The Deep Dark Web | lrh

13 [LAST]

I can't breathe.

I can't move.

I can't think.

Does she know?

Does she have any idea?

I don't think so.

I can hear them.

She's wearing heels.

He's wearing that same suit.

Ellie's looking at me.

"Here you go, Mummy," she chirps happily. My palms are pried open. I can hear the resin cracking as she places something metal between my fingers.

A butterknife.

I'm choking on sawdust.

I can't breathe. I can't breathe.

The lady's wearing heels. High heels.

I can tell by the way they click against the floor.

"Mummy'sth so pretty," I hear Corey say in awe. He's looking at me, too.

I'm not your Mum.

But you think I am.

Poor kid.

I can't look back at him. My entire vision is clouded over by a black fog. Black ink. Black, pen-extracted ink.

"Sophie," his voice is deep. Luke's voice is so deep, that I can hear it clearly through the sawdust in my ears, through the dripping resin he used to fill my skull.

"This is the girl the kids and I were telling you about."

If I could cry, I would.

"H-Hi,"

She's anxious. First date shivers.

Are you nervous?

You should be.

"I'm Bailey,"

How old are you, I wonder?

How many years have you spent, naive?

How many months did it take for him to fall for you? For you to fall for him.

Didn't take me very long.

If I could turn around to shake your hand, I would.

If I could scream at you to run away, to call the cops before anything else has the oppurtunity happen, I would.

"I... I like your dress... black's my favourite colour,"

It's not mine.

He burned my clothes.

I hope you don't like yours too much, because he'll probably do the same with that too.

"Take a seat, sweetheart," Luke tells her.

He used to call me that.

He stopped once he realised my heartbeat wasn't around anymore. You can't expect a person to live once you try to drown out their screams by pouring resin into their lungs.

She sits opposite me. A part of me wants to know when she'll take her phone out, when she'll start to text her unsuspecting best friend about this lunatic who taxidermied the corpse of Sophie Eleanour Hayes in front of her.

But Bailey doesn't.

Instead, she smiles at me.