Sincerely, Red

Chapter Seventeen

Everyone was still for a moment.

The police officers shouldn't have been. They should have been running to the source of the scream and trying to stop more injustice from being carried out. They should have been urging the already giant crowd to move away, to get to safety.

They should've been active.

But they weren't.

And I was.

Running past people seemed to awaken them from their sudden stillness and they began to shout after me. For once, I was too far ahead for anyone to do anything. The officers blindly reached out for my arms and clothes, but caught only empty air. Claire and David yelled at me to stop because it was dangerous, but danger had lost its meaning a long time ago.

This was my fight. No one would stop me.

I rushed inside the house, trying to locate where I'd heard the last sound from. It had seemed to be coming from the bottom floor of the building, so I searched the living room and then the study room, finding nothing and no one.

Eventually, my search led me to the kitchen, where the smell of cigarettes was incredibly strong. Coffee was mixed in there somewhere and so was bleach apparently.

I quickly found out where the bleach had come from, whilst an officer tried to push me out of the room. He was trying to calm Lucas down at the same time, because the broken boy was yanking at his hair and digging his nails deep into his scalp.

Lucas was suffering for caring.

I began to take steps back again, a steady flow of tears staining my face as I did so.

The scene in front of me was too much. It was almost Pain in its practical form.

Maria Carter was lying on the floor, with her head in a lopsided position. Her eyes were shut and bleach coated her skin, which looked like it was burning. If I looked further down from her face, I could see red marks around her neck. They had been etched in by a length of worn rope, which really didn't belong in there.

Maria Carter was dead.

I screamed.

"It's okay, love," the officer said. "We're sorting it out. Would you like someone to escort you out of the building?"

I wasn't capable of even moving my head.

"It's okay," he repeated, awkwardly. "I'll get my colleague to take you kids out."

"Where's Tim?" Lucas growled on the other side of the room. "He killed m-my mum-"

"Listen, kid-"

"No!" he shouted. "You guys let him get away. He's out there somewhere! He'll... he'll-"

"He won't do anything," the female officer said, stepping in to the room. "We'll keep you kids safe. We'll do everything in our power to make sure of that. Okay?"

"You let him get away," Lucas repeated. "You let him get away!"

"Look, I know you've had a really rough day and-"

"And then he tried to stab me with that- that kitchen knife," he said, pointing shakily at the weapon. "And he's going to come back and kill me and Liv and Claire... and David... and everyone- And, and you let him g-get away."

"Get his doctor to give him some sedatives," the first officer instructed. "Come to think of it, give the same thing to the girl. They shouldn't have to deal with this."

Lucas screamed and bit and hit and my actions echoed his.

Two new people appeared at the door. They tried to calm us down and - when that didn't work - we were taken to an old, greying man, who I couldn't remember very well.