Page 1 of Win You Over
Prologue
Holden - Aged 12
“Holden, wait up!” my friend, Lucas, yells as I walk out of the school gates. The sky is dark, the smell of rain heavy in the air. I want to get home before the clouds break because I didn’t bring my coat or an umbrella.
“Do’ya want to walk together today?” he asks when he catches up to me. “I’m going to walk through the forest, get home faster.”
I don’t usually walk that way even though it is quicker. Mum prefers I don’t go that way because it’s too easy to get turned around and she worries I’ll get lost in there. We’ve only lived in this village for a few months and I’m still getting used to the area. I wasn’t happy to move, not that I had many friends at the old school either, but Mum thought a smaller village would be better for the two of us than the inner city area we used to live in.
I know I should walk home the way Mum wants me to, but Lucas is really cool – he’s super popular and also the only friend I have. It’s hard to make friends when you don’t talk and when being around new people or large groups makes your skin itch and your tummy ache. But Lucas is nice. He never laughs at me like the other kids do and though we’ve only been friends for a few weeks, he’s one of the best people I know.
Looking around the road outside the school, I don’t see any of the other boys from my class. The ones that give me trouble and call me a freak. I always hang back a little after school to make sure they’ve left before I walk home.
“Come on, mate.” He nudges my arm with his and points in the direction of the forest. “I’ll race you to the treeline and then we’ll make a quick dash through, okay? Loser brings treats in tomorrow.”
My skin prickles when I look at the dark, looming clouds, and the hairs raise on the back of my neck at the thought of running through the thick trees. I’m not scared. Twelve-year-olds don’t get scared of the dark or think about monsters lurking in dangerous corners of forgotten forests. No, I’m not scared. Not at all.
Shaking out my arms to ease away the prickle, I jog on the spot before looking at Lucas.
I nod, my head tipped towards the treeline.
He smiles, his eyes darting behind me before he turns on his heel and bends like he’s about to start a race. “On your marks.” I get into the same position. “Get set, go!” Lucas takes off, darting ahead of me, but I’m faster and as I suck in a lungful of damp air, I take over, watching out of the corner of my eye as I pass him. By the time I reach the treeline marking the start of Hornington Forest, I’m out of breath.
Resting my hands on my knees, I take in one, two, then a third deep breath and straighten up. Lucas is next to me, his ownbreath coming out in rasping pants, his cheeks rosy red from the cold and the exertion.
“Guess I’m bringing the sweets tomorrow,” he says, giving me a smile. He walks ahead of me, climbing over a fallen tree, his feet crunching on a pile of dead leaves.
There’s an eerie stillness in the air and I try not to picture the creatures lurking in the dark depths, hiding in burrows or between the dense thicket of brush to my left.Monsters are not real, I remind myself as I follow Lucas through the darkening forest. It should only take us five minutes to reach the other side, and then it’s a quick walk over to my house.
It’s only when I’m right in the middle of the forest, halfway between where we started and where we’ll end that it occurs to me Lucas lives in the opposite direction. It’s why we never walk to or from school together. My stomach twists and my heart starts to pound. I run my hands through my hair and try to focus on my breathing. I don’t want to be here anymore. I want to go home.
I turn around to find Lucas, but instead of finding my only friend, I come face to face with three of my own monsters. Lucas is standing next to them, a half tilted smile on his face. I’ve never seen him look at me like this before, and it makes my stomach hurt even worse.
The three other boys fan out, surrounding me on each side. One is holding his phone. The other has a can of deodorant in his hand, and the other has his fist closed over something I can’t see.
“You look scared, little baby. Are you scared?” One of them sneers and I spin around in a frantic attempt to find a way out. I want to scream for help, but my body and mind don’t work like that.
Lucas doesn’t move, even when I plead with my eyes for him to help me. To remember how much fun we had together last week when we rode our bikes to the pump track. But he’s notthe same boy I spent the weekend with. He is a monster like the other three. I think he’s worse than a monster because he wore the mask of a friend.
One of the boys comes up to me and I dash to the side, ready to run away, aiming for the far treeline closest to my house. He sticks his leg out, and I stumble, my body hitting the floor with a thump. One of them rips my bag from my back and I hear it land not too far away from me, but out of my sight.
The boy rolls me over until I’m looking up at the canopy of trees blocking out the sky. Tiny shards of light push through as my eyes begin to water. I try to get up by rolling onto my side, but Lucas grabs my wrists, his hands tight around me as he forces my hands to the ground. Broken twigs graze my arms and I twist and squirm in an attempt to get out of his hold.
“Beg and I’ll let you go,” he sneers. The other boys laugh, one coming to stand at my feet. He kneels down and wraps a hand around each of my ankles. They have me pinned down like a star that’s fallen from the sky.
“Do it, Dean, come on,” the boy at my feet urges. His friend, the one with the deodorant can in his hand, bends down and lifts my t-shirt. My heart tries to escape my chest, beating so wildly I fear it’ll tear right through me. I want to scream, but I can’t, and the more I thrash around, the harder Lucas pins my wrists.
“Beg and we’ll let you go,” he demands.
The last of the boys stands on the other side of me and I lift my head to watch as Dean holds the can of deodorant over my exposed stomach.
“Come on little baby, let us hear you,” he taunts.
As he dispels the deodorant, the boy opposite him opens his fist and bile rises in the back of my throat. Goosebumps pebble my skin, the cool air meeting the dampness where Dean sprayed the deodorant.
“Ask us nicely and we’ll stop. It’s really easy,” Lucas says again. I shake my head, my wispy brown hair catching in the dried leaves and forest debris while I look up at his monstrous face. I focus away from him, focusing on the light cracking through the trees. Closing my eyes, I try to picture myself talking. In my mind, I’m pushing the words out, like someone would push a boulder up a hill. I’m not strong enough to get the words up the hill, though. Just like I’m not strong enough to fight these boys off of me. I’m too small. Too weak. Too alone.
My eyes shoot open as white hot pain engulfs me and the acrid smell of something burning fills the air. Tears streak from my eyes, over my ears and down my neck and my skin tingles and itches until it no longer feels like my skin, but like something pasted on to me.
