Chim - Don't Help Me

Chapter 30

The bed is cold.

She's gone. She must be gone. That's the only reasonable explanation. I adjust upright, shuffling off of the bed, tearing the sheets with me. 8:15. It's 8:15. Normally I would be out the door for work around now, on a Friday, but I'd taken some leave to look after Cheryl; and now she isn't even here.

I scramble out of bed, still dressed in a simple nightshirt. I tear open the curtains, as if expecting to find her running down the street, as far away as possible. But what I see, what I see I could never have expected.

There are so many of them.

So, so many. I don't even try to count them before swarms of lights suddenly brighten the front garden, blinding my eyes. Flashes. Flashes from a camera. Shit. I close the curtains as quickly as possible, protecting my dignity, protecting her dignity.

And suddenly I know that she hasn't left, not again. She's here somewhere, just waiting for me to find her. Frantically I search around the room, as if expecting her to pop up out of nowhere, but she doesn't.

"Cheryl?" I call out, but I get no reply. Maybe she has left after all. Without an explanation. Without even so much as a note this time.

I call out again, but there are no sounds in the house to tell me that she is here. Though somewhere, somehow, I know she is. I can feel it. I look all around the apartment, my room, the bathroom, kitchen, living area, but as far as I can tell she isn't there. I sigh loudly, leaning on the kitchen counter and rubbing my head. She has to be here, she just has to be.

Picking up my keys, I storm towards the door, determined to find her. And that's when I see it. Cheryl. Huddled up against the wall, arms wrapped tight around her knees... sobbing.

"There are so many of them Kimba." She whispers out, holding her hand up to her mouth, trembles wracking their way through her body.

I run over to her. She's sat against the wall furthest away from any windows, suffering in darkness, no light penetrating the space around her tiny body. Afraid of the men with their cameras.

"I know babe... Shh, come here. Come her Chez." I sit next to her, wrapping my arm around her, her head now rested on my shoulder.

"How?... How did they know?"

"I don't know babe, I just... I don't know."

We sit in silence for a long while. Neither speaking, but both thinking the same thing.

"Who? Who would do this?"

"Cheryl, I honestly don't know." I mutter out as I run my fingers through her hair.

"Don't give me that. How many people have you told hey? Do you just go around telling everybody then?!"

"Cheryl! No! I honestly have no idea who would do this. Why are you being like this all the sudden?!"

"Why am I being like this?! Because I wake up to a hoard of fcuking paps, camping outside when they aren't even to know I'm here. Bullshit." She breathes out, wriggling out of my arms "No wonder I can't trust people, they don't deserve to be trusted." I am gobsmacked, leaning against the wall with my mouth wide open in shock.

"Well who else knows Kimberley?! Nadine and Sarah?!"

"Are you fcuking kidding me?!" I'm angry too now, standing up and fighting back, for the first time in a long time.

"Kimberley, I just don't understand!" She sighs dramatically throwing her hands in the air in defeat.

"Has it ever occurred to you that it could be Ashley?"