Saving Amy (34 page)

“Shh, shh, Amy, it’s me. It’s just me.” My eyes sprang open and I had never been so happy to see those glistening green eyes in front of me.

“Oh, Richard!” He held me at arms length, examining me with his eyes. “You’re not supposed to be back yet. I thought - I thought you were…
him
.”

Overwhelmed and completely and utterly exhausted, I collapsed to the floor.

When I came round I was
lying
back on the four-seater with my head sunk into a plump feather pillow and my body tucked into a red fleece blanket. Richard was by my side in seconds, kneeling on the floor and stroking my hair, his
eyes
assessing mine.

“I’m sorry about your vase,” was the first thing that popped into my mind.

“
Really?
” he asked with a mischievous glint in his eye.

“Of course! Why wouldn’t I be?” I asked, furrowing my eyebrows, befuddled by his response.

“Maybe because it was a gift from Joanna.” A wicked smile illuminated his face and I noticed he was biting his bottom lip to stop a laugh exploding straight through it.

“Oh. Well, maybe I’m not
that
sorry.”

Ugh. Will I ever get through
one
day without hearing or thinking of her name?

“In fact, if I
had
known, I probably would’ve smashed it sooner.” Richard threw his head back, exposing his smooth, muscular neck, no longer able to contain his laughter.

I couldn’t help but smile at the sight of him - head back, Adam’s apple bobbing up and down, tears of laughter sparkling in the corners of his striking green eyes... He looked so carefree this way, so young, so… beautiful.

“I’m sorry I scared you. I just wanted to surprise you.”

“No,
I’m
sorry. I just don’t know how much longer I can go on like this.”

“Baby, you don’t have to go on like this. You can’t,” he said, brushing his thumb over my cheekbone and nearing his face to mine. “You can’t let him destroy your life. If you do, he’s won.” I shook my head, trying to form some kind of reply out of the words tumbling around inside. “Amy, you have been through so much in your life and come out the other side. You
can
do this.”

Confusion swept over my face. He was right, of course. My father had caused me pain far worse than this and yet somehow I still managed to function (be happy even) knowing he was still roaming the streets. So why did this feel so much harder?
So much more impossible?

Maybe because now I had so much to lose.
There was a time I had nothing for him to ruin. I didn’t care what he took from me. I wouldn’t have cared if he’d ended me completely.

But I couldn’t lose Richard…

“Amy, you
can
do this.” Richard repeated himself. “We can do it
together
.”

I nodded meekly.
I
can
do this. We
can
do this.
I repeated the mantra in my mind, fighting desperately to believe it.

“We
can
do this,” I said and then took up residence in his outstretched arms.
I can do this. We can do this…
My subconscious remained sceptical but I was determined to give it my best shot regardless. My life had only just begun and I wanted it back. I
would
get it back.

**********

“Chop chop! Time to get up!” Richard chirped as he twisted the blinds open. Dazzling sunlight pierced my eyes and I huffed and groaned before throwing a pillow over my face. Of course the annoying bastard removed it.

“No time for that. Now get your lazy ass out of bed,” he teased with that mischievous wink which made being mad an impossibility. I rolled onto my side, closing my eyes and ignoring him.

“Don’t make me pour water on you!” he threatened. It may sound ridiculous but he had in fact done that to me before.
A full pitcher of cold water (
with
ice) straight over my face because he wanted to get to the grocery store before it got busy.
Seriously…

“Fine!” I sat up, resting my back against the headboard. “Where are we going?” I asked through a yawn, noticing he was all set for the day. He was dressed in dark blue jeans with a black belt and a white turtleneck sweater, and his auburn hair was freshly washed and styled to its usual dishevelled perfection.
Yummy…

“We’re going on a day out,” he announced with a wicked grin that told me he was giving away nothing.

“A day out where?” I asked pointlessly. He tapped his forefinger against his nose.

“Somewhere fun!” Yep, he was disclosing nothing.

Worth a try…

“Fun?”

“Fun. Now get dressed,” he ordered playfully and then turned to leave the bedroom. “Oh, and wrap up warm,” he added over his shoulder.

Warm?
So, wherever we were going was outdoors I could only assume.

**********

We’d been driving for twenty-five minutes and Richard had remained cunningly silent the whole time.

“Close your eyes,” Richard said as he pulled off the interchange.

“For how long?” I asked in a how-long-are-you-going-to-keep-this-up tone.

“Just do it,” he replied, feigning exasperation. I rolled my eyes and then did as I was told.

“How much longer?” I pressed. At least five minutes must have passed and my eyelids were aching from forcing them closed against their will.

“Nearly there. No peeking.” The urge to ignore him and steal a sneaky glance was more than a little tempting but I decided against it, unsure of how convincing my fake ‘surprised’ face would be.

Moments later the purr of the engine ceased as Richard killed the engine. Curiosity flooded my veins and I found myself clapping like a deranged sea lion in anticipation.

“Open your eyes.”

“What the…”

I looked ahead at a set of enormous arched red entrance gates with a bright blue and red steel sign which read ‘Welcome to Twisted Towers Amusement Park’ attached to it. Beyond the gates was a mass of multi-coloured steel twisting and dipping in every direction. Rollercoasters, carousels, and sky-high steel bars throwing carriages down its vertical drop into a huge black hole…

My eyes widened in astonishment, excitement and a fair sized dollop of fear.

“You ready?” Richard asked with a wicked glint in his eyes as he clicked off his seatbelt.

“I-I-” I wanted to say ‘no, I’ve never been on a rollercoaster in my life and I’m absolutely shitting my pants’ but the words kept getting lost in the bile rising up my throat.

“Come on,” he ordered enthusiastically, cocking his head for me to follow him. Hesitantly, I unbuckled myself and stepped out of the car.

