She looked up the stairs to see Danesha’s bedroom door open, silvery moonlight cast against the wall and the moving shadow. There was a man inside her room. His shadow could be seen on the wall as he stood over Danesha’s bed.
The spider moved towards her and reared its front legs. Jemima stood firm and steeled her nerves. “Get out of my way,” she said to the spider.
It flexed its jaw to present the fangs, a display to prove it had the power to hurt her, but Jemima merely reached out a hand around its raised leg and gently brought the creature to heel. She lowered its legs and stroked her hand across its head. “Don’t worry, Spider,” she said. “I won’t hurt you; but you must do as I say and let me pass.”
She looked up the stairs and saw the door to Danesha’s room slowly closing. The spider dipped its head like an obedient dog, bowing before its master. She passed the spider and walked up the stairs. She turned the handle and opened the door as lightning crashed outside to light the room. It was empty. Danesha’s bed covers still held the shape of where her sleeping body had been laying.
Lightning flashed again and through the window, down in the garden she saw movement. She saw the spider walking away into the rain, then with another crash of thunder and a flash of lightning she saw the Slenderman under a tree looking up to the window. He was carrying Danesha in his arms. She was asleep, wearing her pink pyjamas, her head hanging loosely.
----- X -----
Jemima woke at daybreak and dressed in her school uniform. Her father was slow to get out this morning. He was muttering to himself and treating her like she was invisible, locked in his own world as they had breakfast. They may as well have been a hundred miles apart for all he noticed her.
The dream of Danesha’s house… had it been real? Had it been a premonition of something due to happen? Had she seen what was happening?
Her father left for work, still in his dreamworld.
Jemima sat in the lounge waiting for the doorbell to ring… It didn’t.
She walked alone along Parkland Walk alone and looked at her mobile phone. She called Danesha but there was no response. She sent a text message: ‘R U coming skool 2day or did slenderman get U?’ There was no response.
At the school gate there was the usual hubbub of kids chatting, some running around, boys having a kickabout with a tennis ball, girls standing in groups all glued to their mobile phones. She saw William Warwick with Owen and Christopher. It was the first time since she’d kissed him. They made eye contact and he sheepishly smiled and made a half wave. Jemima walked past him. She looked at the three boys with a recollection of her first discussion with the Slenderman. He had asked her about people in her school. She had told him about Sabina and Kerry. She had told him about Danesha and William and his friends. Danesha was taken and these boys would be taken too. She could almost smell it on them. They were marked and she had marked them.
She was numb to it all.
----- X -----
As registration ended, Mrs Hoxton appeared at form class. “Jemima Collins!” She barked. “Come with me.”
Oh, not again. This woman was a misery.
Hoxton walked sternly, her feet clicking on the polished tiled floor, she walked ahead without speaking and at a pace that would make Jemima have to skip or trot to keep up. Today she didn’t. She went at her own pace and fell slowly behind the stupid headmistress.
Hoxton held her door open for Jemima to enter.
“Oh…” Jemima said when she looked inside. It was the policewoman again, she was standing by the window. She looked serious. Hoxton closed the door.
“Hello, Jemima, do you remember me?” Detective Mayhew asked.
Jemima nodded.
“When we spoke the other day, I asked if you knew anything about Sabina King or Kerry Powell’s disappearance and you told me you knew nothing.”
“I don’t know anything,” Jemima said with a shrug, She took a seat without being offered.
“Where is Danesha Pierce?”
“I don’t know,” Jemima’s tone was nonchalant. “She was supposed to pick me up this morning but she didn’t arrive.”
Mayhew leaned across Hoxton’s desk and shouted, “Where is she Jemima, tell me, tell me now!”
The force of her words was a shock and Jemima felt a sudden surge of emotions. “I don’t know where she is,” she replied.
Mayhew leaned even closer and asked a question that made Jemima’s blood run cold. “Who is Slenderman?”
“Wh… what?”
