THE CLEARING (19 page)

 ‘You okay?’ I asked Liss, tapping her on the shoulder.

‘I’m fine,’ she said.

‘You’re limping.’

‘I’m alright. I think it’s blisters . . . from the boots.’

‘Do you need to rest?’

‘No. I don’t care about my feet. I just want to get as far away from this place as possible. I’ve been here too long. Half my life. I want to go home.’

‘Your parents are in the copter,’ I said. ‘They can’t wait to see you.’

Liss stopped walking. ‘What?’ she said. ‘In the copter? The one we’re going to now?’

‘Yes. Didn’t you know?’

‘Connor said mum and dad sent him to get me and FJ, but I didn’t know they were going to be . . .’

‘Are you alright?’ I asked.

She nodded. ‘I just . . . I didn’t expect to see them so soon. I’m nervous.’

‘Course you are,’ I said. ‘But they love you and as soon as you see them, it will be alright.’

She bowed her head and exhaled. Annabelle touched her arm.

‘We’d better . . .’ I gestured to the disappearing figures of Denzil and Luc.

‘Yes, of course,’ she said. ‘Sorry.’

We started moving again, almost running to catch the others up. I wondered what it was like for her – to know she was about to be reunited with her parents after so many years. The image of Connor fell into my head again and I pushed it out. I thought how bitter sweet things were for everybody. Especially for Liss, with her brother corrupted by Grey’s regime. That man had tainted so many lives.

I stared ahead at the figure of James Grey. He didn’t look nearly so scary with his hands in cuffs and his head covered. I could hardly believe this power-driven, terrifying man was finally our prisoner. But then he hadn’t been as heavily guarded as usual. His army was away scooping up the perimeters and compounds of southern Britain. Well, they would just have to give them all up. And they would have to do it without bloodshed. For we had the top prize. We had Grey.

I noticed Luc had dropped back to walk by my side.

‘I’m so sorry about Connor,’ he said.

‘I never got to know him. I never let him in.’

He took my hand and we walked like that for a while.

‘You were right to suggest getting Grey,’ he said. ‘Dad won’t believe it when we show up at Ringwood with him as our prisoner.’

‘I can’t believe it either,’ I said. ‘He’s definitely the creepiest guy I’ve ever met.’

‘He’s on some twisted power trip. Lissy did well to hold out all these years. Don’t know how she did it. She must be tougher than she looks.’

We walked in silence for a while, our breath mingling with the cold night air.

‘I was worried you were going to get hurt back there,’ Luc said.

‘Me too,’ I replied. ‘Worried about you I mean.’

‘Look, this probably isn’t the time,’ he said, ‘but I need to tell you something.’

Here it comes, I thought. After everything we’ve been through, here’s the moment he tells me we should just be friends. That he’s changed his mind. That it’s all too complicated. I steeled myself to take the blow. Upset that he could be so unfeeling after what I’d recently gone through.

‘Riley, I know you don’t feel the same way and that’s okay. But I have to tell you something. After what happened with Connor, I know it’s important to be honest. To say what I’m feeling before it’s too late.’

‘It’s okay,’ I interrupted, not wanting to hear the rejection. ‘You don’t have to say anything. I know how you feel now and it’s fine. We can just be friends.’

‘Friends,’ he repeated.

‘Yeah. Please don’t say anything else, Luc. I can’t handle it right now.’ I let go of his hand and marched on ahead, livid that he could be this insensitive so soon after I’d lost Connor.

‘Riley . . .’

‘Just leave it, okay.’

Our feet made squelching noises in the mud and that’s pretty much how I felt – like someone had squelched mud all over my heart.

Chapter Thirty Four

*

Liss felt sick about Connor. He had literally carried her to safety and now he was dead. Because of her. Although she had only known him for a short time, she would never forget him. And she would make sure her parents knew what he had done for her and Annabelle.

She was finally free. She and Annabelle were leaving The Cathedral Close behind them. She tried not to look ahead at the broad shape of her brother and the slim outline of Grey. This wasn’t the family homecoming she’d imagined all these years - One of them rescued, one of them a prisoner.

Why had FJ sucked up all Grey’s lies? Deep down she knew the reason. It was because he’d
wanted
to believe them. He wanted power and respect, and James Grey’s church had given him all those things. It didn’t matter about the philosophy behind it all. It only mattered that it suited him. That it gave him the adventure and importance he’d always craved.

Or maybe he’d just drunk too much of the soup.

