The Lost Ones by Vena Cork

Author:Vena Cork [Cork, Vena]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lume Books
Published: 2016-05-15T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 32

‘Two years later I was the most trusted girl in the House, and one of my jobs was scouting for fresh meat. That’s how I found Jim.’

I shiver.

‘It was raining and he was sheltering under Waterloo Bridge.’ She smiles. ‘We sat on the steps for hours, and I didn’t even notice that I was wet because Jimmy made me feel so special.’

‘He’s good at that.’

‘In the House it was dog eat dog. You had to watch your back all the time with the other kids. The Gobbler—’

‘The Gobbler?’

‘It’s what we called George. Don’t ask. Anyway, he liked pitting us against each other. But Jim wouldn’t play that game. He was on my side no matter what. We just clicked, you know, like you do sometimes.’ She smiles again, but her voice is grim. ‘I know it was wrong of me to take him to the House. But he was thinking of topping himself. What could I do?’ She’s barely audible now. ‘I made my pitch.’ Her eyes dare me to condemn. ‘And he came.’

‘Why didn’t you both just run away?’

‘You couldn’t even leave the building without Gobbler’s goons coming with you – not until you got old and past your sell by date. Then he’d kick you out without a backward glance. If he liked you he’d find you work of a sort, and somewhere to kip down, and even a bit of start-up cash – it was in his interest to keep you sweet, see, so you didn’t blab about the House. But if you wanted to go before your time was up then the Gobbler had some very unpleasant friends. Anyone who ran away was severely punished. Apart from anything else it was a deterrent to the others.’

‘Punished?’

‘Beaten. Or worse.’

‘Worse?’

‘Don’t ask. And after Gobbler’s thugs had finished with you, your looks were gone so that was the end of your earning power. You’d never able to sell yourself again.’

‘Wasn’t that a good thing?’

‘It was a disaster.’

‘Why?’

‘It was the only job they could do. Most of them found it very difficult to think for themselves. They’d spent their whole lives in institutions and were conditioned to take orders. I remember one guy who’d been given a particularly vicious going over telling me hand on heart that he didn’t blame the Gobbler for the beating because he knew he deserved it. The Gobbler had said so and the Gobbler was God. Remember – this was a place for VIPs. He had a lot of friends in the police and the judiciary. And anyway, these kids knew nobody cared if they lived or died. By the time they got as far as the Gobbler, they’d already crossed over.’

‘Crossed over?’

‘Into Shadow Land. That’s what Jim and I called it – the place running parallel to normal life that only becomes visible when things go badly wrong. Then you see it, waiting to suck you in. And once you’re in, you’re invisible to everyone except those in the same situation. Take a peek next time you’re out and about.

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