The Dead Land: Chapter 9

9.
Just when she had thought things couldn’t get worse. Now Robbie had truly lost everything other than Beth. She was fighting with herself not to get out of her hiding place and punch the crap out of the man and woman, but she knew she would end up dead like her father. And so she stayed where she was, her eyes still closed, but listening carefully.

“What do you think? Should we leave the body here?” the man asked.
“Nah. Take it with us. We can show Agatha, maybe get her to notice us for once.”
“He’s too heavy to lift.”
“Drag him then, idiot.”

Robbie bit her lip to stop her screaming all sorts of abuse, and words that no ten year old should use. She heard a scraping on the ground and the thud as her father hit the side of the van. The slam of a door. The whirring of wheel. And with that, Robbie was left alone. All her family gone in the space of five agonizing minutes. And she had had to watch it happen. The tears streamed down her small face, her head screaming in the agony of her father’s murder. She gasped, praying to God to rewind time. She begged forgiveness for all the bad things she had ever done, pleading with him to have mercy, but with no success. She let out a scream of anger, shaking as she tumbled out of the bush. It was then that she realised she wouldn’t be able to live at home anymore. Not only would her father’s death leave a curse on the house, there would be no one to take care of her.

She knew her life would be completely different now. With nothing to lose, she was going to make a difference. She just didn’t know how yet.

Silently, she rose to her feet, fists clenched as she boldly strode into the middle of the road. Let them find me. Catch me if you can, Agatha Redknapp, she thought.

With a new sense of purpose, she set off on the most important journey of her life, having no idea where it would lead her.