Chapter One – The Plan

Summer’s POV

I grabbed the large bunch of lilies out of my dad’s hand, ran to the kitchen and threw them straight in the bin. I was not his Lily. My eyes started to sting, seeing those flowers took me back to the cellar, but I wouldn’t let myself cry.

“Baby, you okay?” Lewis whispered in my ear as he wrapped his arms around me protectively.

Taking a deep breath, I turned around in his arms to face him. “I’m fine.” Lewis’ eyebrow twitched slightly, they way it does when he didn’t believe me.

“Whatever he tries, he won’t get near you.” I smiled convincingly. Clover usually gets what he wants. He might be insane but he’s incredibly intelligent and cunning. I had no doubt that he could make it back here without being caught.

My family piled into the kitchen shortly after Lewis did. I didn’t think I would get much time alone. “We’ll never let him hurt you again,” mum promised, wiping a stray tear that rolled down her cheek. I’d heard that a lot and I believed that they would do everything in their power to protect me, I just wasn’t sure if that would be enough.

“I know, mum.” Looking back at the lilies in the bin, I realised that I needed a plan. “I have to go to Becca’s.”

“It’s not a good idea for you to go out anywhere, Summer,” dad said sternly.

I narrowed my eyes slightly, “I’m going over there.”

“Your dad’s right, Sum. Why don’t you just call her?” Lewis suggested.

“This isn’t the type of thing you do over the phone! I just need to be with Becca right now.” I could tell by the look on Lewis’ face that my words hurt him, I didn‘t mean to but I did need to be with Becca. She was the only one in the world that could understand how I felt. “Will you take me or am I going on my own?”

Lewis sighed and nodded towards the door. My dad and Henry were saying something to him as I walked to his car. I guessed it was along the lines of don’t let her out of your sight. He was going to have to at some point though, I needed to speak to Becca alone, there were things we needed to figure out.

Lewis shut his car door a little too hard and we pulled out of my drive, followed by a police car. They were going everywhere I go apparently. They were useless at finding me so I don’t know how great they’re going to be at protecting me now.

“You’re mad at me aren’t you?” It wasn’t really a question, we both knew he was.

“This is a stupid idea, Summer. We shouldn’t be leaving the house.”

“Please, the crash was over a hundred miles away, there’s no way he could get back here that quickly! I wouldn’t expect him anytime this week.” Lewis gripped the steering wheel so tight his knuckles quickly turned white.

“This isn’t a game,” he said angrily. I snapped my jaw shut before I said something that I would probably regret. I knew this wasn’t a damn game. I lived through it for almost eight months. This wasn’t a game, it was my life. “I’m sorry, Sum.” Lewis took my hand, squeezing it gently.

“I’m sorry too. I know you can’t properly understand but I need to talk to Becca, she’s the only one that knows,” I said quietly. He nodded silently. He still didn’t agree with me but he didn’t want to push it or have an argument. We rarely argued and after being apart for eight months I really didn’t want to.

“I’ll make you a deal. I’ll take you wherever you want to go but I have to be with you at all times.” He sighed and stroked my hand. “Sorry, I know I sound like a stalker but I just can’t lose you again.”

I shook my head, “Deal, and it’s okay, I understand.” Did the whole he has to be with me at all times mean that he won’t let me be alone with Becca? “I need to talk to her alone though, you know that right?” Lewis groaned. “Nothing is going to happen to me at her house.”

“Fine. You’re so stubborn now,” he said, smiling playfully.

We arrived at Becca’s and there was a police car in front of it with two officers inside. Lewis held my hand, looking around as we walked up the path to the front door. Did Lewis really think Clover would just stroll along the road?

Waiting for her to open the door felt like hours. She was probably panicking, her family comforting her and promising her all the things my family promised me. We both knew Clover better than anyone else in the world though.

“Summer?” Jack, Becca’s brother said, his eyes wide in shock. I guess he wasn’t expecting me. “Come in. Becca’s shut herself in her room, maybe you can get her to talk?” he asked hopefully, rubbing his forehead. I nodded and let go of Lewis’ hand as I started walking up the wooden staircase.

