South London Forever // George Karim

-jumpers and fines-

only just finished this in the nick of time lol

please don't be a silent reader, i loved when people used to comment on this book and I know every fic writer says this but it does help with motivation so much because I know that people are actually really enjoying the story

<3

I took a knife and cut out her eye

Freddie righted her rack from where it had fallen to the floor and picked up all of the hangers. She began smoothing out her crumpled button up shirts and hanging them up next to the pants all with one hand. Her other was still swollen inside its wad of bandages and sticky tape.

I took it home and watched it wither and die

The window had been opened, probably to waft out the smell of all of those salt bombs that were now stuck in the carpet. George would probably vacuum them out soon. He'd be vacuuming a lot.

There was a lot to stress about.

Well, she's lucky that I didn't slip her a smile

On the bright side, Freddie now knew what Lucy looked like. She didn't know what George or Lockwood or May or Earnie or anyone who wasn't a wavering spirit thirsting for her blood looked like, but now she'd seen Lucy's bob and her round cheeks and wide-open eyes as Annabel Ward possessed her.

That's why she sleeps with one eye open, oh

It had been terrifying. Freddie didn't even know how it had happened. She didn't know how her Talent really worked beneath her blind eyes.

She just knew that in the dim nothing in front of her, she could see faint outlines of their oldest rapiers that dripped with the essence of ghosts and handmade salt bombs interwoven with chainmail sheet and salt grinded by hand. She could see the occasional sprig of dried lavender that had warded off many ghosts and the Sources that piled up around the chains hanging in the basement.

But that's the price she'll pay

She could see ghosts themselves, and ghost fog and all of those gruesome visual manifestations. Her Talent was Sight, of course. She could also see death glows.

And apparently, she could see the person with a psychic connection to a dangerous ghost possessing her.

Lockwood had stood frozen in the doorway to the lounge room as Lucy but not Lucy clawed at him and screamed about how much it hurt. George had opened the curtains and the faint sunrise washed away the last of Annabel Ward.

I said, "Hey, girl with one eye"

Freddie put the last few salt bombs that had rolled to the side back on her bedside table. Once the ring had been locked up yet again, everyone had dispersed through the house, still in shock. Freddie had sat on her mattress holding the fluff of Chai's neck and tried not to cry.

She was okay now, though.

She was very good at that. At calming down and moving her choppy hair back out of her face and brushing her teeth and then taking enough deep breaths of the attic air that smelt of salt and cold tea.

"Get your filthy fingers out of my pie"

Chai's tail thumped on the floor twice, and then the stairs creaked as someone trudged up. George. Freddie could tell by the way he walked. She went back to the record player and turned it down a bit. It sat on the little dresser by Lucy's bed, where she'd unpacked all her clothes.