Sunday 10th December 2023
Chrissy
Chrissy tears across the grass towards her son. But the relief of seeing him is caught up in confusion. How is Georgie here? Why is Georgie here? She stops short of diving at Leo and pulling him away from the edge, fearing it might send them both flying over. She is desperate to touch him, gather him in, but she staggers to a halt. Alice and Peter come to a stop on either side of her.
‘Leo,’ Chrissy chokes out. ‘Oh, Leo, I’m so happy to see you. Please, will you—’
‘Get away from here, Mum!’ he shouts.
She recoils as if he’s thrown something. ‘Leo—’
‘Leave me!’ She sees he’s crying, that he’s been crying for a while. ‘All of you …’ His eyes dart to Peter. ‘Leave me alone.’
‘Leo, everything’s okay,’ Chrissy says, her own tears still thick in her throat.
‘No it isn’t,’ Leo says. ‘Everything’s fucked. It’s over.’
Chrissy starts to protest again, but Georgie speaks. ‘You’re right.’ Her voice is so cold it sends a shiver through Chrissy. ‘It’s over.’
Chrissy turns to her. ‘Stay out of this, Georgie! Why are you messing with my family?’
‘Leo just confessed something to me,’ Georgie says, her face muscles clenched so hard they seem to spasm.
Dread lodges in Chrissy’s chest. ‘Confessed?’ She glances at Leo. ‘Leo, you’re not thinking straight … Please step back, come with me …’
‘He killed my Ethan!’ Georgie cries.
‘Your Ethan?’
‘Your son took him from me.’
‘No,’ Chrissy says frantically. ‘No, that’s not true – he doesn’t know what he’s saying.’
‘It doesn’t matter anymore!’ Leo yells, turning to face the valley and bracing himself as if to jump.
‘No!’ Chrissy screams. ‘Leo, don’t!’
He freezes with bent knees. She knows it’s the sound of her distress that has stalled him. That night with Ethan, he couldn’t stand it any longer. Now it feels like the only way to make him think twice about this. ‘Please,’ she begs. ‘I love you, Leo. I can’t lose you again.’
She is aware, as she says it, of Alice beside her. Of the fact that she has lost her son forever and Chrissy has a second chance with hers. If she can just get him away from the drop, if she can just stop Georgie from unleashing the secret she has kept, for his protection, all these years.
‘Jump, if you want to,’ Georgie says viciously. ‘It won’t stop me from telling everyone what you did.’
‘Leo didn’t kill Ethan,’ Chrissy says. ‘I did. It was me.’
‘Mum.’ Leo shakes his head. ‘Time to stop pretending. I killed Ethan because he was …’ His voice breaks. ‘He was hurting you. I killed Robbie because I thought he’d found out. And then I killed Frank Jordan. I left him to burn, because I’d trusted him with the truth and then he wanted me to … to …’ He stretches his hands out either side of him, as if he hopes to fly off the edge, now, rather than jump. ‘I’m a killer and it’d be better if I just … didn’t exist.’
‘No it wouldn’t!’ Chrissy strains her vocal cords trying to get through to him.
Next to her, Peter comes to life. ‘No, it wouldn’t,’ he echoes, with so much feeling Chrissy aches behind her ribs.
And then Alice, quieter, but clearly in tears. ‘No, it wouldn’t.’
Leo’s hands sink to his sides and he turns to look at them, as if registering, properly, that they are all here for him. Chrissy opens her arms and for a moment thinks he’s going to come to her. But then there is Georgie, vibrating with fury, stepping between her and Leo with hatred blazing in her eyes.
‘It would be better if you didn’t exist,’ she hisses at Leo. ‘You should be in the ground instead of Ethan. None of you deserved him. You’re still lying about him now—’
‘We’re not lying,’ Chrissy says. ‘Georgie, I don’t know what he was to you, or what he did to you, how he brainwashed you—’
‘Don’t insult me!’ Georgie turns towards her. ‘Don’t insult him!’
‘But he was a bad man. An abuser. I’m sorry if—’
‘You’re sorry? You’re sorry? Your son killed your husband and you just stood by? Covered it up, even? Exactly how many lies have you told?’ Georgie flings a look at Peter and Alice, too. ‘Did you all know? Of course you did. And your little friend Ben, so desperate to defend you all. Cromley’s most fucked-up clique. Pathetic. Incestuous, I’m willing to bet. I don’t know why I bothered trying to mess with your heads. You’re already doing a good enough job yourselves.’
She backs away, towards Leo, towards the edge. Chrissy’s heart vaults into her mouth, seeing her so close to Leo, waving her arms around, more and more out of control. She steps forward and Peter is with her, Alice too, but she fears they’re closing in too tightly, surrounding Georgie and Leo and the drop.
‘Be careful,’ she says in a croaky whisper. ‘Everyone, please …’
Georgie swivels back to Leo, shouting into his face. ‘I’ll make you pay! I’ll make you pay for what you’ve done!’
Leo puts up his hands, shielding himself, his features screwed up in despair. Chrissy can’t bear it. All she’s ever tried to do is protect him. She would take the blame for Ethan’s death in a heartbeat if suspicions were ever raised. Even more so after he killed Robbie; she knew if anybody found out about Ethan, too, Leo’s sentence would become longer than he could stand. And she’d thought Alice was the danger. The one to fear. She hadn’t even thought of Georgie.
In a burst of desperation, she reaches out to yank her back from Leo. But somebody knocks against her shoulder, there is a confusing jostle of bodies, and her hands grasp at empty air. She hears a scream. Then she sees that Georgie is falling, limbs flailing, hair haloing out around her. Chrissy gasps and closes her eyes as Georgie is swallowed up by the dark valley below.