She gave a wry smile and then gasped as she tripped over a tree root, intensifying the pain of her blistered feet. When she’d been in the cellar, the cold had seeped into her bones, turning them to ice. But now her feet were on fire from the blisters. The pain was so raw she didn’t know how she was able to keep moving. But move she did. Liss stumbled through the forest as if in a dream.

Annabelle grabbed her arm, stopping her from falling flat on her face. Poor Annabelle, who couldn’t even remember her own parents or where they had lived before she was taken. She had only been four years old at the time and all she’d said back then was that she missed her mummy.

Now, nine years later, Annabelle didn’t know who she was. She didn’t even remember her surname. Liss realised how lucky she was to know where she came from, to have had memories of her family to sustain her. Well, Liss would always look after Annabelle. FJ was lost, but Annabelle was her sister now.

It had been an achingly lonely nine years, but she had never truly given up hope. She had never pictured herself growing old in The Close. And now she was only a few more painful kilometres away from being reunited with her parents.

The sky was almost light, but the sun remained elusive, hidden behind swathes of gun metal grey cloud. Denzil was worried their transport would already have left, so Luc had run on ahead to make sure the copter waited.

They eventually reached the edge of the forest and entered an open field. It was unnerving to lose the shelter of the trees and Liss felt exposed. There, ahead of them, in the corner sat a huge helicopter. Liss had never seen one up close before. She’d only ever seen them flying overhead, buzzing through the sky like dragonflies.

As they approached, her pulse began to race. All thoughts of her blistered feet and of FJ and of being locked in that awful cell were left behind. Now all she focused on was the copter and the people inside. After all these years would her parents be strangers to her? Would she recognise them? She could no longer bring their faces to mind. They had become nothing more than blurry images in her memory.

The sun suddenly found a gap in the cloud and rose above the copter, casting golden beams of light onto the field. The door opened and a figure emerged. Liss squinted and shielded her eyes with her hands. It was a woman with short hair and she was running towards them. Behind her, a man followed.

It was her mum and dad. It was really them.

Annabelle let go of Liss’s hand and nudged her forward. Liss hesitated and then she too began to run, ignoring the pain in her feet and letting go of the pain in her heart.

Tears ran down her cheeks as she came close enough to see the faces that had been lost to her for so many years. How could she have thought she wouldn’t have known them? Of course she knew them. They were her parents.

‘Lissy!’ her mum cried. ‘Lissy, it’s really you!’

‘Mum,’ she sobbed. ‘Mum, dad, you’re here.’

They fell into each other’s arms. Liss’s mum kissed her hair and her cheeks and her eyes and her nose. Her dad was crying so hard he couldn’t speak. Liss had forgotten what it felt like to be held. To feel secure and loved. She had pictured this moment every day for the past nine years but the reality felt so much better than her imaginings.

‘I thought we’d never see you again,’ her mum said. ‘I really thought you were gone.’

Liss looked at their faces, drinking in the sight of them. Her family. It was like a wonderful dream. She couldn’t help feeling that she might wake up at any moment to find herself lying in her cold narrow bed back at The Close.

‘I still can’t believe it,’ Liss said. ‘Are you and dad alright?’

‘Yes,’ her mum replied. ‘Having you back has made everything perfect.’

 It felt strange to hug her parents now she was grown. As a child, they had enveloped her in their arms. Now, they felt smaller and less substantial than she remembered. She was almost as tall as her dad and taller than her mum. Their faces were lined, thinner.

‘Do you still live at the farm?’ she asked.

‘The old farm’s still there, waiting for you.’

Liss pictured her old bedroom, the kitchen, the yard. She suddenly remembered that they weren’t alone. ‘FJ . . .’ Liss said. ‘Did Luc . . . Did he tell you?’

‘He said something,’ her dad said. ‘But I’m sure he’ll come round after a while. He’s our boy isn’t he.’

The others had caught up now and were standing a little way off, not wanting to intrude. Luc had left the copter again to join them. Liss’s parents stared across at the small group and picked out FJ immediately.

‘Freddie, son,’ her dad called out, softly. ‘What they done to you, boy?’

Denzil untied FJ’s gag.

FJ wiped his mouth and spat on the ground but he didn’t speak. He glared at Liss and she looked away, worried about the distress he was sure to inflict on their parents.

‘Freddie,’ Jessie said, walking up to him. ‘I can’t believe it’s you.’ He had grown taller than her and she had to reach up to stroke his cheek. But he flinched and jerked his face away. ‘You’ve grown into such a beautiful boy,’ she said. ‘It must have been hard for you.’

‘No,’ he said. ‘Not hard at all. Grey is our Father. He has looked after me; treated me like his son.’

