All Fall Down: A gripping psychological thriller with a twist that will take your breath away (21 page)

T
hey took
her into the larger of the two bedrooms at the front – the one that Evan used, along with Livvy when she came with them. Georgia was thrown on to the bed, and then understood why they’d chosen this room: it wasn’t just the big double bed, but the fact that the mattress sat on a metal frame.

And they’d brought handcuffs – not proper police ones, she didn’t think; more like the things you saw on hen parties. They were going to chain her to the bed.

But first Milo took off her clothes, while Lara held the blade against her throat. ‘Give me a reason,’ she said hungrily, when Georgia tried to move.

Lara could have been so pretty; she had the sort of doll-like features and glowing skin that Georgia had always craved, but up close there was something in her eyes, something so twisted and cruel that made her probably the ugliest person Georgia had ever seen.

They left her underwear on. ‘Leave that for Gabriel,’ Lara told Milo. It was plain, boring M&S stuff that Georgia, in normal circumstances, would have been embarrassed about. But having Milo see her like this meant nothing compared to how she felt at his betrayal.

Everything about their conversation yesterday had been a lie; just part of a plan to get close to her and her family, and find out more about the holiday.

‘All set, then.’ Milo shared an uneasy look with Lara, and they stood in awkward silence for a few minutes. Milo went to the window, lifted one of the curtains and stared out at the darkness. ‘Middle of nowhere,’ he muttered.

‘Be glad,’ was all Lara said.

In daylight the views from the house were amazing, but at night the darkness was total. It always gave Georgia a delicious thrill that there were no artificial lights to be seen, like going back to a time before electricity: just fires and starlight.
A primitive state of being
, Josh had once called it.

And wasn’t that perfect for Georgia the Savage?

F
ive or six minutes passed
, then Lara said, ‘Wait here’, and stomped out of the room.

Milo stayed at the window. Georgia guessed he didn’t have to be worried about having his back to her. She was lying flat, her arms stretched out like two points of a star, chained at the wrists to the top of the bedframe.

‘I liked you,’ she said – or tried to say. She’d spoken so little this evening that her tongue seemed to have swollen, and couldn’t shape the words.

‘What?’

‘Y-yesterday.’ She shivered. ‘I was worried, at first, that it was part of a trick being played by those girls in my year. But when you said you weren’t anything to do with them. . . I thought you actually fancied me.’

Milo half turned in her direction, then thought better of it. He scratched his head, sending strands of hair pointing in all directions.

‘Well, yeah,’ he muttered. ‘You’re not a bad looking girl.’

‘So you’re happy to let Gabriel have sex with me?’ She made sure her gaze was burning into him. He could feel it; she knew that from his body language.

‘If that’s what he wants.’

She swallowed, said nothing. Milo went on staring into the dark. The way his head was almost touching the glass made it look like he wanted to dive out of the window.

A minute passed. Then another.
Try again
, she urged herself.

‘I was gonna text you.’

‘Yeah?’ he said sadly.

‘I wanted to leave it a few days, so you didn’t think I was too keen. But I’d hoped we could meet up.’

‘Right.’ Now he spun and took a few steps towards her, much livelier all of a sudden. He indicated her position on the bed, and actually winked. ‘I guess we can have our fun a lot sooner now.’

‘What?’ She must have shown her revulsion, because he looked pissed off; the sympathy she’d been trying to build melting away.

‘The Leader will do as he pleases. But afterwards. . . he’s generous, you know?’

‘Generous?’ Georgia couldn’t believe how casually he was talking about it. ‘And what if I don’t want to be raped?’

‘Look, I can’t help—’

‘Yes, you can. You can let me go.’

‘What?’

‘Take off the handcuffs. I’ll get out through the window.’

‘No, Georgia. That’s not happening.’

She felt the tears coming and fought them back. ‘Tell me why you’re doing this.’

Impatiently, he glanced at the door. ‘Gabriel’s explained it.’

‘He didn’t make any sense.’ In truth she’d been too distracted to listen: all she could think about was the trouble they were in; not
why
they were in it. ‘But what did we do?’

‘Christ, will you stop asking that? It’s a matter of chance, that’s all. Random chance.’

‘Random. . .?’

‘You know what
random
means, don’t you? Instead of asking,
Why me
? you should be asking,
Why not me
?’

‘Why would I ask that? I’m not fucking stupid.’ The anger burst out of her, taking them both by surprise. ‘I don’t deserve to be treated like this.
No one
does. And you know that, which is why you can’t look me in the eye.’

‘I prefer to look at your boobs.’

‘Ugh, that’s lame.’ Sensing she had him off balance, she said, ‘What’s wrong with you, Milo? You and the others, bowing down to Gabriel like you’re happy to be his slaves.’

‘He’s a great man, he really is. I wish you could’ve. . .’ He tailed off, lost in thought for a moment. ‘He taught me how to see the world as it really is – as it’s going to become, when things fall apart.’

