[extract from User, a novel-in-progress]

Prologue

For a short while, the living and the dead travel side by side.

When alive, neither Alicia or Ruby had any idea of the others existence. Not in any meaningful way. Their paths had crossed once or twice. They'd passed on the street, eaten at the same takeaway, were members of the same social networking site and even shared a no good boyfriend. It wasn't until Alicia passed on that they really got to know each other properly. 

You may rightly think, being dead at the time of their acquaintance, Alicia actually didn't get to know a thing about Ruby, but who's to say how long the recently dead stay with us? Or what they know?