I knocked on the door timidly, not wanting to create a loud noise and scare her. “I don’t want to talk,” she shouted through the door.

“It’s Summer. Let me in.” There was a rustling sound and then the door opened. “Hi.”

Becca smiled a sad half smile and gestured for me to go in. We both sat down on her dark red quilt and faced each other. “Are you okay?” I stupidly asked her.

She shook her head and blinked furiously, trying not to cry. “I don’t want to go back there.”

Grabbing her hands, I squeezed tight. “Becca, we let him get away with it before but we’re not going to this time. If we don’t allow him to control us then he has no power.”

“What?”

I sighed, “We did nothing before because we were scared but the situation’s different this time. We’re not in his house; it’s not on his terms. He has nothing now. We can beat him but we have to do it together.”

“So, when he comes back you want to what? Kill him?” I nodded. It was simple; he wasn’t going to leave us alone so we would have to finish it. “How? We can’t!”

“Yes we can. If it’s a choice between going back with him and killing him, I know what I choose.” I watched her frown deepen as she considered what I’d said. “You said yourself that you don’t want to go back there, Becca. What other choice do we have?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think I could kill him. I wouldn’t even know how. Couldn’t we just trap him or something?”

My mouth dropped open. Why hadn’t I thought of that? “Lock him in the cellar. Let him see how it feels to be stuck down there.”

“Summer!” Becca exclaimed, her eyes wide in shock. “Come on, how would we even get him there?” I noticed that she wasn’t actually opposed to the idea, she just wasn’t sure if we would be able to achieve it.

“We could easily do it...if we were there too.” She opened her mouth to argue but I held my hand up, silencing her. “We’ll lead him to the cellar and lock him in it.” As soon as I said it I had doubts. Was I being crazy? Should we just let the police deal with him? That didn’t really seem enough though; him being in prison or some hospital isn’t enough punishment for what he did to us. He murdered Louise and so many others. Rose killed herself because of him. A few hours, or for as long as we can get away with it, locked in the same place he kept so many other girls was nothing compared to what we went through.

Becca slowly smiled, “I’m in. I want him to pay, and I want to show him he never really had us. We can’t tell anyone about this though. Don’t even tell Lewis.” I immediately nodded in agreement. He would never let me do it if he knew.

Honestly, I thought it would take more to convince her; she seemed to just want to leave it to the police. “Okay, how do we get him there and get him to stay there?” she asked.

I chewed on the inside of my cheek as I thought. We needed something against him. He hated germs, we could use that but I don’t think it would be enough. We need something that would really hit him hard, like how he flaunted the newspapers in my face. I didn’t just want to show him what it was like being locked up but I wanted to hurt him too.

“I don’t know. I think he’ll go back there so we need to leave something that he’ll know was ours. He’ll think we’re still going there, that we still want to be a family. All we need to do is to get away from our families daily to check on the house.” I said that’s all we needed to do but really that was the tricky bit, but we had to be one step ahead of him so we had to know when he arrived, and where he is. We couldn’t let him find us first.

Becca nodded, “That’s going to be almost impossible. We’ll have to go at night but how are you going to get away from Lewis?”

“He’s a pretty heavy sleeper. It takes a lot to wake him up.” I smiled at some of the memories of trying to wake him in the mornings. “If we don’t take too long I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to sneak in and out without anyone noticing.” It would be slightly easier for Becca, no one slept in her bed with her.

“What are we going to leave behind that he’ll know was from us but the police won’t notice?”

“Flowers.” Becca smiled a little evilly, with just the left corner of her mouth turned up. She liked this as much as I did. I did feel sick but I wanted Clover to know that what he did was wrong; he seemed to think he was doing the right thing, that he was allowed to somehow. I don’t think he believed he was hurting us; he needed to know that he did.

Our plan was flawed, was stupid and definitely very risky, but I wanted to end this and show him that he hadn’t won. To me the risk was worth the end goal and if at any point Becca didn’t want to continue I would do it alone.

“We’ll go tonight, look around the house and see what we can use against him; we’re going to need something.” I loved that Becca had similar thoughts to me. I wasn’t sure if that was coincidental or because we were stuck together for so long. “What time?”