“Slenderman… Jemima, you can’t keep this a secret, you must tell me what you know. This is a life and death situation.”
How could she know about that? How was it possible? Jemima shrugged her shoulders and held her palms outstretched ahead of her like she didn’t know what to say. She flustered for words, trying to say, “I’m sorry,” and “I don’t know,” but it just came out as a garbled mess.
“Jemima, if you don’t answer I’m going to arrest you for obstruction of justice. Right now you are under suspicion of withholding information in the disappearances of three children. If you know something that you don’t tell me and then something happens to any of those children, you will be guilty as an accessory after the fact.” She walked around the desk to stand over her. “This is your last chance, Jemima.”
Jemima looked to Hoxton. She knew she would get no help or guidance from her. She looked back to Mayhew but said nothing,
“Jemima Collins, I am arresting you for obstruction of justice, you do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you fail to say something that you later rely on in court. Do you understand?”
Jemima suddenly burst into tears. “I want my Daddy,” she cried.
“I’m going to take you to the police station for questioning. Your father will be contacted and asked to come to the station.”
“I’m not going!” Jemima screamed. Suddenly she was out of the chair and out of the office. She was running back along the corridor as the last of the children made their way to lessons. A few of them saw her running and screaming. They stood back against the wall as she wailed and tore past them.
Something hit from behind that threw her to the floor. Pain as she was crushed from above. It was the bitch policewoman, sitting across her as she wrenched her arm to fix handcuffs around her wrist.
Jemima cried out, lashing, squealing in a childish tantrum. “Mummy, Mummy. Come back, Mummy… I need you, Mummy.” She writhed on the floor as she was cuffed.
Mayhew lifted Jemima and pushed her forward as Hoxton caught up. “I’ll take her now,” the policewoman said breathlessly.
Jemima began to cry uncontrollably as she was pushed outside towards the car. Mayhew took her mobile phone in one hand and began making a call and held Jemima under her arm with the other. “Hi, this is Helen Mayhew, can I have uniform pick up an arrested minor.”
Jemima noticed that every window along the side of the school was watching. They could see she was wearing handcuffs and held by the policewoman whilst she cried. Humiliating. The kids were pressed to the glass, excited by the drama. She could imagine the teachers in the class telling the kids to get back to work.
Then from across the car park Crazy Mary walked towards them. Her clothes were ragged, she wore many skirts in layers and a shawl across her hair. “He watches the children,” Crazy Mary said.
“What? Who are you?” Mayhew asked.
“She’s the Crazy Lady,” Jemima said finding her voice. “She’s homeless, she’s a fool, don’t listen to her.” Jemima spoke with force and authority and didn’t know where the words were coming from.
“I see him,” Crazy Mary said. “I see the man watching the children… He wants to take them… And she is the sow who brought him here.”
“Who do you see?” Mayhew asked seriously.
“She knows nothing,” Jemima added.
“He is a ghost,” the woman said. “He is not of our world, but this whore has brought a demon to our doma
in and now he wants the children.”
Mayhew screwed her face.
“I told you she was crazy,” Jemima said confidently.
A police car arrived and two policemen put Jemima in the back to take her to the station like it was a child taxi service.
“He has taken the children and I have seen him,” Crazy Mary shouted. Mayhew turned back to the vagrant to talk more as Jemima was driven away.
“Slenderman,” she called in her head. “You must kill the Crazy Lady. Somehow she knows about you.”
Clearer than ever, she heard Max speaking back to her. “I know, my love… Things have changed… I will come for you tonight… Tell them nothing. I will rescue you tonight, my princess… and then we shall be together.”
----- X -----
Jemima was stood at a counter whilst her pockets and bag were emptied and her clothing searched. Then she was put into a concrete cell with a concrete bench.
She was in prison.
She’d watched crime TV programmes but they were on studio sets. A real police cell smells of cleaning products, like a public toilet. There was a window quite high with metal bars through the glass. Beside the door was a brass button that said, Call.
