Travis finished his pizza and lit a cigarette.
‘Smoke?’ he asked, offering the pack to me.
I shook my head.
‘You’re so uptight with your good-girl routine. But it’s starting to unravel, isn’t it? Getting drunk in the park, lying to Miranda, checking out older men.’
I picked my drink up off the floor and sniffed it. Perhaps if I played along, pretended to loosen up, I would be able to get him drunk and escape. I sipped at the liquid and swallowed. It tasted sour and I pulled a face.
‘You don’t like beer?’ he asked.
‘No. I prefer water.’
He took another drag on his cigarette and exhaled in my direction. ‘You’re no fun.’
But he fetched me a glass of water.
‘Let’s talk,’ he said, pushing the glass into my hand. He sat on the couch, close, so that our knees were nearly touching.
‘About what?’
‘First of all, when are you planning to attack me with the corkscrew? We can get that over with now if you like. I can put my hands in the air and let you try and stab me with it.’
I blushed. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
Travis laughed. ‘Go ahead. Stab me.’
‘I’m not going to stab you.’
‘In that case would you mind giving me the corkscrew?’
I pulled the corkscrew out of my hoodie. Travis removed his jacket. ‘Come on then,’ he said, winking at me. ‘I think I can handle a corkscrew.’
I put the corkscrew on the table and sat back down on the couch.
‘Like I said before, you’re no fun.’
He sat back on the sofa next to me. I could smell his deodorant or soap, the faintest hint of sweat.
‘What are you going to do to me, Travis?’
He put his hand on my bare knee and squeezed it in a gesture that he must have meant to be reassuring. I tensed. ‘I’m just going to talk to you, OK? I need to know how much Orion told you. And then we’re going to figure out how to keep the future safe. Does that sound OK to you?’
I nodded.
He stood up. ‘Right, I’m going to take a leak. And then we’ll talk. Don’t try anything stupid. I know you think you’re a good runner, but you can’t outrun a car. And there’s nothing to be afraid of. All we’re going to do is talk.’
He strode out of the room and I heard him thumping heavily up the stairs. A bolt of adrenalin surged through me. I clutched the car keys in my pocket and calculated the time it would take me to reach the front door. Perhaps ten seconds. To get to the car? Another ten. To fire up the ignition and drive away? Another ten. Thirty seconds.
This was my chance. He was upstairs. He could probably zip his fly and run down the stairs in ten seconds, but he would only do that if he knew I was trying to escape. And he didn’t know about the car. I tiptoed into the hall and quietly opened the front door.
I bolted. I pressed the unlock mechanism on the car as I ran. The lights of the car flashed like an erratic heartbeat and I heard the locks unclick.
‘Eden! Wait!’
I pulled open the driver’s side door and threw myself inside, banging the door shut behind me. I pressed down on the central locking just as Travis reached the door of the car. He pulled at the door handle.
‘There’s no need for this!’ he yelled. ‘You’re overreacting. Open the door!’
Trembling, I pushed the key into the ignition. Travis banged so hard on the window that I was afraid it would shatter. The engine shuddered to life. Clutch. First gear. Gas. Release brake and clutch. I slowly released the clutch and the car crept along the gravel driveway.
Travis walked alongside the car, continuing to bang on the window.
‘You can’t drive. This is ridiculous. Stop the car! I won’t hurt you. We need to discuss how to deal with this.’
I dipped the clutch and moved into second. Travis began running. Once I reached the lane I could shift into a higher gear and there was no way he could outrun me.
My instinct was to go home to Miranda. Lock the doors and tell her everything. She had always kept me safe. She would know what to do. But what if she wasn’t home? What if she’d given Travis a key? And if I told her everything, she would just become part of the ‘mess’ Travis wanted to clean up.
At the top of the lane, I stopped. Miranda’s car was in the driveway. Decision time. I checked my rear-view mirror. A black car with tinted windows was approaching at speed. I put the car in gear. And stalled. Travis approached from behind. He had slowed down, but not enough to stop. I was thrown forward with a jerk as he rammed into the rear bumper.
Shaking, I turned the key in the ignition again, and the engine roared to life. A red light flashed on the dashboard but I didn’t know what it was. I ignored it and pulled on to the coastal road. He followed. I had no idea where I was going or what I would do. The coast road led to Perran and stopped. There was nowhere else to go in this direction. My only option would be to stop in Perran or turn around and head back out of town on the bypass. There wasn’t even a police station in Perran.
I checked my mirror. He was matching my speed, not attempting to ram me again. He must have realised I had nowhere to go.
It began to rain. Great sheets of water fell from the sky and my windscreen was awash. Frantically, I pushed buttons and hit the sticks either side of the steering wheel. My indicators came on. Then my headlights. I kept the headlights on. It hadn’t occurred to me that I needed my lights. Finally, I found the wipers.
As I shifted down and took the corner above Lucky Cove, the car shuddered. We were passing Perran golf course now. Rain glistened on the road. My wipers raced frantically from side to side. The engine roared, and then shuddered again. I was losing power. I shifted down to first gear and the engine screamed. And then stopped.
I turned the ignition, but it sputtered and refused to come to life. The red light on the dashboard was still flashing. Taking a closer look at it, I realised it was the low-fuel light. I was out of petrol.
Checking my mirror, I could see Travis undoing his seat belt. He would be on me in seconds.
I unclicked my seat belt, flung open the car door and hurled myself across the road towards the golf course. Without looking back to see if he was behind me, I launched myself over the low fence. He couldn’t follow me over the golf course in his car.
‘Eden!’
I could tell from his voice that he was close. I was not a sprinter; I was an endurance runner. If he was faster than me, I was done for. I pushed myself harder, not saving any of my energy for the long haul. My chest ached and the rain slashed my skin.
‘Eden!’
He sounded a little further away. Resisting the temptation to turn around and check his position, I pushed myself on. The rain was in my eyes and the footpath above the cliff top had turned to mud. One slip and I would either be over the edge or flat on my face.
If I could just get to Perran, if I was among people, he wouldn’t be able to hurt me. I could see the streetlights bright in front of me. It was nine o’clock in the evening and raining, but it was June. In June there were always tourists. Even in the rain, there had to be tourists. But what if there weren’t any? Then what? I would go to Connor’s.
I passed the end of the golf course and the path narrowed. I was running alongside fields of potatoes. I couldn’t hear Travis so I risked a glance backwards. He was a couple of hundred metres behind me, running slowly and panting. Too many cigarettes.
I had found my rhythm and if I had been in my running shoes, I could have kept this up for miles. But I was wearing sandals that were soaked and muddy. I could feel my feet slipping inside them with every stride. I wouldn’t be able to keep this up for long.
