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PROLOGUE

I run

Fists of waves claw the sand as I force one foot to pound after the other Scramble up, slip down, repeat Faster Eyes fixed on dunes ahead Don’t look back Mustn’t look Ragged breath; in, out; in, out Still I run

Just when lungs ht burst and heart explode, a crimson star on the sand, I stues ain I can run no more

He kneels to hold me, and looks in my eyes ‘It’s time Quick, now! Put up the wall’

Closer

So I build it, brick by brick Row by row A high tower, like Rapunzel’s, but this has no here to lower et who you are!’ he shouts, grips my shoulders and shakes me, hard

A blanket of terror obliterates the sea The sand His words, the bruises on s

It’s here

CHAPTER ONE

Weird

All right, I haven’t got ement I may be sixteen and I’m not slow or backward and haven’t been locked in a cupboard since birth – so far as I know – but Slating does that to you Makes you lacking in experience

It takes a while for everything to stop being firsts First words, first steps, first spider on the wall, first stubbed toe You get the idea: first everything

So today feeling weird and unknown could just be that

But I a for Mum, Dad and Amy to pick me up at hospital and take me home, and I don’t knoho they are I don’t knohere ‘ho How can that not be…weird?

Bzzzz: a gentle warning vibration from the Levo atside of happy So I have a square of chocolate and it starts a slow climb up as I savour the taste and watch

‘Much et fat’

I jump

Dr Lysander is framed in the door Tall, thin and white-coated Dark hair pulled straight back Thick glasses She glides, silent as a ghost the whispers say, always seems to know before it happens when someone falls into red But she’s not like so She isn’t exactly what you would call nice

‘It’s time, Kyla Come’

‘Do I have to? Can’t I stay here?’

She shakes her head An impatient flick of her eyes says I’ve heard this a million times before Or, at least, 19,417 times before, as 19,418 is the number on my Levo

‘No You know that isn’t possible We need the roo to follow It is everything I have but it’s not heavy

Before I shut the door, I see: my four walls Two pillows, one blanket One wardrobe The sink with a chip on the right side the only thing to mark my room as any different from the endless row of boxy roos I remember

For nine months, the boundaries of ym and school one floor doith others like me

Bzzzz :attention Levo’s dropped to 41

Too low

Dr Lysander turns, clucks under her breath She bends down so we are eye to eye, and touches a hand to my cheek Another first

‘Truly, you will be fine And I’ll see you once a fortnight to start with’

She s of lips across teeth that looks uncoot there or what to do once it did I aet htens and walks down the hall to the lift

We go silent down ten floors to ‘Ground’, then down a short hall to another door One I haven’t been through before for obvious reasons Over the top it says ‘P&R’: Processing and Release Once you pass through this door, you are never seen again

‘Go on,’ she says

I hesitate, then push the door part open I turn to say goodbye, or please don’t leaveinto the lift with a swish of white coat and dark hair