SORROW WOODS (37 page)

I hear her calling my name, even as I descend the steps into the garage. I ease myself on to

the black leather seat. If this were any other time, I’d revel in finally having my chance to sit on one of the fastest road motorbikes ever produced.

I flick the ignition and yank on the accelerator. The bike vibrates and shudders underneath me

as the roar of the engine fills the garage. I hit the button for the automatic garage and crawl towards the door as it opens. Once it’s wide enough, I pull back and wheel spin all the way down the drive.

Serena

I grab the tiny vodka bottle and pour half of it into my mother’s coffee. I don’t know if she can taste the vodka, but she hasn’t noticed it in any of the last four drinks that I’ve made for her. I hear the toilet flush and shuffle back onto the pale pink, flowery bed.

We’re in a motel. It smells damp and unclean. Some of the corners of the room are green, and

I’m fairly certain it’s mold. I have no idea what to do. I don’t want to be here with my Mother

because she’s not my real Mother, and she forced me to come here when I didn’t want to. People

shouldn’t behave like that.

She comes out of the bathroom and smiles at me. I can’t bring myself to return it. She

wanders over towards the window that she’s been looking out of for the last few hours and sits

down on the pale green chair. Being trapped in this room with her makes me want to scratch my

skin.

“You’d better go and shower,” she says.

I look over to the back of her head and watch her sip her drink. I’m not sure how much

vodka it will take to get her drunk enough to start wobbling everywhere. I need to run away but I know my Mother can run as fast as me, so I’m hoping that if she’s drunk she might struggle to keep up. It’s the only way I can think of to get away from her. It’s something I never thought I would have to think about.

“Serena!” she snaps. “Shower. Now. You won’t get another chance for a while.”

I jump when she shouts my name. “Why not?”

“There aren’t any showers where we’re going.”

I take a deep breath and slink off the bed. I glance at the telephone and wish I’d have learnt

how to use it. I would call Angela or Auden and tell them to come and get me, but they would ask

where I was and I would have no idea what to tell them.

I think about them and wonder what they’re doing now. They’ll know by now that their

daughter has gone missing for the second time. I hope Angela isn’t too upset. I’m sure she will be, but I’m not going to be gone for long this time. I plan on getting back to them as soon as I can.

I sigh and look away from the phone. There are a lot of things that I haven’t had the chance to

use yet and even more that I haven’t seen. I hate that she’s trying to take me away from all of that.

I open the door to the bathroom and immediately smell something so disgusting that it

makes me gag. I have no idea what it is or where it’s coming from, but I feel dirtier than I did before I walked in here. I stare at the plughole that has all different colours of hair stuck around it and decide I’m not going in. I flick the taps on and wait for the water to pour out of the showerhead before shutting the curtain. At least my Mother will think I’m in the shower if she can hear the water

running.

I walk over towards the sink and stare at the brown basin. There’s more hair and bits of fluff in here. I swallow hard and look up at my reflection in the dirty mirror. I notice the purple bruise that’s starting to form underneath my eye, and feel it stinging when I gently press it with my finger. How could she hit me like that if she loves me? I think about Angela and Auden. I don’t think either of them would ever hit me.

My mind wanders to images of Kaiden and the memories of my first kiss. Last night seems like

such a long time ago. Even if Kaiden left because he didn’t want to kiss me again, I wish he’d have told me before running away. I wish I knew what was going on inside his head. He seemed to like

me. He said I was beautiful after he kissed me, so I can’t figure out why he just disappeared. I’m sick of trying to figure out what’s going on in people’s heads, especially my Mother’s. I lean over and shut the taps off.

“Serena?”

I watch myself roll my eyes. “Yes, Mamma?”

“When you’re done, I need you to come here and keep watch at the window.”

Why does she keep looking out of the window? If the police are really after us then they’ll

see her looking. “Okay.”

I don’t understand why she’s had to stop at the motel if she’s trying to take me away. Surely

she should have carried on to get as much distance as possible between the police and us.

