Starstruck (Liberty Grove University #1)

prologue

july 2023

I was going to die in the middle of fucking Clapham.

Clapham.

My body couldn’t do me the courtesy of packing it in somewhere decent, could it? No, not in some posh corner of South Kensington or smack dab in Canary Wharf where someone might actually clock what’s going on before I’m left to rot. No, that'd be too fair on me, wouldn’t it? My body's got a flair for the dramatic, like it’s bent on some tragic Shakespearean exit.

And in fucking Clapham of all places.

I suppose in moments like this I had to look on the bright side. At least it wasn't Milton Keynes. I had that to be thankful for.

I only knew it was Clapham because I saw the sign for the common—right before my eyes rolled back and I passed out. And no, it’s not like I chose to nearly die here. I didn’t exactly plan on getting shoved out of a car by people I thought were my friends, then smacking my head on the kerb as I tumbled out.

But believe me, if I did have the choice of where I was going to die, Clapham would be the last fucking place I’d take my final breath.

As the thought crossed my mind on everywhere else I’d rather be right now, my head grew heavy, as my spine melted into the tarmac below me, soaking my already soaked clothes with the rain that had fallen during the miserable excuse for a summer’s day. My brain was caught in a vice, its grip relentless, tightening with every second that bled into the next, until I thought it might shatter under the pressure.

The world around me was slipping into darkness. The faint orange glow from the few working street lamps and the scattered stars above were the only things left to cling to. My breathing faltered, shifting between ragged gasps and barely there whispers of air. I was chained to the road, my life falling through the gaps between my fingers like the finest grains of sand.

That was when it got serious in my head. When I realised what was happening. I’d felt like I was dying the second I was dragged into the car and had my things stolen, but only now did I realise just how close my body was to giving up for good.

I couldn’t tell if it had started raining again or whether I was crying. I couldn’t tell if I was screaming or if someone had found me and they were screaming. I couldn’t bring myself to guess whether the breath I was struggling with would be my last or if I’d be lucky enough to get another.

My eyes fell closed, the heavy things clamping shut as my lungs began to cave in on themselves. But as I let my head sink into the road, what was left of the world to see lit up red and blue. I saw shadows, or what I think were shadows, and I felt hands on mine that were thrown by my side.

And then things went black. Not a star in sight.