Hidden by Elena’s hedge I pulled the tunic over my new clothes but I’d left my headscarf in school. I’d stayed at Elena’s so long that school would just be finishing. I decided to walk part of the way there and meet Angela, following the same route Elena used to bring me here. When I got to school I waited by the gates, dreading seeing Mrs Murgatroyd and secretly hoping she was drinking herself into a stupor in her office, hating herself for what she did to me.
“Mina!” Angela called. Within seconds she was hugging me tightly. “You’re okay. I was so worried. Oh! Your hair. Did you do that yourself? It looks so good! I’m so sorry I didn’t say anything. I was so scared.” She welled up again.
“It’s all right,” I said. “I’m okay, really. This is all Murder-Troll’s fault, not yours. And I like my new hair. Elena did it.”
“Elena? What? How?”
I laughed. “She saw me through the window and took me to her house. It’s like a mansion.”
“Wow, you’ve been to a GEM house?”
I told Angela about my trip to Elena’s house as we walked home, beginning to feel more human again. But it still didn’t take the experience away. I knew that when I closed my eyes I saw the embarrassed looks of my classmates as my hair fell to the floor. I would always have the image of her slug lips near my cheek telling me that I was Blemished and ugly and that I didn’t deserve to be loved. For that she had to pay and I knew this deep down in the marrow of my bones, as sure as I breathed. The time for acceptance was over.
32
“He’s not here,” I said, puzzled. Dad was always home before me. I checked the basement. It was empty.
“He’s left some information on the table,” Angela called from the kitchen.
She held up a sheet of paper. I snatched it from her and skimmed over my dad’s handwriting. It contained instructions for Theresa. According to the note she was being picked up by one of the carers and taken there by car. He’d paid for everything.
“It’s all very quick,” Angela said. “She goes tomorrow morning.”
There was a knock at the door and I left Angela’s side to open it. Daniel stood in the doorway.
“What happened to your hair?” he asked. His blue eyes widened in horror. “Are you wearing makeup?”
I’d forgotten about the rouge on my cheeks and the gloss on my lips. I hastily wiped at it with the back of my hand.
“Come in,” I said making room for Daniel to pass.
He stepped into the kitchen but seemed disinclined to settle, instead pacing the area like a lion in a cage. “What’s going on?”
“Mrs Murgatroyd cut Mina’s hair,” Angela said quietly.
He looked at me. “What do you mean? Did you ask her to?”
With a sigh I explained everything, watching as his face turned from pale to red to purple. By the end of the story his fists were clenched tight.
“She won’t get away with his,” he said, eyes flashing furiously.
“Don’t do anything stupid,” I warned. I handed him the note. “We have more important things to worry about. You and Angela need to spend some time with your mum. You have Theresa to look after.”
He studied the note and his face fell.
“You should both go home,” I said. “Spend as much time as you can with her.” I sighed. “I know I’d want the chance to say goodbye.”
“We will,” Angela said. “Come on.” She pulled at Daniel’s arm but he stayed frozen, staring at me.
“You go ahead,” he said to her, “I want to have a word with Mina.”
Angela nodded and slipped through the door. As soon as it was closed Daniel turned to me. He seemed out of sorts, angry and frustrated.
“Angela told me Sebastian offered you a way out of here,” he said. “But you didn’t take it. Why?”
“He wanted more than I could give,” I said.
“Oh.” Daniel dragged his hands through his hair. “So it wasn’t… anything else?”
“What do you mean?”
“Nothing.” He swallowed and his eyes widened. “Maybe I should get back to Angela. She’s pretty upset with her mum and everything.”
He turned to leave.
“What about you?” I said. “Are you all right?”
Daniel looked at the floor. “I’m… okay. I’ll miss her. She’s been a mum.”
“I know,” I said gently.
He looked at me feebly. “I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do about any of this. I just want things to stop. I want you to be able to live your life without…” he gestured to my hair. “I want to be able to stop that happening to you. I want my mum… I want Theresa well again. I want… everything to fit into place… I mean, what is the point?” His eyes intensified, thunderstorms threatening again. “You and me we have these stupid powers that don’t mean anything. What is the point of them? I have these visions and they don’t make sense. I can’t even stop them from happening. So what is the point?”
“I don’t know,” I replied. Daniel’s voice had been increasing in volume throughout his speech and it was beginning to frighten me.
He moved closer so that we almost touched and I felt the static run through us. I wanted to reach out and touch his chest but I was afraid of power, the electricity, emanating from him. Daniel’s eyes hooded and his breathing quickened. Eventually he tore his eyes away and turned towards the door.
He looked at me one last time before rushing out, his eyes burning with intensity. He shook his head and muttered, “What is the point?”
And then he left with his jaw set as though he had made a decision to do something and I worried that whatever it was it would get him in trouble.
“Daniel, wait,” I called after him but it was too late.
*
Dad didn’t come home that night and I stayed awake, restlessly tossing and turning. The ticking of the clock drove me mad. As I rolled over in bed to switch it off there was a tapping at the window. When I turned I saw tiny pebbles hitting the glass. I frowned and walked over to the window in my pyjamas. Down below, in the darkness, stood Angela.
