Blood. On the carpet, seeping into the fibres. On my hands, glistening in the low-lighted room. Clumps of my hair coated, each strand slippery and sticky with my inner fluid. Then pain. Throbbing throughout my entire body, so strong I feel numbed by it, unable to move. What happened? Can’t…

Physically sitting close to someone, within a couple of millimetres, enough for a spike of invisible tension within my spatial awareness. Well, I felt it. But that’s just the point; only I feel it. Isn’t it the bloody worst when you’re more into someone than they are into you? Cripes…

Of Katherine’s four children, her second-born Lauren, was undoubtedly her favourite. Cara, the eldest, was wilful and disobedient, while the two youngest, Robert and Alex were as feeble and timorous as their father. Lauren was dutiful without being sycophantic, obliging without being needy. …