Felicity’s breathing was short and erratic, when she could catch a breath. She clawed at her throat and Jasmine thought of Carol doing that very same thing, and now she was lying on the kitchen floor, possibly dead. Felicity grabbed frantically at the back of the seat, trying to find the buckle to release herself. Frank yanked on it whenever she got close. Jasmine thought she could almost see a smile on his face.

‘Turn the engine off and come with me,’ he instructed Jasmine. ‘I need you to help me.’

‘There is no way I am helping you,’ she spat.

‘Fine, then give me the car keys or I finish your friend off here and now. I don’t trust you.’

Jasmine looked at Felicity, her black eyeliner streaming down her face as she lethargically tugged at the leather strap around her neck. She slowly handed over the car keys. Her father got out of the car and ran towards the house. She could see he wasn’t moving as fast as he would have before the surgery he’d had before the summer. He was favouring his left side a little. She reached over to Felicity and loosened the belt two notches before Frank got back. At least she would have a little room to breathe.

She looked around to see if there was any way out of this, just as the windows behind them started to glow. She realised her father had started a fire. It had taken hold of the living room before he’d even returned.

He got back in the car and gave the keys to Jasmine. She started the car and reversed away from the wall, the metal screeching as it scraped along the brickwork.

‘Where to?’

‘Just drive, I’ll tell you where to go.’

Jasmine drove the car and with her father’s instructions they left the town. The roads were empty anyway; there was no one to report her erratic driving. Her dad had let her drive around the big supermarket car park when it was empty, so this wasn’t her first time driving this car.

He told her when to stop the car. Felicity was passed out in the passenger seat. Frank unbuckled the belt from around her neck and she slumped forward.

‘Where are we?’ Jasmine asked, looking around. All she could see was dark green under the moonlight. Frank got out of the car and dragged Felicity out. He struggled to lift her but she offered no resistance. Jasmine couldn’t be sure if she was even still alive. How was this happening?

‘If I let her live, then it’s all over for us,’ Frank told her. ‘I’ll go to prison and your mother will most likely get taken away, too. You’re over sixteen so you wouldn’t go into care. You would just be on your own. Are you ready for that? To just be completely alone?’