Scarlet Women

Annie followed, her heart in her mouth. Ross was nowhere to be seen. When they got up to the top landing, Rosie was standing with her face bleached white with alarm outside Mira’s door. Along the landing, they could see Sharlene through the open bathroom door, running water into the sink, splashing her face, groaning. The water was running pink.

‘What’s happened?’ Annie demanded.

‘Sharlene took her in a cup of tea, that’s all,’ said Rosie shakily. ‘No good taking her in food, she just chucks it at you, she never eats a thing. I was in my room, I saw Sharlene go past, and that girl in there—she’s been shouting and screaming all morning, it’s enough to drive you mad, she just went bloody crazy. Sharlene said she upped and cracked her one in the jaw, split her lip and everything, and Sharlene just got the hell out and locked the door on the mad bitch.’

Something hit the door, hard. They all stepped back. Annie went along to the bathroom and looked at Sharlene. The sink was a mess of blood, and Sharlene now had a white towel clamped to her mouth. The towel was slowly turning red.

‘You all right?’ she asked Sharlene.

Sharlene nodded, but she looked shaken all to hell. ‘Just a cut lip,’ she said, her voice muffled. She tried to smile. ‘I’ve had worse off punters.’

‘Rosie.’ Annie beckoned the blonde girl along, and she gratefully moved away from the door and came to the bathroom. ‘Stay with Shar and look after her, okay?’

Rosie nodded.

Annie went back to the door and looked at Dolly. Dolly returned her stare.

‘You ever see anyone go cold turkey before?’ asked Dolly.

Annie shook her head.

‘Well I have. That’s what’s happening here. It ain’t pretty. One of my cousins got into drugs and his dad shut him in the shed for three days to dry him out. I’m telling you, by the time it was done and he was clean again, the inside of that shed looked like a fucking nuclear fallout zone.’

A huge thump hit the door.

‘Gotta get out! Out! Let me OUT,’ shrieked Mira.

Annie and Dolly exchanged tense looks.

‘I’d better go in there,’ said Annie. ‘She knows me, maybe I can talk to her, calm her down.’

‘Rather you than me,’ said Dolly, wincing as something smacked hard against the other side of the door again. The key in the lock fell out and hit the carpet. ‘I warned you,’ said Dolly in agitation. ‘I told you not to bring her in here. But would you listen? No. As per fucking usual. You always have to fly around like a fart in a bottle, messing around in things you don’t even understand.’

Annie turned to her with hands on hips. ‘Okay, let’s have this out in the open. What the fuck are you talking about?’

‘Nothing.’ Dolly’s eyes slipped away from hers. ‘I don’t want a ruck with you, I just don’t want this girl here, she’s killing my business. I want her out.’

‘You’re coming in with me,’ said Annie, snatching up the key.

‘Thanks a bunch,’ said Dolly.

Annie took a breath to steady herself. Christ knew what they were going to find in there. She put the key in. Suddenly the howling and screeching from the other side of the door stopped dead. She paused. Looked at Dolly. Dolly mouthed, Get the fuck on with it then.

Annie turned the key in the lock.

Nothing.

She turned the handle and pushed the door open wide with the flat of her hand.

Inside, it looked as though an army of chimps had been marauding around the room. There was blood and shattered crockery on the floor, tea seeping into the carpet. The bed was shit—and urine-stained. The mirror above the dressing table opposite the door was cracked right across, talcum powder dusted all over the top of the dressing table and on the floor too. Scent bottles were thrown to the four winds, some broken, their jagged bits of glass strewn all over the place.

But…silence. Sudden, unearthly silence. A sort of waiting silence.

But this was Mira. Skinny, weak, no threat to anyone. So really there was no need—was there?—to feel like just relocking the door, turning tail, leaving whatever demons had been unleashed in there to play on and do their worst.

Annie stepped forward, aware that Sharlene, her chin still swathed in the reddening folds of the towel, was watching with Rosie from the open bathroom door. Annie walked cautiously into the room. China and glass crunched underfoot.

‘Mira?’ she said quietly into the silence.

No answer. She took another step forward. Saw a movement in the broken mirror across the room and ducked instinctively back, out of the way of the sliver of broken perfume bottle that Mira brought crashing down, intending to strike her head with.

‘Jesus!’ hollered Dolly, as Annie fell back against her.

A flailing figure came at them, arms pin-wheeling, slashing, trying to inflict harm. Wild hair flying, face twisted in a rictus of hate, eyes glaring. Annie was faintly aware of the two girls along the hall erupting into hysterical screams, but the only thought in her mind was: Christ, she meant to kill me with that. Mira was going to kill me stone dead.

Trapped between this crazy whirling dervish and the staggering too-slow body of her friend, Annie pushed forward hard, grabbing hold of the wrist of the hand holding the lethal glass shard.

Mira was snarling, spitting, her other fist raining blows down on Annie’s head. Dolly recovered herself and charged in too, trying to get a hold on that arm. But Mira was out of it and—shockingly—she had the strength of ten men.

‘Let me out, I’ve got to get out!’ she was yelling and screaming, panting with the effort of trying to do damage.

‘Mira!’ Annie shouted, trying to get through to her. ‘Mira, for God’s sake. It’s me, it’s Annie!’

But Mira was shoving forward, both hands caught, the two women struggling against her single-minded fury. Even though they had hold of her, they were losing the fight. She was pushing frantically, edging them back out through the door, literally throwing herself against them. Dolly went down on to her knees but held on tight to the wrist whipping about above her head. Annie pulled back, not wanting to do it, hating to do it, but what choice did she have? She pulled back as far as she could and punched Mira hard on the jaw. Mira toppled, the glass fragment flying out of her hand. Dolly let go of the girl’s skeletal wrist and hauled herself back to her feet.

‘Shit a brick, who’d believe she’d be that strong?’ she panted in wonder.

Annie sagged against the door, nursing her aching knuckles. Gasping, shaken, she stared down at Mira, who was squirming weakly on the floor, her eyes closed, her face screwed up in pain. Sharlene and Rosie crowded into the open doorway behind them.

‘What’s she been on?’ marvelled Rosie.

‘Who gives a fuck?’ muttered Sharlene, wincing behind the towel. ‘She ought to be locked up. She’s a sodding nut job, that one.’

‘What the hell we going to do with her now?’ Dolly asked, looking at Annie.

Rosie screamed.

They turned. Mira was scrambling back to her feet. Damn, thought Annie, bracing herself for the next onslaught. But Mira didn’t run at her. Mira gave the women in the doorway one desperate, despairing look, and her eyes shifted sideways. All at once, she was running across the room, towards the window.

‘Shit!’ said Dolly loudly.

Oh God help us, thought Annie, and dashed after her.

Everything seemed to move in slow motion. Mira up ahead, arms pumping, ready to fling herself into a sheet of glass to get out, ready to run herself into a messy and final oblivion. Annie rushing after her, the screams coming from Rosie, Dolly yelling something that Annie neither fully heard nor understood. Had to be