“What are you doing here? It’s nearly midnight,” I said after opening the glass.
“Mina, you have to help me. It’s Daniel. I think he’s trying to get himself killed or something. He’s going to the Murgatroyd’s house,” she said hurriedly.
“I’ll be right down,” I called.
I bypassed my Blemished clothes and pulled on jeans and a t-shirt. I ran down the stairs not bothering to be quiet. There didn’t seem any point with Dad gone.
“Where does she live?”
Angela gave me directions.
“All right. Now you go home,” I said firmly.
“But––”
“But nothing. I mean it Angela, you go home. If you don’t then I won’t go after Daniel and I won’t stop him.”
She nodded. “Be careful.” She wrapped her arms around me and hugged me tight.
I waited until Angela was just a distant shadow in the darkness and then ran towards the fields. I had to get to the GEM part of town and I had to do it before Daniel did something stupid. I thought about his father, breaking into a GEM house, getting arrested and dying on Twitching Sunday. My blood ran cold. There was only one thought in my mind – I could not bear the thought of Daniel not in my life.
33
I travelled quickly. My feet maintained a brisk jog. I didn’t want to burn away all my energy. It was a still spring night with the chill of February fading into a warmer March. I felt like the world had stopped. I was alone. The houses around me were dark. No lights shone through the ghettos. I ran into the field. The only noise around me was the sound of my breathing and the rustle of the weeds as I moved.
I continued. When I reached the GEM area I thought of my afternoon with Elena. If only I could have played make-believe with her for longer. Now I had real problems to deal with.
The roads twisted, like a tarmac snake. I followed Angela’s hurried inst
ructions, squinting through the shadows for landmarks. I stopped running and put my hands on my hips, beginning to lose hope and facing the realisation that I was lost. But then I turned a corner and realised there was no way I could miss Mrs Murgatroyd’s home. It was beautiful. A large wrought iron gate closed off the perimeter; behind it I could see a large lawn the size of the school playing field and a house which tripled the size of my own. In front of the gate Daniel stood, staring at the house.
“Daniel,” I said, panting a little from the run, “don’t do this. Come back.”
He looked at me in disbelief. “You came?”
“Of course I came. I won’t let you throw your life away like this. Like you father…” I stopped myself.
“Why not? I’m every bit as useless,” he said bitterly. “I just wanted to protect you and I failed.”
“I don’t need protecting.”
He laughed. “I know. It’s just…” His fists balled against his side. “Oh, you just don’t get it.”
“Let’s go home.”
“Why should I?” he said. “What do I have to live for? Maybe if I break in and scare her she might leave you alone and then I will have done one good thing in my life.”
“Stop it!” I whispered. Angrily, I walked up behind him and spun him around by the shoulders. “Stop feeling sorry for yourself. You don’t get to be this selfish. Do you hear me? There are people who love you, who care for you. Angela, Theresa, my dad.” I paused. “Me. We want you here with us.”
I was so angry with him that the gate began to shake. It rattled for a few moments and then swung open.
“Did you do that?” he said. “Maybe she didn’t lock it.”
“Perhaps,” I mumbled. “Let’s go home.”
“Wait. Don’t you want to go in there? Aren’t you curious?” he said.
“Curious about what?” I snapped.
“About what she’s really like.”
I paused. I had to admit that it was something that intrigued me and now that we were here it pulled me closer. I shook myself out of it. “No. It’s too dangerous, come on, we’re leaving.”
“Is it though? Is it dangerous with your power? You’ve already unlocked the gate without sounding any alarms. This could be your opportunity to get revenge for what she did to you.” He stared me down with his eyes burning through the dark.
“Daniel…” I started. “We have a responsibility to…” It was no use. I ached to go in there. I wanted to make her feel every bit as violated as I did. I shook my head. “No. You’ve come here on a suicide mission. I won’t let you go through with it.”
“Okay I’ll admit I wasn’t in a good frame of mind. But you coming here, that means… so much. And now.” He smiled. “Now I just want to go in there and mess things up.”
I folded my arms and stared him down.
“Come on,” he said with an electric grin. He stepped through the gateway and I followed. I had to jog a few paces to keep up.
“Does she live with anyone?” he asked.
“Not that I know of,” I replied with a shrug. “Apparently her husband died shortly after they were married. I don’t really know much about her. Except that she really hates me.” I spotted the large black bag on Daniel’s shoulder. “What’s in the bag?”
He grinned. “Spray cans!”
I rolled my eyes.
We edged around the perimeter to the back of the house, keeping in the shadow of the surrounding wall. It was a dark night and I knew that we could cross the lawn to her house without being visible from a window, but there could be sensors or a heat-activated CCTV camera which would easily pick us out of the darkness. Then there was the matter of breaking in.
Daniel grabbed my arm and pointed. “There’s a window. The glass is frost. I bet it’s a bathroom.”
We sprinted silently across the lawn. I internally prayed that there was no alarm, or that the front of the house was alarmed only. Crime rates in GEM areas were virtually non-existent but that didn’t stop them from being paranoid.
“Can you open it?” Daniel asked as we reached the window, it was about level with Daniel’s chest meaning that we would easily be able to climb through.
