It's a glass cage so I can't pretend
You hide beneath the physical
I see it coming but I can't defend
You cut so deep
My belief is gone

"We're still going to cover the story!"

"I wouldn't try it!" spits Jade's father, facing Iain although he is hardly a menacing figure with his tired eyes and crumpled suit. "We will complain to the editor!"

"You think that's going to stop me?"

"Darling? The paper's here!"

"Why does that affect me?"

"I think you'll want to see this."

Jade's mother hurries downstairs in her nightgown, making a vain attempt to take some of the tangles out of her hair. She picks up the paper, and stares for a second at the front page. Then, her eyes widen and her breathing gets faster and louder. Dropping the paper as if it is red hot, and placing the hand that held it over her open mouth, she begins to scream.

"Sh! Sh!" Jade's father envelopes his wife in an awkward hug, just as he did in the reception after the funeral. "Don't wake the neighbours!"

"The neighbours! Oh, as if I care about the flipping neighbours!" Jade's mother exclaims, slapping her husband's hand away. "Those neighbours who are waking up and plodding downstairs on their stupid lazy feet and sitting at the breakfast table reading these things about our Jade! Don't you talk about the neighbours as if they deserve a blasted sainthood!" She swears loudly, before stamping on the newspaper so hard that her foot rips a hole in the photo of her daughter.

"Calm down…"

"Calm down? Calm down?" the woman glares daggers at her husband. "Oh, yes. The world can go about slandering our daughter, but if we all calm down it'll be just fine! What kind of a moron are you?"

"A moron who cares about our daughter," Jade's father replies, carefully avoiding conflict over the obvious insult. "Now, I disagree with this article as much as you do, but anger doesn't solve anything…"

"Don't patronise me! We're going to go down to the editor's office today and we are going to sort this out, and get that Iain Lacey sorted out once and for all! Oh, we should have seen this fiasco coming!"

Before Jade's father can utter a syllable against the notion, his wife has stormed back upstairs to get dressed and ready. Sighing in defeat, he looks sadly down at the paper before trudging upstairs himself.

"TRAGIC DEATH OF SCHOOLGIRL: WAS IT JUST THAT?

"Jade Marshall, 14, was hit by a car in events echoing the death of her friend Victoria Waters, also 14, only a couple of months previously. Jade was showing clear signs of insanity before she was killed: was her death simply a cry for help, for belonging, for happiness, for friendship? We ask, was Jade Marshall's death merely a tragic accident, after all?"

A/N: Good heavens, is this a plot I see before me? Surely not! Dear readers, this is where it gets interesting. Hopefully.

SONG: Looking Glass – The Birthday Massacre (weird name, awesome music)