6

SUMMER

Sunday, July 25th (Present)

“Let’s get this cleaned up,” Rose said, clapping her hands together as if it was going to be the most fun in the world. I got up to help, just to have something to do. Rose washed the pans, plastic cutlery, and dishes while I dried them and Poppy put them away. We cleaned and tidied in silence, filling the room with the lemon scent that tingled my nose. I had a million questions I wanted to ask.

Finally, after the whole place was clean, we sat on the sofa. I realized I was acting just like one of them and I burst into tears. I curled up into a ball and sobbed so hard, my lungs started to burn. This can’t be my life. Never before had I felt so utterly alone.

“Oh, Lily, it’s going to be okay,” Violet said and rubbed my back.

“N-No. Not okay.” I sobbed harder. Tears poured down my face, soaking my knees.

“Shh,” Rose cooed. “Take deep breaths and calm down. You’re not alone, Lily.” Yes, I am.

“We’re all in this together,” Poppy added.

I took a deep breath and tried to stop sobbing. “How can he?” Wiping my tears away, my blurry vision cleared. “He’s going out tonight. How can he do all this and still be normal to everyone else?”

Rose sighed. “It’s not a pub he’s going to, Lily.”

“Stop calling me Lily,” I snapped.

Rose ignored my outburst as if it never happened. Maybe in Rose’s world it didn’t. “As far as I’m aware, he doesn’t socialize a lot. Most of his time is spent either at work or in here.”

“What’s he doing tonight then?” I questioned. “And how do you know what he does out there anyway?”

“He is quite an honest person. If you ask him something, he will give you a straight response. Please think about what you ask, though,” Rose warned. “Clover doesn’t like certain people and what he does occasionally is…” She trailed off, frowning into the distance.

“Is?” I prompted.

“He…disposes of people that do harm.”

My mouth fell open. “He murders them?” No, he couldn’t.

“Yes. That’s not quite how he sees it, though. The women, prostitutes, are doing harm. Harm to the innocent families of men that use them.”

“Bloody hell, listen to yourself,” I whispered, shocked. “You’re defending him.”

“I’m not defending him.”

“Yes you are. You’re making it sound like it’s okay.”

“It’s not, and I’m not. I’m just trying to explain how he did, that’s all.”

“So he spends his evenings out murdering prostitutes?” It couldn’t be true. Maybe he only said that to scare them into doing what he said. If prostitutes were being murdered all over the place it would be on the bloody news!

Rose frowned. “You make it sound like he’s doing it every night, and that’s not true.” How do you know? Well, it couldn’t be true. He couldn’t kill on a daily basis and still not have been caught. Surely.

I couldn’t believe how calmly I was talking about it. Shouldn’t I be freaking out and clawing at the door? Should I even worry about how I should or shouldn’t think, feel, or act? “How does he get away with it?”

“They’re prostitutes, Lily. Most of them have run away from home or have always been alone.” But still, for no one to notice. “He thinks they’re dirty and represent everything that’s wrong with humanity.” Rose looked at Poppy and Violet. “We think something happened when he was younger—no one just starts thinking that—but we’ve never asked.” Of course they hadn’t. It wasn’t worth their life.

“What does he do with them? How many?” I questioned. This was getting crazier by the second. He was like a character from a horror movie.

“I don’t know,” Violet replied.

“This is crazy. Totally screwed-up crazy. We need to get out of here. We can do it together. I know we can, but we have to work together.”

“No, Lily,” Rose said sternly, she reminded me of my teachers at school. “We can’t. There is no way out, so you need to get this idea out of your head now. You have no real idea of what he’s capable of. He has no concept of what is truly right and wrong. He can be very…brutal and unforgiving.”

A shiver ran through my entire body at her blunt warning. Brutal and unforgiving. I witnessed what he did to Violet, how angry he got and how he threatened her with a knife. How much worse could it get? I didn’t want to give up, that wasn’t me, but I was terrified.

Rose took a deep breath and stood up. “Now I’m going to clean the bathroom and then we can watch a movie.”

Wiping the tears from my eyes, I gulped down the rising sickly feeling in my stomach. “I can’t stay here. I need to go home.” Why wouldn’t they understand that?

Poppy shook her head and squeezed my hand. “I wish you could, Lily. Please don’t do anything stupid,” she said and got up. Her words whirled around my head. Please don’t do anything stupid. My mind instantly conjured the image of him holding a knife up to me and it sent a bolt of pure horror right to my bones. I shuddered.

“Which movie?” Rose asked.

