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‘Alright, shit stains,’ Jamie said, raising his voice to be heard over the tinny music from the ghetto blaster someone had brought. He lived near Sylvie and Victoria, and was one of the group they hung around with in the park sometimes. They’d bumped into him and some of the other lads earlier and agreed to go up to the lake for something to do.

He flicked his torch up, and in the beam of light, otherworldly, someone was coming towards them. From what he had called her, Sylvie knew it must be Michelle.

‘Don’t say that to her, don’t be tight,’ Sylvie said, but no one heard over the music and the chatter. Either that or they ignored her. She wondered whether she’d said it out loud at all.

Another torch pinged on.

‘Hi, Michelle, you alright?’ Sylvie said.

‘Yeah, hi.’

‘Just passing, were you?’ one of the other boys said. ‘Just happened to be walking by all the way up here?’

‘Yeah, I just wondered where you lot were, that’s all. Thought you might be here.’

Sylvie was sitting on one of the wooden picnic benches around the edge of the lake and she patted the space next to her for Michelle to sit down. Michelle almost fell back the first time she tried to step up, and the boys laughed. Sylvie winced.

Jamie and Harrison started to pretend they were sniffer dogs, Harrison on his hands and knees, crawling along the floor.

‘What is that smell?’ he said to Jamie, following his nose around.

‘Smells suspiciously like… shit to me,’ Jamie said.

Michelle shifted in her seat.

‘Just leave it now and stop being dickheads,’ Sylvie said. She could feel herself shaking, but it seemed to work and Harrison and Jamie stood up and lost interest. Jamie turned the music up and started dancing around, singing up to the moon.

‘Where’s Vic?’ Michelle said.

‘She’s with Lee somewhere,’ Harrison said, and he sent the torch around the lake like a lighthouse beam. ‘Why, do you want to go and watch?’

‘You don’t fancy going for “a walk” with me, Sylv?’ Jamie said, winking theatrically at Harrison.

‘No, you’re alright, thanks.’

Sylvie felt Michelle bristle next to her. Maybe she wanted to be asked.

‘So, what’s everyone been up to?’ Michelle asked, but Jamie and Harrison ignored her, jumping up and down to the dance music.

‘Not much,’ Sylvie said. ‘Just hanging around, you know.’

Out of the darkness a figure emerged, then another. Victoria and Lee.

‘Oi oi,’ Jamie said. ‘Where you two been then?’

Victoria pulled her sleeves over her hands and climbed on the bench next to Sylvie, their arms touching. Sylvie thought she seemed subdued. Lee went over to Jamie and offered his hand. Jamie was about to take it then pulled it away.

‘Eurgh, fuck off.’ The boys jostled and nudged each other, laughing.

‘Who invited shit stains over there?’ Sylvie heard Lee say. She tried to cough to cover the words so Michelle didn’t hear them, but she knew it was probably already too late.

Jamie ran up the embankment that overlooked the car park and shone his torch.

‘Ey up, we’ve got some action over here, lads.’

‘What is it? What’s going on?’ Michelle sprang off the bench.

‘Keep your voice down, will you?’ Lee said, a snarl.

Sylvie looked at Victoria to see whether she would say anything, that he shouldn’t talk to Michelle like that, but she was engrossed in examining her shoes.

‘What’s up with you?’ Sylvie whispered, nudging her.

‘Nothing,’ she said, without looking up, twisting her body away. ‘Come on, let’s go with these.’

Lee and Jamie led the way with the torches and they all clambered up the hill. Harrison ran up behind and pinched Sylvie hard on the bottom as she was bending to grip on to the grass. Her cheeks burned, anger blooming, but by the time she realised what had happened he was already ahead again with the other two boys.

They all ran down the slope on the other side, threatening to crash into one another. When they got to the bottom they each flared out onto the gravel like a Red Arrows display.

‘What are we doing here?’ Sylvie said. ‘I don’t like it. Let’s just go back.’

‘We’re gonna crash someone’s party,’ Jamie said, hopping around with excitement. In the moonlight he looked like some kind of sprite.

They trooped across the car park, all the light from the torch cast in front of them. There was a car parked on the far side.

