It had resulted in her losing her phone and her car and being cut off from contact with Leena. If she hadn’t helped Terry, she would likely be with her sister right now and not in this dreadful predicament.
So Emma wasn’t going to help anyone this time. It was time to go.
First, she needed to sort her knee out.
She rolled the drivers-side window down so she could speak to the men. “Sorry to bother, but can anyone help me look for a stick or something that I can use as a crutch? My leg’s starting to cramp because I can’t sit comfortably. And I need some fresh air.”
Mark gave Sebastian a sideways glance and said, “Go help her. John and I can handle them if they come.”
Sebastian opened the drivers-side door and looked up at Emma in the passenger seat. “There are some painkillers in the glove box that might help you,” he told her. “Does it hurt a lot?”
“Not so much when I’m sitting still,” she said, finding the painkillers – a few boxes of paracetamol. “It’s just really uncomfortable.”
He nodded. “I don’t know how to treat a sprain but I can help you find a walking stick.”
“Thank you,” she said as Sebastian closed the door and went around the front of the van to the other door. She pushed two paracetamol tablets from a blister pack and swallowed them dry, then turned to let Sebastian assist her as she climbed gingerly out of the vehicle.
“I just need a stick or a pole, something sturdy I can get around with.” Emma pointed to the house in front of them. “Shall we look in there?”
Sebastian obliged and helped her limp up to the empty front doorway of the house, supporting her with his shoulder under her arm.
It was chilly inside and smelled of sawdust. The naked concrete floor was empty even of construction debris in the downstairs hallway. Shivering from a gust of wind that swept through the doorway behind them, they turned into a room on the right.
The first thing Emma noticed was a jumble of rectangular wooden boards and some empty buckets in the corner of the room. There was a piece poking out from the bottom of the pile that looked promising, so she pulled it out and inspected it. It was the perfect length for a walking stick. Its thickness made it a little awkward to hold but it would do.
With Sebastian’s help, she stood and put her weight on the stick, testing its strength. Then she tried walking with it. The stick didn’t have much grip on the smooth concrete surface so Emma had to take slow, careful steps to avoid slipping.
It would be easier outside on the rough tarmac roads. She could move around on her own like this. Now she just needed an excuse to slip away.
The men hadn’t told her she couldn’t leave or threatened her in any way. With her knee injury no longer inhibiting her there was nothing to stop her from leaving Sebastian and the others without explaining herself.
But they had saved her life. And Emma had a feeling Mark would be offended if he saw her leave, that he would think she was ungrateful. While she didn’t want to risk angering him, she couldn’t stay and watch Sammy die.
This is my only option, Emma reminded herself.
“Do you want to take a walk, then?” Sebastian asked.
“Erm, yeah,” Emma said. “But I need to go for a wee first. I’m busting.”
“Oh, okay. I think the bathroom is upstairs, though if it’s as unfinished as the rest of the house, there probably isn’t even a toilet in there. You want me to go up and check?”
“No, that’s okay. I’ll just go outside. I should probably avoid stairs for the time being, anyway.”
“Oh, right.” He gave an awkward, boyish grin. “Well, I’ll be waiting here for you. Shout if you need me.”
Emma nodded and made her way into the kitchen and toward the back doorway.
She was three steps into the kitchen when the sound of something falling over in another room, followed by what could have been footsteps, stopped her in her tracks. Looking back, it was clear that Sebastian had heard it too as he’d frozen and was staring toward the hallway.
After several seconds of staring, Sebastian turned to Emma and held a finger in front of his lips. Then slowly and quietly he started toward the hallway.
Her heart raced as sinister possibilities rushed through her mind; there was an intruder in the other room, a person who wanted to rob them or a lurking undead, and Sebastian was going to get hurt.
Just leave him, said a voice in the back of Emma’s head. He’s not your friend. You need to worry about Leena.
She listened to the voice and continued clumsily toward the back doorway.
That’s not you. You don’t leave people.
It is me. Driven by fear. Always.
An intrepid thought, one that almost drowned in the clamour of her consciousness: You don’t have to be.
Emma stopped.
I don’t leave people.
Repeating the sentence under her breath like a mantra, she limped back into the room she’d come from and followed Sebastian. The dull tap of her makeshift walking stick on the stone floor sent echoes through the vacant rooms, announcing her presence to whoever – or whatever – was in the other room.
Sebastian stood a few feet inside the room across the hallway with his back to Emma. Stock-still, he was looking at something to his right.
Emma called his name and his head turned an inch, but he didn’t speak. “What is it?” she asked, her whole body trembling as she came up behind Sebastian. When she saw who was in the
