Pushing through the overgrowth, I move as fast as I can. Wild brambles, thorns and branches scratch at my skin as I run through the woodland. I raise my arms to protect my face. Having reached the main road, I chose to head back into the cover of the trees on the very small chance that Barry somehow managed to get out of that fire alive and come after me.
The rain starts to pour heavily and my shirt clings to my body. Heavy droplets fall onto the leaves creating a rushing river like sound above me. I look up, water rushing over my face and feet sinking into the saturated woodland floor. I wonder if the ground will swallow me. That would be better than Barry finding me.
I continue on, dodging half fallen branches. My feet and my back ache but I don’t stop. The tops of the branches glower over me intimidatingly like a dark audience. Then I stop, a sharp and menacing sound creeps over me. A voice. Barry’s voice. He calls out to me, ominously. He’s close. He’s alone. The boys must have let him out, extinguished the fire somehow before going off to try to round up the rest of the girls. Or maybe he got out via the window. I hope the girls get away or can hide until I can get help. As much as Barry told me the police were in his pocket, I still have to try.
I don’t shout back even though I want to tell him to fuck off away from me, leave me alone. I can’t allow him to hear me and track where I am. I can’t go back to that place, that house. Evil resides there, the men who man the doors, recruit the girls and keep them there make me sick. The house itself was beautiful and was clearly a home long ago before the McAdams got their hands on it. Now, the place is like a prison run by parasites that feed off the misery of the people being held against their will.
I think about Amber and Yasmin. One dead and one attempting to get away from this life. And Crystal… the poor girl who Marcus, my son, had killed. Amber was certain of that. I’d wanted to ask Yasmin about it, they’d been friends, but I just couldn’t get a moment alone with her. She was either with a client or off her face.
Death is clearly the McAdam way of protecting their business. Whether that means against people like young Rory who’d taken advantage, or the girls themselves including me. I can’t die tonight. Not because I don’t want to or because I’m scared of what death means, but because I owe it to the rest of the girls to get help.
The cold air catches in my throat as I duck through the trees. Barry is closing in, I can hear him calling out. He’s angry, calling my name. ‘I’ll fucking kill you, I swear I’ll kill you Lizzy.’
He sounds like an injured animal and I know I’ve done some damage with those heels. Good. I want him to suffer, it’s my only hope.
I stop at the edge of the forest and look out onto the road. The moon shines down on the soaked concrete. It looks pretty, almost peaceful out here. The sound of the rain falling on a river somewhere helps to centre me. The rain lashes down and I look up at the sky, imagining how the rain is washing away all of the bad things that have happened in my life. Giving birth to a baby I didn’t want to have, leaving him outside the hospital in the hope that he would have a better life than I could offer. In reality, I’d left him in the firing line and now that I know what happened to him, who had brought him up, I’ve never regretted a decision more in my life than that one. Marcus is the person he is because of Barry. If I’d just kept him, moved away, none of this might have happened.
My name echoes out again, Barry’s voice a deep growl. He’s more than angry. Without turning to see if he’s approaching, I climb carefully across the barbed fence and onto the road. If Barry emerged from the forest now, he would see me. So I keep to the edge line of the trees in the hope that he won’t be able to see me.
Headlights ahead, fast approaching. I step into the middle of the road and wave my arms frantically at the car. It manoeuvres around me and comes to a stop a few yards ahead of me. I run to the car and pull on the passenger door. It’s locked. I peer through the glass at the woman in the driver seat, her eyes wide. The window lowers a little. She is cautious. I understand.
‘Please,’ I cry. ‘Please open the door, he’s going to kill me.’
The driver looks out at the road, her eyes darting back and forth along the edging of the trees. Her eyes fall upon me again.
‘Please let me in, I’m not going to hurt you I promise.’ I’m still pulling at the handle unsuccessfully.
The woman in the car hesitates, of course she does. If I was in her position I would be scared too.
The rain hammers down on the car and the windscreen wipers move quickly over the glass. ‘Please, open the door. I need help. He’s going to fucking kill me. There are others, I need to get them help.’
My voice is shaking inside my throat. The woman’s expression changes, her eyes dart down to the unlock button on the inside of the door. Yes, I think. Thank god. But then she looks up and past me out to the darkness.
I turn, see his shadow standing on the edge of the forest. He is unmoving. Menacing. I turn to the driver again, tapping on the window and pulling frantically at the door.
