Prologue

Prologue

Rosie

It wasfive months ago that our block got a new resident upstairs in apartment number six. The new resident might have been beautiful, without the heaviness of the world on his shoulders.

He was tall, with dark hair stranded with silver, and a sculpted brow over bright green eyes. Well-dressed but unkempt, in tailored suits slightly too big for his lean frame. He looked gaunt, like he’d seen happier days. Much, much happier days…

A man like him shouldn’t be here in block four of Crenham Drive, with its faded green carpet hallways. He was out of place amongst the stale smell and the peeling paintwork.

No. The man in apartment six didn’t belong here, but he’d arrived with a barrage of whispers. Disgusting, seedy, nasty. Fucked up. Perverted. Arrogant, reclusive. Sinister.

They said he was a disgraced teacher, who’d preyed on his students. A sick man, who deserved prison. Someone on the run.

They said a lot of things, in fact.

Other residents would scowl at me with hissed voices, always the same morbid tune.

Rosie, don’t you ever, ever talk to the man upstairs.

You’d better stay the fuck away from the man upstairs, he’s trouble, Rosie.

So I, sweet little Rosie, heeded their advice. I’d shiver whenever I caught sight of him, eyes dropping whenever he passed by me in the hall. I did what I was told and I never, ever talked to the man upstairs.

Not until one night, in total desperation, when I had nowhere else to turn…