Escape From Evil - Cathy Wilson [32]
‘Mum! Mum! Mark wants me to take something!’
Mum’s face was suddenly alert – and terrified.
‘Leave her alone!’ she shouted, pulling me over to hold. ‘Don’t even touch her.’
The four other men immediately looked to Mark for instruction. He, in turn, looked calmly at Mum.
‘We need to have a party, Jenny. I suggest Cathy takes one of these pills.’
I felt shivers run up my spine. The way Mum gripped me, I knew she felt it too.
Pills? What pills? What will they make me do?
Mum was standing now. ‘She’s not taking anything.’
I held Mum’s hand tight. Mark moved to within an inch of her face.
‘You know what will happen if she doesn’t take them, don’t you?’
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. That was a threat. An actual threat. Mum was shaking, I could feel it. What did he mean, ‘You know what will happen?’ What will happen? What will he do to her?
Then a thought struck. Or is he talking about me?
I didn’t have time to decide. Mum was looking at me.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said, desperately trying to fight back the tears. ‘Come with me.’
Mark stood back and let us pass into the bedroom.
‘You’d better do as he says.’ Mum sighed. ‘They’re just sleeping tablets. They won’t hurt.’
‘But I don’t want to sleep.’
‘Just do it!’ Mum shouted.
Shocked, I slumped backwards onto the bed. Why is she shouting at me? What have I done wrong?
Then I realized. She was scared. Scared of what would happen if I didn’t take the pill. Scared because she knew exactly what would happen because she’d seen it before.
I had no choice. I was crying now, like Mum, but I held out my hand, took the pill and popped it into my mouth. Mum handed me a glass of water from my bedside cabinet and I swallowed it. Then she helped me lie on the bed and stroked my forehead and told me, ‘I’m sorry. I love you.’
And that was the last thing I remember.
The next time I saw a clock it was already after noon. I’d slept for about fourteen hours straight – although, from the cloudiness in my head, it felt more like ten minutes. Looking back, a pill designed to knock out an adult was obviously going to have a severe effect on me, but I couldn’t understand why I felt so groggy after such a huge amount of sleep. Gradually the fog cleared, however, and I got on with my business of cleaning the flat and making sure Mum was okay.
The next time I saw Mark and Brian they were carrying a huge, thick tube. Large as it was, I still assumed it must have something to do with smoking.
I suppose they’ll want me to do something with that.
They did – but not in the way I imagined.
Mark went straight into the kitchen and called me through. In the past I’d been happy to make his joints for him. It was one of my chores, something for Mum to enjoy as well. Since the last time, though, since I’d seen him speak to Mum in that threatening way, things had changed. I was seeing him with fresh eyes now, like he was a completely different person – one I didn’t like one bit. This new man was uglier, he looked older, his teeth were yellower and he stank, mainly of smoke, but aftershave as well. His clothes were stained in places and his breathing was heavy. All things I hadn’t noticed before, things I hadn’t picked up on when I thought he was a friend. Now I knew the truth. He definitely was no friend of ours.
‘You’ll be needing this,’ Mark said, and he handed me a chunky knife with a short, savage-looking blade.
‘What’s this?’ I asked.
‘It’s a Stanley knife.’
‘What do you do with it?’
He laughed. ‘Lots of things. But in this instance, you lay lino with it.’
The penny dropped. The long thing they’d brought in was floor covering. But what was I meant to do with it? ‘Just pull up this old crap,’ Mark said, kicking the current linoleum sheet, ‘and put this down.’ He showed me how to hold the knife. ‘Think you can manage that?’ He was smiling, but there was a tone to his voice I didn’t like.
I shrugged. He took that as a yes and left.
I stared at this roll of vinyl, then at the knife,