Snakes and Ladders

Chapter 1

1

For Maisie Daniels, there was nothing quite like the hit of cold, fresh morning air on the lungs. It always gave her a real high, and she loved the feel of her body aching as she pushed through the last couple of kilometres of her run.

It was running that’d made her realise she’d needed to leave Milo a few months earlier. She sometimes chuckled at the comparison, enjoying that early morning rush on her lungs and being left with an aching body. Then again, running was a lot healthier than smoking drugs and Milo kicking seven shades of s**t out of her.

She’d seen so many people doing the ‘new me’ thing on i********:, sharing their exercise routines, fun days out and pert little bodies after a particularly nasty break-up, and it was all so shallow and transparent. If their lives were so great and fulfilled, why did they feel the need to make such a point of it? Maisie half-remembered a quote from somewhere or other. The lady doth protest too much. No, she’d take much more pleasure from quietly and surreptitiously improving her life until that inevitable day when she’d pass Milo or one of his friends — and there weren’t many — in the street. That would be so, so much sweeter. She knew that day could come at any time. It could be tomorrow, it could be today. And that pushed her on at every moment, made her work harder, run faster and push through that wall to get as fit as she possibly could.

She glanced at her watch to check her heart rate as she ran down Naismith Road, towards Mildenheath Woods. Not bad, but she could do with picking up the pace before she got onto uneven ground.

She pushed on further, feeling the burn in her legs and the cold air in her lungs, thinking only of that moment when she finally bumped into Milo and saw his face and how gutted he felt at having chosen a drug over her — the opposite choice to the one she’d made.

Before long, she was turning off the pavement and into Mildenheath Woods, the morning sun breaking through the clouds, beginning to take the chill off the edge of the air. After a minute or so, Maisie realised she’d been pushing it too far. The burn in her lungs was too intense, so she slowed down to a walk while she regained her breath.

Feeling her breathing starting to ease a little, she picked up the pace and walked further along the trail, feeling as though she might be ready to break into a jog again soon. Before she could, her eyes were drawn to a mound of disturbed earth, a few feet off the side of the trail. It seemed incongruous, the leaves having clearly been moved very recently. It didn’t look like it’d been done by a fox or a badger, either; it was all too neat, too large.

She felt her heart skip a beat as the potential significance dawned on her. Don’t be silly, Maisie, she told herself. Two years with Milo had made her automatically assume the worst in any situation. This didn’t necessarily mean…

She had to find out. She pulled a chunk of bark loose from a nearby tree and started to dig, raking the loose, rich soil away. But as she removed the top layer of soil and revealed what was beneath, she quickly wished she hadn’t.