Before You Were Gone by Sheila Bugler

Author:Sheila Bugler
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Canelo Digital Publishing Ltd
Published: 2021-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

Twenty-five

June 1997

The front door was locked. They’d walked around the house, trying to find a way in. Kitty had been thinking of giving up when she noticed one of the kitchen windows was open.

‘Here.’

It was an old sash window and, when she pushed it, nothing happened.

‘Let’s leave it and go home,’ Lucy said. ‘We shouldn’t be here.’

But Kitty wasn’t going home. She tried the window again, using every bit of energy she had, and it moved. Not far, but enough so that she could wiggle through the gap.

‘Come on.’

She jumped onto the ledge and squeezed through the small space. She went head-first, half her body dangling inside the window, half out.

‘Push me,’ she said. ‘Hold on to my feet and shove me forward.’

Lucy grabbed her legs and pushed and suddenly she was falling. She landed hard, pain shooting up her hands and arms as they hit the ground first. She jumped up, ignoring the pain, and went to help Lucy.

‘What now?’ Lucy asked, when they were both inside.

It was dark and smelly in here. The door was closed but Kitty could hear voices in other parts of the house. Taking Lucy’s hand, she went across to the door and slowly opened it.

Light from the hallway flooded into the kitchen and the noise of people speaking and laughing grew louder. She could hear music now too, and the clink of ice in glasses.

They crept forward into a hallway that was bigger than Kitty’s entire house, with high ceilings and a sweeping staircase that curved up through the house. Different rooms led off the hallway. All the doors, except one, were open. The noises Kitty could hear were coming from behind the closed door.

Lucy’s eyes were like plates they were so wide as she looked around. Kitty put her finger on Lucy’s lips, warning her to stay quiet. Because she could hear something else. This noise was coming from one of the rooms upstairs.

She moved towards the sweeping staircase, drawn to the sound. The need to see what was up there was far greater than the need to stay safe and get the hell out of there.

‘No,’ Lucy whispered.

Ignoring her, Kitty put her foot on the first step and started climbing. She was halfway up when she realised the sound was a woman crying.

‘I don’t want to,’ the woman was saying. ‘Please. I’m begging you. No.’

There was something about the woman’s voice, a familiarity that Kitty couldn’t place no matter how hard she tried. She continued up the stairs, ignoring the voice inside her head, telling her to turn around and get the hell out of here before it was too late. She’d just reached the top of the stairs when the woman started screaming. Kitty froze.

It was dark up here, apart from a sliver of yellow light beneath a closed door at the end of the corridor. That’s where they were. The woman and whoever was hurting her.

Kitty knew she should keep going, walk to the end of the corridor, open the door and rescue the woman.

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