Jade - Chapter 5 - Now

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The pounding in my ribs heightens as he ushers a shorter figure from the shadows, who walks straight to the back window and picks up the blinds, shattering the calm moonlight with his incensed gaze. He doesn't waste much time there; the garden isn't close to the neighbours and the snow-encrusted conifers that line the edges serve only to isolate us more. To keep us safe, Adrian had promised, with enough confidence to mask the fronds of anxiety germinating beneath the surface. Yet now, his plan has failed—it only keeps intruders hidden.

I don't move.

Can't move.

Won't dare scream. And so I stay silent, my hands clenching onto the towel and my heart playing a thunderous timpani drum roll.

The short one grunts as he crosses the room. What I first thought was bruising beneath his eyes is just sallow skin—a lifetime of malnutrition and neglect. I pull back towards the wall, but he's not concentrating on me. Through the sash windows in the en suite he'll just about see the road.

'Naughty girl, Jade,' the angular guy says, his Cockney accent broad enough to straddle the Thames. He pronounces girl like giw and then adds, 'Hidin' something we want.'

My hands automatically drift to my stomach. They can't know. It's not possible.

'I've no idea what you're talking about.' I lift my chin defiantly, tricking my nerves into believing I'm stronger than my lithe frame suggests. Only I'm like a paper model; the substance has all but drained away.

How I wish I were more covered up. A jumper. T-shirt. Jeans. I would gladly wrap the hand towel round me if it would stretch. A dream resurfaces in which I imagine folding myself down like origami into a small box. Only then I had time to plan. Time to hide.

I search the doorframe and the pencil fissures in the old plaster beneath the cornicing, anything to not look them in the eye. Then a new face breaks my line of sight and a third figure, like a ghost on the landing, moves cautiously through the door. When our eyes meet, he too turns to stone.

I knew him once. I knew him well.

'Ow, come on sweet'art, you know exactly what I'm talkin' about,' the angular one says. He rubs at a bristly goatee framing his mouth. 'No need to keep a pretty thing like you from your beauty sleep now, is there? How have you done it, 'ey? How have you crack'd their system?'

'She is the system,' the short one says, his voice echoing through the tiled bathroom.

'What system?' I whisper, shrinking back until my bare shoulder blades touch the cold wall, yet my stare keeps finding its way to the third one who's stayed silent. David Azure. Or Blue as he was known. How can he be here, in my home, in my bedroom?

Blue runs a hand through his hair, though it's too short to displace the actual hair—gone are the loose chocolate waves that used to fall into his eyes. Instead, a fresh scar skirts his hairline. One thing I recognise is his expression—narrowed eyes and jaw forced into a hard line. It's enough to tell me that he didn't expect to see me here, yet he does nothing to draw attention to it, nothing to help.

I lower myself to the bed, right up against the carved walnut headboard.

Bringing my knees up to my chest, I wrap the satin bedspread over my legs to conceal the shaking. Like a dandelion, I'm ready to blow away in hundreds of white gossamer tassels at the first hint of a breeze.

'So how did you do it, Jade?' the angular one says. 'By the looks of this place, I think we've stumbled upon a family secret. Or maybe the rich aren't barren in more ways than one.'

The short one cackles.

I take a breath. Just keep your cool, Jade, and it'll be fine.

'You've got the wrong house.'

The angular one's gaze shifts from my face to my stomach before settling on my chest, where the lace edging of my vest falls low. I pull at the fabric. If I'd gone for the white nightie then it wouldn't be this revealing. Why didn't I go for the white? Why did I feel the need to put it on at all! Adrian doesn't really care for stupid outfits or scented candles. He doesn't even care enough to come home from work.

'Maybe we'll find some fun ways of makin' you talk, blondie,' he says. 'Bodies like that are for more than just lookin' at.'

Before I have a chance to move, he's lurched forward and grabbed my wrist, twisting it unnaturally until the pain shoots up my arm.

I scream.

Up close he smells of the forests I camped in on school trips, like burnt timber bonfires, baths taken in the streams and beer we'd smuggled in, swigging straight from the bottle as we'd lie in the dirt.

'Enough,' Blue says.

It might be the first time he's spoken, but it's nowhere near assertive enough. I search for a means to stir Blue's stagnant emotion back to the surface as a new bolt of pain explodes in my wrist. I try desperately to free my arm. Something happened to him to shut him down like this.

The angular man grabs at my waist and then his other hand slides across my distended stomach.

'Blue!' I shriek.

I shouldn't have said it.

Had to say it.

'You know her?' The angular one drops his hold on me.

I cower back. A thousand ways in which he'll make me pay for that fleeting indiscretion scour my mind. Blue's expression hardens, his arms folded tightly over his body.

'She's just a slut from the housing estate.' Blue's words taste like acid sprinkled on bitter coffee.

A cry escapes my lips. How could he say such a thing, after everything we've been through together?

'Wasn't sure at first. She's scrubbed up since those days.'

Those days.

The angular one's smile falls into an uncertain line, and I rub at my wrist, trying to flex the blood back into it. Afraid it was fractured, I now realise it's far from broken. I rock my palm back and forth, fighting a pain that isn't nearly as sharp as his words.

