Elizabeth knew that there was going to be trouble. She just didn`t realise how much there was going to be.

　　On a scale from 0 to 10 it was a definite 11.

　　One reason for this was that her nightmares were becoming worse. The dreams had been bad enough when they were only once or twice a week. But now she was having them every night and the feeling was relentless. Elizabeth was so exhausted that she was giving serious thought to going to sleep in the library. At least then she wouldn`t wake up wrapped in her bed sheets, howling wildly in terror, her head filled with a flashing pain like it was going to split apart.

　　And there was nothing she could do to avoid it.

　　Even the experts were at a bit of a loss.

　　Doctor Colohan at the hospital said that it was probably a way of dealing with the shock of what she went through. But Elizabeth couldn`t see how that might work because there was no sense to any of it. One moment the world had been a bright and sunny place, the next it was misery and gloom.

　　And that was another reason why she knew there was going to be trouble. Because November 18th was officially the Worst Day in the History of the Universe.

　　So making her go to school when she felt like a bear with a bellyache was just asking for something to happen.

　　The only surprise was that it took as long as it did . . .

　　Morning was a foggy-headed, fuzzy, yawning blur. Music with Miss Noakes had been the usual racket and Mr Bothroyd`s history class was always so dull that she was certain nothing remotely of interest could ever have happened to anyone. Dinnertime was just as horrendous. After playing with a blob of stuff that might have been blancmange Elizabeth decided that she wasn`t really hungry and took herself off to the playground, cupping her hands to try and blow away the cold.Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

　　And that was when disaster struck.

　　"Sitting on your own again are we, Gingermouse?"

　　Amanda Pettigrew and her cronies had the perfect eye for trouble. The trio of trolls, with their garish piggy faces, always seemed to know exactly when to strike. Elizabeth could see that there was no point trying to run. Her only hope was that they would soon get bored and look for amusements elsewhere.

　　"Aw, look", said a girl whose eyes were uncommonly close together. "I think she`s gonna cry".

　　"Maybe it`s because she`s so ugly".

　　"Yeah, don`t touch her or you`ll catch the frecklepox".

　　Elizabeth bit her lip as they clucked and cackled. She had heard the insults so many times that the words were hurling themselves: she was small and weird and her nose was a funny shape, nobody liked her and she had no friends, all of her clothes were second or third hand because mum was too poor to buy new ones. On and on, like this, it went.

　　Usually Elizabeth would just try to ignore them. But today was different. And her patience was thinner than wire.

　　"Get lost".

　　"Are you gonna make me?"

　　"Go and boil your head, you crow!"

　　Amanda Pettigrew sniggered and sneered and shone with twisted malice. "An` wot if I don`t want to?"

　　Elizabeth fought hard to keep hold of herself, her fists beginning to shake.

　　Then one of the gang said something about her dad and from deep inside her came a wave of unstoppable fury - a fury so strong that it smashed over the playground, washed over the school and for all she knew could have battered the whole of Hexley-on-Heath. By the time the teachers managed to drag her away the girl on the floor was clutching her face, screeching like a fire alarm.

　　Elizabeth had been given a week`s automatic suspension and Mr Owen the headmaster had threatened to call the police. Her mum, when she came to collect her, was more livid than ever before.

　　November 18th.

　　Exactly one year since the end of the world.

　　But as hard as Elizabeth tried to make herself remember, the details of that day were lost and always out of reach.

　　The most important part was missing. In the place where a remembering should have been there was a hole, a blank spot, a gap in her existence, just the faintest of signals from the depths of outer space.

　　There was the red autumnal hue of the trees. The clouds that were moving as though they were having a secret race. The flashing of the traffic lights. And the strange sensation that something was horribly wrong.

　　All that remained was the silent whisper of the odd-shaped thought that would never quite leave her alone.

　　Dad`s voice. Just before the thunder.

　　"Elizabeth & listen carefully & There`s something you really need to know".