Despite the cold and the dark, the streets in the centre of Liverpool were busy when Ana emerged from the revolving doors of the office block. A fierce wind whipped across the street from the nearby Mersey, as it so often did here, but today the blast of air was bitingly chilly too, stinging Ana’s cheeks as she walked. Still, she had on the woolly hat and gloves that her friend Cat had bought for her birthday a couple of weeks ago, and she was plenty used to cold winters anyway, though this would be her first in the Northwest of England.
Walking through the revamped shopping streets surrounding the trendy Liverpool ONE development, Ana was soon heading away from the eager crowds of commuters on their way home, and Christmas shoppers out spending more money than they could afford on gifts that people hadn’t asked for, and onto much quieter streets. In the near distance was the city campus of Liverpool John Moores University, which was encircled by a swathe of modern but affordable apartment blocks, many exclusively housing students, but plenty of others, used by young professionals and the like.
As ‘affordable’ as those apartments were, Ana wasn’t quite flush enough just yet to afford one, not after only six months of her new job. Her new life, really. Not long ago she would never have imagined living such a relaxed and free life as this, even if she was earning little more than the minimum wage. For now.
Perhaps sometime next year she’d be able to upgrade accommodation, once the initial twelve-month rental period on her low-grade ground-floor room in the shared house she was now living in was up.
A shared house, but actually there were only three bedrooms in the 1960s semi. It was on a stretch of two dozen identical properties that were otherwise surrounded and dwarfed by much larger and grander blocks. Only one of the other bedrooms was currently occupied, by a young Chinese PhD student who’d taken on the Western first name Meghan to try to fit in to her new environment. As pleasant as Meghan was, she was rarely around. In fact, Ana hadn’t seen her at all in the last few days, and wondered whether perhaps she’d already gone back to China during the university’s Christmas break – the students seemed to be forever on a holiday of some description.
Ana dug in her pocket for the key as she walked on down the street, her eyes busy working over the space in front of her and across the road. However safe this place felt, the whole city really, she would always feel on edge walking alone at night.
The only people about were a couple across the road, walking a little dog, and they passed on, mid-chat, without even looking in Ana’s direction.
She headed up to the front door, unlocked and opened it. The hallway was dark. So Meghan still wasn’t around. Ana flicked on the lights, glanced briefly down the hallway to the open doorways for kitchen and lounge – no sign of anyone – before she shut the door behind her. She stripped off her gloves, hat and coat as she headed to the locked door which was first on her right. Her bedroom. The other two bedrooms were both upstairs, where it remained pitch black. Ana shivered at the thought as she looked up. Even though she and Meghan didn’t socialise together much, it was at least comforting when someone else was in the house. But was this how it would be now for the next few weeks? Just Ana on her own each and every night?
Perhaps she should ask Cat to come and stay with her, though with her new boyfriend, she had become more and more busy recently.
Ana turned the key in the lock then pushed open the bedroom door. She was instinctively reaching for the light switch when she knew something was wrong. Yet she could see nothing inside the room. Could hear nothing untoward either.
What hit her was the smell.
His smell.
She’d never forget it.
Her fingers completed the journey to the switch, even though she wished they hadn’t, because as soon as the cramped space beyond was lit up, she was left staring into Victor’s menacing eyes.
‘Nice to see you, Ana,’ he said in their native tongue, the words dripping from his mouth with unspoken hate.
Ana was already turning, but as she did so she spotted the shadow moving behind her, out in the hall, and she could only shrink down and flinch uselessly as the thick arms wrapped around her and crushed her, lifting her off her feet. She let out a stifled scream before a gloved hand clamped over her mouth. She wriggled and writhed but was no match for the man’s strength. He carried her into the room and threw her down onto the bed.
Her hair flopping in front of her eyes, Ana gasped for breath as she propped herself up on the hard mattress. She could scream. She could charge for the door. But what good would it do? Victor had found her. There was no escape.
She blew the hair from her face. Set her cold stare on Victor who was sitting on the worn Ikea sofa in the corner of the room.
‘You’re doing well for yourself,’ Victor said, looking around the room as though he was impressed. ‘Clever girl.’
‘I’m not a girl.’
‘But you are clever. At least you think you are. Running from me like you did. To here?’
‘I didn’t run.’
‘But you didn’t tell me where you were going.’
That was true enough.
‘Did you think I’d just forget about you?’ he asked.
‘Why are you here?’
Victor chuckled. Ana’s insides boiled with hatred at the mocking sound.
‘I missed you,’ he said. ‘I always told you, Ana, you’re special to me.’
‘You say that to every woman.’
‘No,’ he said, shaking his head, a beastly smile on his face. ‘Only those that I control.’
The goon by the door – Ana didn’t even know his name – scooped up Ana’s coat and threw it onto her. She angrily swiped it away.
‘You’re going to need that,’ Victor said. ‘It’s cold outside.’
‘I’m not going anywhere with you,’ she spat.
Victor got to his feet. He moved over to the bed and Ana squirmed back.
‘Oh, yes you are,’ Victor said. ‘You’re coming home.’
She only saw his balled fist a second before it smashed into her face. Seconds later, she was out.