Roadkill (LiveWire) Read Online Free PDF

amazing with her dark hair and golden tan. I just burn in the sun but Rose got that even sun kissed glow without any trouble.
    But I’m only thinking this to distract myself from my mum grieving over her child. You are not meant to outlive your kids. Screwing up my courage I tell myself now is a good time to try and help her. Do it! I tell myself, but my feet stay locked to the carpet, and a thump of size fourteens (probably) is Garry galumphing along the corridor to give his own brand of comfort. So I stay by myself in the shadows, running shaky fingers along the picture frame behind me.
    She sniffles into his huge shoulder, and I catch a snatch of conversation, my name and a question. Years of practice and I’m in bed apparently fast asleep when she creeps in. Gentle, cool fingers rake my hair back and I inhale her flowery scent. A splash of wet on my hot cheek, and mum hastily creeps out again. Her bedroom door closes and they murmur in the moonlight.
    I curl into a tight ball, one finger tracing the scar on my wrist. The tears have stopped and I feel empty, aching and empty.

 
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Five
     
    T he nightmares are worse tonight. Rose is jumping off the bridge, shadowy figures holding ropes shout at her to do it, and I scream at her to come back. She laughs and leaps into space. When I wake I am soaked in sweat and shivering. My retro alarm clock informs me its 5am. Crap! At least it ’ s summer and the sun sparkles through my half drawn curtains. No sound in the house, but somewhere outside two dogs are having a fight, growling and barking like random werewolves.
    My pictures of Rose are arranged carefully opposite my bed, including the model picture. I took that from her room yesterday.
    “Morning sis,” I say groggily and catch myself. Crazy cow talking to ghosts.
    My phone has four messages, all from Leo, apologising for missing me last night. He was so tired, he says, he crashed out by ten, and only just woke up. He was looking at LiveWire again, and has something to tell me…..
    A gentle knock on my door is Mum, and I smile tentatively, even though I know she hasn’t even opened it yet. Mum is a bit like a female version of Leo really, he even said he might want to do Biochemistry at university. That’s where she started out, before she became a Very Important Scientist working for the government. Plus she has that magic sixth sense, meaning she can read our minds. Which, as I’ve said before, can be bloody annoying. But she’s so brave, and strong, despite her pale, elfin appearance.
    It’s kind of funny, I think watching her put a mug of tea on my chest of drawers, tensing as usual as I force myself to be nice….and normal. Funny that Rose looked just like dad, and I am pretty much a carbon copy of Mum. Right down to the red hair.
    “I was worried last night Caroline. Where did you go?”
    “Just Leo’s. I saw Ashley too,” making it sound like I was hanging out with friends rather than pounding the streets alone.
    “That poor boy. I told him at the funeral….,” for a second her voice falters, “I told him at the funeral he was welcome here anytime.”
    I gather towels and some clothes, “Mum I’m meeting Leo at the park, I need to get going.”
    She lingers, fiddling with a silver necklace. New, I note with interest. No way she’d have bought it for herself so it must be an offering from Garry.
    “Sweetheart you do like Garry don’t you? Because if you would rather he didn’t stay over for a while longer we would both understand.”
    Surprised, I digest this while I grab my toiletries, and wind up annoyed again. ‘We’ would understand is like the whole loony bin thing; everyone understanding, watching me, treading on eggshells. I don’t want everybody stepping round me like I’m unstable and about to se lf destruct. The scar was a one- time thing. The Vultures have never let me forget it.
    “I don’t want him to keep being so nice! He doesn’t have to, and it