Page 35 of The Happy Family

For that, somehow, I will make her pay.

The rest of my visit passes by in a blur of tears, reminiscing, and a little laughter before the officer steps into the room and tells me that it is time to go.

‘Goodbye, Mum. I’ll see you soon,’ I say very optimistically as I give her a kiss on the head and smell her soft hair, instantly transporting me back to my childhood when all I ever wanted was a hug from my mother.

I leave the room in floods of tears and, thankfully, the officer by my side doesn’t bother trying to engage me in conversation or order me around too much. She doesn’t need to say anything, anyway. I know what happens now. We go back to that prison and I return to my cell, where I will stay until I get word that my mother has died. That’s it. That’s all I have to look forward to. It might as well be me lying in that hospital bed. What’s the point of having all this life ahead of me if I can’t enjoy any of it?

‘Help me!’

The anguished cry from the room we have just passed causes both me and my escorting officer to pause and share a confused glance.

‘Help me! I’ve fallen over!’

That second cry tells us that one of us needs to do something, and as we can’t see anybody else around, I guess we are going to have to come to this person’s aid.

‘Come on,’ the officer says to me, leading me into the room where we heard the voice come from.

As we walk in, I see a female patient lying on the ground, her hair covering her face and her hands seemingly trapped beneath her body.

‘Let me help you,’ the officer says, quickly bending down beside the stricken patient to try and help her up. But no sooner has she done that than the patient rolls over and makes a very quick motion towards the woman offering aid.

It takes me a second to realise what has happened, but when I do, my hands go over my mouth as I recoil in horror. That’s because I can see the needle sticking out of the officer’s neck. The patient has just stabbed her with it, and as she falls backwards, clutching at her wound, it looks like it could prove to be a fatal blow.

But before I can cry out for help, or even consider running to avoid any danger that might be coming my way, I get a proper look at the patient who just deceived us.

When I do, the horror only grows.

‘Hello, Gemma,’ Luna says to me before she reaches out and closes the door behind me, trapping us in here while the police officer loses her fight for life on the floor beneath us.

TWENTY-FOUR

LUNA

If I was shocked to see Gemma in this hospital, she’s just as shocked to see me here too. Then there’s a woman currently dying on the floor in between us, the needle I stabbed her with having done terrible damage, but I already knew it would when I stabbed it into her neck. I had to do it. It was the only way I could get Gemma alone so I can do what I need to do to her.

Sadly, for this woman, she shall suffer the same fate that officer has.

‘You’ve killed her!’ Gemma cries when she realises that the woman on the floor has stopped moving or breathing.

This is another life I have taken, another crime to add to my ever-growing list of them, but I had no choice. When I saw Gemma here, I didn’t know what she was here to do. She could have been here to see Sadie or speak to Reid, or even if it was for something else, I knew she suspected me of framing her because Sadie told me just before her accident. So at some point, Gemma had to pay. I figured that she was untouchable while she was in prison. But then I went and saw her here, out in the wide-open world, and suddenly, I knew I had a chance to silence this woman like I wanted to silence Sadie.

Unfortunately for Gemma, I am not going to make the same mistake twice.

I quickly reach onto the shelf behind me to grab another needle, seeking the same weapon I just used on the woman who fell for my ruse of being a patient who needed assistance getting back to my feet. Whichever staff member left this storeroom unlocked is going to be in a lot of trouble when it’s discovered that two people have been killed by the needles that are kept in here, but not as much trouble as Gemma is currently in.

As I pick up a needle and tear it out of its packaging, I expect her to try and escape this room, lunging for the door handle and hoping to make it away from me before I can deal her a deadly blow too. I am prepared for that to happen and am confident that I will catch her before she can get away. To my surprise, she doesn’t try and flee from me. Instead, I see Gemma doing the exact opposite.

Instead of going for the door, she goes for me.

I don’t have time to raise the needle to use against her before Gemma pushes me hard into the rows of metallic shelving that store all the boxes of needles, causing me to cry out in pain. It’s also a cry of frustration because I wasn’t expecting this woman to pose a threat to me or fight back, but she is doing both and I realise I have underestimated her.

I have underestimated her desire for revenge.

As I try to get away from the shelving and use the needle in my hand to nullify my foe, Gemma hits me hard across the face, and I am forced to blink as my cheeks sting and my teeth feel as though they are rattling in my head.

‘You crazy bitch!’ Gemma cries. ‘You deserve to die for what you’ve done! You’ve ruined my life!’

She hits me again, almost causing me to drop the needle, and I quickly realise that I am going to lose this battle unless I can start fighting back.