‘This face cost me a fortune, you fucking bitch!’ Margot screeched, holding her hand to her wounds. Beth swiped at her again. Margot weaved backwards, and the steel sliced down through the thick black leather of her jacket.
‘That’s more like it. That’s the Kitty I knew. I wondered if she was still in there. And there she is!’ Margot hissed.
She glared at Beth through her gloved hands, lowering her arms to her sides. She charged towards Beth, sending her hurtling backwards. She hit the ground hard, a wave of pain shooting up from her coccyx.
She sprang up, hurling herself at Beth once more, grabbing Beth’s hair in her hands, yanking her head from side to side. This way, then that. Searing pain radiated from Beth’s scalp. She thought Margot might actually tear the hair from her head.
Beth reached her hands up to Margot’s own hair, grabbing two handfuls, pulling as hard as she could in retaliation. The women rolled around on the floor. For a moment, Margot had the upper hand, the next Beth was winning. They screamed, heaving each other about in the dirt. Somehow Margot managed to flip Beth onto her back and straddle her. With Margot’s full weight on top of her, Beth struggled to breathe.
She placed her hands around Beth’s neck and began to squeeze. Beth writhed, trying to throw Margot off, but she was too strong. Her head felt hot, her vision blurred. From somewhere in the distance, she heard Charlie’s voice cry out.
‘Beth! The hammer!’
She turned from side to side, as droplets of spittle dripped down from Margot’s mouth, hitting Beth in the face. To her left, a foot or so from where they lay, was the discarded claw hammer. Throwing her arm out to the side awkwardly, she grappled frantically on the floor.
Margot squeezed harder, and Beth felt as though her head would explode. She felt something hard and smooth beneath her hand.
The handle.
Closing her fingers around it, she gripped it tightly, as she arced her arm up as hard as she could, screaming. The head of the hammer connected with Margot’s temple with a satisfying thud.
Margot’s hands loosened on Beth’s throat, a stunned expression on her face. She was looking at Beth, but it was suddenly as if she wasn’t seeing her.
Beth swung the hammer again, this time striking the back of Margot’s head hard with the claws, gouging into her flesh. Margot fell forwards, landing on top of Beth, who rolled, escaping from underneath the dead weight.
She stood, unsteady, a little dazed. She edged around Margot’s body, prodding it with her foot. Margot didn’t move. Beth turned, hurrying to Charlie, dropping the hammer.
‘Are you okay?’ he called to her, as she limped towards him.
‘I think so. You?’
She was close to Charlie, about two or three feet. Suddenly his eyes widened, his mouth contorted into a scream.
‘Behind you, watch out!’
But Beth didn’t have time to react. Margot’s full weight bowled into the back of her. She flew forwards, slamming into the beam which Charlie was tethered to. Her face smashed into brick. She screamed as the pillar gave way before her. She landed on Charlie, Margot tripping on the two of them, flying over them and landing a few feet behind.
Chunks of masonry and rubble showered down from above. Charlie looked up. Beth tried to get to her feet, but before she could, the balcony came crashing down around them all.
And everything stopped.
59
Dust. And darkness.
Beth’s ears were ringing. She coughed, her throat dry and raspy, full of dirt. She slowly turned her neck, it was painful but she could move. Just.
Charlie’s face was a few inches from hers. His eyes closed. She was unsure if he was breathing. His head and arm were the only parts of his body not covered by the rubble surrounding them. Beth couldn’t see Margot. Couldn’t hear her.
She blinked a few times. As the ringing in her ears subsided, it gave way to another sound. Sobbing. Faint, but definite.
Daisy. Daisy was crying.
Beth tried to roll over. A steel girder was lying across the back of her legs. Heavy, painful. She managed to dislodge one leg from beneath the beam. The other was stuck fast, trapped between bricks, and the steel, and God knows what else. There was blood too. Thick and warm, soaking into denim. Her face throbbed from the earlier collision with the pillar. She moistened her parched lips, turning onto her side. She braced her palms against the edges of the metal and pushed. It hardly budged.
She decided to change tack. She heaved herself. Something jagged sliced into her calf. She winced, sucking in air, and shaking her head. Her daughter was scared. She needed her.
Beth pulled again, harder, trying to ignore the searing pain. Her leg came free, ripping her jeans, gouging flesh on a serrated edge. She let out a whimper. She had no time to nurse her wounds.
Tearing a strip from the bottom of her blouse, she wound a tourniquet tightly around her thigh.
‘Charlie,’ she whispered, as if speaking would cause further carnage.
No response.
‘I’m coming back for you, Charlie, I promise. I need to find the kids.’
She had no idea if he could hear her, but she needed to say it, regardless. She kissed his dusty cheek. Turning herself to a sitting position, she glanced about the room. Dust and debris floated around. The entire structure of the mezzanine had collapsed on top of them. Margot would have taken the brunt of it, with Charlie a close second.
Beth had been lucky. Incredibly lucky.
She forced herself to stand. Her weight on her injured leg was agonising.
‘Daisy,’ she called out into the dark, weakly.
‘Mummy?’
‘Daisy, keep shouting, love, I’ll come to you. I need to follow the sound of your voice!’ More assertive now, the desire to find her children taking over.
‘Mum!’ Peter now, shaken, sobbing.
‘Peter! You both okay?’
‘What’s going on through there?’
‘Don’t worry