Her heart was beating rapidly with fear and anticipation.
How had this happened?
What was she supposed to say?
Was she supposed to tell the truth? That she had brought a spell book home from Germany and buried a spider and now three girls were missing?
She believed that Danesha was missing, but knew not to worry about her. Slenderman wouldn’t hurt Danesha because if he did she would hate him. He loved her too much to have her hate him.
Mayhew had said the name, Slenderman… but how could she know? Did they have special police who investigate this sort of thing? Was Slenderman known? It was impossible.
She didn’t know how long she was there, but it was at least an hour before the door opened and she was led down a corridor to an interview room.
“Hi, Jay,” her father said. He was waiting with the family solicitor. Her father’s skin looked deathly white and his eyes were tearful. Had she made him cry? She hugged him. “What’s all this about?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I really don’t know what they want me to say.”
Her father gripped her tightly and rocked her in his arms. “Let’s just answer their questions. Tell the truth… and then we can go home. Okay?”
Jemima nodded and took a seat. The solicitor leaned to her. “Hello, Jemima. I’m Peter Cambridge. My job is to protect you from any further harm, so I may intervene during the questions. If you want a break, or need to ask me anything in private, just tell me and we can stop the interview.”
Helen Mayhew came into the room and positioned microphones across the table. She began with the formalities, the date, the time, who was present.
“Jemima,” she began. “You were arrested this morning as I believe you are withholding information on the disappearance of Sabina King, Kerry Powell and Danesha Pierce...”
“What happened to Danesha?” Jemima asked.
Mayhew didn’t answer directly. She took her time and lifted a plastic bag containing a mobile phone onto the table. It looked like Danesha’s. “You sent Danesha Pierce a text message this morning. From your telephone to hers that reads,” she looked to a piece of paper, “Are you coming to school today, or did Slenderman get you? What does that mean? Slenderman? Who is Slenderman?”
Jemima shrugged. “It means nothing. It’s kind of like… the boogeyman.”
“I’ve never heard of it,” Mayhew said. “What does it mean to you?”
Jemima raised her hands in a shrug. “It doesn’t mean anything. It’s just like… nothing… the boogeyman, it means the boogeyman, the monster in the cupboard. I don’t know what you want me to say.”
At this the solicitor leaned in. “Can I ask why this is important. If the child says Slenderman is another name for boogeyman, why is it of relevance?”
Mayhew lifted three clear envelopes to the table and Jemima recognised them immediately. “When Sabina King went missing,” Mayhew continued, “her parents found her bed empty except for this piece of paper.” Mayhew held the clear envelope for Jemima to see… Oh, God… it was the Slenderman letter. “On this piece of paper it says, Slenderman, Slenderman take this child.” Mayhew put the note to one side and brought the second one out, wrapped in a similar plastic evidence bag. “When Kerry Powell went missing, her parents found an identical note, in her bed, that also says, Slenderman, Slenderman, take this child.”
The solicitor looked to Jemima. Her father looked to her too.
“And finally,” Mayhew held a third letter, “this was recovered from Danesha Pierce’s home this morning.” Mayhew laid out the three letters in front of Jemima. “I’ve never heard of the name Slenderman until we found these notes,” Mayhew continued. “So today, when Danesha Pierce’s bed was found empty, her parents called the police first thing and we rushed over and whilst officers are still standing in her bedroom her telephone received a text message, from you, asking if Slenderman has her… Now, who is Slenderman?”
“If I can intervene again,” the solicitor added. “Jemima, do you have anything to say that may be of interest in the investigation of the disappearance of these three girl? Is there anything you can offer that would help the police find them?”
Jemima shook her head. “No. Nothing. I don’t know about…”
The solicitor held his hand up to silence her. “Do you have more reason to hold Miss Collins,” he asked Mayhew. “What evidence of crime do you have for her detainment?”
Mayhew took a deep breath and narrowed her eyes. “I spoke with Jemima a few days ago. Her answers were less than convincing. We are in a life and death search for a missing child and it’s now imperative to have an interview with Jemima under caution.”
