Jody in Neverland

Chapter 10 - Trapped

Jody stayed slumped on the floor for hours and eventually dragged herself to her bed. For the next two days she was a prisoner in her room. Kingsley shoved a bottle of water and a sandwich through the door a couple of times but other than that she saw nobody. It didn't matter how much she screamed or shouted nobody came. On the evening of the second day, Kingsley unlocked the door and came in.

Draw  that plan of the kids home and then you can come downstairs for dinner and have a nice hot shower.

No, I wont do it.

I've got all the time in the world Monkey. Its entirely up to you how long you stay in this room. I thought two days would be more than enough but maybe I was wrong. Perhaps a week will do the trick.

The thought of being stuck in her room for a whole week was too much to bear. She sat down at the desk and began to draw a rough plan of the house and, following Kingsley's instructions, marked all the places where valuables were kept: the safe, the locked cupboard where the kids' tech was stored, the rooms of the girls who had jewellery. Everything was marked on the plan.

Kingsley grabbed it as soon as it was done.

Thanks Monkey. I knew you'd come round.

Kingsley went to leave the room and then turned in the door way.

By the way don't even think of breathing a word about this to anyone at that care home or the police, understood?

Yes Kingsley

Besides you're an accomplice to the crime, if I go down, you go down too.

Kingsley left the room and Jody heard the all too familiar click of the key in the lock, Kingsley had never had any intention to let her out of the room.

Jody threw herself on her bed and wept. The thought of standing up to Kingsley made her feel sick and she felt so small and helpless, just like she had when she was younger. Memories of being dragged kicking and screaming upstairs and locked in her room for days on end still haunted her. Being shouted and yelled at. Being forgotten or ignored, and scavenging for food in the bins because no one had bought any food, let alone cooked anything. Once she had been desperate enough to eat dog biscuits. When the social worker was due,  her mum would drag her into the bathroom and she was scrubbed with a scrubbing brush and if she struggled she was held under the bath water till her lungs were ready to burst. The memories came flooding back.

 She was so overwhelmed by the memories that she felt like she was suffocating in her duvet cover the same way she had felt like she was drowning in the bath water. She sat up coughing and spluttering trying to get her breath through the tears and terror. She glanced at the photo on her desk. The smiling faces of the DG gang. She gazed from one face to the next, tears rolling down her cheeks. She could imagine their disappointment, their disbelief, their anger, when they found out what she'd done. She grabbed the photo frame and slammed it face down so she didn't have to see their faces anymore. She lay back on her bed but as she went to curl herself up she heard a thump as something fell to the floor. She looked and saw that it was the Peter pan book that had fallen. She got up and picked it up and opened it. Before she had even sat back on the bed she was already reading fervently. She was soon immersed in a world of Pirates, fairies, lost boys and Indians. Her fears and worries were soon forgotten as she was swept up in the magic and adventure of Neverland. She turned the pages eagerly, devouring every word.