As Miley shook violently, the boss dragged her from her room, into Jackie’s room. The delicate crepe-like skin on the back of her legs began to peel away as he pulled her faster.

Jackie was sitting in the middle of the room with her legs splayed out. The smell hit Miley and almost made her heave. Her friend Jackie hadn’t been washed or changed all day, she could tell. Jackie rocked back and forth, shouting meaningless words.

‘You need to deal with her now,’ he yelled.

The shakes began to build up again and the spasms caused her to arch her back. Her body jerked and foam began to seep from her mouth as she heaved. Hell, that’s where she was, and things weren’t set to get better. Her heart rate sped and she scratched. ‘I need my medicine, please.’

‘There is no more medicine and you don’t need any more. Look at you. Do your job and take care of Jackie.’

Do her job! She couldn’t even move, let alone work. The moths began to crawl from the walls. ‘Get them away from me.’ It was all happening again and Miley didn’t know how much more she could take as his shouting mixed with her screaming. His words sounded like a record being played backwards and she could barely make them out. Help Jackie, she needed to help Jackie. As she tried to sit up, spasms flashed through her body.

‘You’re just another useless piece of shit, like your stupid friend, Erin. Did I tell you she was dead? Poor, stupid, little Erin. I gave you an opportunity and like her, you blew it. What thanks do I get for taking you off the streets? Nothing. A big fat nothing.’

Through her warped vision she saw him standing over her, his head backlit by the sunshine flooding through the window. As her eyes focused, she noticed the deep creases that gave him a harsh look. Through his thin lips, a curl developed at one side as he grinned. His green-eyed stare met hers. She looked away. As she inhaled, she caught the smell of washing powder coming from his casual shirt. She’d forgotten what it was like to feel clean. He used the same powder as her mum, she recognised the smell and tried to breathe it in again. Her abdomen felt like it was being sliced apart. She leaned to the side and screamed as she avoided the moths that came for her. They’re not real, they’re not real. Imagine they’re beautiful butterflies. The shivers were coming again. She braced herself as the biggest tremble she’d ever felt in her life travelled through her body. The moths were around her, they were in her, scratching away under her skin. She jerked and coughed as she gasped for air. She couldn’t breathe properly. The light room became speckled, like it had filled with murky pond water.

‘Good for nothing,’ he yelled as he kicked her in the side. ‘A good for nothing junkie. Why couldn’t you be more like Simone?’ He turned to Jackie. ‘Our lovely granddaughter. She came to find us and she loved you so much.’ He kneeled beside Miley as she jerked and writhed in pain. ‘You were never going to be Simone. I’ll make sure you have a dignified send off and then I’ll go looking for your replacement. Give up. Death is inevitable. It will be less painful if you don’t fight it, then you can be at peace.’

She coughed and gasped as he kneeled on the floor until she closed her eyes and floated off into another world with a smile on her face. Don’t fight it.

She was back at home, sitting at the dinner table, contemplating whether to do her English literature essay. She had to write a critique on Jane Eyre. As she walked along the corridors of Mr Rochester’s old house, dare she enter the attic and face her own ghost? She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and reopened them. She was back at the dinner table. Her mother Julia, scooping potatoes from a pan onto her and Roy’s plate. She would leave Jane Eyre until the weekend. She wanted to go to the park with Stacey. She wanted to write silly messages under the slide and play around. She wanted to pinch one of Roy’s cans of beer from the fridge so that they could drink it together and giggle the evening away. Her homework could wait. Life was too short. ‘You know, your mother would be so much happier if you left,’ Roy said, smiling as he shovelled mashed potatoes into his mouth.

A flash of pain filled her head and her family were gone. The grey-black speckles filled her eyes. She was gone, just like Roy had wanted.