The Retreat(94)

Lily moved her hand to her mouth. She was no longer handcuffed – the Widow must have broken them open, perhaps using witch magic – and the gag was gone. Tentatively, she pushed herself up into a sitting position. The Widow had wrinkles on her face – laughter lines, Mum called them – but she was not as ancient as Lily had always imagined the witch to be. Her lips were not stained with children’s blood. Her teeth were yellow and kind of mouldy-looking but they weren’t pointed.

‘Are you going to eat me?’ Lily whispered.

That made the Widow laugh. It didn’t seem like an evil laugh, the cackle of a witch. It wasn’t like her mum’s laugh either. It was sharper. A crazy person’s laugh.

‘I thought the Widow was going to kill me too,’ the woman whispered. ‘A long, long time ago, when I was even younger than you.’

Lily gaped at her. ‘You’re not the Widow?’

That laugh again. ‘No.’

She got up and turned around, looking down at Lily.

‘My name is Carys. Carys Driscoll.’





Chapter 46

LILY – 2015–2017

Carys Driscoll. Lily was sure she’d heard that name before. It took a second, then she remembered: Carys was the little girl who had disappeared thirty-five years ago. That taxi driver had told them about her.

‘You’re not dead,’ Lily breathed. For the first time, she took the room in properly. ‘Where are we?’

‘This is my home,’ Carys said, spreading out her arms. ‘I’ve lived here since I was rescued. Just as I rescued you. If I’d left you there till night-time, the Widow would have come.’

That threw Lily. This woman believed in the witch too?

‘Daddy rescued me and kept me safe here. Safe from the Widow. Just as I’m going to do to you. You know, Lily, that once the Widow knows your name, you can never be safe from her? Not until you’re all grown-up, like me. Once you bleed, you’re safe. Safe from the Widow, anyway.’

She bared her rotten teeth and made a hissing noise.

The woman got up and crossed the room, fetching a bottle of juice. It was the same kind of juice they had at home.

‘Here,’ she said. ‘Drink up.’

‘I want my mum and dad.’

Carys smiled sadly. ‘Oh, Lily.’ She reached out a hand to stroke Lily’s hair, and Lily shrank back.

‘They’ll be worried sick. I need to let them know I’m okay.’

‘I’m so sorry to have to tell you this, but they’re dead.’

Suddenly, Lily couldn’t breathe any more.

‘They both jumped into the river, trying to save you. I saw it happen.’

Lily sobbed. She couldn’t hold back. Carys watched her, smiling with sympathy. When Lily had finally stopped crying, she said, ‘But Mum can’t swim. Why would she do that?’

That seemed to surprise the woman, but she shrugged and said, ‘She was so desperate to save you. But it’s okay, little one. You’ll be safe here with me. I’ll never let the Widow get you. You can have your own room, your own things. There’s a rubbish tip near here, where I’ll be able to get you a mattress like this one.’ She patted the mattress Lily was lying on, and Lily realised this was Carys’s bed.

‘You’ll like it down here with me,’ Carys said. She reached out a long finger and stroked Lily’s face. Her fingers were rough, the nails long and sharp. She scratched Lily’s cheek. ‘And you know, I’ve been so lonely since my daddy and mummy died. Now here we are, two orphans together.’

She smiled. ‘You know, I’ve been watching you for a while, wishing I could talk to you.’

Lily flashed back to that time she was looking for Chesney, when she saw someone standing at the edge of the woods. Carys. It must have been.

‘I think we’re going to be the best of friends,’ Carys said.

She left the room then, and Lily lay down on the bed and cried. It was all her own fault. If she hadn’t thrown Big Cat into the river . . .

Then she remembered what Megan and Jake had done, and hatred and anger and fear mixed together until her sobs finally faded.



Now, a long time later, those first days with Carys were as hazy as a dream. Lily knew she had cried a lot. She had begged Carys to let her go. If her mum and dad were dead, she needed to go to the funeral. But Carys said it wasn’t safe, that Lily couldn’t show herself to the Widow. Lily continued to beg. She scratched at the door of her new room – so tiny compared to her big bedroom at home, and the mattress Carys brought her stank like a blocked toilet – and screamed, praying someone would hear her. But they never did.

One day, when Lily hadn’t been living there long, Carys ran in, slamming the door behind her.

‘The Widow! She heard you. She’s looking for you in the woods. You have to be quiet or she’s going to come and then she’ll kill you and eat you!’ She shouted the final two words, her face an inch from Lily’s.

Terrified, Lily fell silent.

‘She’s the only one who can hear,’ Carys said. ‘Her hearing is like a bat’s.’

Lily didn’t scream or yell any more.

Carys brought her food. Strangely, she knew what kind of stuff Lily liked. She brought all her favourite chocolate bars, snacks and sandwiches. Sometimes she brought cooked meat. When she told Lily it was rabbit, Lily refused to eat it at first. She couldn’t eat a bunny! But eventually, hunger got the better of her. Now it was her favourite thing. When she smelled it through the door it made her drool like a dog.