Page 18 of Dying Breath
‘I don’t feel well. I’m going to bed.’
She reached out her hand and placed the back of it on his forehead.
‘You do feel a bit hot – let me know if you want anything.’
‘I just want to go to sleep, my head’s hurting.’
She smiled at him and he walked into his bedroom, not closing the door properly behind him. She shut her office door. He quickly changed into a pair of shorts and the old, faded, black t-shirt that his mum had thrown away and he’d taken back out of the bin bag. He neatly folded his clothes up, then pushed his pillows into the bed under the covers, shut the curtains and sneaked back out. It was so warm that the dining-room and kitchen windows were wide open. He’d be able to get back in later without so much as making a noise. He was good at creeping around; he’d been doing it for years.
He ran to the cutting. As he approached, he could see her standing there in all her beautiful glory. Her cut-off frayed denim shorts, which were lopsided because she’d done it herself, showed off her tanned legs. Her white t-shirt had those stupid Rugrats on the front of it; he hated that cartoon. She’d scraped her long hair back in a ponytail and he could see the small scar on the side of her head. She’d fallen off the swing at the park last year and cut her head open, chipping her front tooth in the process. He and Jake had dragged her home to get it cleaned up. He ran towards her and then carried on straight past her – he didn’t want anyone to think they were on their own together.
‘Oi, where are you going?’
He grinned at the anger in her voice and heard her footsteps as she began to chase after him. He didn’t stop until he reached the woods and couldn’t see anyone else. Jenny pushed him from behind. ‘Idiot. Why’d you make me run? I hate running.’
He turned and smiled. ‘Sorry, my mum’s in a bad mood. I was scared she’d call me back in.’
He headed through the trees towards the small clearing he’d discovered a few weeks ago. It was set back from the trails and you couldn’t see it from any of the paths. It was completely hidden by overgrown bushes. He’d been exploring in here on his own when he’d found it. From the moment he saw it, he’d known it would be perfect.
‘So where we going?’
‘I’ll show you my new hideout, but you have to promise not to tell anyone.’
‘What about Jake? Does he know about it?’
He shook his head. ‘No, if I show you it’s our secret. You have to promise not to tell.’
She shrugged. ‘Okay.’
He pushed his way through the brambles, holding them back for her.
‘Wow, this place is cool. You should build a den, we could sleep out here.’
He felt his skin prickle at the thought of it. She went and sat on a large log that had fallen off one of the huge trees and he sat down next to her. She pointed to a metal cover set in the ground. ‘What’s that?’
‘Sewers, I think.’
‘Urgh. I bet it stinks in there. So what should we do?’
He reached out his hand to stroke her hair.
Less than an hour later he was home, after running through the woods avoiding the trails that the dog walkers used. He’d come out of the opposite side, but it didn’t matter – he followed the backstreets to reach the small end-of-terrace house that was his home. Red-faced and out of breath, he washed his hands in the dirty water of the paddling pool. Then he peered through the dining-room window to make sure his mum wasn’t around. The house was silent, apart from the faint sound of typing filtering through the upstairs window. He climbed inside and crept upstairs, where he stripped off his shorts and t-shirt. He knew that he had to get rid of them, but he couldn’t have walked home naked. Rolling them into a ball, he took the small gym bag off the floor of his wardrobe and shoved them inside. He pushed the bag under the spare blankets and sheets, out of sight until he could dump it in a bin tomorrow on the other side of town.
He hadn’t realised how much his hands were shaking until he climbed into bed, pulling the covers over his head. He was hot and sweaty anyway with the exertion. If his mum came in to check on him she’d think he was really poorly. She’d swear blind to anyone who asked that he’d been to the shop, come home and had to go straight to bed. As he lay there, his eyes closed, he thought about what he’d done. He expected the horror to come crashing down on him. That the guilt would weigh so heavy on his shoulders that he’d never be able to lift his head again. What happened instead was that he started to laugh, so hard that he had to stuff his fist into his mouth to stop the sound erupting and filling the house.
He fell asleep, content and happy for the first time in months. He woke up to the commotion of someone hammering on the front door. He heard his mum open it.
‘Is Jenny here? Have you seen her?’
‘No, she’s not here. I haven’t seen her. Just a minute – I’ll go and check.’
He shut his eyes and lay still, waiting for her to open his door. She did, walking across the room towards him and gently shaking his shoulder.
‘Jake’s downstairs. He said have you seen Jenny?’
He pushed himself up on his elbow, rubbing one eye.
‘I saw her coming out of the shop when I went earlier, but she ran off. I came straight home.’