I step out of the bathroom and into the heat that swarms around the little room we’re in.

I’m sweating like mad in here, and have asked my Mother to open the window but she says we can’t.

I’m going to sweat out all the water that I drank.

“Here,” she says, nodding towards the curtain. “Keep an eye out for any police.”

I sit on the green chair. “What am I supposed to do if I see any?”

“Give me a shout.”

“And then what’ll we do?” I ask.

She eyes me carefully. “We’ll figure that out if it happens.”

I pull the curtain aside and peep through the gap. “Where are you going?”

She rubs her stomach. “I think those sausages I had this morning were off.”

I look down at her stomach and then watch her jog towards the bathroom. I make a face as I

realise what that horrible smell was. I had sausages this morning too, but my stomach is fine.

I see hundreds of cars whizzing along a road that goes over a bridge in the distance. I wonder

if anyone will ever find me. I carry on looking around the street that’s now dark because the sun has set. I can see a place where you get fuel for your car, as well as a small shop that has a light above the door that flickers every few seconds. I crane my neck and look down the street but it seems to just end, turning into nothing but a bit of dirt and gravel. I’m still trying to work out where it could go when my Mother comes back out of the bathroom. She’s sweating. She lies on the bed and closes

her eyes.

“I feel dizzy,” she says.

I have to turn around to try and hide my smile. The vodka must be working. “Just lie down

then.”

“That’s what I’m doing,” she snaps.

I roll my eyes because I know she can’t see them. “Maybe you should drink some more. You

don’t wanna be dehydrated.”

I hear her lift her cup off the side table and take a deep breath. “Who was the woman that

was arrested for abducting me?”

“Mmm?”

“The police came to my house and showed me a picture of a woman that had confessed to

snatching me when I was younger,” I tell her.

“And?”

“And she looked exactly like you,” I say.

“But she wasn’t me, was she?”

I shake my head. “She didn’t have the scar down her face. So who is she?”

“Her name is Helen. She’s my sister.”

I thought that my Mother told me that she’d stolen me from the Scotts. She was the one

that was in the hospital when I was a baby. “Your sister took me from the Scotts?” I ask.

My Mother laughs. “No, silly. I took you. It was always me.”

I’m confused. “Then why did she tell the police that she’d done it? And how come they were

so sure that it was her?”

She doesn’t open her eyes when I turn to look at her, but waves her hand in the air. “She

was my identical twin sister so I guess our DNA is very similar. Either that, or they got her fingerprint from something that I had last used when I was with her.”

I frown. “When were you last with her?”

“I always stay with her when I’m away from you.”

“But where do you stay if she lives on the street?” I ask, feeling confused.

“I live on the street with her.”

How can people live on the street? “Why?”

“To get money.”

“But why?” I push. How can you get money living on the street?

“To buy clothes, and food, and those fucking books for you and Elodie!”

I blanch and blink. “How do you pay for those things?”

“With money.”

“But how do you get the money?” I persist.

She rolls over and lifts her head up. She stares at me for a long time. “It doesn’t matter. You

wouldn’t understand.”

I stare back, but I don’t dare to ask her what I really want to.

She sighs. “She’s been living on the streets in the city for the last eight years. Prison will feel like a hotel to her.”

She groans and rolls off the bed. “I need the toilet again.” She wobbles on her feet and

stumbles into the door before twisting the knob and crashing into the bathroom.

I jump up off the chair and flick the kettle on. I grab her empty cup and open another sachet

of coffee. I lift the kettle and pour the steaming hot water into the cup, stirring it with a spoon. I retrieve the vodka bottle from underneath the pillow and begin to pour it in, but before I’ve finished, the door to the bathroom squeaks open. A sinking feeling plummets from my throat and down into

my stomach. I swallow and look up at her.

“What are you doing, Serena?”

Can I lie? Is there something I can say to make it seem like I didn’t know what I was doing?