'Let's not get side-tracked boys,' the smaller one shouts from the bathroom. 'We know why we're here. It's most probably a needle, an injection, some kind of pill, maybe.'

'Whatever money can buy,' the angular one mutters as he pulls clothes from the wardrobes by the window, letting them pool onto the carpet.

Blue is hovering by the doorway. His mouth twitches, though not enough to show his dimples. The smile that came so easily at school has vanished.

Of all my friends, only Judy knows. I told her at the concert last week. Surely she wouldn't have sold me out. There are rumours that informing could bump up your iD points. On this new system, it could get you a superior table at an exclusive restaurant, a lever up into a university course or a promotion at work, and Judy had always been career minded.

'Come,' Blue says to the angular one, once the wardrobes are bare. They stride onto the landing, the floorboards creaking underfoot. If only Myra wasn't in the staff quarters in the basement. If only I'd made her sleep upstairs with us. Though we hardly needed a housekeeper. The whole idea was ludicrous. Even more so now that intruders had found their way in without her noticing.

'No, Ridley!' I hear Blue say. 'Think about it.' He sees me looking through the doorframe and drops his voice.

There's a soft buzz from outside, and a small piece of hope finds its way out of the dark.

'Time out,' the shorter guy shouts, 'we've got company.'

'Pigs?' Ridley says, confusion stretching from his bony fingers to a small device in his hands that looks like an old-fashioned pager. Only one person I know has a buzzer for the electric gates, and it's not any agency of law enforcement.

'No, it's the husband.' The shorter guy cocks a pistol.

Blue steams in and yanks my arm. 'Get dressed.'

What?

'Now, Jade!' The lines in his forehead are wound as tightly as the guitar strings he would play at school. Though he's clearly distracted by the gates opening, he still manages to throw jeans, my snow boots and a few tops at me. Next he goes to my underwear drawer—which has only been partly emptied—and leans down for a bra.

'I'll manage.' I snatch one from him.

He watches as I pull on skinny indigo jeans with a maternity waistband, sports socks and two loose tops with V-necks and fleece lining.

His face is a juxtaposition, and I'm not sure whether it's because I'm searching for the fragments of the Blue I used to know that I imagine a glimmer in his eye, a diamond in the rough hard lines. Then he blinks, washing it away like it was never there. Perhaps desperation can do that, conjure mirages out of thin air.

When could I have inadvertently given up my secret? The concert was too busy. The voting station? Surely not. I was one of a thousand people out that day, milling around the toll station in Greengate Primary School. The hoards thickened at the Shard that evening, celebrating the Prime Minister's re-election amidst a seaweed tangle of cocktails and middle-aged suits, where I played with a glass of champagne and smiled so hard my cheeks hurt. Apart from those occasions and the wedding, I haven't left the house.

'Jade!' Blue says, a cool order.

When the memory flashes away, I notice Blue has his hand out gesturing for me to leave. Not the soft, inviting grasp to which I was once accustomed, but a rough hand that grabs my shoulder with an unyielding grip. Without turning, I stuff my iD tag beneath the pillow. If Adrian finds the iD tag he'll know something bad has happened. We're not allowed to leave home without it. Then the front light sensors chime.

Hurry, Adrian, please hurry.

Blue leads me onto the landing, his flat palm pressing firmly against my back where a dull ache has been growing for days. His fingers, though not painful, are like tiny pulses, driving the fear deeper. If I'm going where I think I'm going, such small inflictions are nothing. I've heard the stories. If you have something they want, they discard you in a state that you can never identify them again. I've heard of people being left blinded by armed robberies, or worse, hanging from girders. But if you are something they want. That's worse.

By the bannisters, the angular one—Ridley—grabs my sore wrist in exactly the same hold as before and lodges the sharp end of a knife into my waist. That's when I realise Blue was restraining himself. I start to shake.

'I said I've got her,' Blue says, his steely eyes connecting with Ridley's. 'Put it away.'

'What, don't trust me now?' Ridley doesn't blink either. Moments pass, stretched out like vapid expanses.

Blue doesn't answer. Instead the short one says, 'he's coming.' Instantly the moment floods with adrenalin. Blue pulls me down the stairs. Although his movements are fluid, like he's done this a thousand times before, I jolt with every step. My insides feel like they're doing circuit training.

I can feel the short one's raspy breaths. Up close his nose is unnaturally large and his eyebrows bushy and tinged grey, adding a decade to the forty-something category I'd put him in. As we approach the base of the stairs, the outside floodlights illuminate, sending a sheet of warm colour and, with it, renewed hope into the adjacent lounge. Adrian must be walking through the gardens now, by the fountain. I can almost hear the click of his brogues on the block paving, his steady stride. Leather briefcase wavering by his side.

If only I were stronger. Or braver. I could fight them off. If nothing else, it would stall them for a few moments until Adrian arrived, but what would they do to him?

Blue pulls me backwards—manoeuvring me like a puppet with his hands braced around the top of my arms—until I'm hidden from view around the back of the stairs. I've spent so long wishing to see Blue again, just one last time, that a haunting thought springs to mind: I've brought this on myself.

