Chapter 28: NOW - The Safe Room

I never thought I’d be in this position. Back when I was young, before meeting Peter, I saw my future as something intangible but shining bright, like a lightbulb out of focus. I thought maybe there would be a family, a husband, and some children. I never had an idea of what career I would have but it would be creative and—hopefully—lucrative in some way. I never once pictured me stuck in the middle of a storm and electricity blackout with a stranger and my daughter, terrified down to the bone that someone has slipped unnoticed into my house.

But we make the best of things. I grab every duvet, every pillow, cushion and blanket, and I arrange them all out on the living room floor like we’re teen girls having a sleepover. Then I grab some crisps and nuts for snacks to eat. Sophie falls dead asleep almost immediately, the events of the night wearing on her.

It leaves me with Emily, a woman I don’t really know, who feels like a friend, at least someone who might become a friend, and yet I have no idea if I can trust her. I glance out at the scene outside, where the rest of the street appears to have their electricity on, and I think back to when Emily told me the road was in darkness. I never actually checked for myself. Could she have been lying? It would have been a risky lie. I could have just checked at any point. She would have needed to distract me in order to keep me away from the windows. Did she do that with the game?

I take a sip of the wine I poured earlier, and glance at the young woman in my house. She has been nothing but nice, especially with Sophie while we were all scared. Emily even seemed protective of Sophie in a way.

“Where did you say you were from, Emily?” I ask.

She smiles. “Steve and I moved up from London. I’m from Reading originally. What about you?”

“Leeds.”

“Ahh, thought I recognised the accent. I had a mate at uni from Leeds.”

I sip the wine, taking only a tiny amount at a time. I don’t want to be drunk when I need to keep my wits about me, but a little bit of alcohol keeps me brave. “What did you study at uni?”

“English,” she says. “At UCL. Then I trained to be a teacher after. But I haven’t actually got a teaching job yet.”

“I studied English too, at York,” I tell her. “I work at a library now.”

Her eyes roam around the room and I can tell she’s wondering how a librarian in Eel Beck can afford a place like this.

“I inherited the house after Ed died,” I explain.

“Ah.”

It turns out my circumstances are more suspicious than Emily’s. Everything she’s told me sounds perfectly plausible. But there’s no way of me checking anything without going online.

“What did you say your last name was?” I ask, worried I sound suspicious now.

She laughs. “I didn’t say, I don’t think. But it’s Evans.”

“Right. I’m Denton.”

“Nice to meet you Amber Denton.” She grins and pops a Kettle Chip into her mouth.

I glance at Sophie, sleeping soundly, then my eyes trail over to the bruises on Emily’s face. You can’t fake bruises like that. Only someone completely deranged would do that to themselves. So why am I doubting her word about the blackout?

I clear my throat, nervous to broach the subject. “Earlier, when you looked out of the window, you said the power was off everywhere. That’s right isn’t it?”

She nods.

“I don’t understand why it’s back on everywhere except for here.”

“It is strange,” she agrees.

“And I can’t check online because the WiFi is down and there’s no signal for data here.” I sigh.

Emily stands and wanders over to the window. “The lights are on at home. I guess Steve didn’t need those candles after all.” She wraps her arms around her body.

Tingles spread across my scalp. After years of living with a stalker, I’ve grown to have mixed feelings about my survival instincts. Sometimes they’re bang on and I need them. Other times they’re way off and I’m anticipating danger where there is none. Right now, something doesn’t feel right, but I can’t tell if I’m paranoid or perceptive.

Sophie is still fast asleep. Despite all the questions, Emily doesn’t seem suspicious. She sits back down on the sofa and starts eating again, dipping a crisp into hummus. Now is my chance to act.

“Just nipping to the loo,” I say, brightly.

“Cool,” she says, her mouth full of crisps.

I need to be quick. I don’t want to leave Sophie alone with her for any more time than is necessary. I don’t go to the toilet, instead I head through to the study at the back of the house where I keep the landline for emergencies. I can call Yvonne; give her all the details I have on Emily and ask her to do some digging online. I can also ask her to call the electric company to tell them my house is still without electricity when the rest of the street is fine. It’s late now, after ten, but she did say I could call her at any time.

But when I pick up the phone there’s no dial tone.

My fingers go numb around the handset. I freeze, the receiver pressed to my ear, my heart kicking violently against my ribs. I am cut off. No one can hear me. No one can reach me. The study seems to tilt on its axis.

Did Emily do this?

Has she been playing me since she walked into my house?

There was the window in the bedroom too. I never leave windows open, especially in the middle of a snowstorm, I’d have to be an idiot to do that. Ed made sure our windows were safe, triple-glazed, and reinforced, but what if there’s been some sort of malfunction since he died? Something I haven’t noticed but he would?

Or Emily opened the window to let someone in. A man with a history of breaking in through windows.

I shake my head. What am I thinking? That Peter somehow managed to find an accomplice to help him stalk me? I can’t imagine any woman wanting to do that. She’d have to be completely mentally unbalanced. Also, how would Peter be able to afford a house here?

Unless she’s just pretending to own the house down the road.

She could be renting, or squatting, or… What if they’ve been watching me for weeks? What if they waited for the real owners to move in?

I sit down in the study chair for a moment, trying to make sense of every thought running through my mind. There’s a logical explanation for everything, it’s just that all of these circumstances occurring in the same night is so strange. First, Emily turning up hurt, then the electricity going out, then the window and now the phone.

I break them down.

Emily convinces me as a frightened woman in an abusive relationship. I noticed her jittery movements the first time I met her. She’s young with an older husband. Everything makes sense to me. I also saw a blonde woman going into the recently sold house. I can’t know for sure that it was Emily, but she is also blonde.

My house could be on a different circuit to the rest of the street. I don’t know enough about electricity to understand, but back on the estate when the power went out some houses were fine when others were plunged into darkness.

The phone may not have been working for weeks. I don’t do anything with it. I haven’t picked it up to make a call in months. So how do I know it stopped working tonight?

Perhaps Sophie opened the window. She’s probably too scared to admit it now because of how we reacted, but it’s possible. She might have wanted to touch the snow again, I know how much she loves snow.

Sophie.

I have to get back to her. There’s no way I can leave Sophie alone with Emily now that I don’t trust her. I don’t know what I’m going to do about her being in my house, but I know I need to keep a close eye on her now.

I rush back through the hall, almost tripping over my feet, and when I get to the living room, I find it empty.