Chapter 21



Summer’s POV

I woke up to Louise whimpering and crying in pain. Rose was already awake and was holding a flannel on Louise’s forehead. It was only quarter past five in the morning and Poppy was still sleeping. I crept over and sat on the end of the bed. “How long have you been up?” I whispered to Rose.

She smiled weakly, gently moving the flannel around her face, “About half an hour. I’ll re-dress her bandages soon, hopefully she’ll wake up properly and we can give her one of the pills if not then I’ll crush it up and put it in her water.” Louise was breathing heavily, her face scrunched up in pain and her hand clutching her chest. She really needed the painkillers but we only had four, we needed to make them last.

I nodded and turned my attention to Louise. “Are you okay?” I asked her quietly, her eyes flickered open and landed on me for a few seconds before closing again. She shook her head and whimpered. That was a really stupid thing to ask her. “You’ll be alright, we’ll look after you.” I promised her, no matter what happens I would not leave her by herself again like before with Clover. If she tries anything like that again I’ll help her and if I get killed too then that’s fine.

“It...hurts,” she whispered. It sounded like it even hurt her to talk.

“I know, I’m sorry. We can give you something; do you think you could swallow a pill?” She nodded, wincing at the same time and opened her eyes. Rose took the tiny white pill off the side, gently popped it in Louise’s mouth and put the straw between her lips. Louise drained the glass of water quickly, frowning uncomfortably. I hated that there was nothing more I could do to help her, three pills was all we had left now and who knows how long it will take her to heal.

She laid her head back on the pillow and stared at the ceiling; she looked like she was trying not to cry. “W-what’s he going to do...to me?” She took a deep breath, wincing and holding her chest.

“Nothing, you’re going to be fine. It’s all sorted, he’s not going to do anything to you,” Rose said proudly as if living down here is somehow better than being dead. If it wasn’t for Lewis and the tiniest bit of hope I have of being with him again I would have got him to kill me ages ago.

Louise’s eyes flickered to me for a second; she was completely expressionless like there was nothing there, I had no idea what she was thinking and I wouldn’t be able to find out until we were alone, I had a feeling she wouldn’t want to talk in front of Rose and Poppy.

Poppy woke up and one by one we had a shower and changed into the same outfits. We cleaned Louise up and changed her bandage; her head had stopped bleeding last night but started to again when we removed the bandage. Hopefully it was getting better though and would stop completely soon.

“We need to start breakfast now,” Rose said, looking up at the clock. He would be down here in half an hour. My chest tightened at the thought of being around a table with him, I hadn’t seen him properly since that night. The palms of my hands started sweating and I felt sick. “Lily, just make sure you’re out here in twenty minutes okay. We don’t want him to come in here looking for you.”

I nodded numbly and took a deep breath. “You gonna be okay?” Louise whispered as soon as they had left the room.

“I’ll be fine,” I lied. “How are you feeling now?” I asked, changing the subject.

She shook her head and gasped in pain, “It hurts.” I nodded and got her water, holding the straw to her lips. I wanted to give her another pill but I knew I couldn’t yet, only when she really needed it. “Why is he leaving me alone now?”

“Rose managed to convince him that you were scared and just trying to protect us.” I looked down at the bed, “And that you didn’t mean to hurt him.” I added quietly.

“Didn’t mean to hurt him,” she repeated sarcastically. “I wanted to kill him.” It was the loudest I’d heard her speak and I tried to shut her up before Rose or Poppy heard.

“I know but you can’t say that to anyone else, especially not him!” God we’d only just managed to get him to agree to letting her live there’s no way he would do anything like that again, especially if he knows the truth.

She looked away from me, staring up at the ceiling again. We sat in silence for the next fifteen minutes, I kept glancing up at the clock, I needed to go out there now but my body just wouldn’t move. “Lily,” Poppy said, waving me over with both hands.

My breathing sped up and my heart felt like it was going to explode, everything inside me was telling me to stay here and hope that he wouldn’t come looking for me but I knew I couldn’t, I couldn’t risk him seeing Louise in case he changed his mind and she needs to heal properly.

I very slowly pushed myself off the bed and walked out. “I’ll be back soon,” I said to Louise as I closed the door. My voice was barely a whisper.

“Why don’t you just sit down now Lily?” Poppy said, smiling at me sadly. I did what she said and just hoped he wouldn’t speak to me.

The cellar door opened and I froze, as usual. He walked down with a huge smile on his face. “Good morning,” he said happily. Rose and Poppy answered and I stared forwards but made sure I could see where he was out of the corner of my eye.

He kissed Rose and Poppy on the cheek, turned to me and started to lean down. I gripped the sides of the chair and clenched my jaw. His lips pressed against the side of my forehead for a second before he stood up and took his seat opposite me. I started to feel lightheaded and realised I was holding my breath.

I couldn’t eat a thing and I didn’t take my eyes off my plate, just being around him makes me feel ill. Everything came crashing back to me now I had nothing to concentrate on, him above me, his sick smile, the smell of his skin. I felt dirty and used, and guilty. I didn’t want it to happen but it still felt like I’d betrayed Lewis, I was only ever meant to be with him.

“So what have you girls got planned today?” he asked loudly, breaking me out of my thoughts. I looked up slightly but didn’t dare make eye contact with him. Today we were going to look after the girl he almost beat to death yesterday.

