"I can't believe I let you talk me into this," I moaned as I stared disconsolately at Alexander.

Alexander grinned at me even as his twin sister, Marianna, nodded beside him.

Marianna also began to grin before she said - "Well, if you go first, Kit, then I'll do it as well. Afterwards."

I just hummed, unconvinced as to whether she ever would. Alexander's grin turned even more wicked before he turned a sly wink at me.

"If you don't go first all on your lonesome, then who do you think is going to film all this stuff?" he pointed out even as he indicated Marianna and himself. "We can't all be hypnotised at the same time, Kit. Besides which, it was you who originally brought this up."

"I didn't expect you actually to go and agree with me," I countered with enough grump in my tone that even I winced to hear it. "Much less insist that I go first."

I sighed heavily even as I thought about all that was ahead of me in my future. In a way, Alexander was right and that the hypnotism-cum-past-life-regression session had been at least partially my idea. We'd been throwing around ideas of what we should do next for our YouTube channel that we hadn't done before. We were all heavily interested and influenced by anything paranormal and sometimes it was hard to keep coming up with original - and out there - content.

I had had the somewhat non-genius idea of hypnotism which had then led Marianna to suggest past-life regression. Although I wasn't entirely convinced it was altogether paranormal, there was enough going for it to make us stand out from the crowd a little. It certainly was something that none of us had done before and as the Penrose twins pointed out, the subject was interesting.

"You never know, Kit, you'll probably be one of those people who have never lived before," Alexander said as he clapped me on the shoulder. "You'll be under all of five minutes with nothing to show for it."

Marianna snorted and before I could say anything myself, she chipped in with - "Well, that's not very encouraging, Alex."

Alexander merely laughed and shrugged yet offered no apology or follow-up statement.Instead, it was left to me to interject with - "Or I'll be under for half an hour reliving all my past lives as Genghis Khan, Vlad the Impaler and Adolf Hitler."

I felt a sudden feeling of gloom descending upon me with the thought. Even Alexander frowned at that suggestion. He shook his head, silent, worried and nonplussed before he exchanged identically worried glances with his sister.

"I don't think that likely," Marianna told me gently. "You're too gentlemanly for that, Kit."

"In this lifetime," I said and scrubbed both hands through the short strands of my hair. "Who knows what I did in a past life? I most certainly won't be gay either, I'll bet."

That thought also horrified me. I was very proud of being gay and never hid that fact from anyone.

"You might have been," Alexander said and he seemed rather outraged by the notion that I would be anything other than gay. "You could have been the gayest Roman ever. You know they had a lot of fun in the gayest sense, those Romans. I wish I'd been one."

That at least made me smile - a little.

"I was probably a gay gladiator who got ripped to pieces by a lion in the arena," I said and descended into gloom again.

Marianna shot her brother a worried look again before she said - "Perhaps we shouldn't do this, after all. I don't think this is going to work out."

"And have Alex call me a coward for the rest of my life? No thanks," I said and rallied myself to face up to all possibilities - both good and bad. "Ignore my dour mood today. I'm just - I don't know. Maybe I am nervous."

"Well, there's nothing wrong with that as long as you're owning up to it," Alexander pointed out kindly. "I'd be more worried if you started acting with more bravado."

"What? Like you usually do?" Marianna scoffed as she glared at her brother.

She puffed out her not-inconsiderable chest and began strutting around like the world's most exaggerated Alpha male in response to her brother. Even Alexander laughed at that one and he certainly didn't seem to mind his sister's teasing.

He shook his head and said - "I'm not that bad, 'anna. Bad, but not that bad."

Marianna laughed up at her much taller brother and shrugged.

"Well, at least you do realise you can have an insufferable ego at times," she said. "Unlike our man Kit here."

She slipped one arm through mine and winked up at me. I smiled down at her generally merry features, instantly feeling a little better by her usual good mood.

"Thanks, 'anna," I said quietly.

She nodded as though she'd guessed that I was thanking her for cheering me up rather than for her actual words. She was particularly perceptive like that.

Alexander smiled at me before he clapped me on the shoulder and said - "Besides if you go under first, we can always tell the hypnotist person to pull you out again if you get into difficulties."

His expression turned uncharacteristically grave and I could even detect a hint of extreme worry in his kind green eyes.

"Someone's got to look after you, Kit," he continued quietly. "And you're like a brother to us. If not us, then who will do it?"

"Thanks, Alex," I said and I had to admit that his words also made me feel a little better about the situation.

