Page 138 of The Vanishing Place
Then Adam remembered, and he felt sick.
“Adam…” Cameron held his arm. “Are you okay, buddy?”
“I…I…” Adam looked from the baby to Dinah. Then he scratched at his arms, his skin itchy and tight. “You were screaming and yelling and I…I thought they were hurting you,” he stammered. “I thought that you were dying. I got scared.”
“I’m fine,” said Dinah. “I’m fine. I promise.”
Adam felt ill in his tummy.Bad Adam.Like his insides wanted to spill out.“Dinah…” He scuffed the squeaky floor. “I did something…”
She frowned and Adam looked away. “Adam?” she said, sounding frightened. “What did you do?”
“I thought they were going to kill you,” he said. “I just wanted to help.”
Dinah stared at him.
He burst into tears. “I asked the lady with the hairy face…I asked her to phone Dad.”
“No!”Dinah cried out, a feral sound, and her body started to heave.“No. No. No.”
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” Tears streamed down Adam’s face.
“I hate you,” she screamed.
Adam stumbled back, his stomach and chest pulsing hot. “I’m sorry. I—”
“Get out,” yelled Dinah.“Get out!”
But Adam couldn’t move.
Dinah shoved the baby at Cameron. “Please, you have to take her. You have to get out of here.”
“Dinah…” Cameron was shaking.
“Please,” she begged. “You have to get away from here. My mum’s friend…remember, at the funeral, she promised if ever I needed help or—”
“Dinah, I can’t.”
“Please.” Her voice was clogged with tears. “Please, you have to get her away from him.”
Adam stared at the tiny baby, unable to look away, and his heart hurt.
2025
A day hadpassed and there had been nothing of Tia.
Nothing of Peter.
Effie sat in the gloom with her back to the wall, the mounds of her legs visible in the half light, and turned the corroded fork over in her fingers. The steel handle was covered in blotches of orange rust, and the four thin tines were bent.
Useless.
Effie hurled it across the room. The fork thumped against the table, knocking something off, and a clanging reverberated through the room—then the hut fell silent again.
The quiet was louder than before—more suffocating. Speaking to Tia and hearing her voice had ignited something in Effie. And now the return to silence was crippling. Knowing that her sister was alive—that Effie needed to survive for Tia and Anya—had changed something. And for a brief moment, she had seen hope beyond the dark.
She bit into her lip and rested her head back. No one would be looking for her. She hadn’t been taken or forced. Effie had left of her own free will, into a bush that the police had already searched—dogs, helicopters, drones—and found nothing but her dead brother’s body.Effie had asked for space.I just need some time.She wasn’t missing or in danger, as far as anyone knew.
“I’m scared, Lewis.”
