“Yes, this world is very money driven now. It’s a shame.”
“I appreciate you coming along. Are you alone? I didn’t see you with anyone. Most people come in pairs at least.”
“I’m alone,” I confirmed. “How long will we spend in this field? All day or do we move on to somewhere else?” It was bitterly cold and we were out in the open. The field was the one behind where I found Lily. Long Thorpe was a short drive from my house, but even so, I didn’t know it well.
“We’ll move on soon. We’ve got the next two fields behind us to go.” Ah, moving farther from the park. I admired his persistence. However, he should learn to take care of someone he claimed to love. “Do you need to leave?”
“No, I’m here for the day. I was just curious to know today’s schedule.” He nodded and went back to searching for goodness knows what on the ground. I mimicked his actions, moving over fallen leaves and twigs. Searching fields seemed pointless now. Surely the logical thing to do in a situation like this was to speak to people, search the streets, like the official search. This now seemed less planned out and more desperate.
“Do you have any thoughts on where Summer is?” I asked him. I didn’t like using that name; Summer was dead.
He looked up at me and stared. I stood straight, my heart pounding. Why was he looking at me like that? I kept my posture firm and rigid. Finally, he frowned. “I wish I did. Wherever she is, I won’t stop until I’ve found her.”
I looked away. “Of course. Sorry, I shouldn’t have asked.” He was still looking at me; I could feel his gaze burning into the side of my head.
“Yeah, no worries,” he replied and walked off. I heard him trudge along the crisp, frosty leaves. Why had he looked at me like that?
24
SUMMER
Friday, February 4th (Present)
I woke up to Violet whimpering and crying in pain. It had been two weeks since he hurt her. She had started to heal, but last night he had shoved her and she fell into one of the wooden chairs and hurt her ribs all over again—and it was all over dead flowers!
Rose held a cloth on Violet’s forehead. It was only quarter past five in the morning. Poppy was still sleeping peacefully—I envied her for that. I pushed the cover off me and crept over to them. “How long have you been up?” I whispered to Rose.
She looked over at me, startled. “About half an hour. I’ll change her bandages soon. Hopefully she’ll wake up properly, and we can give her one of the pills. If not, I’ll crush it and put it in her water.” Violet’s breathing was fast and heavy. Her face scrunched up in pain and her hand clutched at her chest. She really needed painkillers, but we only had four that we accumulated. We needed to make them last.
I nodded and turned my attention to Violet. “Are you okay?” Her eyes flicked open and landed on me; after a few seconds they closed again. She shook her head and whimpered. “I’m sorry. You’ll be all right, though. We’ll look after you,” I promised her. No matter what happened, I would not leave her by herself again. If she tried anything like that again, I would help her.
“Hurts. It hurts,” Violet whispered. Her pain was clear through her strained voice.
“I know it does. We can give you something now, if you want? Do you think you could swallow a pill?” Rose asked. Shouldn’t she be healing better than this? Something wasn’t right.
Violet nodded and winced at the same time. “Here,” Rose said, holding the tiny white pill out. Violet opened her mouth; Rose popped it in and held the glass of water up for her. I hated that there was nothing more I could do to help her. Three pills were all we had left now and there was no way she would be healed by tomorrow!
She slumped back in her bed and hissed through her teeth in pain. Her eyes filled with tears, but the intense expression on her face told me she wasn’t going to let herself cry. Violet was so strong—much stronger than me. “What’s he going to do to me?”
Rose squeezed her hand. “Nothing at all. You’re going to be fine. It’s sorted, remember? He’s not going to do anything to you.” Was that really better? Living only meant living this “life.” If I didn’t have the tiniest bit of hope that I would see Lewis and my family again I would have let him kill me weeks ago.
Violet’s eyes flickered to me for a second. She was expressionless, emotionless, like there was nothing there. I had no idea what she was thinking, and I wouldn’t be able to find out until we were alone. I had a feeling she wouldn’t want to talk in front of Rose and Poppy. I sat with her for as long as I could.
Poppy woke up and one by one we had a shower and changed into matching outfits. I helped Rose clean Violet’s wounds and change the bandages. Her head wound looked bad, but at least the bleeding had stopped now.