The Other Me

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter 15

I had one of those moments when everything I had ever known and any question that I had never answered; suddenly became very clear.

All of her gentleness and kindness had all been an act. The reason why the explosion never happened before… was because she committed suicide after her husband’s death. And when she found me in her house, she didn’t tell Barratt or the police. She wanted to finish me off herself. Also, the flowery book found in the wardrobe full of women’s things made so much sense now. It was her book, which she had hidden in her own wardrobe. And Rosaline had said it was Mrs Barratt who collected the insurance money in the future; Jack Barratt wanted nothing to do with it.

When I thought about all this, I couldn’t help but feel annoyed with myself. Mrs Barratt had been the unstable one, not her husband. She was the one who had committed suicide in the future, she was the one who I witnessed being angry, with all her mood swings.

I was suddenly brought back to the awful reality when Mrs Barratt jabbed the gun harder into my head. What was she going to do to me? I closed my eyes tightly as tears flowed steadily down my face. I supposed I already knew the answer to that question.

“You are my prisoner now,” she snarled. “And you will do exactly as I say.” She stood so close behind me; I could smell the perfume from her clothes and coffee - which she must have had for breakfast – on her breath.

I was filled with so much terror; it took me a while to remember what I had to do. I slowly moved my hand to my other wrist, which had the watch and pressed the red button.

“What was that?” she barked, her eyes full of suspicion as she detected the slight movement of my arms. With one hand still pushing the gun to my head, the other pulled at my sleeve and revealed my pink watch. It must have taken her a split second to realise that this was no ordinary watch, with its large screen, and unfamiliar buttons.

“You were calling for help weren’t you?” Mrs Barratt spat in my ear. I was too frozen with fear to respond.

Nonetheless, she ripped the watch from my wrist, threw it to the ground and completely destroyed it by mashing her heel into it. She saw Dad’s video camera perched onto the window sill in front of us, where I had placed it before; and she took care of that too. I couldn’t help thinking that Dad was so going to kill me when he found out what happened to his camera.

“Now, I’ve put an end to your nasty little games,” she rasped. “You are going to walk in front of me and I am going to guide you to my husband’s office. Then I’ll figure out what I am going to do to you. But remember, if you run away, if you attempt to hide, if you so much as stumble; I am going to shoot you. Got that?”

 I nodded painfully and tried to keep from showing the fear and disappointment that I felt. If we moved from here, then Rafi and Rosaline wouldn’t know where to find me. I knew, without a doubt; that she was going to kill me and I was probably going to be long-since dead by the time they will find me.

Mrs Barratt removed the gun from my head and slipped it underneath the flap of her pink cardigan, but still holding it so she could easily shoot me anytime. With the other hand, she clutched my shoulder with a vice grip and she steered me towards the inside of the school. I couldn’t help but shiver under her grasp, but she rewarded me with an even tighter, claw-like clasp.

As she guided me inside the school, I noticed that there were students and even some of my classmates; milling around, going to their lockers, getting ready for the school day. They had no idea of the devastation that was about to happen, that in a few minutes I would be mercilessly killed, along with some others later on.