“Oh, love…”
“Where’s Ronnie now?” Minnie asked.
“Sweetheart, I don’t think…”
“Has he been arrested?” she choked, imagining him locked up in some tiny, damp cell, his wrists and ankles bound and shackled.
Henry sighed heavily and gave her a small, sympathetic smile. “I don’t know, Mins.”
“I’m going over to his place,” she said, standing up.
“Sweetheart, I don’t think that’s a good id-“
Before she could stop herself, her right hand struck her father across the cheek, all of the bones in her fingers and palm shaking with volts of electricity as she froze and realised what she had just done. His cheek blazed red, his eyes wide, almost bulging from their sockets, whilst his mouth hung wide open with shock.
“I’m…” Minnie took a step back, her heart beginning to thud hard against the inside of her chest. “I’m sorry…” she muttered as she dashed out of the room and towards the back door. Still wearing her pyjamas, and with nothing on her feet, Minnie Walter escaped her parent’s house and broke out into a sprint. She crossed the back garden, clambered over the back fence, and didn’t look back.
Chapter Eighteen
2019
The RV looked ridiculously small from this distance. Minnie stood, her arms folded, her cheeks flushed red with rage as she watched the tiny speck of a figure moving about in the narrow strip of doorway at the side of the motor home, the only shape for miles around. By that point, the sky was a watery, pale blue. The air was still cold and damp, but there was no rain, thank God.
“Don’t worry,” Ronnie breathed under his breath, more to himself than to Minnie. “She won’t hurt her.”
Minnie blinked away a hot, salty tear that formed in her eye. She tasted blood on her tongue, from where she had chewed her lower lip into shreds. “I know,” she replied quietly.
Sienna, she could see, was biding her time. The bitch still had her knife pressed into the side of Flo’s neck. Flo’s frightened whimpers still echoed around Minnie’s brain like a broken record. There was no sound, Minnie was certain, more haunting than the distress of a child. The little spit-fire always acted so tough; she wanted to be just like the rest of them.
But underneath it all, she was still Minnie’s baby girl.
Just a little kid.
It broke Minnie’s heart.
“Why the fuck is she taking so long?” Minnie croaked, her voice breaking as her knee wobbled impatiently in her baggy, mud-splattered jeans.
Rationally, of course, Minnie knew that Sienna wouldn’t hurt Flo. Sienna wasn’t hardened like they were; she was no killer. She was just desperate. She’d been threatened and had gone into fight mode. In fact, Minnie was sure that Sienna wouldn’t have hurt Flo, even if they’d refused to leave the RV.
But still, even the smallest of risks was not worth taking. Not when the children were involved.
Ronnie slid his arm around her shoulders, his demeanour softening. “It’s okay, darling,” he whispered, “I know it hurts, seeing Flo like that, but this bitch won’t do shit.”
Zach chimed in, the three teenagers listening to their parents’ conversation from afar. “She won’t get away with it, Mum,” he said solemnly.
“Exactly,” agreed Ronnie, “that bitch will pay.”
“How?” Stella wondered out loud, “we can’t outrun her in that,” she said, nodding towards the huge, double-decker vehicle.
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” said Zach, “that’s one big bus. It’s been pissing it down with rain all night; the mud is bad. Even if she can get the thing to move, it won’t be going anywhere fast.”
“And we could always get the van?” suggested Lloyd, hopefully. He eyed the keyring dangling from his father’s coat. At fourteen, Lloyd wasn’t legally allowed to drive; however, neither Minnie nor Ronnie gave the remotest of fucks about abiding by the law. And so, he was occasionally permitted to drive if the roads weren’t busy or they were out somewhere desolate.
Ronnie unclipped the keyring, “go on then,” he grunted. “You and Stella walk back and get the van, walk around, so the bitch doesn’t see you.” He tossed the keys to Lloyd, who caught them eagerly, then led his older sister backwards, around the long way to where their van had been left some distance away.
“Oh my god,” gasped Minnie, clutching her hands to her chest. She squinted her eyes and watched as Sienna roughly pushed Flo from the entrance to the RV and quickly slammed the door shut behind her.
“MOVE!” barked Ronnie, and the trio charged across the horrifically muddy marshes.
*
Inside the RV, Sienna was vibrating from head to toe, every inch of her shaking with adrenaline as she fiddled clumsily with the lock of the RV, then scrambled on unsteady legs through the motor home and into the driver’s seat.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck…” she muttered to herself, her blood pounding in her eardrums as she settled into the seat and chanced a look to her left. The tiny shapes in the distance were already dashing towards her. She let out a frightened cry and quickly opened up the concealed glove compartment, where they kept their spare keys hidden in case of emergencies. Her hands shook so much that she dropped them and had to spend a precious few seconds searching for them at her feet. Once she had the set in her hands, she thrust the metal into the ignition and attempted to turn it.
Foolish as it was, Sienna had never driven the RV before. She’d never had reason to.
“No…” she gasped frantically, attempting to turn the key again.
But it wouldn’t budge. It wouldn’t turn, not even an inch.
“FUCK!” she screamed, her eyeballs bulging from her head in disbelief. She tried again and again, each time straining her wrist just a little more. Frightened sobs escaped her as she snatched it back and rammed it inside again, only for the same stubborn grip to protest against the key.
Sienna
