The Penn Friends Series Books 1-4: Penn Friends Boxset

by T H Paul

  At no point had there been mention of Jack––no reports of a missing person on the news, nothing on social media from anyone Penny was friends with, nothing even from Lucy. Weren’t they missing him? Why hadn’t Lucy reached out to Penny asking about her brother?

  The one thing that had kept Penny going that month, the one person she’d shared her suicidal thoughts with, had been the anonymous prisoner, though she had learnt a lot more about him. He’d reasoned with her, aware of her feelings of emptiness and worthlessness, but urging her to be strong. He had felt the same during his first week in prison. He had wanted to kill himself, too, he’d told her in one email. She could, therefore, be strong. He needed her; he was only able to cope because she was writing to him.

  They talked most nights, only through the private emails from then on, abandoning the Pen Pal system they had initially chatted which used handwritten letters to communicate, letters that were most certainly read and censored, with strict rules in place.

  He had said in one of his emails that he had seen Jenkins. Penny had come alive at that thought. She now had access to someone on the inside. Someone she could use to teach the man a lesson.

  However, before the month was out and before she could instruct Jonathan to arrange some terrible accident, he’d written to Penny to state that Jenkins had gone. He didn’t know where. He was just gone.

  Penny swore but knew she had a new purpose in life. She couldn’t depart without making Jenkins pay for what he had done to her. Her suicidal thoughts were finally pushed to one side.

  Penny spent the entire last two days of her holiday––when she wasn’t working at the shop––researching as much as possible about where Jenkins had gone. Any news was tough to find. She couldn’t believe that the prison service had snuck him out. He didn’t deserve an easier life. Had they realised about her connection to Jonathan? Did they know it was Penny who was the mystery Pen Pal? She had no way of knowing.

  It was only on that final night before school was due to restart that the news broke––an inmate at the high-security Whatton prison had escaped. No names quoted, though they reported the man was a convicted sex offender. Penny knew it had to be Jenkins himself without a doubt. Had he known what she was planning? Was he now going to come after her?

  School started that first week of September. Abbey was very much the star attraction of not only 11W but the entire school, it seemed. No one apparently noticed that Jack wasn’t there. Penny couldn’t help but be glad that she was slipping under the radar. For once she was happy that Abbey was around.

  Kelly, too,––who’d seemed to grow about a foot in height over the summer––now had the figure to go with her killer bust. She was by far the most stunning looking girl in the class, and any boy with a pulse paused what they were doing as she first walked in that morning. Penny would let it drop. She had been looking over her shoulder ever since hearing the news about Jenkins. She had been chatting to Millie about it all from the day she heard, not telling her friend how she knew for sure it was Jenkins, but confirming that it was their former dance teacher who had escaped. No details got released to the public of what had happened, and the inmates at Whatton had no idea, either––the prison service would hardly tell them how someone had escaped––but Penny was disappointed that Jonathan hadn’t heard something on the grapevine. It seemed that Jenkins had escaped––and if they even knew how––they weren’t saying anything. Penny couldn’t help but feel that little bit more unsafe.

  “What if he comes for us?” Penny had said to Millie at the end of that first week––a three-day week only for the start of school. Penny was talking about Jenkins, Millie the only girl she could talk to about him, both girls in the same situation, both now a little alarmed. The school was talking about no one other than Abbey all week––when the boys’ minds weren’t otherwise distracted by Kelly––and it had mostly gone unnoticed that Jack Ferguson wasn’t there. The missing posters would only start going up the following week, as the school and whole community finally caught up with what they had missed up until that point. That was a storm waiting to break for Penny.

  Before that, she had the weekend. Both girls were working the same shifts, now, Penny having to cut back her nearly full-time hours due to school starting up again, so that she was limited to a couple of evenings and weekends once more. At least Millie was working the same shifts as Penny. In Millie, Penny felt she had a real friend, a proper friend for once. Life wasn’t all bad.

  Penny would shelve her darkest thoughts, therefore, as September pressed on. Millie needed protecting, and Penny knew she couldn’t go through with it, not yet, anyway. The nightmares Penny had been suffering had thankfully stopped––she hadn’t had one for a week––and that made things feel a lot better. Penny was at least sleeping through the nights. Maybe she could come through this? Maybe life was worth living, after all?

  11

  You see, ultimately, I wasn’t this big hard-arsed bitch I thought I was. Abbey was very much still the runner. She was back at school, as popular as ever, and with an Olympic bronze medal to show for it. Kelly was the class beauty––and I hadn’t seen that one coming. I’d inadvertently set them both up for life, no doubt, each with their talent, each something that I had given them. Each a target of mine for my reasons, but each ultimately left with a lasting legacy.

