Page 68 of The Vanishing Place

Effie scrunched her eyes shut, the sunlight bright and painful.

Squinting, she held a hand across her forehead, blocking out the glare, then she looked down at her body. Her feet were bare, the skin on her soles tender, and her right ankle was purple and blistered where the chain had been.

“If you run, I’ll shoot you.” Daniel tapped the muzzle of a rifle against her thigh, signaling for her to move on, then he shoved her with his free hand. “You got that?”

Effie nodded. It was the first time since leaving Koraha that she’d been outside.

“Fifteen minutes of exercise,” he said.

She stumbled forward, her legs like heavy stumps, then she lifted her face to the sky. The sun warmed her skin, and for a brief moment, she knew nothing but the breeze and the bell-like song of korimako.

“Move.” Daniel hit the gun against Effie’s leg again. “Go on.”

She walked in a body that wasn’t hers, and itched at her arms, her skin tight and hot.

“You’d better be less trouble than that sister of yours,” Daniel grunted.

Effie wanted to hit him. She wanted to land her fist right in the center of his face. But she didn’t. She did nothing.

“After Anya ran off, your bitch sister thought that the kid would bring the cops back, and that the fuckers would rescue her.” He snorted. “Took me fucking hours to clean that place out. To make it look like Four offed himself.”

Effie stopped. “It was you? You cleaned the hut?” Her head spun. “You removed Tia’s stuff?”

“Shut it.”

“Why? Why not just get rid of Four’s body too?”

“You reckon I’m thick or something?” Daniel laughed. “If the little shit had brought the pigs back and there’d been no body, them bastards would’ve started poking their noses around. Asking unwanted questions. Nah…” He shook his head. “Better to give those pricks an easy answer.”

“Was it you or Peter who put the poison—”

“I said shut it, woman.” Daniel whacked her leg with the gun, then barked at her to keep walking.

“Fuck, Tia went proper mental when she realized what we’d done to her brother.

” Daniel sneered. “Thought I killed her, I punched the bitch that hard when she came at me. She whacked her head real fucking good on that table. Made a right bloody mess. Scared the kid shitless too.” He lifted his shirt, revealing a thin scar.

“The kid went nuts. Fucking stabbed me. I would have rung her scrawny neck if she hadn’t legged it. ”

Effie frowned. “You’re the reason Anya left?”

“I told you to shut your face.”

She turned away, too tired to do anything else, and stared at the ground, at the familiar shapes of ferns and fallen leaves. But the bush was no longer hers. The place she’d once known had gone.

It was the sound of the girl’s voice that eventually lifted her gaze. She stood in the vegetable garden hunched over a bunch of green leaves, a basket at her feet.

There was a woman with her. Not Tia . Tia was kept somewhere else. The older woman moved slowly around the vegetables. Not talking. Not looking up. It was only when Anya touched a hand to her arm that the woman gave her the smallest smile.

“Here,” said Anya. “These will be good for dinner.” She threw the greens in her basket. “And these.” Anya held up two carrots. “You should cook these, Dinah.”

The woman reached out a shaky arm.

“Right,” Daniel barked. “That’s enough.”

He shoved Effie forward.

“Back to your cage.”