Ten - Erin

I picked up the dry-cleaning, bought the milk and bread, headed home. I walked automatically, my thoughts far from the steps I took back towards the home I hated. I had so far avoided the worst of the rain but as I ran up the front steps the storm began in earnest. Fat raindrops splattered my face and lightning filled the sky with sparks like camera flashes, the thunder rumbling deeply, never far behind. As I walked into the house I could hear Michelle in the kitchen, she was talking to someone, chatting happily away as if she were a normal sociable human being. I slipped my head round the kitchen door to check who it was and barely managed to stifle the weary sigh as I recognised my social worker. Michelle beamed at me unnaturally when she saw me and beckoned me to the seat beside her; I dumped the shopping on the side and hung her dry cleaning over the back of the spare chair. I tried to smile as naturally as possible.

‘Erin offered to pick up some shopping for me this morning, she really is a very considerate girl, we’re so glad we took her in,’ she smiled a sickly smile, the kind that only a delusional person would trust. ‘She really feels like... part of the family.’

Michelle had her arm around my shoulder as she said this, and as I felt her nails dig into my arm, I looked up to see Karen beaming at us ecstatically, and I realised that the woman opposite me was definitely delusional.

She only stayed for half an hour, but it was still a long time to have to pretend to love Michelle. Luckily for everyone Richard had gone out, so there was no need to worry about his acting skills. As soon as the door shut Michelle was back to her usual self, scowling and snapping, complaining that she lost a whole morning to ‘that drippy woman’. I escaped to my room as soon as possible, but for once I found no comfort in the covered walls and cosy darkness, it felt more like a prison cell than a free space. I crept back down the stairs and, grabbing my coat and scarf, slipped back outside into the easing rain.