‘You can’t really believe any of that crap? Huh. Instead of worrying about the end of the world, you ought to be worrying that you’re going to jail for the rest of your life.’

‘I won’t.’ He sounded genuinely confident. ‘I don’t have a criminal record – not a single thing. Once we’re done here, we’ll burn the place to the ground, getting rid of all the DNA, all the fingerprints – and there’s nothing that connects us to any of you. . .’

He regarded her with pity, and there was just a hint of apology in his voice when he said, ‘So we
will
get away with this, Georgia. And there’s nothing you can do to stop us.’

T
here was
something wrong with Gabriel, Rob decided – quite apart from the insanity that had driven him to this behaviour in the first place. The room wasn’t unduly warm, but he looked pale and clammy, a sheen of sweat on his face.

Kyle and Ilsa kept casting anxious glances in his direction. Gabriel had been sitting, almost trance-like, for several minutes. When Lara returned, she looked puzzled by the fact that he hadn’t moved.

‘She’s ready, Leader.’

‘Don’t do this,’ Wendy pleaded. ‘I’m begging you, Gabriel. . .’

Her intervention brought him sluggishly to life. With a malicious smile, he heaved himself off the sofa and padded out of the room. Kyle rubbed his hands together and said, gleefully, ‘The real fun begins!’

It was a cheap attempt to provoke them, which they all ignored. Rob shuffled round, turning away from Kyle. Wendy was sitting to his left, and Evan and Josh were more or less directly opposite. Making sure they could see him well enough to lip-read, he whispered, ‘Are you two okay?’

Josh wore a customary scowl, while Evan only shrugged. Kyle had wandered over to the doorway and sat on the floor: he seemed to have lost interest in them. Ilsa was closest, but she’d picked up one of their phones – Wendy’s, possibly – and was staring at the display. As Rob watched, she suppressed a yawn.

‘We all have to stay alert,’ he said. ‘I know it won’t be easy, but one of us might get a chance to fight back. If that happens, we have to be ready—’

‘Rob.’ Wendy nudged him, but he shook his head.

‘Normally I wouldn’t want either of you taking big risks,’ he told the boys, ‘but I’ve got to be honest. I think we’re at the point where we have nothing to lose.’

G
eorgia froze
when she heard Gabriel on the stairs. The slow, deliberate
thud, thud, thud
made her think of fairytales and horror stories.
The monster’s coming to get you
!

And that was true, wasn’t it?

Lara entered the room first, gesturing at Milo, who quickly hurried out. He had to dodge round Gabriel, who’d stepped over the threshold and then stopped, rocking back and forth like a huge tree on the point of collapse.

Georgia wondered if he was drunk, or high. Earlier they’d been taking pills: speed or something. Maybe it was a bad batch, and he was having a reaction to it.

Lara sat down on the bed and slapped Georgia’s stomach, hard enough to make her body convulse. She laughed at the reaction, and gently trailed her fingertips over Georgia’s bra.

‘I’m going to get you warmed up,’ she said, her gaze fixed on Georgia, drinking in the fear. After a few seconds she turned to Gabriel, as if expecting him to react, but his eyes were shut. He was wiping his face with both hands, while breathing in ragged sighs.

One evening last summer Georgia had joined a load of kids in the park and got drunk on a bizarre cocktail of vodka, gin, Pernod and various other spirits that they’d sneaked out of home. It had all tasted foul but she’d swigged down her fair share, not wanting to be the one that couldn’t take it. How she had felt the next day was just how Gabriel looked now: like he might pass out at any second. Or throw up.

Passing out would be great news for Georgia, but the idea of him vomiting over her was nearly as bad as the thought of him doing. . . the other stuff.

Her skin crawled as Lara leaned over, licked a path across her cheek and then suddenly nipped at her earlobe. Ignoring the cry of pain, she grabbed Georgia’s face and pinched her lips into a pout. She moved in, as if to kiss her, but instead spat on her mouth.

Georgia recoiled, screeching in disgust, and Gabriel said, ‘That’s enough.’

He advanced, looking a bit healthier. Lara’s hand moved down, pushing between Georgia’s legs. ‘I can make her wet for you.’

‘No.’

‘But you said—’

‘Later.’

Sulking, Lara withdrew her hand and gave Georgia an evil glare. It reminded her of Paige in one of her moods, and that thought gave her strength. Lara wasn’t much older than her; just a spoilt, immature little girl.

And totally fake: Georgia watched how Lara made her face go all sweet and girly before turning to Gabriel. Stretching on tiptoe to kiss his cheek, her arms moving round his enormous waist.

‘Are you all right, Leader? I’ll stay if you want. . .’

He shook his head. There was a moment when Lara might have pushed it, but she spotted something in Gabriel’s eyes – Georgia saw it, too – and quickly bowed her head.

‘Leave the door,’ he said as she made her way out.

‘Oh, I will,’ Lara said. ‘I want to hear her scream.’

