Ring Around Rosie (19 page)

Rosie was emotionally drained. Jelena had
been climbing the walls all day, tormenting herself over Tihana’s death; she
was either angry and screaming or crying and suicidal. Rosie and Mai-Li had
taken it in turns to watch her every move and placate her as best they could,
but neither of them knew what to do. Silas had put his head round the door when
he’d heard all the noise, and Mai-Li had tried to persuade him that Jelena
needed to see a doctor, but he had refused, telling them to keep her quiet, or
else.

Now Jelena was lying exhausted on her bed,
eyes empty and staring, her breathing shallow. She seemed to have disappeared
into herself and neither Rosie nor Mai-Li could get any response out of her and
Rosie was beginning to worry that they were losing her.

“We have to try and get her out of here and
to a doctor, it can’t be good that she’s like this. At least when she was
shouting and crying we knew she was alive, now she just seems like she’s gone
somewhere far away and we may never get her back,” Rosie whispered.

Mai-Li waved her hands in front of Jelena’s
eyes but she didn’t even blink.

“Don’t you think that maybe you and I could
overpower Silas between us? He’s only small,” Rosie suggested.

Mai-Li shook her head, her eyes suddenly
terrified.

“Why?” Rosie asked quietly, taking hold of
Mai-Li’s hand.

“I have nowhere to go, for one. And then
there’s The Reaper.”

Rosie felt a laugh bubbling to the surface
but caught it just in time.

“The Reaper?”

“It’s the name we’ve all given the guy who
works with Silas. I’ve only seen him once and just looking at him was scary
enough. He came here when Jelena and Tihana were new and difficult to control
because there were two of them, and The Reaper tasered them and tortured them
until they begged him to leave them alone and promised to behave. Everyone is
terrified of him and what he might do to them and their families, those that
have ones they care about anyway.”

As she held Mai-Li’s hand Rosie noticed
scars on her arms. They were thin and straight, as if done by a knife or a
blade of some kind. She was about to ask Mai-Li for an explanation when a
memory flicked through her mind like an old silent movie. It was of a parrot
that a friend from primary school had had in her house. It was the creepiest
thing Rosie had ever seen and she hated going there because she could swear it
watched her every move with its evil eyes, as it stood motionless on its perch.
Its body was nearly bald because it plucked its own feathers out whenever
anyone went too close to the cage or tried to open the door and let him out,
and its skin was raw and scarred. Rosie had run home crying to her mum the
first time she had seen Captain the parrot, and her mum had helped her look it
up on the internet. There was a name for the bird’s condition: cage-bound, and
it was similar to agoraphobia. Fear of the outside world due to neglect, often
resulting in self-mutilation.

Just then the key turned in the lock and
Silas walked in holding the arm of another girl. She was struggling and
swearing at him but he pushed her through the door and slammed it. She looked
older than Rosie and Mai-Li, closer to Jelena’s age. Her long hair was tied
back in a ponytail that swayed angrily as her green eyes scanned her
surroundings and took in Rosie and Mai-Li.

“Rosie?” she said, looking from one to the
other questioningly.

Rosie looked at Mai-Li and then back at the
girl. “I’m Rosie,” she said quietly.

The girl threw herself on the floor next to
Rosie and flung her arms around her.

“Oh thank god you’re here. Oh I’m so
relieved!” she pulled away and studied Rosie’s face more closely, then looked her
up and down as if checking she was all in one piece.

Although it was nice to get a welcoming hug
after so long, Rosie pulled back a little in surprise.

“Who are you?” she asked.

“Oh gosh, sorry, I’m Martha. I’ve been
helping your brother Ted to look for you. I feel like I know you, it’s so
weird,” she rushed. “Are you ok?”

Rosie nodded, then laughed with joy at the
sound of her brother’s name. “You know Ted?”

