Here To Stay

by Mark Edwards

We like it here. We’ve decided to stay and you need to accept that.’

omg no way

I prodded him in his chest. ‘You’re a parasite, Jeff. You think you’re a big man, but all you can do is leech off your daughter. You’re a loser.’

period

‘You’re a terrible dad too. Gemma hates you, Chloe’s weird and Stuart’s a wreck. You and Lizzy – you’re the worst parents I’ve ever encountered. And I’ve met some real lowlifes.’

not chloe's weird lol

‘I know what you’re trying to do, Elliot. You want me to punch you so you can get me arrested.’ He was right.

‘You might not think we’re great parents, but at least, unlike yours, we’re still around. The Robinsons are survivors.’

oop-

‘You can label me however you want, mate. But tell me who you’d rather be – the sucker who slogs his guts out to build himself a nest but is too weak to protect it, or the guy who comes along and takes it from him?’

‘A thief, you mean? I’d rather be the guy who works hard. Who earns the things he has.’ Jeff rolled his eyes. ‘And that’s what makes you a loser.’

oml

He was right. Hitting him might make me feel better for a second but it would do no good.

It had been a terrible plan.

‘I don’t know. You wouldn’t tell them to go anyway. You want them here.’ The energy required to keep my guard up had drained away and all the doubts I’d had about her came rushing out. ‘Do you want to know what I think? I think this was all part of your plan. You found some sucker with a nice house and no relatives, no one to help him, and decided to move your family in.’

real

The more I spoke, the more I believed it.

‘Elliot, what the hell are you talking about?’

good question

Her tears almost made me pause, but I was on a roll now, too angry to stop.

but it wasn’t just dirty and messy, it was like living inside the brain of a madman. Or madman and woman, I should say.’

‘This is nothing, though, so far. The more at home they feel . . .’

But I had to ask. Had to know. ‘When you were a child . . . did they . . . hurt you?’ ‘Yes,’ she whispered.

‘The other stuff?’

‘Then what? What did they do?’ And, finally, she filled in the blanks in her story.

Do you know what it’s like to be told every day that you’re not good enough? That you’re ugly and stupid and unwanted?

If I tried hard at school, they told me it was pointless and pathetic. They said I was trying to show I was better than them . . . When I was eleven I came home one day and found that my dad had thrown my school books, this project I’d been working on for weeks, into the fire. I had to tell the teachers I hadn’t done the work.’ I was lost for words.

I tried not to give away that I already knew this.

I’d already learned that the kind of love the boys at school talked about wasn’t love at all.’ What had Lizzy called her daughter? Not-So-Precious Gem. My flesh prickled.

‘I don’t blame you.

Now all I had to do was prove it.

The risk of something going wrong was too great.

And, to my delighted surprise, my fingers made contact with something. I backed out of the cupboard and sat up. I had found Chloe’s journal.

I could take the journal away, but I was convinced she would notice it was missing before I had a chance to return it.

I was up and out of the room within seconds, and was halfway down the stairs before the bathroom door opened.

Maybe something so bad she couldn’t put it on paper.’ ‘Or maybe that day was so boring she couldn’t think of anything to write.’

Everything they said and did disgusted me. I had never thought myself capable of pure hatred before, but I felt it now.

so real

Back downstairs, I didn’t hesitate. I went straight into the living room, walked over to the TV and switched it off.

‘You should be saving your money, not spending it.’ ‘What are you talking about?’ She smirked. ‘That’s for me to know and you to find out.’

?????

‘Move out in fourteen days?’ He looked straight at me. ‘Sorry, mate, no can do.’ He ripped the letter in half, then in half again, and dropped the pieces on the floor.

...

wished I could invent a machine that would shrink Jeff and Lizzy to the size of hamsters so I could pick them up and throw them out the front door. Better still, stamp on them. End them.

He looked over his shoulder and winked. ‘Was it a beautiful balloon your parents were in?’ The pink mist that had clouded my vision turned red. Dark crimson. How could he? How could he?

........wow.

I punched him in the face.

oh shit

He pulled a knife from the block on the counter and the words stopped in my throat.

‘I liked you, Elliot. We all did.’ Then he hung up.

wtf wym????

Chloe might be desperate to get away from her parents too. But then, she might have been part of whatever it was that happened in France. Or she might be too scared to talk.

First, Jeff and Lizzy were looking at me through the front window. They were both smiling.

omg ik exactly what happened

Surely they couldn’t . . . ? No, the notion was so abhorrent, so crazy, that I rejected it immediately.

‘Effia Mensah alleges that on two occasions, during your private lessons on the two aforementioned dates, you sexually assaulted her.’

omg no way

I could only think of one person who would want to get rid of me, to see me languishing in prison. No, not one person. Two.

‘They’re evil,’ I said.

omg elliot shush

Gideon told me to get a grip and stay calm. That was easy for him to say. He wasn’t facing years in prison, his reputation destroyed, being beaten up by nonce-hating inmates, spending his life on a sex offender’s register . . . The list went on and on.

‘You’re free to go,’ Ackerman said. I was so shocked that I thought I hadn’t heard her properly. ‘Free?’

‘Effia Mensah and her father have just visited the station. She’s withdrawn her statement. She says she made it all up.’

‘She says that somebody spoke to her and told her you were a bad person, that you’d abused other children and that you would soon do it to her if she didn’t stop you. They also said that if she didn’t tell this story about you, her family would be deported.’ She sighed. ‘It all came out after she said to her dad, “I’m so glad we can stay here now.” He asked her what she meant and, apparently, she broke down and confessed.’

‘I knew it! Has she given you a description of this person?’

But of course, once she said that, I had to check my notifications. And as soon as I started scrolling through them, I wished I’d stayed in my bubble of blissful ignorance.

yikes...