One hundred and two. Callum

It’s not what you’re thinking . . . It’s exactly what you’re thinking . . . Someone say something. Anything.

Nothing.

‘What’s happened?’ I asked at last.

‘You tell us,’ Jude said with quiet menace.

He kept looking from me to Sephy and back again.

‘Where’s Leila?’

‘Arrested,’ Morgan replied.

‘Where’s Pete?’

‘Dead,’ said Jude. ‘They had undercover police everywhere. They must’ve been monitoring every phone box in town. Either that or they knew exactly where we’d be. Morgan and I changed our locations at the last moment otherwise they might’ve captured us too. We were lucky to escape in one piece.’ Jude looked at Sephy, his face sombre. ‘I thought we could take the girl and move out of this town to somewhere safer, but now . . .’

He turned to me, the rest of his sentence clearly spoken but unsaid.

What have I done? Sephy, forgive me. I’ve killed us both.

‘I’ll pack up all our equipment . . .’ I said.

‘I don’t think so,’ Jude replied. ‘Morgan, go and pack up everything essential. Leave the rest. We’ve got to get out of here.’

Morgan left without a word.

‘Why is she crying?’ Jude indicated Sephy.

My face began to burn. I kept my mouth shut.

‘And her jumper is inside out.’

Jude and I glared at each other. What was I meant to say to that? Nothing. Jude had already made up his mind what had happened in his absence.

‘You stupid, stupid berk. You’ve put a noose around all our necks.’ Jude grabbed me by my T-shirt. ‘We could’ve got what we wanted and let her go, in spite of what Andrew Dorn said. They’d never have found us.’ He punctuated each half-sentence by backhanding me around the face. ‘But not now. You raped her and now it’s her or us. You stupid, stupid . . .’

I clenched my fists and the next thing I knew Jude was flat on his back with blood trickling down from his nose.

‘Don’t you ever hit me again as long as you live,’ I hissed at him.

He sprang up and swung at me. I blocked his arm easily and hit him again. And then we were at it. A vicious, scrappy brawl, with each of us determined to hurt the other more than we were hurting. Something rushed by me but I barely noticed.

‘Stop her! Stop!’ Jude pushed me away. ‘She’s escaping. Get her.’

We both sprung to our feet. I looked around, confused. Where was Sephy? I looked towards the open door and realized. Jude and I both took off after her. We raced out of the front door.

‘Morgan! Round here!’ Jude yelled. ‘She’s escaped.’

I looked around but I couldn’t see her. It was nighttime now, almost midnight, but we had a full moon on our side and there were no clouds, so that was something.

‘There she is!’ Morgan pointed over to the left towards the trees.

I turned, just in time to see Sephy disappear into the darkness of the wood. All three of us chased after her. I had to find her before the others. I needed to find her.

God help me if I didn’t.

Date: 2015-12-18; view: 621