‘Please, don’t leave me out here. Open the door.’ I pull hard to the point I think the handle might come away in my hand. Then the car begins to pull away, slowly at first and then it speeds off into the night.
‘No, no please,’ I call but the car is already gone, red lights in the distance. I can’t believe that my chance for survival has just slipped away from me.
I don’t have time to mourn that loss, I need to move. I cross the road, my legs heavy. But I run into the other side of the forest, deeper and deeper into the conifers and thorn bushes. He’s not far behind me, I can feel his presence. He isn’t calling my name now. He doesn’t want me to know where he is.
I push through the pain of the branches and thorns as they scratch my skin and rip my shirt. Water drips from every inch of my body and even though I’m hot from running, my skin is cold.
I come to a clearing and I find myself on the edge of concrete overlooking the river I could hear before. My surroundings are familiar, like I’ve been here before. There’s a slope to my left and I move down carefully, closer to the water rushing along the river channel. The drop isn’t high but at the bottom there is a cavity and I climb over loose rocks and boulders to get inside.
A memory comes to me now, it’s slight but it’s real. I used to come here as a child. Pretended to fish for salmon while my dad did it for real. I used to play in this small space which I thought was the cave from the story of Peter Pan. Why haven’t I recalled this before? How did I know this was here?
I sit against the concrete, my skin sore and cold from the saturated clothes that cling to me now. The adrenaline pumping through me alerts me to the sound of footsteps overhead. He’s here. Barry has found me.
I move back as far and as carefully into the darkness of the cavern as I can, stepping over more rocks and boulders. The keys in my pocket are heavy and cold against my skin and I pull them out slowly, bunching them together in my hand so they don’t make a sound. I’ll need something to hit him with if I have any hope of getting out of here alive. Maybe he’s not alone, the boys could be with him. I could be surrounded, about to be taken out.
I hold my breath as the footsteps inch closer, he’s climbing down the slope which leads to me and I squeeze the metal in my hands. The approaching sound halts. The rain hammers down above me on to the cavern’s roof and I look at the opening, expecting him to appear at any moment. The gushing river in front of the opening is rising, and I know this space will flood soon enough. I’m shivering so much I can’t control the chatter of my teeth.
‘Ah, there you are.’ His voice echoes around me and somehow booms over the sounds of the raging river and the hammering rain. His head is bleeding and he is hunched over. He’s in pain and I could use that to my advantage.
‘Don’t come any closer, Barry. I mean it.’
‘Or you’ll do what? It’s not like there’s anyone else here, Lizzy. It’s just us.’ He raises his hand to his head and dabs his fingers at the blood as it seeps down. ‘That was some blow back there. You’re a feisty fucker, aren’t you? Trying to lure me into shagging you so you could kill me? Setting fire to the house, I mean you’re not that clever. Who helped you out with that one?’
He inches closer again and I pin myself to the wall as the water level rises and begins to flow into the dark cavity I am now trapped in. Maybe this is the gateway to hell?
‘I didn’t do a very good job so it seems, you’re still fucking breathing,’ I hiss at him. He slips a little, almost loses his footing on the wet rocks below. As he regains his balance, I grip the keys harder in my hand. It’s not much but could cause enough damage to buy me some time.
‘The water is getting deeper, Lizzy. It’s cold too. I could hold you under and no one would be able to stop me, not even you.’
He’s close and shoots an arm out, makes a grab for me. I launch my fist at him, allowing the keys to fall loose from my hand and dangle before swiping them against his face. I aim for the eyes and as he jumps back, he slips and falls back into the water. I move carefully and lift one of the rocks at my feet, pick it up with my hands. Barry squirms, slips and slides in the water against the algae-covered depths. The moonlight shines a little inside the cavity and I can almost see his blood mixing with the river.
I balance myself over him as he tries to get up and bring the rock down on his head, just like I did with the bottle. He wrestles for my ankle but I hit him again, and again. Harder and harder with each blow, I start to scream. The water splashes up and around me, the rain hammers down and the river swirls in between and around us.
Barry isn’t moving now, isn’t fighting. And I continue to power down on him with the rock. Harder and harder, faster with each blow. I can’t allow him to get up this time.
‘Please,’ I cry out, screaming in torment. ‘Please, Barry just fucking die!’
As I stare down at his face, I don’t see any burns from the fire. In fact, I barely see a face having smashed down on him so much. My eyes dart between his head and my hands as I try to process the blood. So much blood.