Page 56 of The Cut
Annie daren’t look back as she clambers on to the low wall of the mill race, her clothes heavy with water.
She stumbles, dropping herself down over the ledge to hide from him.
The water is inches from her feet as she balances on the edge of the deep reservoir, straddling the cleft in the stone where Davis and Patel had hacked away at the brick.
Chunks of mortar crumble under her feet as the flood widens the gap.
She braces herself against the wall then edges further out towards the wheel.
She waits intently, listening for footsteps, trying to conceal herself from him.
She steals a glance over her shoulder to see if Ben has discovered her hiding place.
Cutting through the noise of the wind and rain, the growl of a motorbike engine fills her with hope: Dave’s here.
The beam of a headlamp pans across the darkness like a search light, blinding her.
She turns her head away and presses it into the stonework.
Crouched low by the side wall of the reservoir, she waits.
The wind is starting to gust harder now, her face is stung and whipped by the driving rain.
She can’t go back. She looks up to the water wheel, straining with the building pressure of the flood on its rusty axis.
Maybe there is a way over? If she can just get to the other side, she can reach the road bridge and make her escape.
Her hands reach to grip the ledge and she hoists herself up.
*
‘Yes. It was right here … wasn’t it?’ He turned back, breathing heavily. ‘Wasn’t it, Ben?’ Karine had caught up and was now climbing the wall. Max gestured with his head for her to come to his side. He tried to read the expression on Ben Knot’s face.
‘This was where you trapped her, this is where it happened.’ Max pinned himself against the wall and edged slowly towards the wheel, trying to draw Ben closer. Ben was fighting for breath, his eyes looking up to an old broken window in the mill wall.
‘What?’ Max followed his gaze.
‘She was trying to reach the window to pull herself to safety.’
*
The headlamp from the motorbike dances across the wall again as Annie rises from her crouched position. There is a broken casement window directly above. She can pull herself up through that window and get to the road, out of his reach. It’s her only escape route. 313
‘Annie, come down. It’s too dangerous.’
Annie’s head snaps round to see a figure standing in the glare of the motorbike.
‘Let me help you.’ Ben’s silhouette cuts a terrifying figure in heavy robes hanging like dripping tar. He drops on to all fours and begins to crawl across the broken wall towards her. The blinding light shudders and bounces off the stonework as the sound of the motorbike engine growls a warning.
Annie strains to see through the glare. ‘Leave me alone, please. Go home, Ben, you’re drunk.’
‘I AM NOT DRUNK!’ Ben’s voice is aggressive now.
Annie presses her head back into the wooden structure of the wheel, helpless, as the robed figure taunts her, creeping closer on all fours.
‘FOR GOD’S SAKE … Please … STOP IT.’
Crawling across the wall, Ben quickens into a scamper and Annie screams. Her hands fly up to push him away but he’s on top of her now.
She is buried under swathes of damp cloth, struggling to throw him off, almost suffocating under his weight.
A hand presses into her shoulder, pushing her head back into the rotting wood, as the wheel creaks and buckles.
‘I … said … no. NO MEANS NO!’
Annie grabs the hand and grips it before biting down hard into flesh.
‘Aagh …’ He strikes her hard across the face. Then his hands press down on to her shoulders, keeping her in place. ‘You think you’re so much better than me.’
Annie shakes her head, tears rolling down her face. ‘Please, Ben, please stop.’
*
314 Ben hesitated, crouching down on his haunches, holding his head in his hands.
‘We can’t stop now, Ben, we’ve come so far.’ Max edged closer to the water wheel. ‘Just a little bit further. Here? Is this where you killed her?’ Karine slowly circled around, pushing the camera into Ben’s face.
‘LOOK AT ME, NOT HER.’ Max was hovering next to the side of the camera now, drawing Ben’s eyes into the lens. ‘SAY IT … SAY THE WORDS … TELL ME WHAT YOU DID TO HER.’
