Free Beyond Fear by Jaye Ford

and still chuckling quietly, Jodie pulled open Corrine’s door.
    ‘What’s so funny?’
    Jodie glanced at Hannah over the car and suppressed a smile. ‘Just Hannah drooling over the kitchen. Come on, you’ll love it in there.’
    They walked either side of her, an arm each around Corrine’s waist, waited patiently while she hopped up the steps on one foot and led her through the door. She stood for a moment by the closest tree trunk and moved her gaze across the room. ‘Mmm, not bad,’ she said. ‘Is the fire on yet? It’s freezing in here.’
    Jeez. Jodie pursed her lips, helped Hannah to lower her onto the lounge closest to the fire then stepped back to the door before Corrine could ask her to rearrange the cushions.
    ‘Big bag,’ Hannah murmured as they walked outside again.
    ‘We could put her in the boot if she takes up too much room on the lounge,’ Jodie said and laughed with Hannah all the way down the steps. She pulled open the driver’s door and turned the headlights off. She didn’t want to call Matt Wiseman in the morning to tell him she’d flattened the battery. He seemed like a nice guy but that might be pushing it a bit. The internal light went off as she shut the door. A lamp under the roof of the verandah was on but the beam didn’t make it past the steps and the darkness seemed to swell around them.
    ‘How much champagne do you think it’ll take for Corrine to pass out?’ Hannah asked.
    ‘We couldn’t fit that much in the car,’ Jodie said.
    Their cackles sounded like shots in the night air and white puffs of vapour from their mouths floated in the darkness. The hair on the back of Jodie’s neck stood up. She looked about uneasily.
    ‘Come on, let’s get this done,’ she said.
    The gravel crunched under their feet and the low-voltage light in the boot flickered as they unloaded as many bags as they could carry. They heaved them up the steps and deposited them at the door to the hallway. The fire was doing its job and the large open space was noticeably warmer. On the lounge, Corrine had taken off her broken boot and was massaging her ankle by the glow of a log burning and crackling in the hearth. The marble benchtops in the kitchen shone under halogen bulbs and the stove was framed by the bright light in the range hood that was whirring over a steaming pot Louise was stirring.
    Maybe they didn’t need the rest of the bags tonight, Jodie thought. She could survive without her suitcase – sleep in her undies, swish a bit of toothpaste around. One night of poor dental health wasn’t going to make her teeth fall out. Then she could shut the front door, lock out the darkness and the trepidation hanging on her shoulders, have a few glasses of wine and forget everything that had happened tonight.
    ‘Did you find my icebag?’ Corrine asked, stretching out on the lounge.
    Jodie and Hannah checked through the bags they’d carried in. No icebag.
    ‘The old bag needs her icebag,’ Hannah mumbled from the corner of her mouth.
    Jodie was smiling as she stepped out the front door again. Hannah was still riffling through her bag looking for gloves, so she pulled her coat against the cold and stood warily at the top of the steps. The darkness seemed darker after being inside. She lifted a hand to the front of her coat, spread her fingers and pressed the palm against her stomach. It was only a short walk to the car but she waited for Hannah to join her before descending the stairs into the blackness beyond the verandah.
    They had unloaded only half the remaining gear when the light in the boot flickered out.
    ‘Jesus,’ Jodie gasped. The darkness closed in on them and her heart sounded a drumbeat in her ears. She swallowed hard, bent back into the boot and began grabbing whatever she could feel. She passed each item to Hannah, heard her drop them on the gravel.
    ‘I think that’s it,’ Jodie said.
    ‘No, the icebag must still be in there,’ Hannah said.
    Jodie tried to swallow the