He nods sadly as his eyes stay glued on mine.
Tears fills my eyes as I realise this is the last time I will see my beloved brother. We have glass between us and I can’t even hold him.
“Josh, we are going to get you out of here. You just need to hold on, ok? I promise you we are working as hard as we can and we have leads, new leads,” he pushes out in a panic.
I nod calmly.
“Can you look after our mother?” I ask. “And Adrian, can you watch over Adrian?”
He frowns. “Joshua, you can look after them. They need you. We all need you,” he whispers as his eyes glass over.
“I love you Cam,” I whisper through the lump in my throat. “I want you to know that.”
He puts his hand on the glass. “Josh, what are you thinking? You’re scaring me. Please don’t do anything stupid. You are down. It’s ok to be down. It’s just a very hard time. But hold on. We are going to get you out of here and then we can move to Willowvale and…” he pauses.
“What Cameron? What can we do? Carry on like none of this happened. Return to normalcy,” I sneer.
His tear-filled eyes hold mine.
“Natasha is dead and alone because of me. I failed to protect her when she needed me the most,” I reply in a whisper.
He shakes his head. “No, Natasha is with her father and she is watching what you do. She is still with you and I need you, Joshua. We all need you,” he pushes out in a rush.
I put my hand up against the glass to rest on his and smile sadly. I need to get out of here before I lose my shit. “Just pick the stuff up for me today, please.” I stand abruptly.
“Sit back down. I want to talk to you some more,” he pleads.
I shake my head. “I’ve got to go,” I whisper through my hurt.
“Got to go where?” he snaps.
“Cam, don’t,” I whisper.
“Do you want to see Amelie?” he asks hopefully. “She rang yesterday. She’s desperate to see you.”
I turn back to him and frown. I would like to see Am one last time. I need to make peace with her. I nod. “Yes, please. I would like to see her,” I whisper.
He smiles as he nods. “Ok, that sounds good. I will bring her down with Adrian on Friday.”
I frown and then nod. “Ok,” I reply
Natasha
I sit scrunched up in the bottom of the wardrobe in the darkness. In my hands I have two hooks that I have unscrewed from the tops of coat hangers, my pitiful weapons. A strange car pulled up four hours ago. Somebody else is here in the house but nobody has come to my room yet. They are probably outside digging my grave. The taste of bile fills my mouth—I have never been so scared. I don’t know what they’re doing. I haven’t a frigging clue. The televisions are all showing different dates, Joshua has been arrested and now someone has turned up here. They must be going to get rid of me. I am no longer of any use. I put my hands over my face, oh god. Please let it be quick and painless. I re-clutch the hooks in my hand and practise swinging them at someone in the darkness. If I can just get their eye with the hook. Aim for the eyes. Why didn’t I take self-defence classes? I’m such an idiot.
I hear the bedroom door open and the light switches on. I hold my breath in the darkness. No, no, no, oh my god.
“Natasha,” the young boy calls.
I stay silent as my breath quivers in fear. He opens the wardrobe door and turns on the light and frowns when he sees me. “What are you doing?” he asks.
I screw up my face. “I’m scared,” I whisper.
“Nothing’s happening,” he replies softly.
My face drops.
“You need to come out in the room, so they can see you on camera. They haven’t seen you before. Nobody is going to come into the room.”