‘Well that’s good,’ she said. ‘I’m glad he treated you well. That you weren’t unhappy all these years.’

‘I was never unhappy. Until now,’ he said. ‘Being forced to come here. To see you.’ His words were designed to hurt.

Jessie took a sharp intake of breath and looked down. Then she turned to look at Fred who shook his head slowly.

FJ’s eyes glittered with rage and hate. Liss couldn’t bear it. Couldn’t bear that he was being so nasty and unfeeling. Breaking her parents’ hearts all over again.

‘I am the Voice of the Father,’ FJ cried. ‘We are building a better Britain. One where there is no war or hunger or barbaric behaviour. Just peace and the chance to know God. You should have joined us, but instead you’re trying to thwart us. I will pray for you, but I think it’s too late. The devil has you in his arms and you are all destined for Hell.’

‘Shut up, FJ,’ Liss cried. ‘That’s mum you’re talking to; not one of your brainwashed servants.’

‘I should have killed you when I had the chance, sister,’ he sneered. ‘You’ve betrayed God and don’t deserve to live in His world.’

‘Oh!’ Liss’s mum staggered backwards, shocked by the vitriol spewing from FJ’s mouth.

‘Now, son, that’s no way to speak to your sister or your mother.’ Liss’s dad squeezed her shoulder and strode towards his son.

‘You don’t understand anything,’ FJ said. ‘So let me put it into plain English for you -
You
are not my mother and
you
are not my father. You are both dead to me.’

‘Right,’ said Denzil. ‘That’s enough of that.’ He pulled the gag over FJ’s mouth and slipped the hood back over his head.

Liss went over to her parents and hugged them again as they backed away from their son, bewildered and upset. ‘I’m so sorry about FJ,’ she said. ‘I tried to talk to him before, but he’s a different person now. I know it must’ve been hard to hear him talk like that.’

Her parents didn’t speak. They looked shocked.

‘Let’s get back in the copter,’ Luc said, breaking the awkward silence. ‘It’s not safe. The guards might be tracking us.’

Liss went over to Annabelle, who had tucked herself behind Riley. She held out her hand and pulled the younger girl over to meet her parents. As they made their way back to the copter, she introduced them.

‘Mum, dad, this is Annabelle. We were taken at the same time. She’s my friend and she helped me escape tonight. Along with . . . Connor.’

Liss’s mum stopped walking and smiled at Annabelle. Her voice was shaky when she spoke: ‘I’m very grateful to you, Annabelle. And I’m glad you and Liss were friends in there.’

Annabelle nodded her head in acknowledgement.

‘She can come home with us, mum, can’t she?’ Liss said.

‘Yeah, of course.’ But it was clear that Liss’s parents were too shaken up by FJ’s behaviour to pay Annabelle too much attention. Liss could have kicked her brother for his arrogance and self-obsession. He always ruined everything.

As they approached the copter, the blades started up, creating a forceful wind. Liss stayed close beside her parents and held Annabelle’s hand. A man sat in the front of the machine – she assumed he must be the pilot.

Liss’s dad was about to climb into the copter when he stopped and turned around, looking for something. His eyes soon found their target and he strode up to Grey.

‘Is this him?’ her dad cried. ‘Is this the bastard who took our kids and ruined all our lives?’ He ripped the hood from Grey’s head and stared him in the eyes. ‘You’re a thief and a murderer and I should stick a knife between your ribs for what you’ve done.’

Liss watched her dad as he trembled with anger. But Grey’s eyes were mocking and cold. Fred returned his stare, drew back his fist and punched him in the face. Then again in the stomach. Grey doubled over and Fred looked ready to dish out some more, but Denzil stepped in and pulled him away.

‘Okay, that’s enough,’ Denzil said. ‘We need him alive, or I’d give you the knife myself.’

Fred turned back to the copter. He didn’t look at FJ as he walked past him. The broken expression on her father’s face, made Liss want to weep for all they had lost. Her dad climbed straight into the copter and held out his hand to help Liss up. Annabelle and her mum followed. They all squeezed into the back and waited while the others boarded. Denzil and Luc shoved the prisoners inside and finally the doors were closed.

Again, Liss wished she could have given her parents the pure happiness of a perfect reunion with both her and FJ. But it wasn’t to be.

In the front, a heated conversation was in full flow, but Liss couldn’t make out what was being said above the engine noise, and she didn’t much care to hear it either. She and Annabelle were now sandwiched safely in between her parents.  After years of fear and uncertainty, they were finally leaving Salisbury and The Close behind them.