AllFreeNovel
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Epilogue
Stalk Me
Acknowledgements
Also By Lark Taylor
About the Author
Part 1
BEFORE
Chapter one
Kai
June 2001 – Thirteen Years Old
Youwouldn’tthinktakinga shortcut home from school would have life-changing consequences.
It was a stupid thing to do in the first place. Stupid because the route took me straight through Fleming Park and past the local grammar school. Now, if the odds were in my favour, I could slip by without any of the posh, uppity twats noticing me.
Sadly, the odds rarely seemed to be in my favour. The fuckers seemed to have an instinctive homing beacon where I was concerned, always coming out of the woodwork ready to torment me.
I didn’t know what it was they hated about me more. That even though I was two years younger than them at thirteen, I already towered over them. That my postcode didn’t carry the same cache as theirs. That I didn’t spend much time outside my house because I was helping care for my younger siblings. And my mum. Since starting chemo, she’d needed me in a way she never had. With Dad’s job being so high-pressure, I’d stepped in to keep everything going.
Or maybe they hated me because I was Black.
At this point, I didn’t care why they tormented me, just that they did. Thankfully, our paths didn’t cross often. It wasn’t like they’d be caught dead on my estate. Not unless they were hitting up Druggie Bill for a ten-bag of weed.
They weren’t too good for us when it came to recreational drugs. One of those posh fuckers probably smoked more than the rest of my estate combined.
“Hey, Mal-ach-kai!”
The taunt rang out across the field. Even if I hadn’t recognised the voice as Timothy Smythe, the slow, punctuated way he drew out my name would’ve given him away.
“Come on, you little chav, don’t you want to play?”
I gritted my teeth at the slur. With all the education those twats received, you’d think they’d have a wider vocabulary. Being from a council estate wasn’t something I was ashamed of, regardless of what insults they wanted to throw at me about it. To them, a council estate meant you were poor. And being poor, to them, was something to be mocked.
The ironic thing was that we weren’t even tight for money. Dad had a fantastic job at an accountancy firm in the city. Another year, and he should make partner. In fact, we’d been about to move to a much better area. My name had even been down for that stupid school.
But then Mum got sick. Everything else got put on hold as all our lives changed in an instant.
It was ridiculous anyway. Who the fuck judged others based on their address or bank balance?
Pricks. That was who.
I quickened my footsteps, wrapping the handle of my crossbody bag around my hand. I’d lost two bags to Timothy already. I really couldn’t afford to lose the contents of this one too. Unlike many of the kids on my estate, I took school very seriously, and this bag contained not only my books but two completed essays. Mum and Dad had drummed the importance of a good education into me from a very young age.
I wasn’t going to let them down.
Loud thumps approached as the boys continued to yell my name in that infuriating manner.
“Mal-ach-kai…”
“Don’t you wanna play?”
