She smiled. ‘I’m going to let you go outside. You’d like that, wouldn’t you?’

All hope vanished. She was smiling the smile that didn’t meet her eyes and it struck me that she was enjoying herself. She smoothed back my hair from my face. I flinched but she didn’t seem to notice.

‘Get up,’ she said softly.

I did as she said, watching the knife, which she moved out of the way to allow me space to stand. She stood too, grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the back door.

The door was unlocked. She opened it and we walked out together, hand in hand. The day was overcast and muggy. I stared at trees and overgrown grass and mottled, grey sky as she pulled me round to the back of the cottage.

‘This is the back garden you’ve always wanted to see,’ she said, gesturing with the knife to a jungle with a large brown square in the centre.

‘My grandfather spent many hours out here, you know,’ she said dreamily. ‘He made me and Olivia come out here too.’

We walked forward into the overgrown garden. The grass was as tall as my waist and so bright it made my eyes sting. Enclosing the garden was a fence and beyond the fence stood the woods.

‘We spent a lot of time out here as children, you know,’ she said.

She stopped and stared down at the brown square on the ground. I followed her gaze and frowned, confused. The brown square looked like two rusted, metal doors. Two doors in the ground.

Mother pushed me onto my front on top of the door. She knelt down, resting one knee on my back to keep me still. Holding the knife between her teeth, she pulled a key out of her pocket and unlocked the door.

I suddenly realized what she was going to do. I struggled to get up but she crushed me against the ground with her knee.

‘I’m only giving you what you’ve always wanted,’ she said in a sing-song voice.

She flung open one of the doors and a foetid stench filled the air. She seized my shoulders and pulled me onto her lap, holding the knife to my cheek. I stared down at the hole in the ground, unable to believe what was happening.

‘Be a good girl and you’ll get all the food and water you need,’ she whispered.

‘No! Please – don’t!’ I screamed and swivelled round, pleading, begging her with my eyes.

With a distant smile she pushed me off her lap. I rolled through the doorway down some steps. Above me the door slammed, and I was swallowed by darkness.

Chapter 38