Page 45 of The Vanishing Place

The drink was in his hair and in his face.

It had stolen Dad’s eyes and grayed his skin.

The drink sloshed through him as he stumbled up the hut steps.

He staggered through the door, leaking the morning light into the room, and shuffled forward on shaky legs.

Then he stopped in the middle of the hut, swaying, and looked at Effie.

She stared back, her teeth clenched and her eyes thinned to tight slits.

“I hate you,” she whispered.

She stared at the deep gash across his left eyebrow, feeling nothing but rage.

The blood was red and crusted, and his cheek was swollen.

There were also four long scratches gouged into his neck, angry and weeping.

But Effie didn’t care. She wanted to hurl herself at him.

To pound into his chest. To claw and scream until the anger gushed out of her.

“Where were you?” she managed.

Dad looked down at his boots. Blood had dried in splotches on his shirt, evidence of where his bottom lip had split open and bled, and his pants were soaked up to his waist. The hut floor darkened around him as the river dripped from his clothes and he started to shiver.

To cry. His body shook violently, like something was thrashing inside him, and he pushed his palms into his forehead.

Then a sound escaped his lips and he stumbled back.

“Dad?” Effie inched forward.

But he held his hand out and shook his head. He whipped his neck from side to side, shaking and shaking. Too hard. Too fast.

“Dad, stop,” Effie begged. “Stop. Please.”

His head stilled suddenly and he looked at her, his face sad and unhinged, and a chill flushed through Effie.

“Dad, what happened?”

“She’s dead,” he whispered.

Her heart stopped. “Who? Who’s dead?”

“I should never have left her.”

Dad was there, but his mind was somewhere else—adrift.

“I left her…and now…now she’s dead.”

“Dad…” Effie reached an arm out, but he recoiled. He staggered away and flattened himself against the wall, putting distance between them.

“Leave me,” he said. “Leave me alone.”

“But—”

“I don’t want you here.” He turned his face away. “I don’t want you to…”

“Dad, I don’t understand.” Effie’s lips trembled. “What happened?”

“ Get out ,” he shouted, his eyes wide and fogged with drink. “Get out.”

He threw his arm out, pointing at the door. “ Leave ,” he yelled. “Now.”

“Dad…”

He grabbed a mug and threw it across the room, the ceramic shattering against the wall with a crash. Effie lurched backward, tripping over a basket of firewood and landing on the floor.

“She’s dead,” he murmured. “Dinah’s dead because of me.”

Effie scrambled to her feet, her heart pounding against the insides of her ribs—broken—and she ran from the hut.

She hurried down the steps, past her siblings in the garden and past the rows of vegetables.

She didn’t stop until she was deep enough in the trees that the hut was hidden, until the ache in her lungs and the panting of her breath silenced her thoughts.

Puffing, Effie bent forward and rested her hands on her knees.

The small clearing—where Mum and Aiden lay—spread out like a dark pool.

Trees crowded around it, so dense that only faint rays of sunlight sifted through the canopy.

Effie’s breathing softened, and the noises of the bush slowly returned.

As she straightened, a sound pierced the haze, like a stone dropping through the surface of a lake. Effie looked around, searching. Then she heard it again. A crack. A twig snapped underfoot.

“Tia?” Effie spun. “Is that you?”

Nothing.

Effie knelt down and touched the small mound of rocks where Mum lay. Then she heard it again, that sharp invisible sound, and she scanned the edges of the clearing.

Something moved, a dark mass in the trees, and Effie’s eyes clung to it.

“Tia?” Her stomach tightened as the thing shifted. “Are you there?”

The shape slunk among the ferns, too big to be Tia. Ice trickled down Effie’s neck.

“Who’s there?”

The shape stopped, then it stepped from the trees, a whiteness emerging from the shadows.

Asher .

Asher, who was the strangest boy she’d ever seen. Asher, who was punched by his dad— too hard —but kept smiling anyway. Asher, with one eye like the ocean and one like the dirt. Asher, who’d left them.

