Stanton Box Set

“Shall we go up there and ask if we can lodge for the night?” I frown.

Cameron thinks for a moment. “No, we had better not. We don’t know who lives there. Let’s try and find a hotel for the night and if we can’t find one we will camp in the car away from here where the car is out of sight.”

I nod. “Ok, good plan.”

Natasha

It’s 4 pm on my wedding day and distraught doesn’t even come close to how I’m feeling. I wanted so badly to be home for my beautiful Joshua today. I know he would be suffering, today worse than any other. I am sitting on the floor and freezing in the back garden shed of the house I have found, my two shotguns and ammunition by my side. It’s still raining so heavily that I can’t leave the protection of the house but I know if I stay in there and someone comes… I’m a dead woman. At least if I stay out here I can see a car if it approaches and run into the forest behind me without being seen. The garden shed I am in is really only a shack of a building. A tin roof and three falling down walls, the opening is at the back facing the forest, ready for my escape.

My mind goes to what I’m supposed to be doing now.

As long you love me

We could be starving

We could be homeless

We could be broke

I softly sing the words of the song I wanted as my wedding song. As long as you love me.

My mind is on autopilot and I’m singing to distract the negative scared thoughts from entering my psyche. I keep repeating the words again and again as I sit alone on the floor. And then I hear the crunch of tyres on the pebble driveway and slowly pick up the gun and clutch it in my hand. Oh my god, oh my god. I squeeze the gun in my hands as fear starts to make my bottom lip tremble. I slowly stand and peer through a gap in the metal wall.

I gasp. Oh my god. No.

Chapter 29

I dip my head, shit. What am I going to do? Like clockwork the damn rain speeds up and hits torrential. I watch as a person in a large black hooded raincoat gets out of a car and walks up to the front steps of the house. Damn it, why did I smash that window next to the front door? I’m such a fucking idiot. Now they know for sure I’m here or at least have been here. My eyes flick to the forest behind me—should I just run? My eyes look at the skies, rain. Where is all this fucking rain coming from anyway? I would have been miles from here if it wasn’t so damn wet. With my heart pumping adrenaline heavily through my body I start to do an internal risk assessment as I look between the forest and the house. If I run, my back is a target. I can’t get away and watch them at the same time. I will most likely get shot in the back. If I stay here, they can’t see me but I have a gun. I only hope I loaded the bloody thing right and it works. What will I do, what will I do? I look back at the house through the crack in the metal. Maybe it’s the owner of the house and he will call the police to report a robbery and they will come to the house. That’s a best case scenario—yes please, let that happen. Think Natasha, think. I look down at the gun and put my finger on the trigger. You just pull it right? Yes, you just pull it. I practise pulling the trigger and I hold it up as if I am going to shoot something out in the forest to try and get the feel for it. Oh my god, I’m so out of my depth here. Shit.

For fifteen minutes I watch the house with my heart hammering. What in the hell is going on in there? Who is it? My eyes flick to the car in the front yard. It hasn’t moved so they are still here. My eyes widen—shit, can they see me and are sneaking around in the forest behind me to catch me unawares? My eyes dart around the dense trees behind me. I look up at the sky and realise it will be dark in an hour or so. If I’m still here I’m going to run when it gets dark but maybe I should just go inside and knock and ask for help? Shit.

The back screen door slams and I duck away from the hole in the tin so they can’t see me as I hold my breath. The rain is so loud on the tin roof it’s deafening. Oh god, just fuck off rain. Shit, shit, shit.

“Natasha,” I hear a woman’s voice call out.

I frown. What?

“Natasha, I’ve come to save you. The police are looking everywhere. We have caught them,” the voice calls.

Really, oh my god? My heart starts to race as I try to place the voice. I’ve heard it before… I know I have.

I hold my breath with my back to the tin, oh god. Who is it? Can I trust them?

“Natasha, you killed him. He’s dead, you did a good thing,” the voice echoes over the hammering rain.

I screw up my face as my tears come. I killed him—Carl’s dead. Oh god what have I done?

“Natasha,” the voice calls and I hear a trace of an English accent.

My eyes widen and my face drops. Is that Amelie?

“Natasha, please come out so I can take you back to Joshua,” her voice calls over the rain.

I shake my head as anger starts to pump through my veins. Don’t tell me that fucking bitchvet has done all this. Why? Why would she do this?

“Natasha!” the voice screams angrily.

Shit, she’s close, oh my god. I have to move so I can see her. I turn back to look out through the small crack in the tin. It is Amelie and she is looking on the other side of the yard out into the forest and has a pistol in her hands.