Martha laughed too. “Yes, we met coz I was
doing a story on trafficking and heard about your case through my brother. I
wanted to help so followed Ted around for a while and then introduced myself
and we’ve been looking for you ever since. God, it feels like such a long time
ago that this all started!”

The relief that was washing over Rosie was
the best feeling she could remember ever having, she was flooded with love for
her brother and his unwavering determination. But there was something wrong
with this picture.

“What are you doing here, though? I was
hoping Ted was going to get me out, not send more people in!” said Rosie,
urgently.

Martha took a deep breath and told Rosie
what had happened over the last few weeks. How she’d met Ted, how they’d heard
about her being hit on the road and then rescued by her dad that wasn’t her
dad. How they’d followed her trail backwards and found the flier and then the
flat and Griff and Lo…

“Lo? You found Lo?” Rosie interrupted.

Martha nodded. “Yes, he’s safely in the
care of the social services.”

Rosie was so relieved. Of all of the
children she had encountered, he was the one she felt most responsible for, and
knowing he was safe was nearly as amazing as being safe herself.

“And what happened with Griff? Was he ok? I
felt so bad about leaving him to face Zaydain’s wrath after I ran away. I was
really worried he would get hurt.”

Martha stared disbelievingly at Rosie. “You
were
worried
about him?”

“Of course, he can’t help the way he is. He
didn’t choose to get involved in trafficking with his brother. He got mixed up
in it by accident, like me, I felt we were similar in lots of ways.”

Rosie looked from Martha to Mai-Li who she
had noticed was keeping very quiet, almost cowering on the other side of the
room as far from Martha and Rosie as she could get.

“You ok, Mai-Li?” she asked, walking over
to her.

Mai-Li shook her head, her eyes wide with
fear. “You know Griff? You feel sorry for him?” she asked, aghast.

Rosie looked from Mai-Li to Martha and back
again. Both seemed to be looking at her like she was crazy.

“Yes,” replied Rosie, suddenly unsure of
herself.

“He’s
The Reaper
!” spat Mai-Li.

Rosie stared for a minute, unblinking as
she took in what Mai-Li had said.

“What’s The Reaper?” asked Martha.

“The guy who keeps us all in line. The one
who puts the fear of god in us,” replied Mai-Li through gritted teeth. She was
looking at Rosie like she was suddenly the enemy, as if she had been on the
traffickers’ side all the time.

“Yeah, that sounds more like him,” replied
Martha.

Rosie looked at her in horror too. “What
are you both talking about? Griff couldn’t hurt a fly!”

“He could if it was a young, defenceless
one with no family or friends to care about it, and if it could make him a few
quid by lying on its back playing dead,” said Mai-Li bitterly.

“I don’t understand. Neither of you have
spent much time with him, unlike me, so how is it you think you know him better
than me?” said Rosie defensively.

Martha looked at Mai-Li, almost
conspiratorially, then back at Rosie, her eyes darkening. “Rosie, it was Griff
who brought me here.”

“And it was probably Griff who killed
Tihana,” echoed Mai-Li. “Or at least it’s likely he was there. He was in charge
of accompanying them on engagements, usually because there were two of them,
and things often got out of hand, on both sides. He works with Silas, Rosie,
they’re partners!”

“Why didn’t you say anything to me before?”
asked Rosie, accusingly.

“Well I didn’t know you knew Griff did I? I
didn’t know you were so
close
!” spat Mai-Li.

Rosie felt ashamed and stupid. How had she
not seen that Griff was evil? She cast her mind back to their past encounters,
the times he came to visit her with chocolate and drinks, how he’d been so kind
and gentle with her, how he’d willingly taken her to the café – surely if he
was bad he wouldn’t have let her out of the flat? And then it hit her. What if
he’d engineered the whole thing? Her escape, her capture and her transfer to
Silas’s house. Could it have all been a set up to get her away from Zaydain and
Gabriel, make them the fall guys for the whole thing? If so, she was much worse
off now than she was before. They all were.