  And what about Jenkins? Had he got what he deserved? No, and now he was free. That wasn’t fair. Even that rapist and beast, Jack, had somehow got off too lightly. The more I thought about these people, the more I pondered Jack especially, the more I realised one thing. They had all got off too lightly. It wasn’t fair

  Would Jack have ever been sorry about Abbey? Could I ever tell her he’d paid for what he’d done? I knew I couldn’t. Even if I could, would I be able to say he had paid, like for like? I think I let him off too easily. While feeling suicidal myself––that darkness was to return, sadly––I knew death was too easy. Too simple. Jack had got off lightly, I was certain. It wasn’t fair.

  Penny would cease her emails to Jonathan by the second week of September. He’d served his purpose, and with Jenkins out, there was no reason to involve Jonathan anymore. He would write a few times––Penny glanced at them, his pleading messages for further contact from her––but he had given up after the fifth email went without reply.

  During lunch on that Saturday after school had started up again, Penny had joined Millie in a local cafe where the two girls sat and ate mostly in silence. Outside on the street, Penny saw Lucy Ferguson, the older sister of Jack. She had since left––despite most going onto the Sixth Form housed within their secondary school; Lucy had opted for education elsewhere––which meant there had been no Ferguson’s starting back that year at all. Penny jumped up, telling Millie she wouldn’t be a minute, as she raced out of the door.

  “Hey, wait up,” she called out to Lucy, who had seen her running from the cafe but had not stopped her walk.

  “What is it?” she asked Penny, a little short with her.

  “Have you seen Jack?” Penny had to ask; she needed to know what, if anything, his sister knew.

  Lucy eyed her warily. Did she know? Penny remained pan faced. She couldn’t give anything away now.

  “No, not heard from him since you guys went to Margate.” So she had been told they were both heading there. Surely it was only a matter of time until they caught her?

  “I’ve not heard from him since then, either,” Penny said. Lucy snorted, though she just seemed annoyed to be stopped in the street more than anything else. She didn’t seem alarmed that her brother had not come home for over a week, which was odd. “Aren’t you worried?”

  “No, Penny, I’m not. Now if that's all, I do have some important things to do, okay?” Penny didn’t say anything, Lucy taking that as a sign their conversation was over, and she carried on the way she had been heading a minute before. Penny turned and re-entered the cafe.

  “What was that about?” Millie asked
as Penny sat back down. She knew Lucy was Jack’s older sister.

  “Just asking after Jack. She’s not seen him since…” but she didn’t finish. Millie took it to mean the breakup, which seemed obvious.

  “Leave it, Penn. Don’t let him bother you anymore. It was Jack who dumped you, remember? So what if he’s taken it badly?”

  Penny shook her head. She didn’t care how Jack was handling it. The problem was with Lucy. She was too calm about it. Had Jack run away for days on end before? Maybe he’d gone AWOL after their mother had died some years before, perhaps that was why Lucy wasn’t at all concerned that he was still missing? Maybe she just thought he was repeating that pattern? Penny didn’t know what to make of any of it, and it bothered her maybe more than it should have done. She was already on edge. Penny didn’t need this from Lucy, not now. She hadn’t wanted suspicion, especially from Lucy, but Penny had no way of knowing how to deal with total apathy. Someone surely had to wonder where Jack was and think it odd that he had suddenly disappeared?

  “You’re right,” Penny said, Millie well aware that there was a lot more going on with her friend across the table from her than she was currently letting on, however. She let it slide.

  “We’d better get back,” Millie said, standing up and grabbing her bag from the back of her chair. Penny followed. On the street outside, Lucy was nowhere––why Penny had thought she would still be around, watching, waiting, she had no idea? Lucy had appeared in several of those nightmares Penny had suffered the previous month, always with police surrounding her. Lucy was usually the lead officer, coming to arrest Penny.

  Penny would spend the evenings that weekend just searching for information on the internet. Jenkins had still not been caught––that much alarmed her. She wouldn’t feel safe until he was properly behind bars again––and there was no apparent news on Jack, either. A few of his friends had been posting onto his Facebook timeline asking if he was all right. One boy had said he was worried about him, the rest just assuming he was partying it up somewhere. Most stated that they were covering for him at school. Penny couldn’t help but laugh at that last comment. If she could see the comments, so could the teachers, once they came looking.

  She’d been frightened that day in Margate, she knew it. He’d been too powerful for her, too aggressive. Had her gift not protected her, she would have suffered the same fate as Abbey; she came to know that now. It couldn’t help but make her think about Abbey and all she must have gone through in a different light. Abbey had never said anything to anyone about the rape since, not as far as Penny knew. Had they still been friends, maybe Abbey would have confided in her long ago?

