Surviving After Dark

I have been orphans now

and. There, I let myself believe they were coming back for us. Soon we’ll be back home in our plush semi-detached house in Forest Gate, with its three double bedrooms and two reception rooms

situation. Apparently, no foster families were willing to take two teenagers at once. One had offered to take just

at’s completely down to my brother. He’s the calm one. He’s the one who thinks before he sp

Dad their fair share of headaches, and Eli was always the peacemaker campaigning for leniency fo

the polite one, my brother. It was Rachel Johnson who'd put a stop to it though, arguing that, considering our trauma, it would be detrimental to our wellbei

with Eli, yelling for him to keep it down while he played on his Xbox. I’d longed for that so many times over the last four weeks, whi

d called it. He’d never come home late from work on a Wednesday and announce that he just had to have pizza for dinner because he’d had such a long, hard day. Mum woul

row up, just for good measure. But it was heart-warming to see, really, how in love they still were after all

ther baby because they failed so badly with the first one, and God granted them me for their troubles. Elijah argued the o

nd cross the tiny room to pull the door open, finding Rachel Johnson standing on the other

glancing over my shoulde

ead of the double one that I’m used to. The walls are a bare pink, with bits of blue tack and drawing pins still stuck around them from the previous occupant. They told me I could put

e. I know Mum and Dad still owed it because I heard them whispering a few months ago when there was talk of redundancies at Dad’s company. Mum started freaking out about how we'd survi

bly already moved into my room. They’ve probably already picked out a new wallpaper to replace the dinosaur o

w and then and, when they do, it feels like my body might spontaneously combust at the intensity of it. I think that’ll probably always happen. Like pickin

y the base. I have no doubt that Eli’s bed would have been made up perfectly before he vacated his room. He’s always been weird

nd sarcastically as I take in

ing with only

ep

ble because we've got a long drive ahead.” She pauses as she steps back to let me wheel my suitcase out

r girls on my floor seemed nice enough, and a couple of them tried to talk to me when we first got here, but I blew them off. I don’t

anyone is going to miss m

ps carry my suitcase down the two flights to the ground floor. I don’t listen to a word

e a long-lost grandmother, which is strange, becau

wo teenage orphans that she doesn’t even know. The

re which o