Link (Stone Cold)



Link (real name unknown) is the sixteen-year-old son and youngest child of Mr. and Mrs. X, the younger brother of Carol and the main protagonist of the 1993 novel Stone Cold and it's 1997 BBC TV adaptation.

He is portrayed by Paul Gibbon in the TV adaptation.

Biography
Link was born on March 20th 1977 in Bradford in Yorkshire in England to Mr. and Mrs. X, who already had a daughter named Carol, who was four years Link's senior. In 1991, when Link was fourteen, his father walk out on the family to be with his receptionist lover.

By 1993, Mrs. X had started a relationship with another man named Vince, whom Link didn't get along with, because Vince would taunt Link by acting romantically towards his mother and would look at him to see how he was taking it. Another time, Link stayed out late with friends, resulting in Vince locking him out of the house, despite the pleas of Mrs. X to change his mind. One day, something happened between Vince and Carol, resulting in Carol moving out of the family home to live with her boyfriend Chris. Eventually, Link decided to move out and stayed with Carol for a while, but left after he started to notice that Chris was starting to see Link as someone who had outstayed their welcome.

Link then decided to move to London, where he was able to get a house, but was eventually kicked out by the landlord after failing to pay the rent. After becoming homeless, Link befriended a fellow homeless person named Ginger, who helped him cope with life on the streets. One day, Ginger disappears whilst visiting friends, leaving Link lonely again. Link soon met a homeless girl named Gail and develops feelings for her. One day, Link and Gail meet a man who is looking for his missing daughter, whom Link recognises. He and Gail learn that the girl had gone into a house with an older man known as Shelter, whom Link also learns, that Ginger went with.

Link and Gail go to Shelter's home, where Link is lured inside and sees Ginger and the other missing homeless people's bodies. Shelter (who had killed Ginger and the other missing homeless people in an attempt to "clean up" the streets of London) tries to kill Link, but is prevented from doing so when Gail arrives with the police, who arrest Shelter.

Afterwards Link sees a cameraman calling Gail Louise and realises that she is an undercover reporter doing a report on homelessness and gets angry with her for not telling him. A remorseful Louise gives Links some money before leaving with the cameraman. Link then believes that Shelter is better off than him as in prison, he gets a bed, shower, food and a roof over his head whilst Link is still homeless and so decides to move elsewhere.