Page 49 of The Cut

Lily squirmed uncomfortably in the passenger seat of Dani’s Jaguar, chewing her fingernails.

‘I’m not sure about this now.’ She folded her arms over her chest; the acid-green Poison Ivy catsuit that Dani had ordered on Amazon left little to the imagination.

‘What? You look amazing.’ Dani indicated and pulled into the school car park. ‘If you’ve got it … flaunt it.’

Lily’s confidence was waning by the second.

‘Nate’s supposed to be going as Red Skull.

’ She opened the door and jumped down. ‘I’d better not be the only one in costume.

Maybe I should change into my trainers …

NATE!’ She beamed at her brother stepping out of Ben’s car, parked across the way.

Nate, dressed as Johann Schmidt, with the livid red intricate make-up of Red Skull, was carrying a clumsy-looking old video camera.

He turned the camera towards Lily, who was now sitting in the footwell tugging on a pair of Stan Smiths.

At the sight of Nate filming her, she leapt up and draped herself over the bonnet of Dani’s SUV, giving it a pouty face and a two fingers peace sign, performing for the camera.

A line of Steve Rogers of various shapes and sizes crossed the car park.

An Agent Carter dashed in through the double doors, holding them open as a queue of Captain Marvels, Lokis, Rocky Raccoons and Spider-Men streamed into the hall.

A stray Harley Quinn with a baseball bat and a sheepish-looking Wonder Woman, with a dog lead instead of a whip, slunk in through a 270 side door, hoping to disappear into the thumping disco darkness of the annual Barton Mallet Pearls Before Swine end-of-term party.

Ben watched as Lily and Nate threw their arms around each other and headed into the melee, towards their circle of friends.

Everything was about to change for his two kids.

They were at that moment in life when everything that felt sure and certain, everything that defined them, was suddenly about to be taken away.

For some kids it was a fresh start, for others it was like staring into the void.

Ben remembered how, at their age, he had felt cut adrift and alone.

Severing the reins of childhood was a cruel and painful act.

School didn’t want him anymore; his parents couldn’t be there for him; he was on his own.

Lily linked her brother’s arm as they entered the school hall.

‘What does Pearls Before Swine mean anyway?’ She stopped for a second and gazed up at the ceiling festooned with red and gold streamers, bunting made of hundreds of glittering Captain America shields and a DJ desk set up on the stage, pimped to look like the bridge of Star-Lord’s Bowie .

‘Gems of wisdom for a bunch of ungrateful pigs?’ Nate scanned the room with his camera, landing on Lily.

‘Sweet.’ She smiled then pushed the camera away and slunk off towards a couple of her mates standing by a table buckling under a ton of sausage rolls and bowls of cheesy puffs.

Lily crossed the empty dance floor. By the end of the night, the parquet would be sticky with spilled drinks and the stifling air heavy with the pungent smell of disco bodies writhing in the dark.

Right now, no one wanted to be the first to embarrass themselves.

Outside in the car park, Ben switched off his headlights and sat alone in the dark, watching a rather weedy Doctor Strange 271 and towering Scarlet Witch holding hands as they filed into the school hall.

Dani, sitting in her car opposite, flicked on her full beam, deliberately blinding him.

He shaded his eyes and dropped the visor.

On nights like this, he wanted to take a snapshot for his memory.

His children were growing up too fast; he could feel the wheel of time turning and for a moment he wished it would stop.

Or perhaps rewind so he could watch it all over again.

It was as if she was sitting in the passenger seat, right there next to him.

It wasn’t his ex-wife, Ellie, he was thinking about, it wasn’t Dani. It was Annabel Maddock.

A prickle of nerve endings that started in his feet, rose through his stomach and ended in the follicles of his scalp jolted him back through time into that same night, all those years ago.

Images flashing vividly across his mind.

Every frame of every second compressed into a single moment.

It was more a feeling than a thought, a sudden rush of pain, mixed with that flutter of teenage thrill.

The rules were the rules. If you didn’t get off with someone at Pearls Before Swine then you were a sad loser, and tonight was the night.

As that thought passed through his mind, Dani killed her beam.

They sat in the orange hue of the school car park, eyeballing each other through steamed-up windscreens.

They were like two strangers now. He was about to start the car and head home when Fruity Vape crawled into the car park in the beat-up transit.

Karine was riding shotgun; the sound guy and focus puller were nowhere to be seen.

Her camera was already on her shoulder as the vehicle slowly tracked around the perimeter of the school hall.

Without cutting, she stepped down from the passenger seat and moved stealthily into the shadows like some kind of wildlife photographer.

There was a passageway around 272 the side of the building that led to the service area.

Karine headed confidently into the shadows, camera poised to capture everything.

Ben kept his eyes fixed on Karine, the fury building inside him.

Dani stared at him through her dark windscreen.

Fruity Vape was lighting up a spliff; the plume of smoke wafting through the cracked window had a distinctive smell and was far too thick and bilious to be from a cigarette.

Ben quietly opened the door of the car and stepped out into the warm summer air.

The rain and heat had caused a swarm of midges to descend on the village like a plague, and the landfill on which the school was built was waterlogged and smelt like rotting eggs.

Ben followed Karine down the side entrance by the kitchens.

He counted to five, guessing no more than ten seconds would pass before Dani followed close behind.

Sure enough, he soon heard her car door close and her heels clicking on the tarmac.

She was following them. Well, let her see what Karine Mickelsen was really like.

Ben hovered in the shadows, observing Karine balanced with one foot on a crate, the other perched on a sill. She was straining to film through a high fanlight window. He watched her watching his kids, studying them through her lens, and he hated her for it, from the very base of his soul.