Richard was already by my side with his hand out for me to take. The cold air slapped me in the face and I was glad I followed his advice and dressed in a vest top, t-shirt
and
cream chenille sweater with skinny-jeans and knee high boots for the occasion.

He guided me through the red gates and into the maze of death trap steel spirals. A short thin girl with purple hair slipped a blue wristband onto Richard’s wrist (her cheeks beaming as she eyed up the ridiculously handsome man in front of her) and then turned to me to do the same, not bothering to look at me at all.

“Let’s ease you in gently,” Richard teased with an impish wink as we approached the swirling merry-go-round.

I giggled like an idiot as he pulled me up the three brass trimmed steps and then lifted me onto a pink and white wooden horse with a painted golden mane. Richard took up position of chief rider at the front (typical boy) and I snaked my arms around his waist. A rumble and a judder followed and then we were spinning - twirling into the icy breeze, up, down, round and round with a playful piano tune dancing into our cold red ears.

Next, we hit the teacups and my stomach churned as Richard spun us around faster and faster, thrusting all his weight into turning the wheel as hard as he could. My cheeks stung against the cold air and laughter (such, intense, unstoppable laughter) burned my throat. Richard was in his element, his green eyes wide and glistening with child-like excitement. It was like he was reliving his childhood and it was such a precious sight.

After hitting the dodgems and the haunted house we took a much needed break (for me anyway) and settled ourselves down on a wooden picnic table under the seclusion of a circle of bare oak trees that led onto the nature trail. Richard handed me a Styrofoam cup of hot chocolate and a stick of pink cotton candy bigger than my head.

“Hmm, it’s stickier than I thought it would be,” I said, smacking my lips together at the unfamiliar taste.

“Are you saying you’ve never had cotton candy before?” he asked, widening his eyes and snapping his back upright in his seat like I’d just told him I was born with a ten inch dick.

“Nope, never.” And why would I? He must have forgotten that up until the day he saved my life in every way possible, I spent most of my life hiding away in my bedroom.

“And I can’t say I’ve missed out. It’s actually pretty disgusting,” I decided, feeling queasy as the crystals of pure sugar dissolved on my tongue.

“You’re probably right. But you can’t visit a theme park without cotton candy. It’s the law,” he teased through a soft, irresistible laugh.

I rinsed the sickening stickiness from my mouth with a sip of my hot chocolate, which as it happened tasted jack shit like chocolate. I wrinkled my nose and put the cup back on the bench.

“Something wrong?”

“It tastes like piss.”

“You’ve tried piss? Any good?” he tried to say seriously but his smile betrayed him. If only I’d had a pillow to throw at him right now. I curled my frozen fingers around the cup of hot piss disguised as chocolate and the warmth brought some
much needed
life back into them. At least it came in useful for something.

“Right, time to take things up a notch.” Richard rubbed his hands together like an evil villain whose plan was about to come to fruition. I followed his gaze towards a gigantic rollercoaster that spread across the majority of the park and twisted and looped in every direction.

Oh shit…

“Richard I don’t think-” He cut me off with an ice-cold finger over my lips, which were turning a deathly shade of blue.

“Trust me,” he said with a devilish wink.

“I do trust
you
. It’s that pile of rusty steel I don’t trust.” Richard threw his head back and laughed. I swear if my hands hadn’t been so cold I would’ve ripped them straight out of my pockets and punched that smile straight off his face.

“Jesus Christ! Did that thing just go upside down?” A wicked smile was the only response I got.

My jaw smacked into the concrete on the ground beneath my feet as I watched The Tremor (although in my opinion it should’ve been called The Ride of Impending Death) drawing to a close. Our turn came around too soon and my heart slammed against my ribs as the strong (hopefully strong) padded bars lowered themselves down over my head and locked (hopefully locked) into place around my chest. I was absolutely shitting myself, clenching my ass cheeks together to stop me
literally
shitting myself, and the damn thing hadn’t even started moving.

I could feel Richard’s smile boring in to the side of my face but I couldn’t look at him for fear I might lean over and kill him. At that moment in time I was livid with him. I was about to loop the loop to my death and it was
all his
fault.

Stupid, irresponsible, gorgeous bastard.

The red light above the carriages flipped to green and I decided this was the time to close my eyes. We set off with a thunderous
clatter which
stopped my heart from beating. Then we moved slowly at first – going upwards, I
think
. Before stopping completely. I waited anxiously for it to start moving again but it didn’t, causing sickening fear to pulse through me.

It’s broken
.
I knew it. Oh, sweet Jesus we’re all going to die!

Struggling to come to terms with my imminent death, I did something that could only be described as stupid and utterly reckless… I opened my eyes.

“
Holy fuck!
” I yelled out loud. We were teetering on the edge of an almost vertical drop. The trees that towered above us on the picnic table looked like they belonged in a doll’s house. And then…

“Aaaaaaargh!” My stomach catapulted out of my body and I could feel my brain beating crap out of the walls of my skull. Before I squeezed my petrified eyes closed again I caught a glimpse of Richard’s arms raised high in the air.
How the hell? My
hands were welded to the metal bar in front of me, certain that if I let go I would plummet to my death.

It was a good job my stomach was already splattered on the ground below because it would without a doubt have been spilling it’s contents right now, as I was flown upside down twice in succession. Soon after, I was lulled into another false sense of security when we stopped for yet another dramatic pause. And then…bam! We were diving towards the ground so fast my teeth smacked into my tongue.
Ow!

“Amy, you can open your eyes. We’ve stopped.” Richard nudged my arm but I didn’t open my eyes. Knowing what a thrill he seemed to get out of my suffering I pondered whether he was lying, and if really we were hovering in the middle of the sky again waiting for another violent dose of brain-shake.