The Darkest Woods

By Joanna M. Lawrie

2155: Shane George finds herself trapped in a virtual world, desperately trying to escape a murderer.

2130: Dr Peter Willis succeeds in his personal project, birthing the first true Artificial Intelligence, before slitting his own throat.

2148: after her mother's death, a girl called Rose flees her home, away from her father's predatory advances.

2131: a spate of inexplicable suicides rock the globe.

Time moves on, but one thing remains the same.

 

Eve is loose on the Net, and she will kill again.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Joanna M. Lawrie
• Release date: Feb 12, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224209866

Book preview

The Darkest Woods

Joanna M. Lawrie

The rights of Joanna M. Lawrie to be identified as the author of this work have been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission of the publisher.

Published February 2024. Copyright Joanna M. Lawrie

For Jay, because eleven years is nothing

and because I still miss your joy

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

About the Author

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1

San Francisco, 2155

Roses are red

Violets are blue

Sugar is sweet

And so are you

Shane George’s eyes flew open as she woke in a cold sweat. Dreams of memories of dreams haunted her, and she frantically rubbed at her eyes, trying to clear the lingering thoughts from her mind. It didn’t work, of course, and she shivered. It was a little cold in the room, for all it was packed with the others, huddled together for warmth. What Shane wouldn’t have given for even one heater in the large, airy room; but of course, that would require electricity, and the squat had long been cut off from all amenities.

She glanced around herself. Frankie Aster, the unofficial leader of the squat, was on her left, curled up under her own blanket, her breathing heavy as she slept. On Shane’s right lay Amethyst Stone, only fifteen but had been in the squat for five years already.

They called the squat The Haven, and it was a haven, Shane supposed, for runaways like her. Runaways and those who had been kicked out, who had nowhere else to go. They all found themselves here.

It wasn’t much, but they made it as much of a home as they could. There was a living room filled with ancient furniture that had been mostly rescued from curbside dumping, all of it ragged and stained with who knew what. There was a kitchen with sparsely filled cabinets, food which had either been bought with money from begging or pickpocketing, or had just been just outright stolen.

They did what they needed to survive.

There was little doubt that someone in power, probably several someones at the local precinct, knew about The Haven. But as long as the residents didn’t cause a fuss, for the most part they were left alone. There were occasional incidents, usually with rookie cops who were trying to prove their superiority, but the occasional split lip, or even light beating, was still better than what they had all run from.

It helped that Frankie and some of the other older residents were ‘in contact’ with certain senior people in the city. Frankie always worded what they did carefully; called it ‘working for city officials’. Shane knew enough about this to know the sacrifices that those members were making for the safety of the younger members of The Haven. Right now it was just the four eldest—Frankie, Carl, Carrie, and Faye—who would leave in the evening and not return until the early hours of the morning, usually a little drunk, and a little more hollow eyed than they had been before leaving. It made Shane sick to her stomach to think about it, so she tried not to.

When she had reached sixteen, she had asked Frankie if she had to join them for the good of the younger ones. Frankie had hugged her, and told her that she had to make her own choices about what was best for her. That there was no pressure.

Shane had nodded, and no more was said about it.

The sunlight was starting to peek through the gaps and holes in the frayed curtains, and Shane smothered a groan. It was still early, but she wasn’t going to get back to sleep, and she didn’t really want to lie there with only her thoughts to keep her company. Carefully, so as not to wake those around her, she slid off the bottom of the mattress before grabbing her clothes and going to the bathroom to dress.

As she pulled on her jeans, she caught a glimpse of herself in the dirt streaked-mirror. Her filthy appearance, a far cry from the clean, tidy child she had been before she had come to the city, stared back at her. Her skin, although still clear, was grimy—there wasn’t much opportunity to shower for those who lived in The Haven—and her red hair, tied back in a tight ponytail, was dark with grease.

She longed for a hot bath, but as usual the memories of childhood baths that crowded her mind were unpleasant, and so she pushed them to the back of her mind. There were public showers they visited on occasion, when there was enough money. Maybe it was time to ask Frankie for some cash and go.

The Haven was almost silent as she traipsed through to the kitchen for a bottle of water. The water in the apartment block which housed The Haven had long since been switched off at the mains too, which was why the shower there wasn’t an option. They kept plastic barrels on the roof and would bring down buckets of rain water, used for ‘flushing’ the ancient toilets, but they used it sparingly for anything else since it was their only wasteable water source. They certainly wouldn’t risk drinking it. Who knew what was in it; the barrels they collected the water in definitely weren’t clean enough to allow them to drink the water.

None of it was ideal—far from it—but there was a reason they had all left proper homes for this, and Shane was sure that no one there would trade the safety of The Haven for what they’d run from. She knew that she wouldn’t, anyway. A light shiver went down her spine and memories of her dreams the night before glanced over the tip of her mind, and she took a deep breath, looking out of the window instead to distract herself.

There was a faint hum of traffic from the road outside as she watched the city below. The Haven was located on a side street in an abandoned part of the city near the sea, so there weren’t that many vehicles around. Certainly no one with any legitimately legal intentions drove around there. Not to mention that The Haven was located on the fifth and top floor of the building, so the road was far enough below that the sounds were muffled by distance.

You’re up early.

Shane nearly jumped out of her skin at the sudden voice, whirling on her heel to see Billy Anderson, a sturdy boy of fourteen, standing in the doorway. With his light ginger hair, he looked a lot like he could be her brother, which they occasionally played up to con people out of money.

He had been there two years now; he had been kicked out of his house by his parents for being gay. He and Shane didn’t always see eye to eye, but he was part of their little family, and she would have done anything to see his parents get what should have been coming to them for hurting him like that.

You scared me, was all she said, taking another sip of water.

Sorry. He didn’t sound terribly sorry, but it didn’t bother her. He was fourteen. Of course he was a brat.

Why are you up already? she asked.

Billy shrugged. I could ask you the same thing, he said pointedly, but Shane ignored him, merely raising her eyebrow. Don’t know. Just woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep. He yawned, stretching out his long, gangly limbs as he did so. What’s the plan for today?

I’m going to see if I can go shower, and then maybe go to the mall. ‘Going to the mall’ meant going pickpocketing. Get in, spread out, get one wallet each, and leave before the owners realized. They didn’t do it too often—usually once a month. Between five or six of them they could usually gather enough cash to last the group for a few weeks. Add to that the money made by the members who worked for the city officials, sometimes they could even afford a treat—some sweets for the youngest members, or some cheap beer for the older ones.

It was the little things that made life worth living, despite everything.

I’ll come too. Billy scratched his nose idly. Maybe we won’t stick out as much if we’re clean.

That’s what I was thinking. Shane shot him a small smile. The sacrifices we make, hmm?

It’s not so bad. Not compared to... Billy trailed off, looking uncomfortable, but Shane knew what he meant. It was nothing compared to what some of them had experienced. Shane herself knew how that felt.

Yeah, she agreed. Exactly. She pointed to the cabinet. Want me to fix you some breakfast?

He frowned. "I can fix my