The Judas Scar by Amanda Jennings Page B

forecast.
    ‘That’s appalling,’ breathed Harmony. She looked at Will who shook his head slightly, his eyes closed.
    Luke ran a hand through his hair. ‘The headmaster came out and found me and told me to stop mucking around and get back up to the dormitory, and when my housemaster asked why I was late I was to tell him I’d been playing silly buggers and would need a caning.’ Luke then stretched his arms out as if on a cross and started to laugh. The noise was disconcerting against the uneasy silence in the room. ‘So there I was, hands and feet tied to this thing, lying on my back with this man shouting at me to get up.’ Tears of laughter began to form in the corners of his eyes.
    Harmony shifted in her seat. She glanced at Will and saw his face set in a grimace as he pushed a piece of steak fat towards the edge of his plate with the tip of his knife.
    ‘Then Will appears,’ Luke continued, his laughter fading, ‘and untied me. He asked my first name. I remember that so clearly.’ He looked at Will. ‘We all called each other by our surnames so him wanting to know my real name felt special.’ Luke smiled and looked back at Harmony. ‘Will was my hero. From that moment onwards I’d have done anything for him.’
    Will looked up at the ceiling and she noticed a hint of exasperation or perhaps impatience in his expression. ‘A hero?’ he said. ‘For Christ’s sake, I was just a boy who thought another boy tied to a couple of planks of wood could do with some help. I didn’t do anything. I just untied the sodding ropes!’
    ‘Will, I think—’
    ‘For crying out loud, Harmony. Please stop it will you? Just leave it alone.’

C H A P T E R    E I G H T
    The steak sat like concrete in the pit of Will’s stomach. He remembered the panic that had coursed through him as he’d fought with the ropes and bungee cords, knots so tight he worried he’d never get into them. All the time his heart pummelled his chest, all the time ready to run if the boys or the headmaster showed up. How could Luke talk about it now with such casual disregard? Will flinched as he recalled Luke’s pale skin marked with bruises from where the older boys had held him down, his trousers stained dark with urine, the tear tracks that cut through the dirt on his pinched cheeks, and how, as Will battled with those hellish knots, Luke had gazed up at him as if he was the loveliest thing he’d ever seen.
    ‘All I was going to say is I can’t believe those boys would do something like that,’ Harmony said with lilting sympathy that stung Will.
    ‘Alastair Farrow’s an accountant now,’ Luke said, matter-of-factly.
    ‘Alastair Farrow?’ Harmony asked.
    ‘One of the boys who tied me to the cross.’
    Will’s gut twisted as anxiety flooded him and a hatred he tried to keep at bay sprung up in him.
    ‘I found him on Facebook,’ Luke went on. ‘He has a wife and two children.’
    Will closed his eyes and swallowed. Then he shook his head and looked at Luke. ‘Why are you here?’ he said. ‘What do you want? I don’t understand. Do I owe you an apology? Because if that’s what you’re here for, you can have it.’
    ‘I don’t want that.’
    ‘Then what?’ he shouted suddenly, banging his hand against the table. ‘What is it you want ?’
    ‘Will, don’t,’ said Harmony.
    ‘I should go,’ Luke said, wiping his hands on his napkin and standing.
    ‘Yes, I think you should.’ Will pushed back from the table and strode out of the room.
    He went into the garden and breathed deeply. He had to be stronger. He couldn’t let this get to him. He sat on the edge of the terrace, elbows resting on his knees, his chin in his hands. He shouldn’t have confronted him like that. He shouldn’t have lost control. He shuddered at the memory of Luke tied to the cross, as he remembered the look of adoration in his desperate eyes, as he remembered what followed.
    A few minutes later Harmony appeared beside him and sat