W
endy couldn’t bring
herself to encourage the twins to risk their lives, but neither could she contradict what Rob had said. All the fears she’d harboured about her inadequacy as a mother seemed to be borne out by her failure to protect Georgia. Sitting here, helpless, while the girl was subjected to rape: she would never forgive herself for that.

But did ‘never’ have any real meaning, given that she, and Georgia – the whole family – were likely to be dead within a matter of hours or days?

After a few minutes Lara flounced in, followed by a morose-looking Milo. The four disciples eyed one another uneasily, but said nothing.

The door remained open. Wendy realised it was deliberate: either they wanted to hear what was happening, or they wanted the family to hear.

She thought back to Thursday, and how she’d never quite fallen for Lara’s act. If only she’d had a better idea then of just how depraved this girl really was. But she shouldn’t have been particularly surprised – her career had supplied many examples of the evil that sometimes lurks behind an innocent façade. She’d once been charmed by a meek, softly spoken young man who, it turned out, was systematically torturing his girlfriend with burning cigarette ends.

She wondered what, if anything, had warped Lara’s personality. Perhaps, if her life had taken a slightly different path, she might have become a genuine friend and classmate of Evan’s, rather than this devious imposter.

That led her to reflect on the criminal enterprise that had brought Nyman to their door. If Josh had been caught and prosecuted, no doubt plenty of people would have mused on the wrong turns in
his
life, that he’d resorted to smuggling tobacco. . .

And throughout these attempts at distraction, it was Georgia’s fate that kept tearing at her conscience.
Is she okay? What’s he doing to her? Please let her come through this without too much pain, too much trauma.

Please let her survive.

G
eorgia had to think fast
. Physically there was nothing she could do to stop Gabriel raping her. She was handcuffed, helpless; he was twice her size and immensely strong.

If he went ahead and abused her, she knew it would be just the start. After him, the others would follow.

So she had to use her brain. And, strangely, although she was half-naked, chained to the bed and separated from her family, she felt more confident than at any time since Gabriel and his gang had burst in on them. Perhaps being on her own was an advantage, not having to worry if her behaviour matched up to what Rob and Wendy expected of her.

Also, the glimpse she’d had of Lara’s childishness, and Gabriel’s struggles with his hangover or whatever it was, had made her appreciate that they were human beings, too. As strong as their position was right now, it didn’t mean they were unbeatable. They had weaknesses, just like with Mark Burroughs.

Georgia could have been killed that day, but she’d been prepared to do whatever it took – leaping through an upstairs window – to save her life. She had to remember that.

‘It’s my period,’ she said, as Gabriel started to unbuckle his belt.

‘Really?’

‘Started yesterday. It’s
really
not nice.’

Without a word, he shoved his trousers down. His thighs were huge and soft, white as chalk, and almost hairless. He was wearing boxer shorts, and with one hand he rubbed at a distinctly small bulge. He looked pissed off rather than turned on, so maybe her tactics were working.

‘And I’ve got diseases. STIs.’

‘Oh?’

‘I’ve shagged loads of boys at school, and never used condoms. Sleep with me and you’ll catch something.’

He grunted, sounding bored. Slumping down on the bed, he kept his back to her and rested his left hand on her boobs, pawing at them while his right hand worked inside the boxer shorts.

Georgia held her breath. Her stomach was cramping, and she felt faint with nausea. She knew he didn’t believe a word of it, but she wasn’t going to give up.

‘It’ll be so gross, because I smell, too. Didn’t have a shower today.’

Ignoring her, he took his hand away and hunched over. The blond hair at the nape of his neck was wet with sweat, and there were patches of it beneath his armpits. He was playing with himself but at the same time growling with frustration.

Finally he stood up, pulled off his shirt and threw it over his shoulder. His chest and belly were as pale and smooth as his legs, his torso the shape of a barrel, quivering as he panted for breath.

Next he dropped the boxer shorts. Naked, he turned towards her, still unable to work up an erection. Georgia tried to imagine Livvy in this situation: what would cool, clever Livvy have to say?

Call that a dick
!

No. She’d seen too much of Gabriel’s temper, his ego, to risk that kind of taunt.

‘Why don’t we just pretend it happened?’

He stopped. ‘What?’

‘It’s too soft.’

‘You’re gonna make it hard.’

‘No.’

He took a step closer. Close enough to smell the sour, oniony smell from his groin. She clamped her mouth shut, trying not to gag.

‘Put it in.’

‘If that goes in my mouth, I’ll bite it off.’ As if to prove it, she bared her teeth at him.

Gabriel stared at her in disbelief. Most people were terrified of him, she realised. But she didn’t seem to be – and he couldn’t deal with that.

His hand had stopped working and instead he was cupping himself, as if for protection. His face twisted up and went red; he looked like a gigantic, monstrous baby on the brink of a tantrum. Then he sucked in a breath and let it out in a furious roar, dropping to his knees with an impact that shook the floor; pounding his fists on the carpet as if, with just a fraction less self-control, it would have been Georgia on the receiving end of this violence.