In my head, I would talk to Zoe and I would be furious with her for not being around, because she was the only one who would’ve understood how I felt right then. And then I would say sorry. I was only angry with her for leaving me and not replying to any of my letters to The Cloisters, for not letting me know if I’d chased away those cold shadows that followed her around even more than they did with me. It felt like there were big, ice-blasted holes in my life where other people used to be.
In the street, people put their Christmas decorations up. Fairy lights blinked behind windows and on the rooftops, all except one house – Kerry’s. I thought how this would be my first Christmas without Dad here and then I hated myself for being so selfish. After all, this would be the Jones’s first Christmas without Kerry. Funny how days that are meant to be happy just get worse when you’re missing someone. It made me wonder what they were all for.
First week in January, we moved house again. Mum said it wasn’t doing me any good, passing Kerry’s home every day and being so close to where everything happened. She began using the words ‘fresh start’.
And this is it. I give a last salute to Mum and I walk in through the toughened glass doors, out of the rain. I follow the crowds of other kids until I get to a reception desk, and a soft-voiced secretary takes me along to my new classroom. The other kids stare at me as the teacher tells them my name. They know no one starts a new school just after Christmas unless something weird’s happened. I’m just hoping no one links me with the name of Kerry, the girl from the other side of the city who went missing and never came back. The girl I wanted rid of so I could be with Zoe, who I lost in the end after all. Kerry, the girl who isn’t following me around anymore and who will be with me for the rest of my life.
‘Well,’ says the teacher. ‘We have two empty seats, so you have a choice, Anna.’
I scan the classroom. At the back, a girl with rainbow-coloured hair is staring through the window, as if in her head she’s already somewhere out there. I wait for her to turn and notice me, but she doesn’t so much as glance. In the second row, another girl is blushing, adjusting her glasses and throwing me an eager smile. I cross my fingers and say a few words in my head to Zoe.
Then I make a choice.
THE END
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The Misper was very loosely based on something that happened to me when I was a child. It was a quite insignificant incident in many ways and I promise it was not as dark as the fictional events in this novel! But it shows that strange and small things can inspire a story.
I’d like to thank Trevor Byrne for editorial input into a very early draft, which transformed it from a story for younger children into one targeted at teen readers. Huge thanks are also due to my agent, James Essinger, for his editorial work and his stubborn faith in the story.
Thanks, always, to Mark, Naomi, Patrick and Mary for their constant love and support. As ever, this book is for them.
Contents
1
Good cop, bad cop
2
Zoe. And Kerry
3
And Jodie
4
Birthday
5
The gig
6
Trouble
7
Sulphur
8
Witchcraft
9
‘Bela Lugosi’s Dead’
10
Curse
11
Blade
12
Parents’ Night
13
Ritual
14
Luke
15
Shadows
16
Demolition
17
Flat 1413
18
Three’s a crowd
19
Caught
20
Halloween
21
The Misper
22
A good heart
23
Chasing shadows
24
Starting again
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