‘Getting everything you need?’

Karine’s foot slipped on the crate as she jumped out of her skin. She clattered to the ground, grabbing on to his jacket as she fell.

‘Caught red-handed.’ She laughed and checked the camera was OK. ‘I’m a fly on the wall.’ She flipped the camera, turning it on him.

‘Be careful, Karine, or I might just swat that bug.’ Ben’s lip wrinkled. ‘It’s becoming an annoyance.’ 273

Dani was just about to turn the corner when she heard voices and froze.

Ben remained in the darkness next to the recycling bins. ‘I want you and your sordid little film gone.’ He took a step forward, his face pale and his voice dead calm. ‘I want you out of my life.’

Karine stared at him, then turned the camera on to his face. The rage in his bloodshot eyes was terrifying. She zoomed in tight. ‘Oh … but I’m not quite done yet.’

‘You’re done when I say you’re done.’ Ben’s fingers felt for his buckle. He undid it, then slowly removed his leather belt. ‘You need to leave my kids alone.’ He slowly wrapped the belt around his wrist, clenching the buckle in his fist like a knuckle duster.

Karine took a tiny step back away from him; her voice was shaking. ‘Is it … making you feel something, watching your children suffer too?’

Ben dug his nails into the belt strap. ‘If this is about money, if you’re planning on blackmailing me, I don’t have any and you can tell whoever put you up to this they won’t get a penny out of me.’

Karine frowned. ‘I think you may have the wrong end of the stick, Ben. You’re letting your paranoia show.’

Ben could feel the blood suddenly rushing to his head. He was fizzing with a white-hot rage. He wanted to rip her head off. ‘Be careful, Karine. Be very careful.’

‘You do realise I’m filming all this, Ben? And film is forever. Is there something you want to get off your chest?’ She panned the camera down to the belt in his hand ready to strike her.

‘We had a little accident … at the house.’ Ben took a step closer. ‘Bit of a flood. I’m afraid some of your equipment got damaged.’ He pulled the hard drive from his jacket pocket. It had been smashed with a hammer. 274

Karine stared at him. Ben smiled and threw the broken box at her. She caught it and turned it over in her hands.

‘No matter.’ Her eyes met his; she was smirking. ‘I upload dailies to my editor digitally … This is just a backup.’

Before he could answer, a scream pierced the air.

‘LILY!’ Nate was shouting to his sister around at the front entrance. ‘LILY, STOP, COME BACK!’

Ben’s head spun to the sound of their voices. Karine’s eyes left the viewfinder and found his, shining in the dark. She was already on the move with the camera.

‘Leave them THE FUCK ALONE,’ Ben snapped, slamming her into the wall with his shoulder.

Karine’s face scraped against the bricks, her knees buckling underneath her as the camera slipped from her shoulder.

Ben lashed out but Karine ducked and his knuckles grazed the wall as she darted out past him.

Ben’s hand shot out, grabbing for her, catching a fistful of hair in his hand, but Karine wrenched herself away, escaping down the side entrance.

Ben sprinted out after her, but she had a considerable head start now.

Nate and Lily were nowhere to be seen. Karine hit the middle of the landfill site and turned back, still filming, the camera slung low.

Panting and out of breath, she called to him. ‘You want to know what all of this is about?’ She staggered backwards, taunting him. ‘Come on, Ben … come and find out.’

Ben lurched after her as she turned and sprinted towards the mill, but she was too fast and Ben slipped and stumbled in the mud.

He fell on to his hands and knees. Once he’d scrambled up, Karine was long gone; he would never catch her now.

He made a decision. He turned back and strode towards his car.

Dani stepped out of the shadows and pulled out her phone to make a call; it went to voicemail.

Hiding behind the recycling 275 bins, she saw Ben stagger back into the car park, covered in mud.

She spoke in a whisper: ‘Lily, it’s me, let me know where you are …

I’m worried.’ She watched Ben open his car door.

‘Just text me your location and I’ll come and find you. ’

Ben started the engine and his wheels spun as he accelerated out of the car park, skidding on the wet tarmac.

He slammed a left-hand turn out on to Forest Hill, determined to head Karine off at the bridge.

An oncoming car, turning into the estate, swerved, just about missing him, lights blinding and a horn blaring.

Ben stamped on the brakes, yanking on the wheel and mounting the kerb.

He regained control of himself and the car before flooring the accelerator and speeding off towards the crossroads opposite the Maddock Farm.

The shortest route would take him down Water Ford Lane …

through the Water Splash. He knew exactly where Karine and his children were heading.

Dani’s head popped out from her hiding place; the coast was clear.

She walked nervously to the front of the school and stared out across the playing fields.

Where were Lily and Nate? Where had they run off to?

In the distance, towards Cheney End and the mill, a faint light was glowing, illuminating the surrounding fields.

Something was going down. Her eyes focused on a figure moving silently towards her out of the darkness.

Trying not to panic, she slowly backed away, turned and walked confidently towards her car.

Her heart in her mouth, she tried to stay calm as she clicked the locks.

The headlamps flashed and the shadow of the man appeared, reflected in the rear window.

Dani opened the door and turned. ‘Get away from me!’

Her car key was positioned in her fist like a spike, ready to defend herself.

‘Nate? Oh God, you scared the life out of me!’ Dani dropped her fist. ‘You’re soaking wet … Where’s Lily?’ His Red Skull 276 make-up had run down his face and on to the collar of his white shirt, as if his throat had been slit. If he wasn’t a terrifying sight before, he certainly was now.

‘Karine said we were supposed to meet her.’ Nate turned his head towards the mill. ‘Down there.’