“Probably some reading, we haven’t done much recently,” Rose answered smiling at him. I wanted to slap her. She just doesn’t seem to see him clearly at all. They all talked for a little bit about reading and if we sorted out some old books he’d take them and buy us some new ones.

I spaced out again, looking around the room for something else to concentrate on. My eyes landed on the calendar, it was Lewis’ birthday in three weeks, I wanted to get out of here and spend it with him. He wanted to go to the races for his birthday, we went with our families before we even got together and both loved it, he always said he wanted to go again so we’d planned to go for his nineteenth. I hope he still goes even if I’m not there although I know he won’t, he was so happy last time and would celebrate when his horse won a race.

Finally after what seemed like forever he left, I ran back to the bedroom with tears in my eyes, fighting for control. I was not going to cry over what he did anymore, I bit my lip hard and sat down on Louise’s bed. She smiled up at me sympathetically and started crying.



Lewis’ POV

In that moment I didn’t care about anything, the man that took Summer away from me was just meters in front of me and I was going to kill him. I would go to prison but without her it really didn’t matter anyway, nothing could be worse than not seeing her every day, not seeing the way she smiles when she sees me, not hearing her laugh or kissing her.

He saw me at the last second and put his hands up to stop me, seeing his face made me angrier. I lunged forward, grabbed his shirt and punched him as hard as I could in the jaw. The satisfaction of hearing his jaw crack lasted only for a second.

“Where the fuck is she?” I shouted, punched him again. He stumbled backwards, pulling me down with him. “Tell me where she is,” I screamed in his face. I couldn’t put into words how much I hated this man, he’s taken everything away from me.

“I don’t know! I haven’t done anything!” he shouted back, wrestling to get me off him. I clenched my teeth together so hard my jaw started hurting almost immediately and drew my arm back to punch him again.

Someone grabbed me and slammed me down on the floor; I expected it to be Henry but when I looked round it was some police officer. I didn’t care that I was about to be arrested, I cared that they stopped me too soon. He read me my rights and clamped handcuffs on my wrists tight. Smith was still protesting his innocence and saying he’d never even seem Summer, Henry was shouting at him and being held back by another officer.

“Get off me!” I shouted as he pushed me towards a police car just around the corner. I saw him exchange a look with two people in an unmarked car, that must be the police surveillance they have on Smith. Henry shouted something like he would meet me at the station but I couldn’t quite hear him.

“Why are you not arresting him?” I questioned the officers as they drove off to the police station. They ignored me completely. They’re completely useless, he’s done something to Summer and they’re just sitting outside his house watching him.

I thought about Summer’s reaction to me being arrested, she would be so mad at me. I could practically see her frowning and the way her eyes narrow a little when she’s angry. I would also get a very long lecture and she probably wouldn’t kiss me for a couple hours as punishment!

I was pulled out of the car, led to a small cream room and pushed down on a hard plastic chair. They took off my handcuffs and just stood there. “What?” I said after a few minutes. I thought they would interview me or something.

“Just wait here,” the one that arrested me said, giving me no information at all. I shook my head and sat back against the chair. I had achieved absolutely nothing from going there today, and I was no closer to finding her.

The door finally opened and Michael walked in, right of course we were waiting for Michael. He silently walked over and sat down opposite me, resting his arms on the table and nodding at the other officers, they left us alone immediately.

“Well,” he said, raising his eyebrows, “Care to explain?”

I sighed rubbed my aching jaw, “I don’t know, I wanted to get him to tell me where she is.”

“And you thought punching him was the best way to do that?” he asked sarcastically.

“I couldn’t help it, seeing his smug f*cking face, I just wanted to kill him,” I said, getting angry again.

Michael held his hand up. “You need to calm down, now. I’ve spoken to Mr. Smith and he’s not going to press charges but if you try anything like that again, I’ll arrest you myself. You’re getting off lightly here.”

“Getting off lightly,” I repeated in disbelief. My girlfriends been kidnapped, we have no idea where she is or what’s happened to her and he thinks I’m getting off lightly!

“You know exactly what I mean Lewis. I’ll point out to you that Mr. Smith is only a suspect at the minute, we have no real evidence that says he’s done anything, to Summer or the girls in the canal.” He leant forward. “Look, I know this is hard for you and you want answers but you have to let us do our job.”

“And when are you going to start doing your job?” I spat back angrily.

His face hardened, “You may leave now Lewis.” I pushed back and stood up, knocking the chair over in the process.

Henry was waiting for me at the front desk, having an argument with some officer. “Henry,” I called, pulling his arm. I got in the car and slammed the door.

“Well?” he said, throwing his arms up.

I shrugged, “They’re not doing anything, Smith’s not pressing charges. Let’s go back to the forest.”

He sighed and shook his head. We agreed not to tell anyone about what happened today, they had enough to deal with. We pulled up at the side of the road; I grabbed my bag and started walking into the forest for another day of searching for my girl.

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Little spolier type thing - thats's not the last time Lewis will be in trouble with the police...dun, dun, dun!!

Anyway, thank you all reading, commenting, voting and liking this story. You guys are great, do the same if you liked this chapter???

Have a great weekend :D