‘What’s happened?’ I pulled back and looked into her face. ‘Tell me.’
She shook her head. ‘The flat getting locked up. Bloody Kerry. My mother, trying to get in my way.’
‘Forget all that,’ I urged her. ‘We’re here. You look stunning. The flat is perfect. We can put all that out of our heads for tonight and worry about it tomorrow. Let’s just make this the best party ever.’
The door was pushed open and there were a handful of the goths who Zoe knew from Dead Bouquet, Jodie and some of her friends. Jodie clattered a bag full of bottles onto the kitchen bench. ‘Don’t tell anyone,’ she said.
‘Ta,’ Zoe said. ‘I won’t.’ She was faking a brightness and a lightness that only I knew was a lie.
Jodie unscrewed the top off a bottle and poured dark red wine into flimsy paper cups. ‘I’m not stopping,’ she said. ‘I’m meeting Dave in the pub in a few minutes.’
Zoe raised a cup at me. ‘Happy Halloween, sinister sister.’
I laughed, took a sip and winced. The stuff was awful. ‘Happy Halloween, ghoul-friend.’
It was all going really well. People brought drink with them, we rigged up the music though some stolen speakers and everyone was dancing. I noticed, though, that Zoe kept glancing at her watch. At around eight-thirty, she said: ‘Hold the fort. Keep being the perfect hostess, or should that be ghost-ess, ha ha. I’ve just got something I need to do.’
‘What?’
‘Don’t ask. Just keep the party going. I won’t be very long.’ Zoe wrapped her long coat around herself and scuttled out of the door towards the lift. I watched from the doorway as she pressed the button a few times and then, losing patience, started hurrying down the stairs.
The lift door opened and a few more people came out. I pointed them towards the flat, then stepped in and pressed the button for the ground floor.
Outside, I could see Zoe striding along the street. I followed, keeping as many paces behind as I safely could without losing sight of her. She went into The Cut. I lingered for a minute or two at the entrance where a street light flickered, threatening to go off. Then I crept after her into the muddy lane.
It was black as a grave, with the usual smells of mud and dog. I could hear voices. One of them was Zoe and the other one was Kerry. I stood still and listened.
‘Tell the truth,’ Zoe was saying. ‘You grassed us up. Admit it.’
Kerry made some kind of a whimpering noise and I couldn’t quite make out her words.
‘Know what, Kerry? I’m in a whole load of trouble already. So much trouble that I don’t care what I do next. Hurting you would be the best thing I’ve done all day, if you want to know.’
Kerry let out a loud sob. Zoe hissed at her. ‘Make a great big row like that again and I’ll make you really, really sorry.’
I was shivering hard. Part of me felt like turning and running back to the party. No – if I’m honest, I felt like running back home. I took a couple of silent steps forward. I could see the dark shape of Zoe, with her back to me, shadowy shapes circling around her. And there, next to her, kneeling on the damp ground, was Kerry, wearing a light-coloured padded jacket, crying and cowering. In the darkness, it took me a minute to understand why. But then I saw it. Zoe was holding a knife to Kerry’s neck.
I was about to shout out at them but then I froze. If Zoe got a shock, she might hurt Kerry badly, even by accident. I stayed still, barely even breathing, my head and body light, as if none of it was real.
‘Thing is,’ Zoe was saying. ‘That flat was all I had. It was the safest place I could be. You know nothing about my life.’
Kerry let out another loud, wordless sob.
‘Maybe it was breaking the law to stay in that flat. But I wasn’t doing anyone any harm. And I was away from my mother. Remember those bruises you kept bleating on about? My mum did that. She does it whenever she needs to take her moods out on me. So sometimes I stayed in an empty flat that no one else wanted and no one got hurt. Especially not me.’
‘S-s-sorry,’ Kerry whimpered.
‘You make out you’re this sweet innocent kid who goes to church and wouldn’t harm a fly. But you’re full of spite. You wanted to see me in trouble, didn’t you?’
Kerry moaned and shook her head.
‘Yeah, you did. Just like when you tried to get me in trouble at home. Bet you thought you could have Anna to yourself, but that would never happen. She hates you just as much as I do. She’ll never be your friend, not really. She only puts up with you ’cause she’s too nice to tell you what she really thinks.’
I couldn’t stand it any longer. ‘Zoe,’ I said. Just quietly. She turned her head towards me, but kept the knife pointing at Kerry. The dark, shapeless figures shimmered and I tried not to look at them, to fix my gaze on Zoe. Kerry’s eyes were huge and swollen. ‘Come on,’ I said. I held out my hands to her. ‘Leave Kerry alone.’
Zoe didn’t move. Her hand trembled. ‘Go away, Anna. I don’t want you being part of this.’ The shapes were flanking her, either side. I wasn’t sure I could get near her – get past them.
‘You – you’re missing the party,’ I said, still with my hands stretched out to her. ‘It’s going really well. Come back.’
‘Kerry needs to learn what it feels like to be frightened,’ said Zoe. ‘She needs to know how I feel at home. And why causing trouble for other people is wrong. Just as wrong as anything I’ve ever done. I might pinch the odd thing from a big fat supermarket chain
