Hiding Anna [rewritten]

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Mistake

"J-J-J-J-Josephine."

I heard words on the other side of the phone, but it wasn't clear.

"Help-p-p-p, please." I stuttered, shivering feeling my limbs detach themselves from my body.

"Where are you?" Crackle crackle.

"I ddddddon't knohhhhh-w."

Tears were scrambling down my face, my fingerstips clutching the tiny cellophane bag.

"It's all gone. It's all gone." I cried, blubbering hysterically. "It's all gone Josephine. Help me."

I'd made a terrible mistake. A terrible, terrible mistake.

"I don't feel good." I said over her words that I could barely hear over my phone. Her voice sounded so far away, like she was here in front of me but also miles away.

I could feel a body around me.

Screeching, I fell back onto the grass.

"Josephine I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. Don't tell him I did this, please don't tell him I did this."

The cellophane packet, empty, almost disintegrated in my rough fingertips that were rubbing together as if to start a fire.

I wanted someone to burn me. I wanted fire to kill me.

"Cassie, darling, please just tell me where you are. Just focus on telling me this one thing, don't worry about anything else."

Breathing had become impossible. I began to feel Josh's body prowling around me like a ghost. His slimy, cold presence passed through me, a vapour that I could touch.

"He's here Josephine. At the park. He's here." I muttered, screeching as a wave of cold violently lashed against me.

"He's coming for me Josephine. Don't tell George. Please don't tell George. Just let him take me."

I dropped the little baggie on the ground, seeing what it had done. I had ruined everything. Everything. Everything.

My hands, coated in layers and layers and layers of white powder clawed across the grass, desperately trying to get rid of the evidence. It wasn't brushing off. And my nose. It was running, no pouring, blood out of it. Everywhere. Everywhere. My eyes next, glugging as the blood flooded out of the sockets. My mouth, the bitter taste, now sharp as blood gargled me to death.

"Cassie, mon dieu mon dieu mon dieu."

I closed my eyes, letting the blood continue to pour out of me. I couldn't speak, the blood was too heavy in my mouth.

"Alors prend ma main, ah putain- take my hands Cassie, take my hand darling."

I couldn't feel my hands, but my body was being guided up, though I still felt like I was stuck in the grass.

Movement tripled in speed, and the next second I was in a car.

"Oh my God." I murmured. "Josephine don't. Let him take me."

"Let who take you? Cassie was someone following you?"

Josh was following me. Everywhere. Everywhere.

"Josh..." I cried, tears pouring everywhere. "He's coming to hurt me again. It's better this way. It's better this way. Just let him take me."

My mouth was moving for forever, I didn't know what was said, or if it even was Josephine in the driving seat, holding my hand and squeezing tightly as if doing so would make me snap out of it.