“I asked about evidence of crime… If you wish to speak with her an interview can be arranged, but I understand she was arrested and handcuffed? I insist you present evidence of crime and if you are unable to I expect and demand Miss Collins be released immediately with a full de-arrest.”
Mayhew screwed her face and glared at Jemima. “Where are they?”
“This interview is over,” the solicitor said. “And you will be lucky if we don’t bring a claim for improper conduct. Has Miss Collins been photographed and fingerprinted yet? If so then I wish to see those files destroyed.”
Ha. The solicitor was brilliant. He’d tied Mayhew in knots almost immediately and Jemima had to hide her smile. She knew she shouldn’t, but it sneaked out as an upturn on the corner of her lips as she looked back at Mayhew. She was grinning at the policewoman and the anger was reading on her face.
Mayhew formally stopped the interview and her father and solicitor stood to leave. “Where are they, Jemima? Please. Help me find them.”
Jemima smiled back with a look of smug satisfaction. “I have nothing to say,” but she did have something to say, she was just biting her tongue. Mayhew wanted to know who the Slenderman was and all Jemima wanted was to answer her back with the truth. That the Slenderman was coming; and he had a special misery in mind for Detective Helen Mayhew. For what she had done, for handcuffing her in front of the school and humiliating her, Slenderman would bring a special punishment to Helen Mayhew; and when she did, she would wish to God she’d kept her nose out of this.
As they left the police station her father thanked the solicitor and said goodbye to him.
“I’ll drop you back at school,” her father said impassively.
“No… Daddy. I think we should spend the day together.”
Her father shook his head. “I’ve got work to do and you need to…”
“...I need to be with you,” she interrupted. “Today, Daddy. It has to be now.”
Her father looked at her and touched her face, his fingers hovering by the scar to her brow. “Do you know something? Is there someth
ing you should be telling the police?”
She shook her head. “I promise, Daddy. I don’t know where they are.”
----- X -----
They sat in a cafe eating lunch. Jemima was having her favourite meal of fish fingers, chips and peas with ketchup. There was a television on the wall showing the news. Photographs of Sabina, Kerry and Danesha came on the screen. “Look, Daddy. That’s my school.” A news reporter was outside the building talking into a microphone.
“There’s too many terrible people in the world,” her father said. “Last month the news was all about some psychopath who kidnapped and tortured a woman at King’s Cross. Today it’s missing schoolgirls.” His head drooped far forward to hide his face and Jemima saw tears fall into his food.
“Why are you crying?” Jemima asked. “Is it over Mummy?”
Her father lifted his head and wiped his eyes on his sleeves, carefully avoiding his face from some workmen sitting at the next table. “Sometimes it’s about your mum. Sometimes it’s about you.”
“About me?” Jemima felt surprisingly shocked by that. “Why me?”
Her father reached across the table with both hands to hold hers. He stared into her eyes, then lifted one hand to stroke his fingers by the gash to her eyebrow. “I could have lost you in the crash, too. You’ve got a mark on your face that shows how close you came.”
“I’m alright.” Jemima said.
Her father shook his head. “I can’t lose you… But… I don’t know how to be… how to be a parent.” He rested his palm on her cheek. “The business takes up so much time and is a lot of stress. I’ve been giving some thought to selling it, selling the house and just spending all our time together. We could travel around the world and leave everything behind… You know… visit other countries one after another.”
“Is that what you want to do?” Jemima asked.
“Jay… All I want is to spend time with you. You’re all I have… and I feel like a failure as a parent because I don’t know how to do it.” He looked up to the television and Jemima followed his eyes. There was a school photograph of Danesha slowly zooming in on her smiling face. “Oh, God… her parents must be going out of their mind… I can’t even take this in. I know I should be engaged in Danesha but… I can’t… I don’t know… Jay, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m sorry for everything.”
Slenderman, Slenderman, Take this Child Page 11