“What are you doing here?” she demanded.

There was no kid left in him. No boy. He was older, more angular and solid, his face all man. The beard was gone.

He moved forward, his steps slow, as though she were a fragile deer that might spook.

“Effie, please don’t run.”

“Why would I run?” She stood tall. “You don’t scare me.”

“Of course.” He shook his head. “Sorry.”

“Why are you here?”

He hesitated. “I followed your dad.”

Effie frowned at him.

“I’ve tried to come back a couple of times.” Asher looked at her like he was pleading. Like he thought she gave a shit about him or what he did. “But I couldn’t find my way back.” He stopped and moved closer. “I kept returning to Koraha, waiting to see your dad so I could follow him here.”

“I asked you why you came back, not how.” She scoffed. “You could have ridden here on the back of a pig for all I care.”

“I came back,” said Asher, “because of your dad.”

“What about him?” Effie kicked at the earth. “You don’t know shit about my dad.”

“You don’t…” Asher frowned, then he slowed his words. Like she was an idiot who didn’t understand English. “You don’t know?”

“Know what?” she spat.

“What your dad did to that man.”

“What man?”

“In Koraha. The last time you were in town.”

“Dad didn’t do anything,” said Effie. “You’re talking shit.”

“He killed him, Effie.” Concern flooded Asher’s face. Then he reached his arm out, like in his deranged world, he thought it might comfort her. “The police have been looking for your dad for two years. He’s wanted for murder, Effie.”

She stepped back, the calm thumped from her with such force that she found it hard to stand.

“You’re lying,” she said.

Her legs shook as she pictured him. Dad. The swings. That day. The blood—gummy like tree sap. The black hole—where his tooth was missing.

We can’t stay here .

“You’re lying,” she said again.

“Effie, your dad’s dangerous.”

I hurt him real bad .

Asher reached out and Effie snapped her arm away.

“It’s not safe for you to stay here. You’ve got to—”

“I don’t got to do anything you say.” Her fingers tingled. “You’re nothing to me.”

Asher looked at her. A pitying adult expression, like he thought age made him smarter or some shit. But age just turned boys into men. And men were idiots and liars.

“Effie, your dad cracked the man’s skull open with a crowbar.”

“You’re lying.”

“He beat him,” said Asher. “And left him for dead.”

His face contorted into a look of sympathy, and Effie wanted to punch it.

“You don’t know what you’re—”

The snap of branches silenced them, and they both turned.

Dad was there, standing on the other side of the clearing.

He stepped from the bush and staggered toward them.

His right hand was clasped around the shaft of a heavy gardening shovel.

It swung at his side, the steel end thumping against his boot as he moved, splitting the silent air.

Effie slipped her hand into Asher’s, his skin clammy, and started to inch them away.

Dad kept walking—the wrong Dad, with the wild, desperate look in his eyes.

“You need to run,” Effie whispered. “Run, Asher.”

“I’m not leaving you.”

“He won’t hurt me.” She turned her head, pleading, “ Please, Asher .”

But his fingers tightened around her hand. “I’m not leaving.”

Effie tried to shove him, to make him move, but there was not enough strength in her.

“Please,” she whispered.

But Dad was on them before the plea left her lips. He grabbed Asher’s arm and started dragging him away.

“You deserve to rot in hell,” Dad spat.

Effie followed them, tugging at Dad’s arm, but he shoved her off—a giant swatting a fly—and she fell to the ground. He turned, a fire burning behind his eyes, and growled at her through gritted teeth.

“Stay,” he hissed. “Don’t follow us.”

“Dad, please,” Effie begged, but she didn’t—couldn’t—stand. The earth had ensnared her, cementing her useless legs to the dirt.

He glared at her. “Stay.”

As she lay in the ferns, Dad dragged Asher farther away, and Asher stumbled behind, like he wasn’t even trying.

Like maybe he just wanted to get Dad away from her.

