drop to Merriel’s slumped figure behind us. ‘She followed me apparently. Thought I was somebody else and stalked me and now she knows where I live, where you live, the pair of you.’ She laughs, a low tinkling sound, soft and gentle in its pitch, a noise that belies the depth of her madness. ‘Funny, isn’t it? And you thought I was the only insane one around here, yet here she was, spending her time following little old me, thinking I had something to hide when all it was, was a small family get-together. A long-overdue reunion. Nothing to see here, eh?’ She winks and smiles.
Her words echo around us, empty and meaningless. Just a continuous stream of bile. If it’s a reaction she’s after, then she’s speaking to the wrong person. I say nothing, my silence my only weapon, fists furled up tight as I watch her, waiting, working out what her next move is going to be. Her talk is just a cover, a way of distracting me. It won’t work. I’m impervious to it now; I learnt the hard way not to get sucked into any dialogue with her, thinking I can win her round, get her to soften her approach. She doesn’t have the capacity for warmth or any understanding of the suffering of others. If anything, she thrives on it. It empowers her. I’m guessing it’s all she’s got.
More groans from behind me, a dull shuffling, then fingers clasped around my ankle. I freeze, sweat breaking out under my arms, on my scalp. Running down my back. It’s then that it happens, the moment of change. The turning point. The catalyst that aids our escape.
I see Izzie take a step back, squat down and pick up the object that Merriel has pushed our way, all the while never taking her eyes off Yvonne. If there is one thing poor Izzie has learnt while being held here, it’s to never trust her. Don’t allow her any space or she’ll turn on you, pounce, and take back control. It’s what she does, what she’s good at.
Izzie holds up the phone, her gaze still locked on Yvonne’s face, and punches in a number. ‘I think you can guess who I’m calling, can’t you?’
‘Your word against mine,’ Yvonne says, a definite growl of resentment creeping into her tone. Anxiety is there. I can hear it, her nuanced timbre, the tightening of her jaw. She’s close to being caught. Close to losing everything. Like she hasn’t lost it already. It’s all slipping away, everything she ever wanted, rapidly turning to dust.
‘Whatever, but we all know who they’ll believe, don’t we?’
‘Do we? Are you sure about that?’ Her mouth is set into a snarl, lip curled upwards, aggression always bubbling just beneath the surface.
She takes another step towards us and, exhausted as I am, I brace myself. I have no idea what she thinks she is going to achieve by yet another onslaught. Izzie has called the emergency services. They’re probably already on their way here.
‘It’s the losing I don’t like,’ she says, as if she can see inside my mind, is able to read my every thought. ‘I’ve always been the same. Don’t you remember when we were little? I had to win, had to be in control. It’s just the way I am. You should know that about me.’
I’m not sure if it’s the light illuminating her features or the angle of her head, but I swear that I see tears glistening on her face. She sees me watching her and straightens her posture, a sudden rigidity to her spine.
Even though I’ve steeled myself for whatever she is going to do next, she still takes me by surprise, launching herself at me, fists and feet pumping furiously, jaw tensed as she delivers blow after blow. Next to me I hear Izzie’s screams, Merriel’s deathly moans and for a brief period I think that this is it, that we have come this far and failed in the dying moments. All that effort, all the hurt and pain we’ve endured and still we will lose. I hear Izzie screaming at Yvonne and feel the weight of her tiny body as she attempts to pull Yvonne away from me, her nails clawing at bare flesh, her voice shrieking that it’s all over.
And soon it will be. Soon they will be above us, around us, the screech of sirens piercing the air. I will see a flash of blue in my peripheral vision. But before that happens, she stops, a cessation of the punches and scratches. A slackening of her limbs locked around my body. I drop to the floor, pain and fatigue pulling me downwards. I look up into Yvonne’s face, stare deep into her eyes. And see nothing. No compassion, no guilt, no fear. Just emptiness.
‘This could have all been so different,’ she says, a mournful lilt to her voice. ‘Why did you make it so hard for me? We could have had a good life together, you and I.’ She glances at Izzie then back at me. ‘All three of us. We would have been so happy together but as always, you ruined it.’
Izzie stares at her, phone in hand. ‘They’re on their way. A couple of minutes and they’ll be here. Ambulances, police. They’re all on their way.’
Yvonne stands up, brushes down her clothes, straightening out creases with her long, slim fingers. She cups her hand over her eyes, stares off over the field and shakes her head. Nothing for a few seconds. No movement, no words spoken. And then she is gone.
It’s rapid, her exit. She bolts across the field like an animal diving for cover from a hunter, her slim frame soon a speck in the distance before disappearing altogether.
‘The battery’s dead,’ Izzie murmurs. ‘But she was never going to know that, was she?’
For the first time in a long while, I giggle, peals of laughter bellowing out of me as hysteria and shock and relief all merge together in one huge miasma, Izzie joining in, her voice an edifying sound to my jaded ears.