‘Hey, let’s just leave it,’ Sylvie said.

‘Just come on. It will be a laugh,’ Victoria said, beckoning her. ‘Do you have to be so boring? Man up, will you.’

Sylvie could see that the car was moving from side to side, rocking, and sourness flooded her mouth.

‘I’m not doing this. I’m going back,’ she said.

‘Alright, I’ll see you later on then,’ Victoria said, lowering her voice, not looking back. ‘Maybe tomorrow.’

Sylvie felt herself pulled along with them. Michelle was already up front with the boys. They had turned their torches off now. Sylvie could just hear the crunch of gravel at different angles, signposting where people were. She kept spinning around, looking behind her, thinking she heard it there too.

They reached the car and automatically formed a circle around it. Mentally, Sylvie had felt herself turn and run, back towards home. But she was still standing there rooted to the spot, mouth paper-dry, blood pumping in her ears.

The boys shushed everyone and Michelle stifled giggles.

‘One, two, three,’ Harrison whispered, and the torches popped on, blinding Sylvie for a second. They pointed them into the car and Sylvie couldn’t help but look. At first it was a blur, glare off the glass, but then she could make out a tangle of arms and legs, a naked bottom in the air. She froze and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she was looking right into the shocked face of a woman through the window, black smudges under her eyes, bare shoulders visible.

A fist against the glass from the inside made Sylvie’s heart bounce. The man’s fist. The boys exploded into laughter.

‘Run!’ Harrison shouted as they heard the sound of the car door handle.

Someone yanked at Sylvie and she turned and ran. The noise of the running and scraping on the gravel felt as if it was right up against her ear. Sylvie kept looking back then spinning forwards again, the night around her fracturing into sharp, jagged pieces. Somehow she powered straight up the embankment again and over to the lake. She couldn’t tell who was where. She almost stopped to get her breath; it felt like she was swallowing in lumps of solid air. They’d all laugh about it soon.

‘Oi! Where are you, you little perverts?’ The voice was coming from the other side of the embankment. Distant but closing in.

‘Keep going.’ Jamie shot past her and stooped, barely dropping pace, to pick up the ghetto blaster.

Someone waved a torch and it gave a strobe-light effect, a disorientating prism. Sylvie didn’t know which way to run.

The sound of a heavy splash.

‘Wait!’ she shouted. But the others ran on ahead. Maybe they hadn’t heard her. Sylvie wondered if the man had fallen in. Should she help him out?

‘Who is it?’ she called and the response was a choked, whooping sound. Someone gasping for air.

‘It’s me!’ It was Michelle.

For a few seconds, Sylvie hopped from foot to foot. There was no sign of the man at the top of the embankment. The impulse to just leave was still strong. She heard another long, pained gasp, and before she knew she was going to jump, she had landed in the water. It was up to her knees. She followed the sounds of Michelle’s thrashing. The ground that her feet were on suddenly dropped and the water was up to her waist. It made her fall forwards, grabbing at the lake, foul water going into her mouth. The bottom of the lake was known to be uneven, shelves appearing and disappearing from nowhere. Her foot hit something solid and she tripped, freezing water shocking her face, her hair sticking to her.

Hands grabbed at her, nails digging in.

‘Sylvie, is it you?’ Michelle was speaking through mouthfuls of water, still splashing her hands everywhere.

Sylvie grabbed Michelle’s hands and began to pull her up, the weight almost dragging Sylvie back down.

‘Michelle, you’re OK. You just fell. You’re OK.’

‘I didn’t know which way to go,’ Michelle said, her breathing too fast. ‘I walked the wrong way.’

They were both upright now and Sylvie pulled Michelle towards the edge of the lake. Her teeth began to chatter. Sylvie climbed out first, her clothes heavy. She reached down and managed to haul Michelle out, too, her weight almost pulling them both back in.

Michelle’s breathing was still laboured and she went to hug Sylvie. Then the voice came again.

‘Oi! You dirty little pervs.’

‘Run!’ Sylvie said to Michelle. Her limbs felt like lead from all the water.