Violet shrugged. “Some old romantic chick flick.” Was this what would happen every night? I felt a suffocating weight press down on my chest.

Rose put the movie on, and they both sat on the sofa with me. They quickly became absorbed in what was happening on the screen. How could they care about a movie when he was out there preying on some poor girl? I pictured her scared and confused, fighting him for her freedom. Her eyes, completely made up in my imagination, were too wide, popping out of her head in horror. But was he really doing that? For all we knew, he could be going to bingo and just making himself sound scarier to force us to behave and not fight him. My heart clenched. I wanted to know which one was true.

“Can we get normal TV?” I asked, blinking hard to get the girl’s eyes out of my mind. Would I be on the news? I must be by now.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Poppy shake her head. “No.” Of course not. We were literally cut off from absolutely everything and everyone. We completely depended on him. I wished I had never gone out that night. I should have listened to Lewis and my family’s worries and let one of them take me. Every time one of them went on about it not being safe to walk alone at night, I would brush it off or tell them to stop being stupid. Looking back, I wanted to punch myself at how cocky I was about it. I felt invincible because I was naïve enough to think bad things only happen to other people.

“We need to start dinner,” Rose said and switched the TV off after a while. “Do you want to help, Lily?” Summer.

Did I have a choice? “Sure.” What else was there to do to pass the time? It was better than sitting down thinking all the time. Although I did like thinking of my family because it took me away from here, I needed to stop sometimes and do something that would distract from how much I missed them. I would give absolutely anything just to talk to them.

“What do you want me to do?” I asked. They had already gotten everything out and were filling two pans with water. They all worked perfectly together. It looked like they were colleagues in a restaurant kitchen.

“Would you peel the carrots and potatoes?” Poppy handed me the peeler, which was plastic apart from the blade in the middle. It didn’t look particularly sharp, but it was a possibility. Could it do enough damage, though? Knowing I was probably being watched by one or both of them, I looked away from the peeler and grabbed a potato.

“Do you think we’ll ever get out of here?” I asked as I peeled.

Rose sighed and it wasn’t in sadness; it was a frustrated sigh. Frustrated with me? “No.”

“Do you want to?”

“Violet, can you get me an oven dish, please?” Rose asked, completely ignoring my question.

That’s a no then. I felt so sorry for her. He had really screwed with her mind. Rose shoved the chicken in the oven dish and put it in the oven. She was pretending she hadn’t heard me, but I knew she would be thinking about it. How could she not? Did she know she was brainwashed?

I’d finished peeling and chopping, so I chucked the potatoes and carrots in the water and turned the electric stovetop on. That was officially the most cooking I’d ever done. Mum would be shocked and proud at the same time; she might even check my forehead to see if I was ill.

The atmosphere had changed; you could cut it with a knife and I knew it was because of my question. They kept their heads down and concentrated on what they were doing. Someone had to say it, though. Rose needed to realize, or re-realize, what he was doing was wrong.

Staring at the water in the pan slowly start to bubble, I shook my head. I had just helped make him dinner. I had never even made Lewis dinner before. I smiled at the memory of the one and only time I had offered. He laughed and made a joke about not wanting to be poisoned. I was notoriously bad at cooking.

The time Clover would be back was getting close. I could tell by the way they fussed around, double-checking everything was clean and tidy. My heart beat faster in anticipation. I didn’t want him down here, but I almost wanted him to walk through the door so I wouldn’t be so on edge waiting for it.

I debated whether I could pretend to be ill, but I didn’t want him to check up on me. Just eat dinner and keep to yourself until he leaves. This was something I would have to do twice a day on weekdays and three times a day on weekends until I was found.

Finally, that sound I had so quickly come to dread echoed through the room—the cellar door unlocking. My hands trembled and my heart leaped into my mouth. Violet gave me a quick smile, telling me it’d be fine. It wouldn’t.

“Good evening, Flowers,” he said and gave us a charming, this is all totally normal smile. That was how he got away with it. He looked so friendly you just instantly trusted him—unless you were down here, of course.

“Good evening,” they replied in unison. I busied myself with draining the vegetables while making sure I kept an eye on exactly where he was.

“Is it almost ready?”

“Yes, just serving now,” Poppy replied.

I carried two plates over, leaving them to sort out the rest. Rose carried his with a big smile on her face; she probably liked bringing her psycho his dinner.

“Let’s eat then,” he said cheerfully and tucked into the huge roast dinner.

I forced a bite down, desperate not to draw attention to myself by not eating, but every mouthful made my stomach churn. I kept my eyes on my plate, pretending to eat. All I wanted to do was to fade into the background and not catch his attention. I couldn’t relax while he was in the room; my tense body ached.

