“In the basement. Which makes it sound worse than it is. It’s my guest room, really. Not that I ever have any guests. But I used to keep all my overspill in here, you know, bric-a-brac, but knowing you were coming I had a good clear-out. Took it all to the Red Cross shop. So now we’re veryminimal. There now.” She adjusted the pillow behind Ellie’s head. “All comfy. I’ll go and get you that sandwich. You just rest a bit. But don’t try and get up. You might fall out of the bed and hurt yourself, being a bit woozy as you are.”
She smiled at her indulgently, like a kindly nurse. “Good girl,” she said, running her hand down Ellie’s hair. “Good girl.”
Then she turned and left the room.
Ellie heard one lock click into place. And then she heard another. And then one more.
Ellie didn’t eat her sandwich. Despite the pain of an empty stomach, she wasn’t at all hungry. Noelle silently removed it and said, “Ah, well, I’m sure you’ll be hungry in the morning. We’ll try again then, eh?”
Then she looked fondly at Ellie and said, “Oh, it is a treat to have you here, it really is. Now you sleep tight and I’ll see you bright and early.”
“I want to go home!” Ellie yelled out at Noelle’s back. “I really really want to go home!”
Noelle didn’t reply. The three locks clicked into place. The room turned black.
37
THEN
The sun came up early. Ellie took the chair that Noelle had sat on the night before and pulled it across to the window. She climbed onto it and peered through the grimy glass. She saw a tangle of undergrowth, a brick wall painted cream, a water pipe streaked green. If she peered upward, she saw the pink clouds of the cherry blossom tree, the blue sky, nothing more. She realized immediately that the only way anyone would see her in here would be if they were looking for her and she wrote the words “help” and “Ellie” into the dirt. She stood on the chair for more than an hour, her face pressed up against the glass. Because people must be looking for her. They must be.
She jumped down from the chair at the sound of the locks being turned on the door and she picked it up with both hands. At the sight of Noelle in a green polo neck and faded jeans a surge of horror and anger coursed through her and she grabbed the chair hard and swung it at Noelle. It glanced off the side of Noelle’s head, but she caught it before Ellie was able to properly hurt her with it, caught it and threw it across the room. Ellie jumped on her then, jumped on her back, her arms around Noelle’s throat as she tried to bash her head against the wooden wall. But Noelle proved herself to be stronger than she looked and manhandled Ellie backward and against the wall where she strangled the breath out of her, strangled her to the point of light-headedness and stars and then let her fall to the floor.
“You cannot be doing things like that,” Noelle said afterward, dropping Ellie on the sofa bed upside down, locking her ankles together with a plastic tie. “We’re in this together, you and me. We have to work as a team. I do not want to have to tie you up like a criminal. I really do not. I have treats in mind for you, lots of lovely things I want to do for you, to make this nicer. And I won’t be able to give you the treats if you behave like this.”
Ellie struggled against the cuffs around her ankles, pounded her feet against the end of the bed. She roared and thrashed, and Noelle stood and watched her, her arms folded, shaking her head slowly. “Now, now, now,” she said. “This isn’t going to work. The longer you behave like this, the worse it will be and the longer you’ll be here.”
Ellie stilled at those words. So, there was an end. Noelle had an end. Her muscles softened and her breathing steadied.
“Good girl,” Noelle said. “Good girl. If you can behave like this for the rest of the day, I’ll bring you your first treat. How about that?”
Ellie nodded, tears rolling down her cheeks.
The treat was a chocolate bar. A big one. She ate it in five minutes.
Ellie thought of before; she thought of eating toast and jam, calling Hanna a cow because she’d taken the last bag of salt and vinegar crisps that Ellie had mentally put aside for herself. She thought of filling her bag with books, a packet of ready salted crisps and a banana. She thought of her dad off work with a summer cold, in his dressing gown, sticking his head down the stairs and saying, “I’ll go through that maths with you later on if you like?” And her smiling at her dad and saying, “Cool! See you later!”
She thought of leaving the house without turning back to look at it.
She thought of her house.
She cried.
38
THEN
Another night passed. It was Saturday morning and Ellie had just remembered that her period was due tomorrow.
“Good morning, dear girl,” said Noelle, quickly relocking the door behind her and standing with her hands on her hips, appraising Ellie with an unsettling smile.
Ellie jumped to her feet and Noelle backed away slightly, crossing her arms in front of her. “Now,” she said. “Now. Remember what we said yesterday. I want no trouble from you.”
“I’m not going to do anything,” Ellie said. “I just needed to tell you something. Something important. I’m going to need some towels. Or something. My period is due to start tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” Noelle narrowed her eyes.
“Yes. And I have really heavy periods. Really heavy. I’ll need loads.”