Page 50 of The Cut
‘I’m just turning into Thurcaston Lacey Lane now. It’s pitch dark. I can’t see a thing.’ Dani crawled along the single-track road and stopped the car. She glanced into the rear-view mirror. Nate was half asleep, his head lolled back on the headrest, and Lily was into her phone, her face illuminated in the darkness.
‘Listen to me carefully, we only get one shot at this. I only want one take. I’m set for close-ups, but I want it to be real.’ Karine was all business.
‘What do you need me to do?’ Dani’s voice was shaking on the other end of the line. There was a sense of subversion about this whole thing. Outside, the fields were absolutely pitch black, no moon and not a breath of wind.
‘When I hang up the call, I want you to kill your headlights and wait for my instruction.’
‘OK.’ Dani’s heart was racing.
Karine could hear her breathing hard. ‘On my signal, send Nate and Lily towards the cluster of torches in the distance.’
Dani felt like she was on some kind of sting, an accomplice to a crime. She felt like Jamie Lee Curtis inHalloween.
‘They will be home and tucked up in their beds before you can say “Candyman”. Whatever you do, whatever noises you hear, do NOT get out of the car. I’m shooting towards you, and it will break the take.’
‘Right.’ Dani braced herself. ‘Don’t move, don’t react.’
‘Exactly. Ready?’
Dani’s palms were sweating and her heart racing. ‘Ready.’
The line went dead. Dani turned into the back seat. ‘Karine says we have to wait here and when we get the signal, you have to walk towards the lights … She’ll tell you what to do next.’197
Dani had fully immersed herself into the role she was now creating in her head, her voice was quivering at an unusual pitch.
Lily yawned and Nate rubbed his eyes. ‘All right, Dani, chill out.’
Lily’s phone buzzed. She opened her Instagram: ‘Euugh! Whitney Briggs is here …’
‘Give her hell, Lils. Don’t let her take you down again,’ Nate teased, laughing at his dig.
‘Sod off.’ Lily huffed into the glass and drew daggers on the window.
They waited in the car for what felt like an eternity. None of them spoke. In the distance, about two hundred metres down the pitch-dark lane, three small beads of light flickered on and started to move towards them. Torches. Dani closed her eyes for a second and listened to the wind and a distant car on the main road. She was about to nod off when her Muppets ringtone buzzed.
‘Oh my shitting shit!’ Dani leapt out of her skin and fumbled for her phone. A text dropped.
Send them now.
‘OK.’ She took a deep quivering breath. ‘I’ll see you both on the other side.’ Dani turned to the back seat, Meryl Streep’ing the crap out of this moment. ‘I love you.’
‘Wait … Dani, are you crying?’ Lily screwed up her face, and Nate stifled a giggle.
‘Come on, Lils, let’s get this over with.’
The rear doors opened and a distant flickering beam from the end of the road signalled the way. Dani watched as Nate and Lily headed towards their fate, brother helping his limping sister as the two silhouettes disappeared slowly into the darkness.198
The scene was set, Karine’s Wonderland of Terror was waiting for them. As the distant shrieks from the darkness began, Dani gripped the wheel and squeezed her eyes shut. She’d wound herself up into a state of dramatic tension.
‘Don’t break the take … you mustn’t break the take.’
A single tear fell from Dani’s eye. She glanced at herself in the mirror, the perfect image of a loving stepmother. If only there had been someone to witness this performance.
But there was a witness. A figure stood in the dark on the unmarked track. He had followed her there, followed the car, parked up at the main road and continued on foot. He saw her crying in the car, and then moved off across the field towards the glow of light and the screams of terror coming from the junk yard.
Ben watched as his children played on rusty old dodgem cars and chased through the maze of mannequins into the Mouth of Hell.
The face of John Maddock at the carol concert flashed into his mind. ‘The whole village knows what this film’s about … it’s not right.’