Ben stood his ground. ‘What the fuck is wrong with you?’ He rose up now to his full height.
‘You’re sadistic.’ He staggered, swaying precariously close to the edge of the water.
‘Oh my God, is this what the film was for? To torment me? Is this why you’ve been in my house …
in my fucking life? You’re psychotic … both of you.
’ Ben staggered backwards, closer to the swollen reservoir.
Max moved out from Karine’s side and stepped in closer. ‘You attacked her … didn’t you? You attacked her and then left her to die.’
Ben suddenly lurched in close to the lens. ‘It was Patel, not me. He attacked her. HE CONFESSED.’
*
‘BEN, LEAVE HER ALONE!’ Patel revs his engine again.
He pulls up the front wheel on to the edge of the wall, easing on the throttle as the back wheel mounts.
Both bike and rider wobble on to the ledge, balancing precariously as the engine growls harder.
Dave suddenly ploughs forward, catapulting himself at top speed towards Annie’s attacker.
Tight-roping along the broken stone edge, the bike accelerates and the cloaked figure, dressed as 315 Obi-Wan, stands in the saddle.
Then, as the machine hits top speed, he launches himself into the air, landing on Ben’s back, and the bike plunges into the water.
Annie seizes her chance. Her feet find the bottom rung of the water wheel and she slowly edges herself backwards, blade by blade. When she is about halfway up, she turns on to her hands and knees and scrambles, frantically climbing the enormous structure of the wheel, towards the casement window.
Dave is on top of Ben now, pummelling him hard in the ribs.
Weighed down in layers of heavy wet cloth, the fight is vicious and brutal.
Ben bucks him off and they square up, fists raised.
Patel tries to land punches to Ben’s face but the nails sticking out of the mask catch his knuckles; he can’t get close enough to take him out.
A heavy boot slams into Ben’s stomach and he doubles over in pain.
As Patel moves in for a knee to the face, Ben reaches out, fumbling for something on the ground.
In a sudden flurry of movement, his hand arcs up from the floor and a brick smashes into the side of Patel’s skull.
Ben rises from the ground as Patel staggers backwards and collapses, blood pouring from his head.
‘Annie, it’s OK, you’re safe, I’m not going to hurt you.’ Ben turns but Annie is already halfway up the wheel, climbing for her life.
*
‘I saw you.’ Max had begun to climb backwards up the rotten slats to the top of the wheel, just as she had done. ‘I saw what happened, I watched you do it.’
Karine pressed herself against the stone wall, trying to keep both of them in the shot.
She needed Ben’s face in focus. It wouldn’t work if she filmed the back of his head; they would think it had been faked.
She started to clamber backwards alongside Max, up 316 the wheel, keeping one foot on the stone wall for balance.
Their combined weight caused the ancient structure to groan and rasp.
As if in a trance, Ben began to follow on his hands and knees.
‘That’s right, Ben, imagine I’m her.’ Somewhere in Max’s subconscious, he had been her, he had felt Annie’s pain, he’d been on the receiving end of Benjamin Knot’s brutality, every single day of his childhood.
The wheel creaked under their weight, the scaffolding buckled and very slowly began to detach itself from the wall.
‘Max, I can’t keep him in frame.’ Karine hoisted herself up with one hand and sat on the high stone window ledge, her feet scraping the wall, trying to anchor herself.
Max held out his hand to her, keeping his eyes on Ben.
She passed the lens to him, cables trailing to the main body of the Rialto strapped to her back.
Max pointed it in his face. ‘COME ON, BEN … I’m the one calling the shots now, I’m the one in control.’
Max stared at him as he moved towards him. The rage in his face was psychotic. Max fumbled behind him and grabbed a steel bar from the scaffold wedged into the wall. He wrenched it out of the crumbling mortar and wielded it like a baseball bat, trying to keep the lens steady.
‘Come on, you piece of shit. Show me what you did to her.’
Ben pounced, grabbing at Max, clawing his way up his body and locking his hands tight around his throat.