A key working the lock paralyses us.

Now, Adrian, now, I beg silently. Now.

I inhale, ready to scream. Blue's hand clamps around my mouth, his fingers on my lips and his stubble itching my cheeks. Just finding a breath is laborious under the weight of his hold. Every muscle in his body is tense.

My heartbeat screams out from every part of me. It rings in my ears so loudly I only just hear Blue say, 'Don't think about it, Jade.' There's no denying the firmness in his tone.

'Jade,' Adrian shouts from the hallway, amidst rough footsteps as he stomps the snow from his shoes.

Finally, I'm saved.

'Bloody car,' Adrian continues.

My heart sinks. He's not seen me clinging to the panelling of the stairs.

'How can a brand new tyre deflate that quickly? You can bet I'll be on to Porsche in the morning. To make matters worse, the AA said because of the weather they'd be at least an hour. I'm telling you, this country can't cope with the slightest bit of snow. Well, you should've heard the apologies once I'd wiped the floor with him. I said, 'do you know who I am'... Jade?'

Adrian's hotfooted paces ring out on the stairs.

I struggle against Blue's hands, gulping for air, whilst trying to free the arm looped around my ribcage. Coupled with the way my heart is hammering, my lungs feel set to explode.

As Adrian reaches the landing, Ridley has worked his fingers around a different door handle, which clicks open. They're slipping up taking me down into the basement. There are no escape routes down there. Adrian's arrival home has ruined their plans.

'Move slowly,' Blue whispers into my ear as the door to the basement eases inwards.

Instead, I bite Blue's hand hard enough to make him flinch, yet still he doesn't utter a sound.

At the bottom of the stairs, he grabs a coat from the stand by the utility room without stopping. We're nearly at Myra's room, and her bedroom door is ajar. As I hatch a plan for how I can inconspicuously get her attention, I see her: body crumpled, mouth wide-open, eyes closed, lying on the floor. A sob erupts from my chest. Blue responds by cranking up his pace, letting my tears run over his hand.

'Jaaaaaaade!' Adrians's voice echoes through the house. It's a tone that send shivers through my body. Like the cries of a fallen dog. It should be a comfort, although it isn't. It won't help.

We're over halfway along the basement corridor when the panic alarm sounds, mirroring the alarm bells ringing loudly in my head. I've spent so many sleepless nights anticipating this that it shouldn't be such a surprise. But nothing could have prepared me for the way my heart would beat, my inability to think straight, my god-awful responses to some of the most obvious of questions. And Blue. I should be able to second-guess him. Yet I can't.

The short one has pulled at the wooden panelling along the far wall between bookcases and storage boxes. He splinters one of the wooden sections open with a newfound haste before disappearing into a dark chamber behind.

'Can you contain her till we're out?' Ridley says. I'm unsure whether it's a question or a jibe.

Blue grunts and puts his hand over my head pushing me forward through the opening. It's large enough to cover most of my crown. I don't remember his hands being so big. Maybe it's the menace making them feel larger than they are. More powerful. They wouldn't have seemed that way before.

I think we will hide here until the police search the house, but I'm wrong. It's not a room but a long, dark passageway that reeks of damp earth, rotting weeds and insects that forage the mildew. Blue pushes me forward, with my back bent and my head down, and all I can latch onto is the alarm from the house, though it's slowly melting away. I stumble forward over uneven terrain. Blue catches me, loops his arm round my body. It's the first time his hand has left my mouth.

I should scream but I don't. My voice won't make it out of here. It will only antagonise Ridley. Perhaps Blue knows that, because he doesn't try to muzzle me again.

At the end of the corridor is a heavy, metal door, green with moss. Beyond it a hedge of sugary leaves barricades our way. I try to pull back, but Blue swings me over his shoulders in fireman's lift. The pressure on my stomach causes me to cry out. Then he shoves me into the back of a van on the dirt track ahead. When Ridley has moved off to the side, he places the coat he took—Adrian's hunting jacket—around my shoulders so the tartan lining touches my neck. I cower backwards, desperate to put distance between us.

As we speed away, the sound of sirens fills the dark, crisp night.

Thanks for reading Chapter Five of Sever, where Jade and Blue's nights definitely did not go to plan. This has recently been updated (14 May 2018) so if you've previously read this chapter you might notice some editing changes. Hopefully for the better! 

Wanna find out what happens now? Read on, where we meet the Prime Minister with an ulterior motive.

CAST LIST (so far)

Jade Lively - Lilly Collins (the protagonist)

Adrian Lively - Alex Pettyfer (Jade's husband)

Marcus Lively - William Fichtner aka Alex from Prison Break (Adrian's father)

Blue - Liam Hemsworth (the protagonist / anti-hero and Jade's ex-boyfriend)

Mikey Drosner - Jack Black (Blue's lawyer)

Detective Pike - Viola Davis (Blue's prosecutor)

Prime Minister Christopher Seaford - Gary Oldman

Terrence Ridley - Mackenzie Crook (one of the pirates from Pirates of the Caribbean)

Don't forget to like, vote, follow or comment on this chapter. I've already made so many changes thanks to awesome feedback for you lovely people.

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