Gaslight by Eloise Williams

Author:Eloise Williams
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781910080559
Publisher: Firefly Press Limited
Published: 2017-04-10T16:00:00+00:00

9

I shove my measly things into a carpetbag, but can’t take the books which breaks my heart. I need to be light to run. I’ll come back for them.

I give a quick goodbye to my room. I know it’s just a cold little tomb but it’s all I’ve known so I can’t help getting choked up. Constance’s body stops me. I unfreeze my brain enough to let in the intense horror of her death. A low keening moan reaches up from somewhere and I have to physically bite down on my hand to stop it.

Checking over my shoulder, I hasten along the corridor, terrified that Sid will come back for Constance’s body and discover me. I need to get Bee and run.

She is flat out in her crate. I try to wake her but she is in so deep a sleep that all I can get is a flicker from her swollen eyelids before she tumbles back into dreams.

‘Bee. You have to wake up. We have got to go.’ I shake her. Her head lolls. ‘Bee, please. Please wake up.’

There is no response. I try to lift her but she is a dead weight and I simply haven’t got enough strength in my body.

‘I’ll come back for you. As soon as I can.’

I suppress a sob. I will sort this out and get her away from this place. But I need to get myself to safety first. I’ll give a message to one of the stagehands to deliver to Bee when she wakes up. I have to let her know she hasn’t been abandoned. They will all be up by the stage so I’m going to have to go there before I can escape.

Gassy Jack leans against a cut-out elephant at the side of the stage and picks at his teeth with a match. ‘Going somewhere?’ His bowler hat is entirely unbecoming.

‘I’m just looking for someone. Not that it’s any of your business.’ The safety curtain is down and there are lots of people clearing the stage of the scenery from this evening’s acts.

‘Anyone in particular?’ Gassy Jack comes closer so I can smell his festering breath. His efforts with the matchstick have failed completely and he has the remains of at least his last three meals plastered to his rancid teeth.

‘No.’ I haven’t got the brainpower to come up with a witty retort. All my senses are panicked.

‘Only someone’s looking for you.’

My heart skips a beat. His eyes gleam. I know in that second that Gassy Jack is the one who will dispose of Con’s body. He is the one who does the dirty work. I want to reach out and box him by the ears, but instead I turn on my heel and race across the stage, hurling into people as I pass, ignoring the swearing and shouts.

I almost tip forward as I skid to a stop. Sid is on the far side of the stage, coming towards me. He must have been looking for me to check whether I’d been down to the room and seen the body.

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