I pushed open the heavy oaken doors, allowing Abigail to enter the large gothic manse ahead of me. She brushed past me as she did – my strength only carried the door open a fraction – and I was struck again by her casual familiarity after only just meeting on the driveway.
‘I wonder if anybody else received an invite,’ she mused, walking through the lobby with an almost practised ease. The mysterious Baron who had summoned us to his strange corner of the world for a mysterious ‘event’ had yet to make an appearance; though the gold-foil invitation he had sent me almost hummed with anticipation in my jacket pocket.
‘Hello?!’ Abigail called out into the empty house, and I rushed to shush her. ‘What?’ she frowned. ‘Afraid we’ll disturb the person who’s come to give an estimate on residential glazing? There’s nobody here, Rennings.’
Out of nowhere, a thunderclap rocked the world outside the windows and we both shrieked in fright, clutching one another. As the sound faded, we quickly disentangled ourselves.
‘By Jove!’ a new voice sounded, incredulous and foppish. ‘There are more people here!’
We turned and saw a well-dressed young man with a boyish face bounding towards us across the vast entry hall. In his hand, he carried an ancient oil lantern, and two more people – a stern man and an older woman – trailed behind him.
‘Not so fast, Hugh,’ the woman scolded, as she struggled to keep up on her cane. ‘Where are your manners?’
With his back to the pair, only Abigail and I could see Hugh rolling his eyes. He did, however, slow down slightly.
‘You received an invitation too?’ the stern man asked us from beneath some incredibly bushy eyebrows.
‘We’re not out here to check out the imported glass balustrades – Melbourne has nicer ones anyway,’ Abigail yawned.
‘Yes,’ I said, stepping past my uninvited companion to offer my hand to the gentleman. He did not acknowledge the gesture, but Hugh grabbed it enthusiastically.
‘Superb,’ he grinned up at us. ‘Say, when do you think we’ll meet—’
Another clap of thunder and suddenly, there was a man on the stairs above us.
I slowed to a walk, Bella panting happily by my ankles as she trotted alongside me for our nightly jog. I winced as my foot hit the path, a line of pain flaring up the muscles of my leg. After a few more steps it got bad enough that I had to hobble towards a park bench.
I sat in the back of the cluttered classroom, foot idly tapping away at a song in my head – music players could be confiscated by overzealous teachers, I’d learned, but they couldn’t do anything about the hundreds of albums I’d been memorising since I was a toddler.
I’m never driving from Brisbane to Melbourne again. Not even if ten thousand angry, rabid rabbits are chasing me. Not even if my life depends on it. Rabbits, you can just take me. I’ll accept my fate without complaint.
Air conditioning is the best way to keep your home cool in the summer, this is an undisputed fact. The best way to ensure your system is running efficiently is by making sure you get regular 
When I arrived at the Adelaide workshop, I didn’t hesitate to enter the building. Disappointingly, there was no valet, so I had to park my own car like a pleb, but I managed. As I entered, intending to fulfil the latest condition of my father’s will, so that I can get my billions of dollars, I called out to the nearest staff member. He turned out to be the manager and had been expecting my arrival for some time.
rds – figuratively speaking. The clue is actually in an abandoned car that has been sitting at the back of the shop for years.
I don’t know why Fernando won’t listen to me when I tell him that I broke the balustrade on the stairs! Normally I would have no problems throwing Gizmo under the bus, but he wasn’t even in the house at the time, so that hardly seems fair. Also, the documentary crew caught me breaking the balustrade on camera so there’s no point in denying it. They can’t show Fernando the footage until the documentary is over, which will be in about four years, but he would hate me when he did see it.