Spinning around, I grab my clothes, pulling on the jeans, jumper and dirty canvas shoes. I grab his coat, which is thick and heavy. Every part of me is screaming to run, but I have to find Tash. She must be in one of the other rooms. I try the doors, calling her name, whispering rather than shouting. I can’t find her. Maybe he lied to me. I can’t leave her. I can’t stay.
Most of the rooms are full of old machinery and rusting drums. Some are locked. He must have a key. He keeps a keychain in his trousers. They’re on the chair. I move towards the bed, but hear him groan, dragging snot through his nose. He turns his head. His eyes open.
I scream as he rolls and reaches for me, falling off the bed. He’s lying on the floor, still holding his chest, trying to stand.
Running through rooms, I reach the outer door. It’s locked. I turn and take the stairs, feeling the rickety metal frame rattle and shake beneath my weight, threatening to come loose from the wall. He’s behind me, climbing the stairs slowly. I reach another door. Propped open. I move a drum and rubbish. Push the door closed. Slide a deadbolt into place.
I’m in a large room, empty except for a table and mismatched chairs. There’s a window. I peer through the dirty glass and see a flat roof.
George’s body hits the door and I scream at the sound. He talks to me through the door, speaking softly, saying that he isn’t angry. He can forgive me. I have to say that I’m sorry. I have to open the door.
I don’t answer. The door shakes as he crashes against it.
“I’ll kill you, bitch, I’ll cut you up! You’re dead.”
I want to shout back, I’ve been dead for three years.
Balling his coat around my fist I punch at the window, but I’m not strong enough to break the glass. I pull a table closer and lie backwards across it, bracing my arms and kicking at the window with both feet. Once, twice, three times. The glass shatters and pieces fall outwards, tinkling against the roof below.
Using the coat, I clear the sharp edges and crawl outside, feeling the metal roof buckle and creak. I look for a way down. I can see the ground below, overgrown with weeds, littered with rubbish. I drop his coat. It doesn’t make a sound when it lands.
Behind me the door breaks open. George appears at the window.
I start yelling from the rooftop.
“Help! Somebody help me!”
“Nobody can hear you,” he says.
I’m sitting on the edge. I look at the ground. It’s too high.
“You’ll break your legs,” he says. “And then I’ll have to shoot you like a horse.”
“I don’t care.”
“Yes, you do.”
“Come any closer and I’ll jump.”
“You’ll never be able to see Tash.”
“I don’t think she’s here.”
“I’ll take you to her now.”
“You’re lying.”
He slides one leg out the window.
“Don’t come any closer.”
“You’re not going to jump.”
He keeps climbing out. Turning onto my stomach, I slide backwards over the edge, holding onto the rusting gutter, feeling the jagged edges bite into my fingers.
I hear him coming and let go. Falling. I expect to break my legs. I expect to die. The weeds and the overgrown bracken and George’s coat help break my fall. I lie on my back, staring up at the roof. His face appears above me. I’ve surprised him. I’m alive.
Up again, I drag myself through the brambles, which catch on my clothes. There are buildings around me. Abandoned. Derelict. A water tower. A blackened chimney. A wire fence is draped in blackberry vines.
Running along the perimeter, I scan the wire. There’s a gap beneath the lowest strand. I drop to my knees and scoop away dirt and leaves, making the hole bigger. Glancing over my shoulder, I can’t see George, but I know he’s coming. First I push through the coat and then I try to slither under the wire. My head and arms get through, but my jumper snags on something sharp, digging into my back. I claw at the earth and weeds, trying to pull myself forward. The jumper tears, flapping across my back. I’m sitting on the wet ground in the decaying leaf mold.
George comes round the corner of the building, still a vague shape with a bloodstained shirt. Closer now. Coming for me.
I scramble up and start running, fighting my way through branches that whip at my face and thorns that try to hold me back. I have forgotten what it’s like to be outside, the malevolence of bush and briar. I’m a runner. If I find open ground, I can outpace him. But in the open he can see me. In the open I can’t hide.
I can hear George cursing and swatting at the branches behind me, screaming threats. Pleading.
Stumbling into a clearing, I notice a winding path through larger trees. The ground slopes upwards and my canvas shoes are slipping and sliding on the mud and rocks.
Ahead of me the path divides. One track looks more worn, but I choose the other, which takes me deeper into the forest. I’m trying to second-guess him. The path narrows and rises, twisting along the side of a wooded gorge with steep rocky banks. I skirt the edge, dodging puddles and fallen branches.
The path turns suddenly. I change direction, but my right foot slips sideways and I can’t rebalance quickly enough. Falling, I tumble down the embankment, rolling, picking up speed, banging my shoulder hard against a tree.
When gravity lets me go, I’m lying on my back, sucking ragged gulps of air into my lungs. My shoulder is on fire. Surely I’ve broken something.
Suddenly, I need to be quiet. I stop. Wait. He’s above me on the path, less than thirty yards away. I can see him through the curtain of leaves and branches.
He pauses and listens, looking for me. Hunting me. I hold my breath. We’re both listening to the sound of running water and the breeze in the trees. I have to breathe, taking tiny quiet gasps. The cold is leaking through my clothes, into my bones.
“Piper?”
He listens.
“I know you can hear me.”
Again he waits.
“If you come back now, I won’t be angry and I’ll let you see Tash.”
I have to cough, but I muffle it with my fist.
“And if you come back, I won’t get Emily. I know where she lives. She’s at work today… Piper? This is your last chance.”
He moves away, going further along the path. Every so often, I hear him calling for me.
Lying on my back, I stare at the clouds that are moving behind the branches. I’m lying on a rock, just out of the water. My jeans are torn and my knees are bleeding.
Above me there is a crevice carved by centuries of rain. The gap is just wide enough for me to crawl inside. I slither through the leaves and pull myself between the boulders, wedging myself there, with the coat behind me. Once I’ve wriggled inside, I drag the coat over my legs and curl into a ball, trying to get warm.
Exhaustion presses on my eyelids. I just want to rest for a few minutes; close my eyes. Sleep. Then I’ll be able to run.
40
The caretaker at the Bingham Leisure Center walks with a limp and has a hanging left arm, paralyzed by a stroke. His name is Creighton and despite the customary rehab, his speech is still thick and wet with tongue and spit.
“We’re closed over the winter,” he explains. “Pools are too expensive to heat.”
He holds a set of keys in his teeth as he unhooks a chain with his good hand and slides a deadbolt from the ring. The gate moves grudgingly on stiff runners.
Collecting another set of keys from the admin office, he flicks a series of switches. It takes a few seconds for the neon tubes to heat and illuminate, casting a blue glow over water and air. The Olympic-size pool stretches out lengthwise beneath its domed roof. There are low stands on the far side and starting blocks angled towards the surface of the water.