When she reached the lake entrance, Victoria was there, leaning against a lamp post. ‘What the hell are you doing?’ she said.

‘Just run. He’s coming.’ Sylvie’s breathing was loud and whooping, she couldn’t drag enough air in.

Victoria grabbed Sylvie’s hand and they ran across the road, not stopping to look whether anything was coming. Victoria climbed over the gate into the field. It was a shortcut to their houses.

‘Wait, where’s Michelle?’ Sylvie looked behind her and there was no one.

‘Leave her. She must have run down the other way,’ Victoria said. ‘She’ll be fine. Come on!’

Sylvie climbed over the gate too. Water was dripping off the bottom of her trousers now. She checked behind them again. There was no sign of the man or anyone else.

‘We shouldn’t have left Michelle,’ Sylvie said. ‘I feel bad.’

‘She shouldn’t have run head first into the lake, stupid cow,’ Victoria said, picking up her pace.

‘It wasn’t her fault. I was panicking too,’ Sylvie said.

‘It was just a joke, Sylvie. We were only mucking about. Get a grip.’

They walked the rest of the way in silence until they reached the road.

‘Right, I’ll see you tomorrow, then,’ Sylvie said. She was cold now and she wasn’t much in the mood for being around Victoria any more. It would blow over tomorrow.

‘Yeah, whatever,’ Victoria said and started to cross the road towards her house.

Headlights came on in a parked car over the road. Its engine was humming low and the horn blared out. At first Sylvie thought it was the couple from the lake again, and she started to run. The door opened and Sylvie turned.

There were two people standing on either side of the car. Victoria’s dad and Sylvie’s mum. Peter and Margaret.

‘Sylvie,’ Margaret said, schoolmarmish. ‘What on earth are you doing?’

Victoria was already walking towards the car. Sylvie drifted over too.

‘What’s going on?’ Sylvie said, confused.

‘Never mind you asking, you tell us what’s going on,’ Peter said. ‘Look at the state of you both.’

No one said anything.

‘I was just dropping your mum off home, Sylvie. I don’t expect to see you two traipsing around looking like you’ve been dragged through a bush backwards. What is going on?’ Peter looked between the two girls.

‘Well?’ Margaret barked. ‘Sylvie, you are soaked through. No one is going anywhere until we get some answers. Don’t know about you, Peter, but I’ve got all night.’ She looked at him and he nodded.

‘I’m in no rush.’ He held out his wrist, pretending to look at his watch.

Victoria stepped forwards. ‘We went up to the lake,’ she said. ‘It was dark and Sylvie thought she saw someone and she fell in the lake. She got scared and lost her footing. I helped her out.’

‘Is that right, Sylvie?’ Margaret scrutinised her face. Her voice was stretched with disbelief.

Sylvie nodded.

‘You thought you saw someone or you did see someone?’ Peter said.

‘We did see someone but we got away,’ Victoria said.

‘Who did you see?’

‘It was just a man,’ Victoria said. ‘It was dark.’

‘Did he say something? Did he try and hurt you?’

‘We got away. We’re fine.’ Victoria had her weight on just one foot.

‘I can’t understand why you were up there.’ Margaret shook her head. ‘Who were you with?’

‘Just us. We just like it up there. It’s quiet and there’s a good view of the moon,’ Victoria said.

Margaret narrowed her eyes. It was obvious she didn’t believe what they’d said.

‘Well, you don’t go up there ever again, you hear me? Or you’re grounded permanently.’ Margaret grabbed Sylvie’s shoulder and shook her lightly.

Both girls nodded and looked to the ground. Victoria tilted her face a little and winked at Sylvie. Sylvie pushed her head further down to hide the smile creeping across her face.

Peter drove them home, Victoria in the front with her dad, Margaret in the back with Sylvie. No one spoke.

When they got into the house, Sylvie tried to run straight upstairs. Margaret reached up and grabbed her by the ankle.

‘Are you going to tell Dad about it?’ Sylvie asked.

‘No,’ Margaret said, ‘and neither are you. He’s got enough on his mind. Get those wet things off now and go to bed. And you don’t ever go up to that lake again at night. You hear me? Ever. Or you will be sorry.’