Rid the People

Chapter 2

Studying film at the University of Campden was something Cassidy thrived in. She'd always loved films. From the moment her mum guided her into the small ringing door of the DVD store that sat on the edge of their small town in Chipping Campden, it's windows tinted a dark shade of green, it's frames painted a silver rusted metal; ever since then, she knew she had found a passion.

'Careful, don't run!' Her mum would say as Cassidy slipped from her fingers, fleeing the small aisles that stretched only in a 20 foot radius; an adventure for her tiny frame.

She had to curve her neck back to see the DVD's that sat high on the shelf; The BFG, Back to the Future, Scooby Doo - it was all there, just as they were on the pink shelves of Cassidy's room back at home. A tiny little flat it was, but it was home. And though Cassidy has lived there ever since, enduring annual makeovers, craving for a new home, she knew she couldn't live anywhere else. She was even born in the tiny bathroom upstairs, leaving a crack in the bath that spread from the white tiled floor to the small silver handle of the bathtub.

Then Cassidy grew up, scribbling her height in the corner of her floral-patterned wallpaper, invisible to the eyes of her mother.

She remembered when she was 9, desperate for a swimming pool in their reasonably sized garden (the only thing that did seem the right size), because Lizzie's mum had just bought one for theirs. She waited until her mum went to work on a Saturday afternoon and dug a big hole in the dirt for hours, smiling at how amazing it was going to be to fill it up with water and swim beneath England's sun, to wash away the humidity.

Her mum came home, took one look at the hole, and dragged a dusty, dirt-ridden Cassidy back inside while ignoring her protests.

For the rest of the night she sat in tears, feeling sorry for herself. Her dinosaur chicken nuggets and smiley potato's were stone cold on the carpet below her feet as she swung them, listening to her mum cursing in the garden.

Only handfuls of dirt were pushed back in the following morning. "I'd be up all night otherwise," Her mum said, shaking her head in disappointment. 'I can't believe you did this. It's going to take hours to fill back up. We had a lovely lawn Cassidy for god sake."

She longed for a bigger home, more money. She longed it even more when in the bungalow owned by Lizzie's family.

But she wouldn't leave it behind for the world.

•

Swimming. It was like Cassidy was floating on a lilo, spinning on a calm wave of water.

'Cassidy?' The voice echoed the depths of her mind - she recognised it, yet couldn't put her finger on whom it belonged. 'Cass?'

'I didn't do anything. I swear.'  A different voice. An unrecognisable one, lower than the last.

'Don't take another step!' It's Lizzie speaking.

Cassidy fluttered her eyelashes apart, noticing first how unsteady the floor seemed. She was lying on her back, staring up at her friend who had the same wide-eyed expression as earlier. The white ceiling behind rose and fell in time with her own breath. Everything was wavy.

'Cassy, it's fine, you just... fainted, I think.' Lizzie said, her eyebrows knitted together.

'What? Why?'

'Because of him.'

Cassidy tried sitting up only her head swam more violently, her body weak against her own will. Lizzie nodded her head towards the man Cassidy saw only moments ago; blood-stained clothes, rugged hair, a small amount of stubble that lined the lower half of his face. He smiled uneasily, and she could see the crinkles that etched around his blue eyes.