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When Callum raises his eyebrows at the location of my crappy flat, I have to look away. It’s just about the worst part of town, littered with drugs and prostitution. “What?” My defenses are up, I’m angry and embarrassed by his reaction. I want to chew on my thumbnail, a nervous habit that I can’t seem to ditch, and end up with my winter glove in my mouth. Crap. I lower my arm uselessly.
“I’m surprised you live down there, that’s all.” His eyes rove slowly up and down my body, giving me chills all over, and not the good kind. “You’re too good for this place.” Callum turns away and sucks on his cigarette, letting the smoke trail back out of his pursed lips slowly as we trudge along.
“Yeah, well, all of us are too good for this, aren’t we?” I reply with a huff, waving my arm in the direction of a blighted building that’s covered in graffiti.
“No, not really.” He lets another wisp of smoke out deliberately and meets my gaze. “Some of us belong here.”
Something about the way Callum says this, calm, cold, accepting, makes my heart stutter. Suddenly, I’m afraid to be alone with him. I study his face and a chill goes down my back, one that I’m not sure is caused by the frigid temperature.
How did I not notice h
ow empty his eyes are?
I have no response to his bizarre comment, so I hike my bag further up on my shoulder and cling to it tightly as we continue to walk past a bunch of run down, detached houses.
“Where are you going?” Callum reaches out and grabs my arm, pulling me back toward a broken chain link fence that circles an abandoned property. Then he gestures for me to duck through the small gap and tosses his spent cigarette on the ground.
“Home, which is this way.” I point down the road in the direction I had been going, away from the creepy lot he’s pointing towards. Callum is good looking; big and muscled, with sandy hair and full lips, but his eyes are creepy, dull, and lacking life, which makes him quite unattractive. I realize much too late that he makes me very, very uncomfortable.
“Nah, this is a shortcut.” He smirks and uses his chin to motion towards the empty semi-detached houses in the derelict yard.
Even though I’m wearing a thick parka, I shiver and wrap my arms around my chest, holding myself together. That yard isn’t somewhere I want to go. It’s probably not somewhere that most people want to go, and with my newfound revelation about Callum, there is nowhere else I’d rather not be than in that yard with him.
“I don’t mind taking the long way, Callum, really. It’s no bother.” My voice wavers slightly as I attempt to convey indifference to his short cut, wispy puffs of steam hitting the icy air with each rapid breath I exhale.
“C’mon. It’s not as scary as it looks. I cut through here all the time.” He grins like a Cheshire cat as he walks backwards toward the hole in the fence, his empty eyes not leaving mine until the last second when he spins and ducks through the fence and into the yard.
I hesitate, looking up and down the street to see if I can run away and not be caught by Callum before I get home. Even if I do get away, if I don’t follow him I have no doubt that tomorrow at school won’t be as pleasant as it was today, so I inhale and press my cold lips together, forcing my feet forward by sheer will.
The sound of footsteps approaching from a nearby corner jolts my already pounding heart and I leap headfirst through the gap in the fence without thinking.
“Bloody hell!” I drop my bag on the ground and clamp my gloved hands around my calf. There’s a two-inch gash in my flesh where I caught my trousers on the edge of the metal fencing. I’m so busy cursing my wound and my stupidity that I don’t realize how close Callum is until his feet are less than a meter from mine.
I flinch back, my heart racing. “Callum! You frightened me!” For a moment, I forget about my injury and take a step back to put a little more distance between us.
The fence behind me creaks and I pivot my head just in time to see another boy from school entering the desolate courtyard.
Oh shit.
“Caaaalllll, why didn’t you tell me you were going this waaaaay?” he says in a singsong voice that lets me know his presence here is anything but a coincidence.
“I t-t-think I’ll just walk home the usual w-way.” I try to speak in as bright a manner as possible when I’m about to collapse from fear.
“What? Why would you do that?” Callum says, his dark, lifeless eyes studying my expression carefully as he cocks his head, a delighted spark forming behind his cold stare.
He wants me to be afraid. He likes it.
“Cal, I thought you said this one would be fun,” the friend whines in a mocking manner.
“Ryan, she is fun.” Callum swings his black gaze back to me and steps forward. “Right Ellie? You’re a fun girl, aren’t you?”
Swallowing loudly, I take another step back, my heart pounding so fast that I think it may explode in my chest. The fight or flight response we learned in science class last year is not something I ever wanted to experience firsthand, but here I am, trying to decide if I should claw and kick and scream or turn and run as fast as I can.
I’m not stupid though. I know I have zero chance at either overpowering Callum and Ryan or outrunning them. I am thoroughly and properly fucked. The only way I’m getting out of this yard in one piece is to talk my way out.
“Of course, Callum, I’m loads of fun.” I know I sound completely unconvincing. Damn my nerves! I take off my gloves and clench my hands into fists, digging my nails into my frozen palms in an attempt to use the pain to focus on staying calm.
“See, Ryan,” Callum steps even closer to me. “I told you.”