It was narrow and locked on the inside. “I can try,” I answered doubtfully. After a thought I added, “On one condition. If it doesn’t work we go home.”
“Okay,” he said. “But I have faith in you.”
His words made my back straighten. I turned from Daniel to the frosted glass and concentrated on the lock. It was an old house with traditional windows – the kind with a twistable handle. I closed my eyes and imagined standing inside the room, reaching forward, taking the cold plastic of the handle and moving it to the left, and then I imagined pushing the window as far as it would go. With my eyes still shut I heard Daniel gasp.
“Did it work?” I asked, slowly opening my eyes.
“You’re amazing,” he said.
The window was open as far as its hinges would let it, giving us just enough room to squeeze through. I didn’t know whether to be elated or disappointed.
“I guess we’re going in then,” I said with a gulp.
“I’ll go first,” Daniel said firmly.
He lifted the bag from his back and hoisted it through the window, being careful not to make any noise. There was a soft thud as it hit the bathroom floor and we both froze for a few seconds. When nothing happened Daniel lifted himself up using both hands on the sill and wriggled his body through the narrow gap. I watched his feet as they slowly disappeared into Mrs Murgatroyd’s house. My heart pounded. I could not believe we were breaking into a GEM house.
Daniel’s face appeared at the window with his hands outstretched for me. “I’ll pull you up,” he whispered.
With a shaking arm I reached up and put my hands in his. I found purchase for my shoes in the cracks of the brickwork. Daniel pulled me and I walked up the wall with my feet. He helped me through the window, moving one hand to around my waist. For a moment our bodies pressed together and I felt his heart hammering through his chest. I steadied myself against him to make the last few steps.
“You okay?” he breathed in my ear.
I nodded, afraid that if I spoke my voice would crack.
“We should move quickly and get out of here,” he said.
I nodded again. It took a while for both of us to move away from each other. And when we did – I missed the heat of his body.
Even in the dark I could make out the bright packaging of Mrs Murgatroyd’s beauty products. They were piled high on shelves; pots of creams, tubes of face wash and fancy soaps. There were things I had never even heard of, like exfoliator and wrinkle cream.
“She must be obsessed with being beautiful,” I whispered to Daniel.
Daniel took his bag in one hand and my arm in the other. “Come on, we have to go.”
I moved like a hunter through the forest, placing each foot delicately but swiftly on the floor. As we walked from the bathroom into the hallway my footsteps were muffled by the plush carpet. Her house was clean and tasteful but completely devoid of character. Whilst Elena had stamped her personality all over her bedroom, Mrs Murgatroyd’s walls were bare and clinical. She kept fresh flowers on cabinets instead of photo frames.
“This way,” Daniel hissed.
He turned me to the right into a large, very beautiful lounge, filled with luxurious cushions and expensive soft furnishings. The walls were adorned with portraits of old movie stars, people I wouldn’t know if it hadn’t been for my dad’s illegal stash of films and his old DVD player. I remembered once that my dad said he thought the most beautiful woman who ever lived was Marilyn Monroe, and in Mrs Murgatroyd’s house her face filled almost the entire far wall. She was not as beautiful as most of the GEMs in society now.
“Who are all these people?” Daniel asked.
“Old film stars,” I answered.
“She’s got a serious complex,” he said with a raised eyebrow.
Dan
iel reached into the bag and pulled out two spray cans, one of which he tossed to me and I caught one handed. I moved over to the huge headshot of Marilyn Monroe, her head tilted back mid-laugh. She had a sparkle in her eye which made her more beautiful than she really was. No one could programme that into a gene.
Daniel began to graffiti over the paintings, drawing on fake moustaches and glasses, marking their pretty faces, making them blemished. I looked at my spray can and thought for a moment. I wanted to make a statement. I smiled to myself and began to spray onto Marilyn’s face. I wrote:
HYPOCRITES ARE UGLY
Something else caught my attention on a cabinet to the left. Tucked behind a vase of flowers, only just visible, was a very small picture frame. I picked it up and squinted in the darkness. It was a strange blurry photograph of what looked like a round, grey shape on triangular darkness.
“Daniel,” I whispered. “What do you make of this?”
He stopped spraying and walked over to my side. “I don’t know. What a strange photograph.”
He unclipped the frame and took the picture out. I noted that on the front, typed small in a white border were the words:
MARGARET MURGATROYD 20 WEEKS GREAT YORKS HOSPITAL
Daniel turned the picture over and, in a tentative and uncertain voice, read out the words on the back. “Baby Joseph 5 months old.” He looked at me. “It’s a scan of a foetus.”
I gasped, my hand immediately moving to my mouth. As it did the spray can slipped from my fingers, hitting the vase of flowers. In an agonising moment the vase wobbled and tipped from the cabinet, landing with a smash on the floor.
Daniel looked at me and uttered one word. “Run!”
34
We reached the hall before I heard her. Hurried footsteps shuffled on the landing above us – bare feet padded on floor boards. Daniel’s bag caught on another vase. It hurtled to the floor. Roses scattered on the carpet.
The Blemished (Blemished Series) Page 16