At the same time that a board game was being laid out on Lisa Kirke’s dining room table, a sixty year old man in Worcester was sitting with his cordless phone in his hand, trying to decide whether or not to call the police. It was the first time she hadn’t sent her message and he was worried.
He had long ago come to an arrangement with Lisa, soon after Martha vanished. She would ring or email him every day, tell him she was safe. If he didn’t hear from her, he would assume something had gone wrong.
Timothy Burleigh knew that something was wrong, no call, no email, something was definitely amiss. He had become increasingly nervous when the sun began to set and he still hadn’t heard from her. It was possible she’d forgotten. No, that wasn’t true. She wouldn’t forget after so long. Something had gone wrong. Something had happened to her.
He had promised to protect her, protect them both. Martha had gone, disappeared, her trauma too great to bear. He didn’t blame her although it had hurt to lose contact with her. Lisa told him that Martha had done it to try and free herself from her past. But the two girls had kept in occasional touch with each other. He hadn’t pried, he had just made Lisa promise to let him know if Martha needed anything.
It had been a long time ago but he hadn’t forgotten his vow to protect them both, to make up for the failures of the past. He had let them down back then. He had let down all five of them.
Samuel Lyons had abused five girls at Beeches Care Home, although Martha had borne the worst of it, the most sickening treatment. Three of them had died in the fire with Samuel in the care home, at his care home. He had invested in it, he had profited from it. Was it his fault?
Although he hadn’t liked Samuel, he wasn’t responsible for staffing, that was the job of the home manager who had reeled off a list of the new employee’s credentials, all of which turned out to be false. But the truth didn’t come out until after the fire.
Samuel had abused at one care home after another, there were even rumours that he had killed, rumours which were proved accurate in the detailed enquiry that took place after the fire. The pieces had been put together. He had killed children, he had abused and murdered them. And then when the net had tightened around him, he had burned the place down with him and five children inside.
Timothy had been able to get two of them out, Lisa and Martha.
Martha had screamed at him, hating him for rescuing her instead of the others. She had to live with seeing three of her best friends burned alive. Even then, Burleigh had his doubts about Samuel or the Gamesman as he was already being called by the papers. Martha’s interview with the police had been leaked, the gruesome details of the board game he made them play, the way he made light of what he was going to do, the tabloids lapped it all up.
They chose that element to focus on, playing down the rest. It was barely mentioned that he had told the girls about a prophecy. He had been searching for an offering. He had to sacrifice the shining light among them, the others mere vassals to assist him in his quest. They had to burn in the flames, their essences going up to the Churymov comet, a comet that arrived once every ten years, a comet that held the Gods within it. If he failed to make the offering, the earth would be doomed.
Burleigh hadn’t forgotten that part of the interview. Ten years until the comet came back. What if there wasn’t just him that believed in the delusion? The police thought Lisa and Martha were safe. He wasn’t so sure.
Three dead because of a delusion. That was what had broken Martha. Knowing they had died because Samuel believed in an arcane ritual from the cult his mother had belonged to, a belief that allowed him to play with the offering first, to play in the most sickening manner.
Martha had vanished, hiding from her past. His only link to her was Lisa. Lisa who hadn’t sent her daily message for the first time ever.
He’d come to an agreement with her a month after the fire, when he became certain that it wasn’t Samuel’s body that had been found in the ruins, when he thought the Gamesman would come back to try and finish the job, complete the sacrifice, make his offering.
She would message Burleigh every day to say she was safe. Reassure him about her and Martha. She had kept to that agreement until today.
Something was wrong.
Martha refused to contact him every day, refused to even speak to anyone from that time except Lisa. She had been just twelve years old when it had happened. Orphaned, living in a care home, abused, then nearly burned to death, her friends killed. Was it any wonder she had decided not to trust adults with her safety? To run, to trust only herself?