Tears flooded her eyes in shame. She really
was a naïve, stupid little girl; and clearly not as streetwise as she’d
thought. From somewhere in the haze of tears and embarrassment, Rosie felt
Martha put her arms around her and hold her while she wept.

“Don’t beat yourself up. I believed he was
nice too, at the start,” soothed Martha. “I wouldn’t have spoken to him when we
found him by the aviary without Ted there if I hadn’t thought he was the
nervous creature he appeared to be when we saw him at the flat. I still can’t
get the look in his eyes out of my head; the way he turned to me when I
approached him, his expression shifting from feigned surprise to a grin so evil
that it would stop even the coldest heart. I knew I’d made a huge mistake by
insisting Ted stay away but it was too late. He immediately threatened all your
lives if I didn’t go with him. I had no choice. And now poor Ted is out there
probably blaming himself for letting me go and losing both of us.”

Rosie lifted her heavy head from Martha’s
shoulder and looked at her. She saw tears in her eyes too and realised that
Martha had clearly formed a strong bond with her brother through all this.

“But why was Griff so nice to me? Why did
he want me to come here? What has he got planned for me, for us?”

Martha stroked Rosie’s wet cheek. “I’m not
totally sure, but it looks like he’s planning on shipping us abroad. Before,
when Griff left me with Silas, he said…” Martha paused. “He said that Ted was
following us and that Silas was to arrange to bring the shipment forward and
get us out of the house and in the truck whilst he distracted Ted.”

Rosie’s eyes widened at the thought that in
just a few hours she could be in another country, lost, alone, nameless and
faceless, all trace of her existence gone.

“Ted followed you?”

“Yes, it seems so,” replied Martha smiling
at the thought. “Although that might have gone against us because it’s made
Griff bring forward our exportation.”

Rosie could see Mai-Li out of the corner of
her eye. She had crouched on the floor, her arms wrapped around her legs, and
she was rocking.

“Did you get any idea
when
Silas was
going to move us?” asked Rosie, her voice shaking at the thought.

“I assume when he’s made the arrangements,”
replied Martha, unwrapping her arms from around Rosie and standing up. “But
we’re not going to sit here waiting to find out our fate, we’re getting out of
here as soon as he comes for us, all of us.”

Rosie felt a surge of excitement at those
words. “You really think we can?” she asked hopefully.

“Absolutely! We’re easily a match for that
weasel of a man,” said Martha triumphantly.

Rosie giggled. It all suddenly sounded
possible and she felt strength and courage returning to her bones. She
immediately began looking around for anything they could use as a weapon.

“Help me, Mai-Li. He could come at
anytime,” she urged.

Mai-Li seemed to peel herself reluctantly
from her corner and look around the room.

“There’s a broom in the kitchen, I’ll get
that,” said Rosie. “And maybe I can find a knife that’s not totally blunt. What
about something glass that we can break over his head?”

Martha rushed around near her, turning the
flat upside down in search of anything they could use. Rosie couldn’t help
noticing there was less urgency coming from Mai-Li who just seemed to be
wandering aimlessly around as if in a trance. Rosie ignored her and busied
herself with Martha, where the positive vibes were strong and reassuring.

Before long, Martha and Rosie had a
collection of semi-offensive weapons crowded beside them as they waited on
either side of the door.

“What are we going to do about Jelena?”
asked Rosie, nodding towards her still-lifeless body lying on the bed.

“We’ll have to take her with us of course,”
replied Martha, looking at Jelena as if she’d only just noticed her there. “We
should be able to carry her between the three of us, I reckon. She looks bad,
has something happened to her?”

Rosie nodded and then shook her head. “Not
something you want to hear about right now, believe me.” She shivered as the
memory tried to push its way into her mind, but she forced it back with
thoughts of their new mission.

“You think he’ll come tonight? It must be
quite late,” said Rosie.