FORTY-FOUR

When Stephanie awoke a figure stood over her body.

Grubby light from the window made her eyes smart. She shielded her face with one arm and waited for a blow.

‘Bed not good enough for ya? Can’t imagine the floor is much better, like.’ This was followed by one of Knacker’s rare cackles.

Stephanie sat bolt upright. ‘Where . . . You . . . What the fuck are you doing?’

Knacker stepped away. ‘Who me? Nuffin’, besides giving you a wakeup call. It’s gone eleven, girl. Can’t have people just lying around on the floor, like, when there’s work to be done.’

Stephanie struggled to her feet and lurched for the open door.

‘Aye, aye, hold up.’ Knacker swiped at her arm.

‘Let me go!’ She twisted from his grip, leaving him with a handful of her sleeve.

Knacker nearly yanked her off her feet.

She dipped her free hand inside the front pocket of her hooded top. Her fingers found the knife handle. She brought the knife into the room and before his eyes.

‘Fuck’s sake!’ He released her sleeve.

Her heart sped up with a new excitement, one that was unrecognizable, but it was an excitement that felt welcome and made time accelerate and speed away from her. And she knew she could do it. She could hurt this bastard who had locked her away and who had crept inside her room while she slept, who had hit her – he hit you! – and who wanted to force her to have sex with strangers in this stinking, dark, evil house.

‘You bastard!’ She took one stride towards him. He flinched, his pale eyes bulging from a face stiff with fear. She prepared to swing at him with all of her strength.

Before she could comprehend what was happening, she was unable to move the hand gripping the knife. Her body was tugged backwards. She fell and was dragged across the floor and out of the room.

The doorway, the distant ceiling, the aged wallpaper, the red skirting boards, all rotated about her head. Fingers much longer and stronger than her own peeled her hand open to remove the knife. And when she came to a stop, the ripe and bestial odour that clung around Fergal’s bony legs engulfed her face.

The sole of a big, dirty foot found the side of her head and pressed her skull hard into the grubby carpet. Her arm that had wielded the knife was pulled upwards and straight, and so hard she feared it might pop out of its socket.

The bottom of the shoe holding her head secure was gritty and as rough as emery cloth. A downward pressure squashed her cheeks and made saliva dribble from one side of her mouth. She didn’t struggle in case the foot pressed down harder and broke her head apart like a cabbage.

‘Fuck’s sake, Knacker. She nearly gashed you up, mate. If she had I’d a made you clean up your own claret, you useless twat.’

‘Nah, nah. Weren’t like that. I’d have been there, like. Always am when it counts.’

‘Piss off! This silly little slit nearly done you. I knew you was going soft. All that Ganja since you come out the nick has turned you into a right pussy.’

‘Fuck off! I won’t have it.’

‘You won’t? You will if I say so! You want to go or something? Eh? Eh? Can’t hear you! Yes or no, Knacker? Yes or fucking no? Right here!’

‘Nah. Nah. Leave it. I didn’t mean it like that.’

‘Bet you didn’t, you tosser. Fink you is the brains and all that, but you can’t get nuffin’ right. I hadn’t been there she’d be in the street shouting her mouf off by now. You’s the weakest link here, Knacker. And we don’t have much use for them that don’t pull their weight. You’re already on a warning. You don’t fink I will put you down then you is fooling yourself. I’ll put you in there, yeah? Right inside wiv it. I’ll hold the door shut while it has its way wiv you, like it done wiv Bennet.’

‘Cut it out. Leave it, yeah? How’s I supposed to know she had a blade? Where she get it from? You is just as much to blame. You put her inside here wiv me. Didn’t see you doing no strip search.’

‘Knacker. Knacker. You start twisting fings . . .’ Fergal left that as a warning.

Knacker remained uncharacteristically silent.

Fergal returned his attention to Stephanie. He removed his foot and grinned at her. ‘I hear you ain’t ready to start sucking cock yet. Well until you is, you got some cleaning to do. If you ain’t gonna open your legs, you can get on your hands and knees and do some fucking housework. How’s that, eh? And while you’re scrubbing, girl, you’ll have plenty of time to fink about what comes next if you don’t start being a bit more hospitable to our visitors.’