Tom Foster was only 13 when bad things started to happen. He lost his grandfather; his little brother lived all of an hour and his father disappeared. Then the bullying started. Year 10. And as the summer fades and the nights close in, Tom enters a dark and menacing depression that seems awesome, infinite. He stops going out and he cuts himself off from his friends. These days, the notorious Crew baying for his blood, and even after-school sports seem too risky. The arrival of David changes everything. Suddenly Tom has a friend on the street and in school he can trust. Somehow the bullies just seem to lose interest; he starts seeing the girl of his dreams and life begins anew. But David is a high functioning and predatory psychopath whose life is set to spiral out of control... Growing up in the shadow of his older brother and subject to the cruel hand of fate again and again, Tom Foster never expected to have a destiny. But fate presents him with the challenge of his life - a ten minute window in which to make the difference between a moderately uneventful after-noon and a bloodbath - where a thousand empty bedrooms are turned into no-go shrines by broken-hearted mothers