Page 83 of None of This is True

8.30 a.m.

Erin groans and Roxy sits upright. She stares at her sister for a moment, to see if she does it again. A second later she does, and Roxy turns round to call for a nurse.

The nurse appears and watches Erin from the other side of her bed, takes her pulse with her fingers, peers into her eyes, calls another nurse, who looks at the stats on the equipment that surrounds her bed and then smiles and says, ‘Well, hello, Erin! How lovely of you to join us!’

Roxy leans forward, closer to Erin’s face, and sees a small smile begin to break out. ‘Oh my God,’ she says. ‘Fuck. Erin! Hello!’

The smile grows bigger for a moment and then shrinks again as Erin takes in the details of her surroundings. ‘Where am I?’ she whispers.

‘You’re in hospital. You nearly died.’

Roxy sees a thousand pictures flood her sister’s only-just-returned consciousness within the space of a few seconds. She sees the emotions play out as the memories flood back. ‘Mum …’

‘Mum is—’ Roxy begins, but then stops. She doesn’t know what to say. Mum is what? Mum is where? ‘Don’t worry about Mum,’ she says, taking Erin’s hand in hers and squeezing it softly.

‘And Dad. Is he …?’

Roxy nods, tightly, and holds on to her tears. She needs to stay strong for Erin. ‘He didn’t make it. But it’s fine, sis. Be cool. It’s fine. I’m here. So’s Grandma. She’s just gone to get us something to eat. We’re here. And the world – oh my God, Erin, you know how many people signed your vigil book on Glitch, when you went missing? Like a hundred thousand people. A hundred thousand people signed it. Hashtag SaveErased. You were viral out there for a while. And now I can tell them that you made it. You’re back! Erased was not erased!’ She’s babbling and she knows she’s babbling but she doesn’t want Erin to fall into a dark pit of remembering, not yet, not this soon after waking up. She’s pleased to see Erin smile at her words, and she squeezes her hand again. ‘You’re a fucking legend, sis. Seriously. A legend.’

Her grandmother returns then with bacon rolls and bad coffee and immediately puts them down when she sees that Erin is awake. ‘Oh my God! Erin! You’re awake! I can’t believe it. I go away from you for five minutes and that’s when you decide to wake up!’ She sits on the side of Erin’s bed and takes her other hand in hers, brings it to her mouth and kisses it. ‘I’ve missed you so much,’ she says. ‘So, so much.’

‘What day is it?’ asks Erin.

‘It’s Monday. The …?’

Roxy looks at the nurse, who says, ‘The twenty-ninth.’

‘The twenty-ninth.’

‘I feel funny.’

Roxy and Pat both laugh indulgently.

‘I feel hungry.’

They laugh again and the nurse says, ‘We’ll get something ordered for her. Soft food, isn’t it, Erin? I hear you like soft food?’

Erin nods.

‘We’ll sort something out for you. Some soup maybe.’

The nurses finish their examination of Erin and then leave, saying the doctor will come as soon as he can. Grandma passes Erin a cup of water. And then it is just the three of them, and Roxy and her grandmother chatter and burble, trying to keep the inevitable tide of darkness at bay for as long as possible. But then, a few minutes later, it comes.

‘Oh my God,’ Erin says, her eyes filling with tears and terror. ‘What happened? What happened! ’

‘It’s fine,’ says Roxy coolly. ‘I’m going to tell you exactly what happened. OK? I’m going to tell you word for word.’

Hi! I’m Your Birthday Twin!

A NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES

The screen flicks to blurry footage of a garage door then pans across a small London mews.

The text beneath says:

Shortland Mews, London NW6, 30 July 2019

The audio is a crackly recording of a police phone call.

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