Nathan stands over me, shaking with rage, his face deathly white. He sees me reaching for him, asking for help, but he stands there, watching me bleed at the bottom of the staircase.
“Call for help,” I say.
I know I’m losing her. The bottom half of my body is on fire with pain. Warm blood seeps out from between my legs. I’m losing Penny’s sister and Nathan is standing there, not doing anything.
Slowly, I manage to turn my body around so that I’m on my hands and knees. And then I crawl along the wooden floorboards of the house, searching for Scott. He was in the garden playing with Penny before… before…
The room is dark. It’s cold. I’m crawling towards the door, my head throbbing, my throat raw. My ribs, knees and ankles hurt.
I don’t know where I am.
I don’t know why I’m here. I need to find Scott. I touch my belly, touch the space between my thighs, and there’s no blood, there’s no baby bump. I turn around and lay my head on the cold ground. I am not at the bottom of the stairs, I am somewhere dark and cold and alone.
I am here because someone wants something from me. Otherwise, I would be dead. If only I could remember…
I remember that my name is Faye Mathis.
I live near Hampstead Heath in London.
No… No, I don’t. Not anymore.
I hear a noise, the opening of a door above me. I sit up, scramble against the wall. Whoever this is will hurt me. I try to stand so I can rush from the room but my legs wobble and I land back down on the stones. A man laughs at me.He laughs!Why would anyone laugh at someone when they fall?
A light comes on overhead, revealing the room that is also my cage. It’s some sort of cellar, with a bucket in the corner and a chair next to it. The man is tall with a handsome face and dark brown eyes. I know that face. He clamps a strong hand on my upper arm and forces me up to my feet. A whimper escapes my lips as he drags me over to the chair.
It’s humiliating, demoralising to allow this man to push me onto the chair and tie my hands to the armrests without fighting back, but I know I can’t win. I’m too terrified to do anything. He keeps staring at me, right in the eye, as though he knows a secret I don’t.
“You’ve forgotten who I am, haven’t you? I can see you examining my face, trying to remember.” He crouches down and places a gentle hand on my knee. “Penny warned me about how crazy you are now. It’s a shame because you used to be a smart woman, but your brain is broken and soon there will be nothing left.”
He stands, smiling at me, and the purest form of hatred burgeons up from the lowest point of my abdomen. He knows Penny. How old is she now? How old is my daughter? Is she still at school?
“Wait here,” the man says. “Someone is coming to see you soon.”
He backs out of the room and closes the door, switching off the light before the lock clunks into place. I pull at the ropes and the knots wrapped tightly around my wrists. They don’t budge. The effort is exhausting. My chin droops, hitting my chest.
“Is she in there? Tied up?”
“Yeah,” says the man. “And she’s out of it. She doesn’t remember me or why she’s here.”
The man laughs. It’s long, and slow, and cold, and it turns my spine to ice. I tug against the ropes again.
A bright light bursts into the room, illuminating the dusty dankness of my prison. Two figures emerge from the shadows and walk over to me. It’s the man, first. The smile is still on his face, lighting up his brown eyes.
And then the woman steps forward.
It’s strange. Amidst all the confusion, I know who she is instantly. Her face is almost as familiar to me as my own. My stomach drops with disappointment. Because I thought I’d found a sister, when instead I found an enemy.
“Hello, Sister,” she says.
“Dina,” I whisper.
PARTIII
‘The Palmer Twins: Marigold and the Monster’ by Faye Mathis
I see teeth in a shadowy room,
Two eyes peeking out from the gloom,
