‘I think of a cigarette like a shared kiss, secrets slotted into a wooden box, a heart filled with the wrong kind of love.’

CARA

‘She takes in… the plaster on my finger, the sprain support around my wrist, the vague aroma of echinacea and anxiety following me around… it’s accident season.’

‘You are cordially invited to the Black Cat and Whiskey Moon Masquerade Ball.’

BEA

‘Bea reads tarot cards and lights candles for ghosts. She talks about magic being all around us and laughs when her classmates call her a witch.’

ELSIE

‘Elsie is not my friend. Elsie is nobody’s friend, really. She’s just that girl who talks too softly and stands too close... who mostly got left behind with the rag dolls and tea sets and other relics of childhood.’

ALICE

‘Alice is my sister. She is one year older and a million years wiser, or so she’d like to believe (and she may be right; how should I know? I am hardly wise)’