Daisy stood among the crowd, Elvis nearby but not obviously, and watched the flames rise into the sky.
‘It’s started,’ she whispered.
The shopfront was collapsing, burned timbers cracking and cumbling under the strain. The sign collapsed to the ground and split in two:
The Sisterhood
Behind her was The BSD cafe-come-clubhouse. Men stood at the windows, some were [...]

Grey all around, not a sound, the sky dark and dull.
Daisy Donnie stood on the blasted heath, the twisted shape of a tree before them.
Walking forwards through the ash, yet making no noise, they approached, recognising and terrified by it.
A piece of the past.
They focused on the dark black bark, burned by the fire that [...]

The darkness of nightmare…
…Two children looked up from the bodies of their parents.
‘You have to leave,’ said DaisyDonnie, voice rising to panic. ‘You have to leave now!’
The door behind DaisyDonnie opened with a theatrical creak of rusty hinges.
‘Hello there,’ said The Assassin.
Bzornt!

Prelude
Four hours earlier…
‘This had better be good,’ said The Colonel sitting down. The room was small, big enough for perhaps three or four people at a push; a meeting room that had been converted from what appeared to be a cupboard.
‘New information, sir,’ replied the corporal.
‘How can it be new if we’ve had it for [...]

Daisy stood, tense, gun forwards and with the safety-catch off. Just a squeeze and there would be a bloody hole in Caroline’s chest.
‘Give me one reason why I shouldn’t just shoot you where you stand,’ she hissed.
‘I can’t think of one,’ replied Miss Rook with barely a movement.
‘I want to know what happened to Eva.’
Miss [...]

She woke with a killer headache, instinctively feeling between her legs, and found she had to shift quite a bit of fabric out of the way before reaching her destination.
Daisy Penfolde opened her eyes and stared at the stars, then breathed in air which had no odour, no particular temperature… which she realised had been [...]

She woke with a killer headache — then began to sob uncontrollably. The loss… it shook her to the core of her being.
The background noise, windscreen wipers across wet glass, the swoosh of tyres through puddles and the sound of rain hammering down on the metalwork of the car, they all meant nothing, didn’t even [...]

Green hills rolled beneath as the helicopter flew a little lower, its destination near. Trees were dotted here and there on the grassy plain and small patches of colour emerged periodically.
* * *
A white jeweled belt was folded by two men. The silver buckle was folded last and ended up on top.
The Elvis impersonator, captain [...]

Elvis wrenched the shackles free of Daisy-Donnie and helped them down.
‘You look…’ he glanced down at Daisy-Donnie’s chest. ‘Different?’
Daisy-Donnie grinned at Elvis, but was distracted by the sphere of energy high in the air.
‘What are they doing to him?’ they asked, looking upwards.
* * *
Madame Pink and Monsieur Bleu leaned forward and kissed each other [...]

Elvis and The Assassin ran along the gantry from which Donnie had fallen some hours earlier. A size eight ladies shoe lay there, a stain of blood on it.
The skylights exploded with flashes of light and glass showered the two men and the surrounding area.
Dozens of white and black-clad people rappelled down like a French [...]