THE BIG SATURDAY READ: Story compet He knew what to do, just a little scare. Sh should be on the phone now telling me I wa right, unless...

he’s running. My Mam says she went through her younger life not knowing this fact – she says, her head might have known it, but her body didn’t – the average man, nine times out of 10, will be stronger than the average woman.

You can think about it all you want, Hannah, she says to me, you can think this way and that about how it’s unfair, but that’s the stone cold truth and if something happens to you, your body will take note.

In your bones, in your cells. Your body will make a memory and it will be a bad one. But then you’ll learn. Like I had to, she tells me.

She never says what happened to her to make her learn this.

I don’t know why I think about her now. I don’t want her creepy advice in my head. I lift weights three times a week. I think I know my own strength, but it turns out I don’t.

When he goes for me, or for my bag, because I can’t tell what it is he’s after, in that second, I’m fuming ’cos it’s her I think of. Even in this moment, more than my own survival, it’s her grief I fix on. It’s her cries that drown out mine. When my eyes close, when it goes black, I see my mother’s fretful face.

IT’S A good thing I live on my own and don’t have downstairs neighbours. Hannah’s told me off for it: my pacing. Drives her mad. Used to, before she left for good. I cannot help it, I need to burn off worry, the bad energy it gives me. It’s been all night and she hasn’t called. It was due to happen hours ago. Eddie promised he would do it tonight. It was all planned, he knew where to find her. He knew what to do.

Just a little scare, we agreed, just to knock her confidence. I don’t have his number, didn’t want to keep anything incriminating. I was so sure she would call. And now, well, now I just don’t know anything.

She’s too fearless. Yet so vulnerable. She needs to learn about the real world. She needs…she needs to call me.

She should be on the phone in tears. She should be on the phone by now crying, telling me I was right. Unless… the thought settles like an ice cube in my stomach: would her mam not be the person she picks up the phone to?

Eddie said he would take her bag, then drop it as he ran off, so she’d be

AUTHOR Val Mcdermid THIS week we reveal the runner-up in our Val Mcdermid short story competition. Karen Featherstone wowed the panel with her murderous work. Judge Charlotte Heathcote said: “All About Fear is a dark and ingeniously twisted tale about a mother’s warped love.” Freelance Disability Equality Awareness Trainer Karen, who enjoys writing and lives in Cumbria, said: “I’m thrilled.” She wins £250 – pick up the Daily Mirror next Saturday to discover the overall winner...