Seth

I was about to jump from my hiding place when Anne stirred. She let out a small groan of pain but I couldn't see her probably as she was lying with her back to me. She curled into a ball like she was expecting more than just the one hit and I was left wondering why she would react like that.

I fought with myself about leaving my hiding place. I knew that Warren would probably kill me if he knew that I knew that he had killed someone but seeing Anne lying on the floor defenceless curled into a ball while Warren stood above her was over riding any thoughts I had about Warren killing me. He was shifting from one foot to the other uneasily, his hands still curled in tight fists at his side.

Just as I lifted one foot of the ground ready to go over to her she pulled herself into a sitting position. She was leaning heavily on her right arm and had her left hand covering the left side of her face. She had tears in her eyes as she looked up at Warren fearfully, I could see her shaking from here. Warren relaxed at this. His fists released and his hands hung freely by his sides. His face wore an expression of pain and sorrow rather than anger.

"I didn't mean that." He spoke softly as he bent down beside her and stretched out a hand gingerly toward her face. He stopped instinctively before he touched her and his hand fell back to his side.

"I'm sorry." He finally apologised, his gaze dropping to the ground again. After a couple of seconds of silence he spoke again.

"I love you." He stretched the words out like he meant them, but I didn't believe him for a second, but Anne seemed to be taking it in. Her left hand dropped from her face revealing a huge red mark on her cheek which was defiantly going to be a shiner. He didn't recoil at the sight of what he had done to her face; instead he carried on looking at her trying, with his eyes, to make her believe that he loved her.

Her big eyes shone with fear but she searched his face trying to prove that she wasn't scared of him. I wondered what she was looking for. Was it regret or just to see if there was any anger left there, or maybe even some truth.

I could hear footsteps approaching and spun quickly to see my brother making his way towards Warren and Anne. He was quiet a way off so he couldn't see them yet but they were still on the floor in positions which clearly showed what Warren had done.

But they were in silence and quickly caught onto the noise of boots approaching. Warren pulled Anne up off the floor and pushed her inside with hushed instructions to get cleaned up.

Just as the door closed Riley stepped onto the wooden decking.

"Any sign of Seth yet?" he asked.

"No." He stopped for a second before continuing. "When I was Seth's age I'd go missing for days."

"Seth isn't you." Riley replied shortly.

"He'll be fine." Warren tried to reassure him.

"Try telling me mum that." That caused Warren to turn and look at Riley.

"What? You phoned home?" He was getting worried.

"Yer, from the pub. I had to. I thought he might have turned up there." Riley was almost smirking at warren but he was too caught up in thinking about the possibility of the police turning up that he didn't notice.

"And?" Warren question impatiently when Riley didn't elaborate.

"No show. Don't worry I didn't give anything away. Me mum would have rung 999 like that." He ended with a click of his fingers to emphasis his point.

"I suppose that's my next call." He continued, loving the reaction Warren was giving him knowing that he was digging himself into a hole.

"Na, wait. You can't." He panicked.

"What?"

"If it comes out about that stripper and you're involved. That's not good. Just give him a bit more time, yer." Warren tried desperately to bide himself more time.

"Fine, you win. He's got an hour. If he….."

He was cut short by an ear piecing scream that came from inside. Both men dashed for the door as all earlier thoughts lost as they raced towards Anne.

A big thank you to HollyoaksBitchh and BlueBalloon9596 for reviewing :D. Thanks for reading hope you liked it.