Pretty Little Things: 2018’s most nail-biting serial killer thriller with an unbelievable twist

‘Does it still hurt?’

I nod. ‘Sometimes. I wonder if any of the metal was left inside, but . . .’ I trail off, avoid looking at her. ‘I’m a bit worried about what this will look like at the fete.’

Savannah folds her well-toned arms again and shakes her head. ‘No one will be looking at the scar. I think it’s looking a little better.’

I shake my head. ‘I can’t help but think that when people see my face, that’s how they judge me, how they see me – the victim of something awful.’

She smiles with sympathy. ‘It was awful. You’re allowed to feel like this, Charlotte. It’s OK.’

‘I’m trying really hard not to feel like a victim.’ I laugh, hollow, devoid of any humour. ‘There are bigger things going on here now, more terrible.’

‘Charlotte, it is OK,’ she says again. ‘It’s natural to feel like this.’

‘But I don’t know what’s worse sometimes, seeing the look on some stranger’s face as they try to work out what must have happened to me or the glances from people who know me, who go out of their way to try and ignore what’s now a large part of my face.’

She shakes her head. ‘Those people mean well. It isn’t meant maliciously and really, hun, it’s not as noticeable as you think.’

Savannah is quite beautiful. This is easy for her to say.

I work in a newsagent’s in the village, part-time. Trust me, my accident and my face are on many people’s minds when they see me.

‘Tom was asking after you yesterday.’ She pauses. ‘Have you given much thought about maybe coming back? You know they’d have you back in a heartbeat.’

Before my accident I was a staff nurse for Amersham Hospital, Bucks NHS Hospitals Trust, along with Savannah and Ruth.

I loved my job. It was hard work, constantly demanding, each day throwing something new at you. I saw how well we all banded together, despite being under the constant strain of government cuts.

If it hadn’t been for the NHS, things would have turned out very different for me. Amersham was the nearest hospital in the immediate aftermath of the accident.

I had fallen unconscious in the ambulance but Iain’s told me since what happened on arrival.

There was so much blood on my battered face that my own work colleagues hadn’t recognised me at first. Even after the blood was washed away, the swelling was so bad I hadn’t looked like me. I’d looked like something alien – that’s what Iain said.

Plastics did the best they could. It’s likely I’ll have to have more surgery later on.

‘I’m not sure I’ll ever be ready to go back,’ I say and wipe at the tears that brim in my eyes.

‘Char, I know it’s early days still, but I think it’d do you good.’

‘What’s that?’

We both look up as Iain comes into the room. He smiles at Savannah and the look isn’t lost on me. I push strands of my long, dark hair from behind my ear, and brush them forward across half of my face, obscuring my scar.

‘I was saying Charlotte should consider coming back to the hospital. I think it’d do her good to be back with the rest of us.’

I shake my head, screw my face up.

‘It’d make you feel less isolated,’ she says. Then she half laughs. ‘Got to be better than working for Harry Evans, am I right?’

She says this in jest but she’s not far wrong.

Harry Evans is a miserable shit of a man who thinks that, because he lets me do the hours I want at his newsagent’s, I’m indebted to him. I guess in some ways I am, but I do wish I felt able to go back to the hospital.

Most of all I guess what I really want is my old friends back.

They say that when you face something tough in your life, you find out who your true friends are.

Whoever said that was so right.

Before the accident, I had lots, mainly people from the hospital. They were great and I overlooked the fact that they could be cliquey. As long as I was part of that clique, I wasn’t too bothered. Shallow of me, yes, but I’ve always had a need to fit in.

At school I always wanted to belong. Primary school was awful for me and when I moved on to secondary, I was determined to make more of an effort. By the time I got the job at Amersham, I felt blessed.

Savannah was without doubt my best friend at work, and she still is, but some of the others . . .? I guess they don’t know what to say to me any more.

‘Didn’t you get any more milk?’ Iain says, head obscured by the fridge door.

‘Was I supposed to?’

‘Yeah,’ he says as he shuts the fridge. His hand lingers in the handle. ‘Something else you forgot . . .’

Now he looks at me.

I feel my face flush.

‘Charlotte’s had a lot on, planning this fete,’ Savannah says. ‘Can’t blame her for forgetting the small things, so leave off.’ She smiles and playfully shoves Iain’s arm as he walks past her.

He grunts, but I see he buries a smile.

I haven’t seen him smile much lately, not like that anyway. Not because of me.

‘I’m off. Got a job in Rutland Heath,’ he says.

I stare at him and it’s like any other morning for him. Like the morning’s events haven’t registered.

‘You’re going to work? Even after what’s happened?’

He looks at me, confused.

‘Ruth and Mike . . . Caroline,’ I say.

He avoids my eyes. ‘Life has to carry on, Char. What good will it do to sit here and brood over it? It won’t help them.’ He looks at me now. ‘It won’t help you. You go into work as normal.’

I feel Savannah shift in her seat. She’s uncomfortable but trying hard to hide it. She doesn’t want to be caught in the middle any more than she already is with me and Iain. She sneaks me a look, subtly shakes her head.

I try hard to keep my voice light now. ‘When will you be back?’

‘I don’t know.’