She sprinted past the old truck and back down the overgrown lane, cursing when she realised she’d left her shopping bag in the house.
At the end she slowed and panted, glanced back and saw Suze watching her, no smile, just watching.
Mae ran to the police station, breathless and sweating. She found the door locked, cursed loudly, drawing a shake of the head from an old lady walking past.
She pressed her face to the glass but the blinds were closed.
She knew she should wait, maybe for Sail, maybe for Felix.
And then she saw the sign, Forever, written across in bold red.
Mae had to know, time was running out.
By the time she made it to the school the place was deserted.
Mae crossed the sports field and stood at the shadowed line of trees.
She wondered if this was where Abi had stood, if someone had lured her into the woodland or if she’d set off with grim determination to end her own life.
Maybe Sullivan Reed was in there now, lying in the leaves, his camera aimed at the trees. Mae felt a chill when she thought of his bedroom, that red light and all those pictures of Abi.
And then she heard it.
A scream.
Her blood began to pump fast.
Mae turned towards the sound.
Another girl. She looked back at the school building, a long way, even if she ran.
She cursed, then moved quickly, beat back the fear by breaking into a run, the adrenaline coursing.
At the edge she slowed.
She began to creep, keeping herself low and covered by dense branches.
The girl was leaning back against the wide face of an oak tree, knees pulled to her chest.
Hunter Silver.
And there, facing her, was Sullivan Reed.
Mae moved nearer.
‘I need you to see what you are, Hunter,’ he said.
Mae looked around, reached for a stick long and thick enough and then moved slowly and carefully.
‘They tell you to confess your sins, but it isn’t enough. You have to pay for them.’
Hunter shook her head.
‘Selena, she’s the leveller we’ve been waiting for. Kids like me. Kids you step on every day without noticing. She’s coming down and we’ll end up in the same place. We’ll be the same.’
He took a step nearer.
‘Leave me alone.’
‘You take girls like Abi, and you make them like you.’
Hunter pushed herself back further, hard against the tree. ‘What do you want?’
‘I just want you to see, Hunter.’
Mae moved from the shadow.
She cut between trees, there and then not, keeping herself directly behind as Sullivan turned and glanced around.
Mae froze, her muscles tensed as she thought of Stella and the kind of world they existed in. She could still go, drop her stick and melt back into the shadows, leave behind Hunter Silver.
It was Stella that kept her from doing that. She told her sister they were fighters, that the world could be broken down into two groups, as simple as good and bad, no longer room for the shades of grey.
‘Please,’ Hunter said.
Mae thought of all the times Hunter had got on her. Made up lies, told people she was a slut. She could stand there and let it happen, or turn and walk away, let Hunter’s screams send her off to sleep each night.
She looked at the word on her wrist and thought of Abi and everything they’d believed in.
Mae moved.
Sullivan was quick to turn, but slow to move his feet.
Mae brought the stick down hard across his head.
The noise was ugly.
Heavy and dull.
He fell back to sitting, for a moment his eyes rolled back into his head, and then blood seeped down his face. He slumped to his side, face in the leaves as Mae stood ready, the stick held high in case he moved again.
Hunter got to her feet. She spat on Sullivan. ‘Freak.’ And then she aimed a kick at his ribs.
Then another.
Mae put a hand around her waist and pulled her back.
‘Enough now. It’s over.’
Hunter stood there panting, hair wild, eyes wild. Her make-up had run.
‘I need my shoe,’ Hunter said.
Mae looked down and saw Hunter’s bare foot in the leaves.
‘Fendi slides. I’m not leaving it’ She spoke calmly, like the tears, the screams, it had all been an act.
They found it beside Sullivan.
‘You think he’s dead?’ Hunter said, staring at Sullivan’s sprawled body.
Mae saw the slight rise and fall of his chest and shook her head.
‘Maybe call Sergeant Walters when you get home, but leave my name out of it.’
Hunter nodded.
They began to walk back towards the clearing.
‘He followed me. I just … I wanted to be alone. You ever feel like that?’
Mae said nothing, just glanced at the gunmetal sky as the breeze picked up.
‘He was going to rape me. Or try. What the hell is going on in this town?’
‘It’s not just this town.’
‘I’ve never even spoken to that kid.’
‘I think that was the problem.’
‘You could’ve left me,’ Hunter said.
‘I could have.’
‘I would have totally left you. Or maybe hidden and filmed it.’
They moved on in silence, till the trees began to thin. Hunter stopped, bent over and retched, fighting for air as reality came at her. Mae stopped, reluctantly moved back and joined her.
‘I think I twisted it.’ She wiped sweat from her head with the back of her arm, then gritted her teeth as she studied her ankle.
Mae took a breath, then hauled her up.
They moved on together, Hunter limping, Mae taking her weight.
They made it to the field as sunlight punctured the clouds.
A group of kids were playing football. Some boys looked over.
Hunter wiped the tears from her cheeks and pulled a pocket mirror from her bag. ‘They won’t see me weak.’
By the bay they stopped and sat on a bench. Hunter needed a break.
‘How come you were there?’
‘Long story,’ Mae said. She lit a cigarette and held the smoke deep. Hunter held out a hand and Mae passed it to her.
Hunter inspected the tear in her shirt. ‘You ever wonder why I hate you so much?’
‘No.’
‘You could be one of us. But you think you’re better.’
‘I am.’
Hunter smiled at that. ‘That’s what I mean. You’re fearless. And I’d rather you weren’t. You talk to me like I’m nothing. You do it in front of other kids.’
Mae wondered if that were true.
‘You don’t know about pressure, Mae. You don’t know about living perfect, and dying perfect. The all-perfect Silver family. My father will bury this.’ She picked at the blood on her hand. ‘He’ll tell Sergeant Walters and it’ll be swept under. Parents have enough to worry about. It’ll be his first thought, when I tell him. He’ll think about Sacred Heart.’
Mae thought about the toll of looking after Stella. Her existence was basal. She was an extension of her sister.
‘This doesn’t make us friends,’ Mae said.
‘Hell, no.’
Hunter hugged her then, so unexpected Mae did not even push her away.
‘Thanks, bitch.’ Hunter limped off towards her side of town.