Chapter 1: the blue box

Alex POV

I pull the collar of my coat up over my neck, the chill of the cold winter night trying to force its way through the little barrier of warmth my body had made from the long walk. I shiver, the darkness of the December night closing in on me.

I should have taken a cab I think to myself. The little side street of London now deserted, odd though, there usually is still at least some people, even considering that it's ten at night. I sigh, the events of earlier playing on repeat in my head.

Me arriving at the end of the year party, celebrating the fact that collage was over. Then finding Michel, my now ex-boyfriend, drunk in a room kissing some girl he picked up off the street. I had run out of my friend's house, hot tears streaming down my face, without any explanation.

Now, I was just plain mad. Mad that he would do this to me, but what would I expect, he had a reputation of cheating on girls. I try not to concentrate on it; I won't ever have to see him again.

I walk across the dark street, and curse when I stub my foot on the curb. I sigh again, thinking about my warm flat and how I can curl up on my warm bed and rant about the party to my friend, Jane, tomorrow.

That when I hear it, a sort of loud wheezing. I look around franticly for the source of the odd sound. My heart racing I take cover under the canopy of a closed shop. The sound grows into a soft whirring and the faint outline of a box comes into view.