Page 13 of The Cut
There is a secret happening in the Knot household, something that a kid of sixteen shouldn’t have to deal with alone. Mark aches to reach out and help Ben, but he knows he would never accept the help, especially not from him. Then a strange feeling54begins to flood into Mark’s chest, a feeling that he tries to suppress, guilty that his mind is capable of such manipulation. He has peeked into Ben’s world and in that single moment, he is filled with an overwhelming sense of power.
Mark has seen how vulnerable Ben is. Top Dog isn’t quite as invincible as everyone believes. Ben has something to hide. Just like him.
55
10
OCTOBER 2023
Condensation had formed in the vacuum between the triple layers of the argon window that spanned the rear wall of the ground floor. Ben stood gazing out towards the woodland at the bottom of the garden. The sun was cresting over the canopy of russet autumnal leaves, its golden rays diffusing through the glass. A sudden wave of anger coursed through him as the memory of his father’s painful struggle in the last few months of his life passed through his mind. Ben had made promises that he was unable to keep; there’d been no room for his father at the hospice and his final hours had been spent in a hospital corridor, waiting for a bed. He’d failed him.
Ben squinted as a beam of sunlight breaking through the drifting clouds blinded him momentarily. For a second, the reflection in the glass was someone he didn’t recognise. He was sixteen again and Mark Cherry was staring back at him through the surgery door; but as his eyes adjusted, the face looking back was his. He appeared haggard and world weary. A deafening crash behind him sent an electric shock through his spine.
‘You didn’t eat your eggs!’ Dani was clattering around in the kitchen, loading breakfast crockery into the dishwasher.
‘We need to get that window fixed, the seal’s broken.’ He forced a smile.
‘I’ll call them on Monday. Not everyone works on Saturdays, love.’ Dani dropped the used coffee filter into the recycling. ‘Any plans for today?’56
Ben’s head turned back to the garden. He approached the glass again; this time, his fingertips touched the surface.
‘HEY!’ Without warning, he hammered hard on the glass. There was someone out there. He darted to the side door, yanked on the handle and stumbled out into the side return, socked feet pricking over sharp stones like hot coals. ‘HEY!’
His ankle caught in the jumbled mess of the garden hose, nearly tripping him. He shook off the coiled snake and darted around the corner. Hovering for a second, Ben saw a figure crouching at the bottom of the garden, hiding in the undergrowth. Someone was watching his house.
He strode purposefully down the lawn, not noticing his sodden feet on the wet grass. ‘What do you want?’ As he got closer, he saw the person more clearly and hesitated. It was a boy, small and rake thin. It couldn’t be …
‘Mark?’ The name formed on his lips and the sound rumbled in his chest as if he was feeling the word, not speaking it.
As he drew nearer to the boy bent over in the shrubbery, he heard Dani shouting from the house. ‘BEN! What are you doing?’
At the sound of Dani’s raised voice, the boy shot up and turned to look at Ben, who was now looming over him. Fear crossed the boy’s face as he looked down at the spade in Ben’s hand.
‘What are you doing here?’ Ben’s voice was brittle.
‘I … I’m sorry, Mr Knot. I was just … looking …’ The kid was utterly terrified, his fingers clenched into nervous fists at the ends of his skinny arms.
‘Mark …’ The name floated out again.
‘No … it’s Joseph …’ The boy took a small step back, stumbling on the stone edge of the lawn, never taking his eyes off the spade in Ben’s hand. ‘Can I have my ball back, please?’57
‘Joseph?’ Ben’s brow furrowed in confusion.
‘Sam kicked it, not me … Sorry.’ Tears filled the corners of the boy’s eyes.
‘All right, Joe, love … did it come over again?’ Dani marched up to them, out of breath. She took his hand and started rooting through the shrubs. ‘There it is.’ Her foot slid under a hawthorn bush, fishing out a small white soccer ball with a Welsh dragon printed on the leather. ‘Here you go, trouble.’
‘Thanks, Mrs Knot.’ Joseph scuttled away down to the bottom of the garden and climbed over the fence that led on to a patch of scrubland by the edge of the stream. The kids still played over there, after everything that had happened on that piece of land. Ben’s brow furrowed.
‘What’s up with you?’ Dani frowned as she held out a pair of lime-green crocs. ‘And what’s with the spade? You frit the life out of him.’
Ben looked down to his hand. He was shaking. ‘I swear they kick it over on purpose.’ Ben slid his feet into the shoes and stabbed the spade into the flower bed.
‘Why? So they can spy on your deluxe eight-burner barbecue? I don’t think so, big shot.’ Dani placed a hand on his arm. ‘I put more coffee on. Shall we take the kids to the cinema this afternoon? Be good for us all to get out …’ Her voice drifted off into the distance as Ben stood squinting into the dense woodland, shaking his head.
From the upstairs window, Nathan watched his dad standing in the garden. He looked lost, disorientated, like a zombie fromThe Walking Dead. He couldn’t remember the last time his father had made eye contact with him. Maybe hewasa zombie and too afraid of being outed and exterminated. The ping of a message dropped into Nathan’s inbox with a jingling flourish. Freckles58had sent a burst of firework emojis that filled his screen. A rush of serotonin shot through him as he returned to the RetroFX site and logged on. Three dots moved in rotation; his new-found friend was typing.
‘Are you a scaredy cat?’ Two cute cat-face emojis.
