Page 124 of Little Children

‘Lewis, I need you to get them away from here. Get away from the barn and hide. You don’t come out until I call you or you hear sirens – can you do that?’

Lewis nodded emphatically and led the other boys out of the barn.

She looked over to the farmhouse. The activity was still obvious through the windows, and both the man and woman had put their jackets back on. Their return to the barn was imminent, but it had to be on her terms if she was to have any chance at all. She had to put them at a disadvantage and retain the element of surprise and confusion.

She grabbed the can of fuel and the firelighters she’d seen and poured the fuel into the first two stalls.

She would have liked to douse every pen that had held a boy captive. Yes, she’d be destroying evidence, but she’d seen their conditions with her own eyes.

After lighting both pens on fire, she sprinted out of the barn, careful to leave the door open slightly.

She crouched down at the west side of the barn and waited.

Within seconds, the smell of smoke started to permeate the air.

What had looked to be an airtight structure was nothing of the sort, she realised as smoke began billowing out of gaps in the roof.

She could feel her heart beating in her chest as she waited, grasping the hammer in her hand firmly.

Five seconds later, she heard the front door being thrown open and urgent exclamations.

Just as she’d hoped, they both fell to the ground, having run into the taut rope. An old trick but effective nevertheless.

‘Fuck,’ the man cried out. ‘What the…? Go… go… go!’ he shouted, thinking that their meal tickets were still in the burning building.

The woman sprang to her feet and ran past Kim in the shadows, totally focussed on the flames coming out of the barn door.

Kim darted around the corner and barged into the man, who was trying to get to his feet.

He fell back down and landed on his side. Kim was immune to his cries as she focussed on what she needed to do. She swung the hammer down onto his right ankle and heard the bones crack beneath the blow. She raised the hammer again, thought about the six boys in the barn, then brought it down on his left kneecap, leaving both legs incapacitated.

He screamed out in pain and reached down, trying to locate both of his injuries. Every movement elicited a howl of agony. Kim was satisfied he was going nowhere.

‘Wh… wh… who… the… fuck…?’

‘Your worst fucking nightmare,’ she hissed, reaching into his jacket pocket. Empty. She tried the other one. Bingo. She grabbed his phone and put it in her own pocket. Now he couldn’t escape or call anyone for help.

One down. One to go.

Kim turned and retreated as his accomplice returned from the barn.

‘Tom, the boys aren’t—’ The woman’s words trailed away as she saw her partner writhing and screaming on the ground.

Kim stepped out of the shadows.

A quick appraisal told her the woman was in her early to mid-thirties with short straw-blonde hair. She looked familiar somehow. Kim felt she’d seen her before.

Shaking the thought away, Kim moved towards her at speed with the hammer still clutched in her hand, but the woman was quick and dived to the ground out of reach of the weapon. She rolled against Kim’s legs, sending her crashing to the ground. The hammer fell from her grasp as she hit the dirt.

The woman hesitated before reaching for the weapon, giving Kim the opportunity to try and get herself upright. But the hammer was just out of reach, and the woman thought better of it, choosing instead to push Kim back down to the ground. Kim felt the wind being knocked out of her body as the woman punched her in the stomach – hard.

She writhed and bucked, but the woman had her knees clamped into Kim’s ribs. Kim punched and kicked out but couldn’t make contact with any flesh.

Another blow landed in her sternum, causing her head to spin.

She tried once more to lift the woman’s weight from her body and topple her, but the knees just dug in harder. The woman leaned down and placed both hands around her neck. Kim thrashed and moved her head from side to side, but the fingers had a vice-like grip right at the top of her throat.

‘D… do… it. F… finish her,’ Mister called out as he tried to crawl along the ground.