Looking at Alfie still asleep on the couch, she smiled. He was nice, but he wasn’t as nice as Vaughn. Vaughn was special. He was her friend and she hoped that one day she could show him how much that meant to her.

Rubbing her face and feeling like it was crawling with ants, she wondered when Vaughn would get back. Shannon began to pace the room. She looked down again at Alfie who was snoring loudly. Nervously biting on her lip, a thought crossed her mind.

But then he’d been so good to her and she didn’t want to seem ungrateful, but she supposed, it wasn’t as if he couldn’t afford it. And maybe he wouldn’t mind; after all he’d been willing to help her before, so why not now? And she was sure that he wouldn’t want her to feel the way she was; she could always pay him back, couldn’t she?

Two minutes later and having talked herself into it, Shannon bent down by Alfie’s side, whispering his name. ‘Alf? Alf? You awake, mate?’ There was no response. She could see he was bang asleep. Then, as carefully as she could, Shannon began to slip her hand down the front pocket of Alfie’s jeans, feeling gently with her fingers, not wanting to wake him up.

She smiled as she pulled out a five-pound note, but knowing it was far from enough, Shannon cautiously went into Alfie’s other pocket. Touching what felt like a wad of notes, eagerly, Shannon gripped them, slowly pulling them out, checking every few seconds to make sure that Alfie was still asleep.

But she frowned, disappointed when she saw that instead of it being a roll of twenty-pound notes as she’d first thought, it was actually several pieces of paper … Letters in fact. The same letters that Alfie had accused her of leaving for him.

With her interest now swelling, Shannon gave Alfie another quick glance before sitting on the wooden floor to read the letters. She unfolded the first one, then the second, shaking her head as she went on to read the third and fourth. They were all poems. Creepy poems. She shuddered, a chill coming over her. No wonder Alfie had been so freaked out by them.

Going to put them back, Shannon’s hand hovered over Alfie’s pocket as she saw him beginning to stir. She held her breath, terrified he was going to wake up, but seeing him settle back down again, as quickly and gently as she could, Shannon began to slip the letters back into his pocket.

She screamed as Alfie suddenly grabbed her arm. He sat up, bleary-eyed. He stared at her, his voice full of hostility when he spoke.

‘What the hell are you doing?’

Shannon’s eyes filled with tears. ‘I’m … I’m sorry, I was just …’