Mike Shevdon - The Road to Bedlam

I waited in the dark, deliberately staying seated so that I didn't spook her. I could see the tension in the set of her shoulders, the way she kept wrapping her cardigan around her more tightly. She wanted badly to run for home, but she stayed.

She looked back to the house and then at me.

"You're the same as her, aren't you? That's why they're looking for you."

"Actually, she's like me, but yes."

"That's how you… got into my mirror. That's how you made it sound like her. You tricked me."

"I did deceive you, but only so we could speak alone. You wouldn't have come out here just for me."

"I gotta go." She turned away towards the Close.

"It went badly wrong that day, didn't it?"

She stopped.

"But you knew about Alex before then, before the accident."

"I can't talk about that. She made me swear."

"I'm her father, Kayleigh. And what I said to you about her not being dead was true. She is in trouble. She needs my help. And I need yours."

She spurred herself back into motion, crossing the road and vanishing between the hedges and the row of cars parked at the pavement.

The urge to chase her and try to pull her back was strong, but that would only make her run and clam up even more. Instead I tried to look as calm and patient as possible. I stayed on the seat, doing my best to look as if I would still be there in the morning when she went to school. I couldn't see whether she was watching me, so I concentrated on waiting. If she had gone inside, I had lost her, at least for now. If not…

It was a full five minutes before she reappeared. She crossed the road again, walked across the grass and plonked herself down beside me, folding her arms.

"It's colder here."

"Would you like my coat? It'll keep your shoulders warm."

"No. I'll be OK."

I waited for her to speak, but she didn't. If it was a contest, I broke first. "Are you going to tell me what happened?"

"I promised I wouldn't tell."

"Kayleigh, it's dangerous to know any more. If you let something slip they will assume you know much more than you do. They may think you're involved."

"I am involved. I was there!"

"I need to know what happened so I can help her."

"I thought she was dead. We had a service at school. You were there. Everyone was."

I sighed. "I didn't know she was still alive then. I only found out later, by accident. Even I'm not supposed to know. I swear that's the truth."

"How do you know she's alive?"

I debated how much to say. I didn't like telling Kayleigh any more than I had to, but she had already proved that she could keep a secret. If I wanted her to trust me then I had to trust her.

"I need you to swear the same to me as you did to Alex. You tell no one about this conversation, OK?"

"Who will I tell? My best friend is, like, dead."

"I need your promise, Kayleigh. This is serious."

"OK, I promise. Hope to die."

"Is that what you promised her?"

"Mostly. Sort of."

I put my hands in my lap. It was cold here, but I wanted to keep people away.

"When I spoke to you through your mirror, a little while ago, that was how I found Alex. I could hear her, but I didn't know where she was. I think she was taken, somewhere safe but away, because of the accident. That's why I need to know what happened. I need to know what she did."

"She didn't do it on purpose! She wasn't like that."

"I know that. I'm her dad. I know what she's like, but I need to know what happened."

"They were there. Tracy Welham and her lot. They were in the changing room."

"Before that. You knew about it before that, didn't you?"

"She made me promise."

"Kayleigh?"

There was a long pause. This time I won.

"She came into school one day, really excited. She wouldn't tell me what it was about. We tell each other, like, everything. Everything about everything. Boys, even." She stopped.

"Go on," I prodded gently.

"She was really cagey. I kept asking her whether it was a boy, but she kept… evading me."

"OK."

"It wasn't like her to be so cagey, but when school finished we went back to mine. We shut the bedroom door and put the stereo on, and I made her tell me. She swore me to secrecy, but I made her."

"What, Kayleigh? What did she say?"

"She didn't say anything. She got my water glass and emptied it on to my table. I was like, hey, pack that in, but she just carried on. The water stayed on the table, though. It shoulda run on to the floor, but it didn't. It all gathered in the middle, in a circle, like mercury, waiting for her."

"Waiting?"

"She goes, watch this. She puts a finger out and draws a K for Kayleigh, and the water does it too. It made a K, right there, I swear. Then she drew an A and it made an A, just like that. It was spooky."

"Did she say how she did it?"

"And then, like, she draws her finger in a circle and wobbles it towards the edge and all the water rolls to the edge, off the side and back into the glass, just like that. I swear."

"How did she explain it?"

"She said she had cramps in the night, you know, like… girl cramps?"

"I know what periods are, Kayleigh."

"Yeah, well. When she woke up, she was different. She said the water obeyed her. It wanted to do what she wanted. She said she thought she was a witch."

"A witch?" The irony of that remark wasn't lost on me.

"Yeah, we thought she might be able to do spells and stuff, but it was just water. She could do some cool things, though. Dry her hair by making all the water drop out, stir her tea without a spoon. It was pretty neat."

"And she could control it?"

"Yeah, mostly. It was getting stronger, though. She said… it was like it was calling to her and she didn't know what it wanted."

"But she had it under control."

"She wouldn't go near the river, and the swimming pool was right out. She said it was too strong. There was too much of it. She was frightened about what it would do."

"Was that when she had the accident?"

Kayleigh went quiet. She sat, pulling her cardie around her.

"I need to know, Kayleigh. I can't help her until I know."

The silence persisted. Then there was a snuffle.

"You could just tell me. I'm her dad. I'll understand."

"Yeah, but…" she snuffled.

"Yes, but what?"

"The accident." She sniffed.

"What about it? What happened?"

"It wasn't an accident, was it? She did it. She killed them." The tears overflowed and I found myself holding her as she wailed into my shoulder. I drew concealment closer around us, so as not to attract attention. Kayleigh shook, convulsing with great heaving sobs as it all spilled out. Between heaving gulps of air she told me.

"She didn't mean it. She never meant it. It was too strong. It got loose. They were trying to hurt her. Trying to dunk her – in the toilets. They hurt her – they were shoving her – into the water. They put her – in the water – don't you see? They put her in it!"

I hugged her to me. "It's OK. I think I do see."

She gulped and hiccoughed in my armpit and I held her until the sobbing subsided. I passed her my hanky and she dabbed her eyes and then blew her nose. The mascara around her eyes had run and stained it. She offered me back the hanky.

"No, keep it."

She stuffed it into the sleeve of her cardie.

"She wouldn't have done it on purpose, would she?" she asked.

"No. If they were putting her into water and hurting her then they probably brought it on themselves. I don't think she meant it to happen." The truth of that statement rankled with me. I wasn't a hundred per cent sure it was true, but speculation was not what Kayleigh needed to hear.

"I tried to get them to stop. They wouldn't listen. She knew it was bad." She sniffed. "We were supposed to meet. She wasn't there. I knew something was wrong."