‘Christian!’ she rasped in a spit-choked voice. Her teeth clenched as pain took her with force, watering her eyes and casting a sheen of sweat on her brow. In, out, she heaved for breath, her chest rising with exertion. The band around it was tightening. Her eyes rose to the picture of Jesus hanging on the wall. ‘Sweet Lord,’ she whispered through clenched teeth as she gripped the sides of the bed. ‘Spare me … Godddd!’ A spasm of pain distorted her words. Tears streaked from her eyes as she stared at the door. Nobody was coming. She was going to die alone.

15

‘How are you feeling, little man?’ Elliott’s mother stroked his hair. It was daylight when he’d sat down in front of the television and he hadn’t noticed it become dark. All the action was going on inside his head. It was dark all the time there.

His eyes swivelled towards the clock on the wall, gone six o’clock. ‘Aren’t you going to work?’ His mum visited his dad in hospital when he was at school, and in the evenings she worked flexible hours as a cleaner in the Slayton Lakeside Hotel.

‘Not today – no babysitters,’ Maggie replied. ‘Libby and Jahmelia aren’t well, so I’ve called in sick. They can manage without me for one night.’

Elliott relaxed a little knowing his mum would be at home. Maybe tonight, he would be OK. He felt a little better after speaking to the policewoman too. But it couldn’t take away the horrible feeling which started in his tummy and went all the way up to his chest. Last night, everything had spilled over. He’d been deep in his nightmare and hurt the person he loved most in the world. He had seen the scratches and bitemarks on Maggie’s arm and they made him scared.

Almost before he could talk, Elliott felt the bad things around him, like the sickness in his tummy before he went to the dentist, or that time Mummy brought him to the doctor to get his injections. But the bad thoughts that came to him now played out like a movie that he could smell and feel too. Sometimes it showed him things that had happened, and sometimes he saw things that were going to come true. Every day it was getting harder to keep the bad thoughts out. He was seven and a quarter years old, but he didn’t know what to do. Maggie settled on the sofa beside him, crossing her legs and bobbing her foot.

‘Any tortoise facts for me today?’

Elliott searched his memory banks for something interesting. ‘Tortoises have been around for over three hundred million years.’

‘Wow. That’s a long time.’ Maggie’s eyes widened in amazement, but Elliott wondered if she was pretending it was cool.

‘Are you OK, Mummy?’ He searched her face for an answer. ‘Did I hurt you bad?’