There’s a snatch of sound ringing in my head – the girl in the coffee shop saying “we are your friends”. What were they after? Not me, I’m no good at all – my whole family tree is rotten, split wood. No good.

Hideous white noise cracks me out of my stupor. Squinting to find the source I see the letters xyu scrawled on the wall directly opposite me. It’s at this moment I realise where I am. And what’s coming for me.

Kelly kicks the boarded door I’m crushed up against and it lurches forward – into my skull.

Will she be willin’ to help me out? I don’t know who I can trust, but I’m pretty sure she trusts me even less.

“If anyone needs help here it’s a case of you, not me, honey”

Jesus, who died and made her psychic?

Her breath is like peaches and I’m sprawled on the sidewalk like the grouch. As she leans down on the door to get a better look I see the note that started it still curled in her fist.

do u lie? says one side,
on the other, speak free