Trust No Bitch: Part 3

Clara Wright

Despite an initially shaky start, by the time Lilly had reached the end of the runway, Clara had seen something in her that she had previously been sure was no longer possible. Like a cadaverous, blonde dodo bird, revived from a long extinction, confidence had reared its smug, golden head and peered out of Lilly's eyes into Clara's.

She was doing it.

Days after the murder of an ex-best friend and less than a fortnight after going through a stillbirth, Lilly Philipps had just walked a runway like a semi-professional and Clara had witnessed it. She felt as if she'd just beheld the Northern Lights, the Great Pyramid of Giza, Machu Picchu, or some other kind of other-worldly spectacle. Up until the waterfall of blood had cascaded from the ceiling and splattered all over Lilly, Stephen King style, along with the busted up Baby Annabelle, that was (though she wasn't quite sure if anyone else had seen that part). Next, the audio of Alice had began to blare from the speakers, rendering her too stock-still and from there, it had all gone downhill. Lilly had remained, covered in what appeared to be blood, for only a second before the audience members began to gasp, some of the more histrionic ones screaming, the ruckus causing her to career back down the runway and disappear through the curtains.

"Christ on a tricycle..." Gemma had whispered, her hands springing up to her mouth, before turning to a motionless Alice and tugging at her arm. "Alice! Alice, the tape! It's you!" She exclaimed as 2 ostentatiously dressed women a few rows in front of them began to hiss.

"Glitter was supposed to fall out of that bucket at the end, not blood or...God, I don't know! What was that thing that came out with it too? And who even was the model? I don't remember telling Martina to send-"

"Cassie, that was not blood, it was red paint. It has to be." The second woman snapped at the first, the pair of them bustling various befuddled audience members towards the exit. "It's probably some kind of political statement. Bloody PETA, or something, I don't know. I swear if it is, I'm going to make them wish they were a fucking L'Oreal rabbit. We had one fucking fur coat, that was all! And this tape? Somebody is confessing to a bloody hit and run on it! It looks like a stylistic choice! Everyone will think we completely crossed the line! Like, think of the, like, Twitter abuse we're going to get! Get everyone out and then I'll call the police." And it was that mention of the police that appeared to yank Alice out of her torpor, for moments later she actually responded to Gemma's cries.

"I have to go and get that tape. Before the police get it." She murmured, Gemma spluttering as the remainder of the audience trickled out of the hall and into the corridors, the clip blasting again from the beginning over the speakers.

"You know what that means, don't you, Alice? The Supplier was in my house the other night. Outside my room when you told me about..." Glancing at Clara and a stupefied Naomi, Gemma shook her head and continued onto something else. "We have to go and find Lilly!"

"I'll go and look backstage." Said Clara. "She's probably hiding back there somewhere."

"And I'll come with you." Alice added, jolting into action, striding onto the runway, lubricious with the scarlet liquid which was still dripping from a bucket rigged overhead. "The Supplier has to be back there somewhere too. Gemma, maybe you go and wait outside the school, see if Lilly comes out and Naomi...maybe go and look around the unused bit of the school."

"We'll see you in a bit." Clara called to Gemma and Naomi, joining Alice on the stage and marching ahead of her towards the curtains.

"Clara, wait!" Alice hissed after her, grabbing her arm. "I know that was me on that clip, but it's been edited. I didn't purposely run down Vicky. It's not what it sounds like-"