Her lover looked at her with an expression Eden had never seen before. It wasn’t the face of the woman she knew. It was almost as if something totally alien was looking mockingly back at her. ‘I’ve done what you were too spineless to do, Eden.’ Her voice was icy and as dark as the night.
Suddenly, Rebecca lunged forward, grabbing Eden’s wrist in a vice-like grip. ‘Join him, why don’t you? If you loved him too much to kill him, then join him, have him, have him forever, he’s all yours!’
She was being propelled towards the cliff edge, Eden realized, her brain too frozen in terror to make any sense of what was happening. This wasn’t Bex, this was some kind of a demon. Pulling her towards the edge.
‘Bex! Stop!’ Eden tried to break free of Rebecca’s grip. But with one sharp tug she was propelled forward again, straight at the edge, only Rebecca gripping her wrist preventing her from falling. As Rebecca did so, she swung Eden round.
Eden screamed, convinced she was being thrown over the clifftop. But Rebecca kept her grip, swinging her in a wide arc, right to the very edge, then back round until she was now between the edge and Eden.
Eden felt the wind ripping at her. Stared back at the strange, manic expression in her lover’s face. Her lover who was now a total stranger. The cliff edge was just a few feet behind Rebecca now. But she knew that with Rebecca’s skills, if she tried a lunge, she could be flipped over her head in an instant.
Panic completely gripped her. She did the only move she could think of and threw herself backwards and sideways onto the ground, taking Rebecca face down with her. She lashed out with her free left hand, feeling pain in her knuckles as it struck Rebecca’s face, then twisted, desperately trying to break away from the grip on her wrist. She rolled over sideways and her arm came free, but she was disorientated now, as Rebecca leaped back on top of her. Rolling. Eden didn’t know which way. Towards or away from the edge? Pinning both arms to the ground now.
‘BEX! What the hell are—?’
Rebecca’s face was inches from her own. She felt her lover’s warm breath on her face. ‘You never thought it through, my lovely Eden, did you? So sweet of you to leave me everything, then join your hubby in a suicide pact. I’ll always be so grateful to you.’
Suddenly, Eden felt hands gripping her hair, pulling her even closer towards Bex’s face. So close she was now staring into her eyes, nose to nose, forehead to forehead.
‘You really fell for it,’ Rebecca said. ‘But we did have some very special moments, didn’t we? Too bad we won’t get to have any more. In a different life, I could have been really hot for you.’
Eden suddenly felt herself being jerked sharply and agonizingly upwards by her ears. Upwards. Upwards. She flailed with her arms, hands, feet, trying to get traction on something, anything. Then, in a lightning move, Rebecca released her ears and gripped both wrists. ‘This is goodbye, darling. There’s nobody here to save you, nobody’s been following us. It’s just you and me,’ she said.
A loud shout startled them both.
Eden felt the grip slacken momentarily.
‘Police! Stop right now, this is the police!’
An instant later, in a whirlwind of confusion, Eden felt herself being barged over, Rebecca’s grip broken, and she crashed to the ground. She was being dragged on her back by her coat through the wet grass, yelling, writhing her body, trying to lash out with her legs.
Finally, she was released. A man, tie askew, was kneeling over her. ‘It’s OK,’ Roy Grace said, ‘I’m a police officer, you’re OK, I’ve got you.’
She stared back at him in the darkness for an instant, then all she could think of was that she was being arrested. She tried to get to her feet, but he held her down. She began struggling, shaking wildly, screaming hysterically now and lashing out like something possessed, trying to break free. ‘Let me go, let me go, let me go!’
Desperately aware of another struggle going on just a few feet away, Grace did the only think he could think of. He yelled, ‘Shut the fuck up, I’m here to help you, not nick you!’
Somehow it did the trick. She calmed down instantly, staring up at him with blinking eyes.
‘I’m a police officer, understand?’
She nodded.
He let go of her, in time to see Branson rolling around on the ground, entangled with Rebecca Watkins.
Glenn Branson felt like he was wrestling with a creature that had a tiger’s head and the body of a vicious, writhing snake. Using all his training, he tried to pin the woman’s arms to the ground, but, catching him by surprise, she shifted her hips sideways, slipping her arms free, and jammed her fingers, agonizingly and blindingly, into both of his eyes.
He’d done self-defence training back in his days as a night-club bouncer, and he realized at this moment she’d clearly had combat or martial arts training too.
He tried to log in his mind where the edge of the cliff was, and had his arms outstretched to keep her off while he regained some of his vision. But then he felt a searing pain; she’d seen the opportunity to hyperextend his straightened arm and was attempting to pop his elbow.
He flung himself sideways, breaking free, before he felt her body slam into his hip from the side, pushing him.
Pushing him where?
He couldn’t stop her. Her base was low, and she’d seized her opportunity to use his own momentum as he lunged sideways. Even though she was far smaller and lighter than he was, it was nigh on impossible to drive back against her.
His training was kicking in, his brain almost going into slow motion. Thinking. But all he could see was darkness. And from the swirling updraught on his face, he knew he was just inches from the edge, from a drop into — oblivion.
Had to get away from the edge.
Had to seize the advantage. He needed to do a move she wasn’t expecting and surprise her.
Suddenly, he twisted back towards her and, keeping low, sprang at her with every ounce of strength he had in his body. But he could not believe the almost superhuman strength that came back at him, as if she’d been expecting this move.
A second later she slammed him down hard on the ground, her weight driving into his ribs, and he heard a loud crack as the air left his body in an involuntary groan. Dazed by the blinding pain in his midriff, alongside the shock that he had just been slammed by someone half his size, he tried desperately to think clearly, to work out what to do. He was compromised, hurt and in real trouble.
Wind tore at his face. He was on his back, and she was on top of him, and suddenly had her hands around his neck. Crushing it, pushing her thumbs into his windpipe. He saw her grunting face right in front of his as she pushed all her body weight down on him to tighten the choke. Despite struggling badly for oxygen, he knew this was his chance.
He snapped his head forward and down, hard, and heard the loud crunch, at the same time feeling the pain as he smashed into the bridge of her nose. She yelped, loosening her grip. Seizing the instant, he pushed up and sideways, again with everything he had.
He heard a choked yelp of surprise as her weight was suddenly gone from his chest. A split-second later he felt a vice-like grip on his ankles and a terrific weight.
Pulling him sideways and down.
Shit. He was right on the edge. She’d gone over, he realized, and was hanging onto his legs. Her weight pulling him steadily over, too.
He tried to lash out with his feet, but her grip was too tight.
‘Help me!’ she yelled, her voice stricken with terror. ‘God help me!’
Glenn’s hands struggled for a purchase on the sodden grass. But they were sliding, gripping at tufts that tore away. His whole body was sliding towards the edge. Closer.
He was in agony all down his chest, and he tasted blood in his mouth. ‘Roy!’ he yelled in desperation, the wind whipping away his voice. Sliding further. And suddenly there was no longer any ground beneath his bum. He grabbed frantically at larger clumps of grass which instantly ripped free in his hands. Then he touched something hard, solid, with his right hand — a rock — and gripped it tightly. For a few agonizing seconds, his chest feeling like it was being ripped in half, it stopped his slide. Then, to his terror, he was losing his grip and he slid forward again, the woman’s deadweight still hanging from his ankles.