Effie sobbed as they moved farther away.

She should run after them. She should throw herself at Dad.

She should do something. Anything. But fear held her still.

Then, with a crack, Dad hit Asher so hard that Asher tripped and slumped to the ground.

“ Asher! ” Effie screamed.

Before he could stand, Dad was over him, pinning him to the ground with his foot. Then he raised the spade above his head.

“ No! ” Effie yelled. “Dad, stop!”

He smashed the spade down, the handle connecting with Asher’s stomach, and Asher groaned. Effie let out a scream. Then Dad raised the spade again.

“Stop!”

The thud of wood on flesh knocked Effie from her numbness and she lurched forward. But a hand gripped her wrist and she spun around.

“Tia?” Effie stared at her sister. “What are you doing? We need to help him.”

Tia shook her head, her eyes teary, and she dug her fingers in.

“Let go,” Effie shouted, and tried to tug her arm free. “Dad will kill him!”

But Tia held tight. “Asher shouldn’t have come back,” she said.

“What?” Effie panted in disbelief. “How can—”

“This is our home,” Tia sobbed. “Dad’s protecting us.”

“Tia, Dad’s gone. Something’s broken in him.” Effie held her gaze. “Dad’s dangerous.”

Tia shook her head again, tears wetting her face. “We’re safe here,” she said. “It’s the outside world that’s dangerous. The outside world that killed Aiden and—”

“That’s not true.” Effie yanked her hand free. “It’s cos of Dad that—”

Asher screamed and Effie tore away. She sprinted across the clearing and threw herself on her dad’s back.

She tugged at his hair and face, digging her nails into his arms and shoulders, but he didn’t lift his eyes from Asher.

Asher lay on the ground, a heap splayed among the fallen leaves, unmoving.

Blood dripped from his split cheek into the hollow of his gaping mouth, his eyes closed and unresponsive.

The only life in him was the soft rise of his chest.

“Dad, stop.” Effie clung to his arm. “You’ll kill him.”

But Dad wasn’t there.

He wrenched his arm free, the violent jolt sending Effie to the ground, then he lifted the spade and turned it around in his bloodied hands. The bush inhaled, stunned, as the steel blade cracked off Asher’s body.

Then time stopped, and the spade fell to the earth.

And the rise in Asher’s chest stilled.

“No,” Effie sobbed.

She crawled over to the lifeless white form. Asher’s lip had burst, and blood trickled from a gash across his temple. Effie leaned in, the red of him seeping into her clothes as she clutched at his dead body.

“No!” Effie kicked out as two strong hands pulled her away. “ You killed him! ” she screamed.

She punched at her dad’s stomach, at his arms and chest, and he released her. He looked at her, tears filling his eyes, and let her hit him.

“You’re a monster,” she sputtered.

Then she turned and sprinted to her sister.

“We need to go,” she said, gripping Tia’s hand. “Now.”

But Tia didn’t move. “I’m not leaving,” she said. “Four and I are staying.”

“You can’t stay here.” She pulled at her sister. “Please, Tia, please.”

Tia still didn’t budge.

“I—” Effie panted, “I’ll go and get help. I’ll find someone who can—”

“ No! ” Tia shouted.

“I don’t…” An ache cracked through Effie’s body. “What do you—”

“This is our special place. Our secret.” Tia stared into her. “If you tell anyone where we are, I’ll never forgive you.”

“Tia, I can’t stay.” Tears dripped into her mouth. “I can’t live here. Not with him.”

“You’re wrong about Dad.”

Effie swallowed the bile in her throat. “You just watched him kill Asher, how can you—”

“Asher shouldn’t have come back.”

“Tia, listen to yourself.”

Tia just stood there.

“I can’t stay here,” whispered Effie. “I can’t watch while he—”

“Then go.” Tia glared at her. “But swear on Mum that you’ll never tell anyone where we are.”

“Tia—”

“ Swear it ,” Tia yelled.

Effie’s heart burned.

“I promise.”