To: Natalie Abrams

From: [email protected]

Subject: Fame Kitten

Did you miss me?

I see you’re cashing in on your crimes! Isn’t that illegal? How much did the big media company pay you for your side of the story?

If you thought you were famous before, baby, just wait till everyone gets an eyeful of you on camera.

Were you worried that the nasty police had tracked me down?

Were you worried I’d canceled my plans to come and visit you?

Don’t worry, baby. I’m a free man. They’ll never find me.

So let me reassure you.

I’m still coming, baby.

I’m COMING.

I’m coming for you.

Or maybe I’m not.

Maybe I won’t.

You’ll never know.

You’ll always be waiting for me, looking for me.

Me or someone else.

Acknowledgments

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I’m grateful to the Cape Town sex workers I interviewed for this story, who were kind enough to let me buy their time, and spoke so frankly and openly about their experiences and perspectives, and gave feedback.

About the Author

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Photo © Nanna Venter

Lauren Beukes is the bestselling author of The Shining Girls, Broken Monsters, Moxyland, and Zoo City. She is also a screenwriter and documentary filmmaker, former journalist, and cocreator of the horror comic Survivors’ Club. Her work is published in twenty-four countries and has received multiple awards, including the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Zoo City, and the August Derleth Award, the Strand Critics Choice Award, and the University of Johannesburg Prize for The Shining Girls.