  Penny could finally understand what it must have felt like, though. The terror Abbey must have felt, powerless to repel him, blaming herself that she had brought it on. She’d gone there with him, just as Penny had walked with Jack. Each time they had let him lead them to a quiet, secluded spot. Each time they’d let him just guide them, his thoughts only sinister. Penny pitied Abbey for the first time in years. She also felt more guilty than ever.

  If Jack was deemed missing, would Abbey now say something? Penny doubted it the moment she thought it. Why would she? Why now? Especially when he was missing. It would only make her look suspicious. Penny realised it would never come out. Jack had been right. He was always going to get away with it. Jack would have got away with raping Penny if she hadn’t been able to repel him, too. Invisible and airborne, he would have got away with a lot of things. Well, she reasoned, at least he was only airborne for ten minutes. She was glad she had limited that. It’d been the invisibility that had only made things worse for him, however. It was his cocaine, the one thing that took him so far over the edge there was no return. He could hide anywhere he liked, anywhere Jack had no right to be, continuously feeding that inner beast, his craving for more and more meaning he reached new lows.

  He needed jail, not death. It was too easy for him. Everyone deserves to know what he had done, yet no one would. Only Penny would know, and if anyone knew what she had done to rectify the situation, she would be the only one to face jail time. That wasn’t fair. Jack Ferguson was a vile pig who deserved to suffer, deserved humiliation for all that he had done, and yet she’d shown him mercy, not judgement. He had got off too lightly. And the more she dwelt on that, the more it bit deep inside.

  It wasn’t fair. None of it was.

  Titles in Season One

  The Powers of Penny

  The Parents of Penny

  The Heart of Penny

  The Dark Side of Penny

  The Rage of Penny

  The Joy of Penny

  The Darkness in Penny

  The Penny Black

  Author Notes

  T H Paul is my pen name. I am in fact a seasoned novelist under my real name of Tim Heath. The titles (which are also links) for the novels I have written follow in the next section and are available on all good online retailers. Plenty to keep you entertained between Penny Black books!

  I trust you have enjoyed this boxset, which, seeing as you are four books in, should be the case.

  I hope you’ve spotted that each book has a question that is asked at the beginning (before chapter one) and I hope gets answered by the end.

  Book discoverability has as much to do with recommendations as it does with marketing. There is nothing like reader comments, raves and reviews to help spread the news that there is a series of books in which others might too be interested. So please help me reach your reader friends by recommending these books to them. Then keep the conversation going on the Facebook page!

  There are eight episodes in Season One. I hope you’ve enjoyed the first four, and are ready for the rest.

  All titles are available individually, as well as in Boxsets (as this one). The next Boxset with books 5-8 in is available here.

  There will be a second series, plus at least one new spin-off where I focus on one of the characters who has featured in this season and take things….well, no spoilers here. But it’ll be awesome. Trust me.

  So stay in touch. Message me on Facebook (fb.me/PennyBlackBooks), connect to the mailing list or Follow my author page on Amazon. Better still, do all three. That way you will not miss a future release.

  Thanks again for following this series. The aim is that each book will be like watching a show on Netflix, small bite-sized episodes that you can complete in a day, maybe one commute, in fact.

  A question for you. What do you make of our heroine Penny Black? She’s an interesting character for sure, passionate, stubborn and at times wild and naive. But is she bad? Is she good? What do you think?

  A comment on style:

  You might have seen I use italics and dashes (––) a lot. It is a style choice for which I do not apologise. Only for direct speech do I use “for the start of the conversation and” at the end. I think using ‘this’ for ‘thoughts’ and ‘quotes’ looks messy. Give me italics for all this stuff, any day. I believe that it helps for a smoother, more straightforward text.

  The same goes with the dashes. It comes naturally to me when to use them. Commas, as in this instance, are excellent. There is something different about the dash––I’m not sure how best to explain it.

  Notice I use dashes like this––as well. Not –– like this, with space either side or like this–– attached to one word ––or the other. I’m sure they all mean the same thing––I just think they look better touching both words, no spaces.

  I hope you can live with my style. I’m sure some of you haven’t even noticed, which is excellent. That’s the reason I use it this way. These things aren’t meant to distract from the story, but to serve the story.

  Above all, enjoy!

  The Novels By Tim Heath

  In order of first publication

  Novels:

  Cherry Picking

  The Last Prophet

  The Tablet

  The Shadow Man

  The Prey (The Hunt #1)

&n
bsp; The Pride (The Hunt #2)

  The Poison (The Hunt #3)

  Short Story Collection:

  Those Geese, They Lied; He’s Dead