“How was your day, Clover?” Rose asked.

“Very good so far, thank you. I got a lot done. What about you?”

“Good. We’ve watched a few great movies.” What else are we going to do?

He nodded once. “Well, let me know when you’re ready for more.”

“We will. Thank you.” I wondered if Rose realized she spoke just like him whenever he was down here. They were so formal and polite to each other. It was eerie. “We were wondering if we could have more dress patterns. We’d quite like to make a few summer dresses.” My head snapped up immediately. They made clothes? You needed scissors to cut fabric. A plan formed in my head straight away. How poetic would it be if he died the same way as he’d killed—a stab wound?

“Would you teach me?” I piped in.

Clover smiled triumphantly, as if he thought I had finally come around to his sick way of “living.” “That’s a wonderful idea, Lily. I’m sure Rose, Violet, and Poppy would love to teach you, wouldn’t you, girls?”

“Of course,” Rose agreed. My heart leaped with hope. A plan was already forming in my head, almost by itself. I managed to eat a little more food and smile at him almost politely. I could do this. I could play nice, and it was easier now because there was light at the end of the tunnel. We had a way.

Once dinner was over, I expected him to leave, but he took Rose’s hand and led her into a room that I hadn’t been in before. It looked half under the stairs and couldn’t be very big at all. I assumed it was a closet. What was going on? “Where are they going? What’s in there?” I asked, looking at the closed door.

Poppy lowered her head and bit her lip. “That’s the room where he…” she whispered. Her eyes filled with tears.

“What? Where he does what…” I trailed off, realizing what she was trying to say. My blood froze inside my veins. The room where he rapes us. He and Rose were in there now. She went so willingly, no hesitation, no sign of horror in her eyes. “I need to go home,” I whispered to myself more than to them.

“You need to stop this, Lily. There is no going home. The sooner you accept that the easier it will be. Trust me. Please?” Poppy said.

All I could hear was the sound of my frantic pulse smashing in my ears. Shit. “No.” I sat down and tried to absorb everything. Rose was being raped in a room just feet from me. But was she? Did she want to now? Surely she couldn’t be that brainwashed that she wanted him. I gulped and felt a tear trickle down my cheek.

“Lily?” Poppy put her hand on my shoulder making me jump. “Sorry. Are you okay?” I shook my head and stared ahead at nothing. I felt empty. There would be a time when he would want me to go into that room. Could I survive that? I would rather die than have him near me. If I did die, though, I would never see Lewis or my family again. It was an impossible choice. Either stay alive in the hope of being reunited with my family but be raped, or die never having said good-bye to the people I love but die free of him.

I wasn’t sure how long I sat as still as a statue while they were in that room, but it didn’t seem that long. The door opened, and I quickly curled myself up in a ball, wiping my tears from my face.

“Good night, Flowers.”

“Night, Clover,” Poppy and Violet said from beside me. I couldn’t talk to him; I couldn’t even look at him. Disgusting, sick bastard!

Rose sat down and flicked the TV on as if nothing had happened. There were no tears, no acknowledgment of what he just did to her. I didn’t dare say anything. Pressing my side into the arm of the sofa, I turned my head so my hair fell in my face, hiding the fresh tears that fell for Rose.

After the movie, it was finally late enough to go to bed. I wanted sleep. I needed the escape. “Lily, do you want to shower first?” Rose asked, and I nodded. Actually, I didn’t. I didn’t want to shower at all. “Okay.”

Without hanging around to talk, I grabbed the pajamas from my bed and went in the bathroom. Why was I even doing this? My second shower of the day lasted longer. I let the hot water cascade over my body and wash away what felt like inches of dried-on dirt. Would I ever feel clean again?

Yawning, I switched the shower off and quickly dried myself. Even though it wasn’t really late—only ten at night—I was exhausted. My mind had been working overtime and desperately needed a break. It was strange to think I was looking forward to sleeping here. I would actually like to sleep the entire time I would be down here.

As I walked between the bathroom and bedroom, I glanced back at the stairs leading to the door. How the hell am I ever going to get out of here? I didn’t believe it was impossible, like they did, but I knew it wasn’t something I could just do impulsively. I had to play it safe because if anything went wrong, he would kill me without thinking twice.

I got into bed and pulled the quilt over my head so I was completely hidden. The bedroom would look quite pretty if it wasn’t in the middle of hell. Closing my eyes, I stupidly tried to contact Lewis. I prayed that by some odd miracle he would hear me. But of course, he wouldn’t be able to. Please come, I begged Lewis in my head and started crying silently.

