Waking up in an unfamiliar or strange environment wasn’t an uncommon experience for Sapphy, but there was something off about it this time. It took her a little while, lying in the bed with her eyes still closed, to work out what it was.

No traffic.

When it hit her, Sapphy wasn’t sure how she hadn’t noticed immediately. She couldn’t remember ever not hearing traffic – apart from perhaps in the loudest house parties, where the music drowned out everything but the sirens.

Feeling the soft morning glow tickling her eyelids, she pushed her face into her pillow and tried to recount the previous day. The carnival, the feds, the crowds… the sound of gunshot fire… screams and jostling people, being separated from Kel and shoved along, stumbling out across the road, disoriented, making for the nearest buildings… realising, belatedly and with a sick sense of dread, that she’d crossed the line into Burger territory… more gunshots, the tramp of the feds’ feet, the movement of the crowd – darting into a side-alley, realising it wasn’t empty, understanding immediately the mistake, and the cost of the mistake.

Running from the dogs.

The next part was blurry. Sapphy rolled over onto her back, opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling, noting that the white paint was clean and unchipped. She could remember haring down the alley, skirting bins, hopping litter. Fences usually marked the end of an alley; if she could get a run-up, she could leap part-way up and scamper the rest of it, out of the dogs’ reach. Only – only it wasn’t a fence at the end of this alley. It was a wall. A solid brick wall, with no handholds. She could hear the dogs snapping at her heels, their owners shouting angrily, feet beating on concrete pavement… and then the scene shifted, and she was running through a forest of trees.

She’d stumbled, then, her feet unsure of the grass underneath. There had been some hapless wandering before she stumbled across the ‘guard’ outpost and had been taken to a castle. A damn castle, in the middle of nowhere.

The next part was fresher, clearer. Shouting I ain’t goin’ into The System! to the hatefully calm-faced woman who told her where she was and what ‘had’ to happen next, being made to wait in a little room, then shouting much the same thing at the man who came to see her next. They brought the king out next. He pointed out that she had to stay somewhere in the meantime.

Yeah, and I got a home I’m goin’ back to. She’d replied defensively. I ain’t goin’ into The System. Kids go in The System and they don’t come out, you know what I’m sayin’?

No one seemed to know what she was saying. She’d had to wait in the little room until they came out and told her that she’d be staying in the village with the princess until ‘more permanent arrangements could be found’. Sapphy had accepted that as until you can go home. By this point she had been too tired to do much else.

Over to the village. Into bed. And here she was, nine hours later, listening to the quiet, traffic-free air. The air even tasted different; a sweet, odd taste Sapphy couldn’t put her finger on. She slid out of bed, bare feet on warm wooden floorboards, and took a proper look around. The room was tiny, smaller even than hers and Carla’s bedroom back home, and had just enough room for a single bed and a little chest of drawers. A mirror hung over the chest opposite her, and a window lit up the room to her right. She’d gone to sleep in her clothes – it had been late when they finally arrived – and, according to the mirror, she was still wearing yesterday’s make-up. It was slightly smudged around the eyes but otherwise intact, so she decided to leave it on. She didn’t have her make-up bag with her, and smudged make-up was better than no make-up.

Her handbag was on the floor by the bed. A quick check reassured her that nothing had been touched or taken, so she slung it over her shoulder and pattered along the hallway. This was, by far, the weirdest house she had ever been in. There was no noise from the neighbours, a great deal of the interior seemed to be fashioned from wood, and it had a ‘fairytale cottage’ feel. Sapphy found Morgana – the princess woman she was living with temporarily – in the kitchen, doing some washing up.

“Hey,” she grunted, dumping her bag on one of the kitchen surfaces and rifling through until she found what she wanted: an already opened packet of Marlboro. “Do I gotta go outside for a smoke or can I do it in here?”