the blood.
She blinked.
And then they were just her hands again, no blood, nothing. She closed her eyes and groaned. When she opened them, he would be gone. She knew it.
Please God let him be gone.
Almost frightened to, she opened her eyes. And he was still there, watching her.
‘Confess,’ he said silkily, moving closer. ‘Confess your sins to me, Mrs Carter.’
‘I don’t have any,’ she gulped, her head spinning. He isn’t real, she told herself. Like the blood wasn’t real.
‘We all have sins,’ said Redmond, and he reached across the table and laid a hand on her head.
Annie flinched. His hand was warm. It was…
Real.
No. Not real. Couldn’t be. False, like the blood.
He let his hand rest there. ‘I absolve you, Mrs Carter,’ he said softly, and his hand pressed down, harder. She felt as if she was being hammered down into the chair, such was the pressure of his hand lying there on her head. Annie screwed her eyes tight shut and prayed for this to be over. Not real, he’s not real, he’s NOT REAL…
After what felt like an eternity, his hand lifted. Annie sat there, hunched, shuddering, clutching her arms around herself. Slowly, she dared to open her eyes.
There was no one there.
She let out a hard breath of relief and slumped forward on the table. She’d imagined it.
Then there was a noise at the door. She was so gripped with terror that she let out a whimper. He was coming back, Redmond was coming back to get her…
But it wasn’t Redmond. It was Rufus.
‘Come on, Mrs Carter,’ he said. ‘It’s time.’
They were close to the building now, its black outline stark against the night sky. The flickering light of a lantern showed shapes and shadows moving around inside. They could hear voices. Steve had one hand on Layla’s arm; while the rest of them could see perfectly in the dark with the army-issue night-sight goggles, she was stumbling on the uneven ground, and her guts were twisted with anxiety.
If Mum was really here, was she still alive?
‘Do you think Rufus has got her in there?’ she whispered to Max.
‘No talking,’ he said.
The voices in the shack were getting louder. A man’s voice – and a woman’s.
Rufus had yanked Annie from her chair and was holding her upright, but she could barely stand. Her head was spinning and she thought she would throw up any minute. The room was careering around her. Rufus gave her a violent shake, and her feet went from under her. She hit the hard flagstones, but felt no pain.
Anaesthetized, she thought. She had a mad urge to laugh.
Grabbing her arm, he hauled her roughly to her feet.