It’s worth a try, I guess.

“I’m just putting this sweetener into your drink for you,” I say, hoping she can’t hear the

tremble in my voice.

She steps forward and snatches the empty bottle from my hand. “How long have you been

putting this in my coffee?” she demands.

When I look up at her face, I notice her lip curled as she stares down at me. I shrug.

“You stupid, stupid little girl.” She wraps her fingers around my wrist and pulls me off the

bed in one swift movement.

“Ouch,” I say, trying to pull myself out of her grip. “That hurt.”

“Good,” she spits. “I can’t believe you’ve been poisoning me.”

“Poisoning you?” I ask, confused. “I haven’t.”

“Don’t lie to me,” she growls.

I try to pull my arm away from her but her grip is too strong. I notice her eyes fall onto my

bracelet.

“What’s this?” she asks.

“Nothing.”

“It’s a stupid bracelet with stupid charms on it.”

“Stop it,” I beg.

“Who gave you this?” she shouts at me, forcing spit to flick out of her mouth and onto my

face.

I try to pull away from her. “It was a birthday present.”

She hooks her finger underneath my bracelet and rips it from my wrist. “It’s fucking ugly.”

I stare at my broken bracelet on the floor and feel hot tears drip down my cheeks. How

could she break my bracelet? She doesn’t love me at all. She can’t, not if she can treat me like this and not feel bad about it. Something sparks inside of me and I feel my hands curl into a fist. “Kaiden gave me that,” I growl.

“He’s an idiot. You don’t need anything like that where we’re going.”

“Aarrgh.” I scream loudly in her face, making her jump. “I am not going anywhere with you

and you’re not my Mamma!” I push her shoulders, forcing her to stumble back. I turn to leave but

she grabs onto my ankle and knocks me off my feet.

She crawls across the floor and up my body. I know what she’s going to do. She’s going to

hurt me again. She’s going to try and stop me from leaving. I have to leave. I can feel it in every bone of my body. If I don’t leave now, then I’ll never be able to leave. She’ll take me somewhere and I won’t be able to get away even if I wanted to.

We scramble around on the floor together. I feel her nails scrape across my face and my scalp.

I push with my hands and feet, fighting with everything I have. My Mother has always been stronger than me, but I’m not going to let her win. Not this time.

I kick, punch, and scream. I know I must look silly, but this is all I have. This is all I can do. I’m responsible for my own destiny in this moment, and I’m not about to go and live in the middle of the woods with a woman who thinks it’s alright to take me from the family that really does care about me.

I can hear her telling me to stop. I can hear her threatening to beat me until I can’t walk or

talk anymore. When did she turn so violent? Why is she so determined to take me? She doesn’t

need me anymore. I don’t even know what she needed me for anyway.

Kicking aimlessly, my foot finally connects with something. I freeze and shuffle back on my

hands and backside. Have I killed her? I can feel my whole body shaking as I creep across the floor to her. I stare at her until I see her chest rising and falling, and then turn and bolt out of the room as if my life depends on it.

When I get outside, the warm, dark air wraps around me as I run along the concrete. I’m still

under the awnings that stretch over all of the windows at the front of the motel. I turn left and find myself on the road that doesn’t go anywhere. Damn. I should have thought about where I was going

to go. I should have planned my getaway better.

I round the corner of the motel and see a small building standing on its own in the middle of

the parking lot. A low orange glow shines out from the windows. Just as I’m approaching it, three men with big bellies fall out of the door and onto the street directly in front of me.

I stop in front of them and glance quickly behind me. “Can you help me please?”

One of the men pulls on his cigarette and grins at me. “I can help you, Princess. What do you

want?”

Another man steps forward and rubs his beard. “Hang on a minute there, Will. If she needs

something from us, then it’s only fair that she gives us something in return.” The orange light above him reflects off his shiny bald head.

I keep looking back towards the door of the motel that I ran from. I need them to hurry up.

My Mother will be coming out of there and looking for me soon.