When he reached the car, he placed two hands gently on her shoulders and then eased her back, pulling her away from the steering wheel. The moment he moved her, he cursed himself. Should he have kept her completely still? What if there was spinal damage and he was only making it worse?

‘Andrea?’ he asked. ‘Andrea, are you with me? Are you there? Please, please wake up.’

There was no movement, and he couldn’t tell if she was breathing. Where the hell was the ambulance?

*

Andrea

She was sitting at her desk at the front of the classroom, but she couldn’t seem to get comfortable. She kept trying to shift her position, but her body was too heavy, her limbs wouldn’t lift. Her neck ached. In fact, she couldn’t even lift her head, which wasn’t good. Not good at all. How was she supposed to keep an eye on what the kids were up to? They’d get away with murder if you let them.

Come on, concentrate, focus. Open your eyes. Just . . . open them! It was that simple. But her eyelids wouldn’t comply; it was as though they’d been pasted closed with thick glue. She reached out in front of her, maybe she could find something on her desk to help pry open her eyes. But as she felt around, the desk seemed to slip out of her grasp, as though it was being pulled away, as though it were flying away from her — or was she flying backwards away from it?

Away from everything?

*

Mimi

Her heart was in her throat as she rapped her hand against the broken windscreen. ‘Callie, Callie, can you hear me?’

Callie’s eyes snapped open and locked with Mimi’s. She started struggling against her seatbelt, her legs kicking. ‘Mum, help me, help me.’

‘I’m here, it’s okay, I’m here.’ She couldn’t see through to check if Tara was okay and she was about to ask when she heard a second voice.

‘Mum? Mummy?’

‘I’m here, Tara, it’s okay, baby, I’m here. I’ll get you out of there.’

Mimi looked down at the front passenger seat. Tony was slumped against the window on the ground. It looked like he was unconscious. Seeing Tony brought it all rushing back. The phone call from Jill right before the accident. The implication of Jill’s words even though she refused to say exactly what she meant.

What had that monster done to her daughter?