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Chapter 1

Autumn

It’s just struckthe backroom in the art shop where I double as Larry’s shop assistant and cleaner, and going home I sneaked back in here after dinner to work on rossed in it, I could be here for hours more

I know ht Notafter everyone else is tucked up in their beds and the air is shi with all their dreams

I load reat proportion of lide effortlessly across the canvass Almost as if it has a will of its own I’m still a student withto look good Exceptionally good Maybe because this painting is special… important

Well, at least to me, it is

I take a few steps back to gaze critically at , ivy covered castle built into the side of a snow-capped e could fit, leads up to the fortress I’ black horses onto the road, but I’

It’s important I don’t ruin it since I’ve atteive up after a few strokes I knew instinctively I can’t capture the vivid i deep inside me demanded I replicate it exactly as it lived in my mind I can’t understand why I had to, I just knew I did

I startforward to add more color to the castle, when I freeze The skin at the back ofup on my arms The silence is undisturbed, but the air is different

My heart slah the half-open door into the small showrooht of the streetlah to the rusty little bells attached to the door I’ve been so lost in , but I know

Someone has entered the shop!

It can’t be a custoht, and I know it is not Larry He would have called out It is either one of the wild kids in town up to no good, or a robber Dad sent h school and I know soood moves I can definitely handle any kid, and probably even a robber, if he isn’t carrying a gun

But I have an even better idea

I reach for a stained rag on the wooden trolley next to me and hurriedly wipe off as much paint from my hands so it won’t be slippery and tip toe over to the cupboard I throw the cloth on the floor and pick up the baseball bat next to the cupboard Gripping the shtly with both hands, I start toto be cowed by any intruder

My heart is beating so fast,the bat hard at the slightest provocation… until I trip on the te Larry placed over some wires he ran across the room just until the electrician came on Monday

I’ve bued to regain ets o of the bat and fling out to try and grab on to anything that would break my fall, but I only connect with the trolley full of paint tubes and a jar of turpentine filled brushes

Grasping for the trolley is a big mistake Not only does it not stop my fall, it accelerates it The trolley shoots a few feet forward, until it collides with an immovable object, then both the trolley and I crash to the concrete floor in an alhty racket

The breath is knocked out of me as my back slams onto the floor and paint tubes bounce off me and the jar hits ent turpentine seeping intomy skin

“Shit,” I curse, as I lie there a winded, bruised, stained mess

Then, I become aware there is someone else in the roohly polished black shoes a few feet away from me My shocked eyes travel upwards and my brain notes how immaculate the creases in his black trousers are Theblack coat that looks luxuriously soft, the way good cashmere does