***

A loud bang followed by a high-pitched scream woke me up. The color drained from my face and my heart skipped a beat. What was that? I threw the cover off myself and sprinted to the door. I slammed into Poppy, who grabbed my arm and shoved me farther back into the room.

“What’s that?” I hissed.

“Just stay in here. He’ll want to see someone,” Poppy said and followed Rose and Violet out, closing the door behind them. I was alone. The soft light from the lamp didn’t do much to lighten the room. I wanted to turn them all on to make it as bright as possible, but I was too scared to move.

“No, no, no,” a new voice I didn’t recognize screamed, and a haze of fear engulfed me. Who was that?

“Shut up,” Clover bellowed. His voice ripped through the room with such force my heart leaped into my throat. I’d seen him shout before, but this was different; this sounded violent and angry.

What was he doing, and who was he shouting at? Everything went silent. I turned my head, angling my ear toward the door, wanting to hear more but not daring to move. My heart pounded in my chest. Was she going to stay down here too? Was she trying to fight back?

I licked my dry lips as I waited for something to happen. I couldn’t hear Poppy, Violet, or Rose talking, so I didn’t know what they were doing. A very small part of me wanted to be out there, so I would know what was going on.

A sudden crash caused me to jump and I scrambled back on my bed, pulling the cover up and pressing my face into the pillow. I felt like I did when I was home alone and heard a noise, only now the noise wasn’t in my head.

“Shut up,” Clover shouted again. His voice exploded, and he sounded so mad I pictured him with wide eyes and a red, rage-filled face.

The freshly washed bedcovers smelled of lavender—just like my gran’s. I pictured myself as a little child, lying in the middle of the king-size bed, puffy, feather-filled quilt up to my chin, breathing in the comforting smell as I fell asleep to her reading me a bedtime story. In my head I could pretend, but another piercing, guttural scream reminded me where I was.

He wasn’t hurting her; he couldn’t, not with Rose, Violet, and Poppy in the same room witnessing it. She had to be struggling to escape. He wanted her to stay down here and she was resisting. It would all be okay once he left and she was alone with us down here.

The annoying, nagging voice in the back of my mind was telling me if he wanted her to stay down here, he’d have a bed for her too. Everything was in fours. There was no place for her. But maybe he was going to make a place.

Like a few seconds ago, everything went quiet again. I couldn’t stand it. I hated not knowing what was going on, what he was doing, and, more important, where he was. I didn’t want him to come in here and see me.

Just leave her here and go. He left me as soon as he’d thrown me down the stairs and told Rose to explain what was going on. Why wasn’t he going? I lay perfectly still as I waited to hear something. My breathing was ragged and heavy, and I fought to control it so I wouldn’t miss any noise from outside.

I pressed my face into the pillow harder as the tension was threatening to consume me. My heart raced painfully fast and my hands started to shake.

A dull thud that sounded exactly like the time Henry leaned back too far on his chair and fell over. We all rushed upstairs thinking he’d fainted or something. Was that what I’d heard? A person falling? I gulped, whimpering as my mind tried to force me to see the things I didn’t want to see. Everyone was fine. Something was dropped. In a minute, I would hear the cellar door open and close and then the girls would come back in the room with whoever else was out there.

My chest rose and fell heavily with every deep breath I took. Just as I’d thought, the cellar door opened and closed, squeaking slightly. Soon they would be back. Someone was going to have to share with the new girl because there wasn’t a bed for her yet.

The bedroom door opened, and I leaped up, spinning around and pressing my back into the headboard. Violet, it was just Violet. She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “You okay?” she asked.

“No. You?”

She gulped and her eyes left me. Where were Rose, Poppy, and the new girl? “Lily, you’re not like Rose and Poppy. They’ve given up and you haven’t. I haven’t.”

I frowned. Where was this going and what was happening out there? I heard taps running and cupboards being opened. “What?” I asked, only half paying attention as I tried to figure out what was going on in the main room.

“I can’t do this anymore,” she said and climbed into her bed, turning away from me and pulling the cover over her head.

I wanted to ask her what she meant and see if she was okay, but I heard something slosh around in water and something else being sprayed vigorously. Seconds later an overpowering scent of that lemon cleaner hit me, tickling my nose and making my eyes water.

“Violet, what’re they doing?” I whispered, wide-eyed, clutching the quilt. She didn’t answer; instead, she pulled the cover up higher and I saw her body curl up beneath the quilt. I took a deep breath and looked at the door. What are they doing?