“Three in the morning, everyone should be in a deep sleep then.” A part of me was screaming to back out of this. This was too fast, we hadn’t thought anything through properly but I had a feeling if we did we would back out. Without a doubt this was the stupidest thing I’d probably ever do. The part of me that still vividly remembered the smell of the cellar, the noise of the door, the fear, the murders, the endless cleaning and every single time he raped me, drove me forward. We were going to make him pay.

“Before we do anything I need you to promise me something,” Becca said, her face serious. I nodded for her to continue. “If our plan goes wrong, you get the hell out of there. I mean it, Summer. Don’t look back, you don’t worry about me, you just run.”

I shook my head, “No way. I’d never leave you behind.”

“Don’t be stupid. We both know what he’s capable of. If he’s able to kill us both then we’ve achieved nothing.”

She was half right, but even if this ended badly for both of us then at least Clover would know we stuck together against him. He would know that we never cared for him and that we were never a family. I had a feeling that him knowing that would be enough to destroy the perfect life and happy family inside his head.

“If I promise you that, you have to do the same for me. If it goes wrong and you have the opportunity to escape, do it.” I would tell her what she wanted to hear but whatever happened I would die before I left her with him, and quite possibly I would.

Becca gave me a fake smile that didn’t reach her eyes and held her hand out. “Okay.” We shook hands, both lying to each other.

There was a knock on the door; I exchanged a knowing look with Becca before she shouted, “Come in.”

It wasn’t at all surprising when Lewis and Jack walked into the room. What did they think; that Clover was going to climb through her window and kidnap us? Apart from the fact that it would be physically impossible to get back here that quickly, he was a little more discrete and cunning than that.

Without saying a word they sat down on the bed. This was a little strange; usually they would have at least asked if we were okay by now.

“We’ve been talking,” Jack started, his eyes flicking to Lewis for a second. This didn’t sound good. “We think it would be safer for both of you if we go away for a while.”

“No,” me and Becca practically shouted at the same time. There was no way we could leave.

Lewis groaned, “Summer, he knows where you live. Leaving for a while is the only way to ensure you’re safe.”

“I am not running away,” I replied stubbornly. “Don’t even try to convince me because I’m not going anywhere.” There was another reason why I wouldn’t leave but of course I couldn’t tell Lewis that. His eyes were tight and his body tense, I could tell he was pissed off with me. I hated that look on his face and usually I would do anything to make it go away but this was something that I couldn’t give into. Clover needed to understand what he did to us.

“We’ll talk about this more in the car. Your parents have called a few times, we need to get back.” I didn’t think I’d get long before they called. I got up and turned to Becca, hugging her tight. Becca meant so much to me, she was like a sister. I felt like she was the only one in the world that really knew me now, that used to be Lewis.

“See you tonight,” Becca whispered in my ear.

“See you later,” I said aloud. She would be the only one that knew later meant three in the morning.

At first Lewis was deathly quiet. His eye kept twitching as he tried to think of what to say first or how to convince me running away was best. The thing is, I knew it was best, I just couldn’t do it.

After a few minutes he’d obviously thought of something, he turned his head to face me, “Give me one good reason why you won’t move away until he’s caught.”

“Because I don’t want to be scared, I don’t want to run away from this and I don’t want him to win. There, I’ve given you three.” He sighed in frustration and clenched his jaw. I bet if I was like this before he wouldn’t have wanted to be together. “Please try to understand, Lewis. I don’t want to fight with you but I really can’t leave.”

“Fine, but I’m gonna annoy the crap outta you. The only time I’m not stalking you is when you’re in the bathroom.” And when you’re asleep.

I shrugged, “I don’t mind you stalking me in the shower.” As I had planned, he grinned a little. “Love you.”

He grabbed my hand and smiled, “Love you too, Sum.”

Was I being selfish by going ahead with the plan? If it did end badly, what would happen to Lewis? He would lose me all over again. We had to really plan this out. If things did start to get out of control we would need something to finish it once and for all. Clover doesn’t think there’s anything sharp down in the cellar; we needed to hide some down there just in case.

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Hope you liked it? The plan was rushed but that was the point.

Next chapter is Clover dun dun dun!!

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