All That She Can See(63)

‘I don’t want to live like that,’ Cherry said.

‘You don’t really have a choice now. Especially if you rescue your friend. You’ll always be running from them.’

‘That’s different,’ Cherry said.

‘Why?’

‘Because I’ll be —’ She caught herself before the words slipped out onto the floor and ruined Peter’s drawings.

‘With him?’ he finished for her anyway.

Cherry fiddled with a splinter jutting out from one of the floorboards and didn’t say anything.

‘I get that,’ Peter whispered. ‘I do, really. Don’t feel embarrassed by it. If I had the chance to run away with Shura, I would have taken it.’

Cherry hadn’t shied away from saying the words because she’d been embarrassed. She’d shied away because she’d surprised herself. Something that she hadn’t thought through properly had almost fallen out of her mouth and that rarely happened. Cherry was an over-thinker. Her anxiety had conditioned her to be that way. Yet somehow, when it came to Chase, she defied that trait in herself. When it came to Chase, Cherry was involuntarily impulsive and while it made her hands tremble and her knees go weak, it also made her heart swell.

‘Is Shura the nurse?’

‘Yes… she is.’ Peter rubbed out the smiley face he’d drawn and wiped his hands on his jeans. ‘I don’t really have any more to tell you. I’ve told you everything I know.’

‘That’s okay,’ Cherry said, once again choosing not to push Peter when it was clear he didn’t want to talk. ‘You’ve told me plenty. What I need to figure out now is how to get in.’

‘The place is underground and security is round the clock. They have cameras everywhere and they’ll see you coming from miles off.’

‘So it’s impossible?’

‘Pretty much.’ Peter raised his shoulders in apology.

‘There’s got to be something.’ Cherry wasn’t going to be put off. ‘An air vent? A rubbish chute? Anything?’

‘It’s just not going to be that easy! And you’re stealing back a man. He won’t exactly be inconspicuous when you try to smuggle him back out.’

‘There’s got to be a way!’ Cherry threw her hands up in frustration.

‘Well… ’ Peter began. ‘There might be a way but it’s suicide.’

Cherry frowned. ‘I’ll try anything. What is it?’

‘Getting caught.’

‘Oh.’

‘Yeah. Oh.’ Peter shook his head and laughed at his own stupidity. ‘I told you it was suicide. It’s a mad idea. Don’t —’

‘If I were to get caught,’ Cherry interrupted, ‘hypothetically, of course… where would they take me?’

‘Cherry…’ Peter warned.

‘Just hypothetically!’

Peter narrowed his eyes. He didn’t believe this was hypothetical and yet he still found himself saying, ‘They’d probably take you to a holding cell in the first instance while the higher-ups were alerted. You’re probably of interest to them so certain people will want to be told you’re in the Guild.’

‘Okay. Will Chase be in a holding cell?’

‘If he was only taken today then yeah, most likely he’d be in a cell. They won’t start experimenting on him until they’ve run all the preliminary tests on him. That gives you at least twenty-four hours.’

‘Peter… ,’ Cherry said slowly. ‘I think I’ve got a plan but… I’m going to need your help.’

‘I can’t go back in there! Please!’ Peter began digging his nails into his scalp again.

‘It’s okay! I’m not asking you to!’ Cherry looped her fingers around his wrists and stroked them with her thumbs until he loosened his grip on his skull. ‘Just answer me something. Your Meddlum… she creates smoke when you feel hate, right?’

‘Right,’ he mumbled.

‘And the more hate you feel, the more smoke she gives off?’

‘That’s about it, yeah.’ He looked up at her and Cherry smiled at him.

‘Well, then. Let’s fire her up.’





21





Captured





Cherry thwacked her spoon against the side of the mixing bowl. The batter sprayed across every surface of her kitchen and slopped onto the floor, while she skipped around the central island.

‘I’m baaaaking agaaaain!’ she sang. ‘And there’s nothing you can do about it!’ Cherry picked up a bag of Cheery chocolate chips and twirled it around her head so that most of them ended up on the floor rather than in the bowl.

‘Baaaking is really great, filling Plymouth with lots of HATE!’ Cherry yelled.

She mustered up as much Hate as she could in her mouth and spat it into the bowl. She stirred the mixture furiously.

‘Cakes and cookies are a must, when sharing out your Love and Lust!’

She scooped up a handful of pistachios, put them in her mouth and chewed them into tiny pieces, concentrating all of her sexual desire into them. She opened her lips and let the masticated mess fall into the batter.