Chapters (36)
- Cover
- Praise for Tricia Sullivan
- Also by Tricia Sullivan and available from Titan Books
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Body confidence
- The first cut
- Cardboard box in Wandsworth Town
- How not to be a doormat
- ASMR
- The pigeon sisters
- Flowers for Algernon: the club remix
- Copernican Principle
- The Dark Side
- Why
- Creeper
- Sleepwalkers Anonymous
- Oneric Crime
- Our friend can go again
- Unique and impactful
- Doctor Lady Reverend
- Stack
- Cone of Silence
- Two takeaways plus tea
- Sleep paralysis personified
- Knitters, cat-lovers, tea-drinkers
- Big sky
- Little bird
- Mrs H-W strikes back
- Unfair to snakes
- For real
- Moose reserve
- Delivered by ghost pigeon
- Awake
- Acknowledgements
- About The Author
DC: Hey, Sleeping Beauty! We’re in the middle of an interview here.
RP: Have some water, Charlotte.
CA: You guys, you guys! I get it now. You’re Mulder and you must be Scully.
RP: I wanted to be Scully.
DC: A person is dead. I don’t think jokes are appropriate.
CA: I do think it’s my fault, in a way. I know I’m not supposed to say that. This isn’t a confession, OK? But I feel like I should have stopped it somehow. I was right there. I didn’t know she was sleepwalking. But I should have been on my guard, after what happened with the water.
DC: What happened with the water?
CA: I told you. She was asleep with her face in a bathtub full of water. In real life. In the dream, though, he was holding her down.
RP: He? Who?
CA: I don’t know. He had a mask on. I should have . . . I don’t know! I was going to say I should have called somebody, but who do you call?
RP: Ghostbusters? Sorry.
DC: Us. You call us. That’s our job.
CA: That’s what he said. The Creeper. He said, ‘Who are you going to call, the Dream Police?’ I thought he was being snitty, but what’s the actual deal with you lot? Do you know what’s going on here? Have there been other cases? What do you know about this stuff?
DC: Can you remember anything else about him, Charlie? This man in the dream.
CA: Hard drugs, that’s the only way. She should have been treated by a doctor. I never imagined it could come to this. You’re right. I’m responsible. I don’t have insurance for this kind of thing.
RP: None of us can change the past, Charlie. We can’t bring Melodie Tan back. But we can investigate and if there’s been a crime, we can pursue the criminal. That’s why we really need you to remember.
CA: How do I know you’re not in on it?
DC: What?
CA: You guys came up to me in the hotel lobby. You said you were with Special Branch, but here we are in a kebab shop in Stratford. Even Mulder and Scully had offices. And they wore nicer clothes. Or are you BigSky? Shandy says they don’t have proper offices, just a bank of servers in Shoreham. Even the execs float around. Are you guys BigSky?
RP: No, we’re not BigSky. Cutbacks, Charlie. We’ve all got to tighten our belts.
CA: Yeah? Well, I don’t want to be unkind, Roman, but the way you’re packing away that kebab, your belt is going to need an extra notch.
RP: That actually is unkind. I’m an emotional eater and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t fat-shame.