Secrets of the Tides by Hannah Richell

Author:Hannah Richell
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781409142973
Publisher: Orion
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CASSIE

Ten Years Earlier

Cassie sat on her bed surrounded by revision notes. She was supposed to be studying for her history A level, but her brain felt like mush and all she could think about was the little butterfly brooch tucked away at the back of her bedside table. There was an itch spreading across her skin and she couldn’t ignore it.

Kicking her notes to one side, she reached across and pulled the diamond and mother-of-pearl ornament out of the drawer, turning it over and over in her hand. It was so pretty, shimmering its muted pastel colours back at her, even in the gloom of a rain-soaked afternoon. She gazed at it a moment longer before unhooking the clasp and testing its pin for sharpness against her fingertips. It was good enough.

She pushed her sweater sleeve up past her elbow and pressed the point against the pale skin in the crook of her arm, the spot where the skin was most sensitive and the results of her work could be hidden. Then, sucking in her breath, she pressed harder and winced as the metal punctured her flesh. Ruby red blood sprang up around the pin and as she watched the beads bubble and form she dragged the spike down in one long, painful stroke, exhaling deeply as the metal did its work. She repeated the action several more times, watching with satisfaction as a crazy criss-cross pattern sprang up on her skin and the warm blood began to seep down her arms. Then, feeling a little dizzy, she lay back on the bed and let the pain wash over her. It felt good to feel something.

As the knife-sharp sting gradually subsided to a dull ache, Cassie returned to the present. The world flooded in around her once more and she lay there for a while just thinking about how much her life sucked. It sucked more than Jessica Goldstein getting off with Charlie Simpson right in front of her at the rugby club dance last weekend. It sucked more than her mum telling her in no uncertain terms that she could not get her belly button pierced before she passed her A levels. It sucked more than being stuck in her bedroom listening to the dull thump of Dora’s pop music while she tried to concentrate on her history revision. And it sucked even more than the incessant rain belting down outside keeping her trapped in the house like a prisoner, again. Yes. Life sucked, more than all of those things put together, and then some.

She pressed a tissue to her bloody arm and then reached out and banged on the wall. ‘Turn it down, will you?’

Dora’s latest girl-band fixation shrank a decibel or two until it was just a dull, unfathomable noise from the other side of the wall; it was slightly better, but she still couldn’t concentrate. The Reformation really was so boring and with Dora safely secreted in her bedroom, the house lay quiet and inviting below.

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