I then laughed before I continued - "Here am I talking as though I'm about to go into prison or something instead of recording a video for a bloody YouTube channel. I'm being ridiculous."

"Well, I would say you are a little, but it is something that we've never done before. I suppose anyone would be nervous," Marianna pointed out but she wasn't smiling or mocking me.Instead, she looked concerned.

She exchanged a glance with her brother again before she continued with - "I'm going to repeat myself by saying - perhaps we really shouldn't do this. What if that hypnotist tries to plant hidden messages in Kit's mind? You know - the type that could make him a homicidal maniac? Or makes him go 'quack' every time he sees a picture of Elon Musk or something?"

"Quack? And what's a 'quack' got to do with Musk, 'anna?" Alexander asked with a laugh. "It would have been better to say 'grok' at least."

We laughed at his riposte and that laughter helped to assuage even more of my doubts.

"Well, I suppose you could always punch that hypnotist the minute they even try anything funny like that. Stop it halfway through," I suggested.

"That's a thought. Then we could go viral for punching hypnotists," Alexander pointed out which again made us laugh.

"Seriously, you perhaps shouldn't do that. Not on my behalf at any rate," I said, with a sigh. "Let's just hope that you don't have to do anything drastic like that."

"Hopefully not. Anyway! Time's a-wasting. Shall we go in?" Marianna asked brightly. "We will be late for Kit's session otherwise."

I just grunted and looked up at the nondescript building we'd been loitering outside. It looked nothing more than a new age shop from the exterior, that offered other services as well - such as tarot readings or palm readings or even something that sounded intriguing like a drum circle. I waded inside and was suddenly assailed by the scents of incense and spices and essential oils; I had to admit to feeling instantly wowed by both the aromas and the items on display. I was smiling within seconds even as a woman came out from the back, hands spread outwards in welcome. She looked peaceful yet professional and not at all scary. She was even wearing a lot of pink clothing and nothing like the 'Grotbags' type that I'd been expecting.

"You must be Kris," she said upon seeing me.

"Kit," I immediately corrected her though I smiled at her to soften the blow of my correction. I rarely ever went by my real first name if I could help it, offering instead to go by my initials K.I.T. - Kris Ian Trasker. I wasn't sure why she'd assumed that I was the right person, considering that Alexander had moved up to stand beside me. Perhaps she really was psychic after all.

The woman nodded and immediately corrected her mistake even as she invited us all through to the back. She even introduced herself as Rose.

"Now I understand that you want to film this?" she asked of the Penrose twins. "This is going on the internet, yes?"

"Yup. On our YouTube channel. Raptor Attack. That's our band name. We'll send you a link to the appropriate video afterwards if you'd rather," Alexander offered with a smile.

Rose nodded before she turned to me with a sudden twinkle in her eye.

"You seem nervous, Kit," she observed.

I nodded before I explained - "I've never done this type of thing before."

"You'll be fine. It's pretty painless," she said.

I just nodded, unconvinced before I asked - "How many Genghis Khans have you had walk through this door? Or Vlad the Impaler?"

Rose looked surprised by my question before she laughed and said -"Absolutely none. I have had a few gangsters - some even worked with the Krays but no one like Vlad Tepes."

"Oh. Good. I suppose," I said but I still had to privately admit to being unconvinced.

I was betting that I would be the first Vlad the Impaler to darken her rooms but didn't want to push my luck by pressing the subject. Marianna was grinning beside me even as she helped her brother set up the equipment.

Once they'd finished that little task, I was settled on a couch and we soon began the process of putting me under hypnosis. It was surprisingly quick and easy, and most definitely painless. It involved much watching of swinging rose-coloured crystals and listening to relaxing music. I didn't even know that anything was happening at first until everything went black.

****

I woke up in a cabin, with the bite of extreme cold gnawing at my meagrely clad frame. I shivered suddenly and called for Marianna and Alexander. I didn't receive an immediate response and my own words soon petered out when I realised that I no longer was speaking English. Instead, I seemed to be speaking some kind of Slavic dialect - either Russian or Ukrainian. I paused - in my normal life, I was unfamiliar with either language.

I didn't get much of a chance to speak to myself because memories of my genuine life began to slip into the background and I felt a little more immersed in what was going on. I still was me, still was Kit, yet felt oddly other, older perhaps, and definitely colder. I turned back to what I was doing and found that I'd been scrubbing an already spotless floor.

"You! Boy! Get back to scrubbing," a harsh female voice barked nearby.

"Yes, step-mama," I called back before I began scrubbing again with alacrity.

She grumbled and seemed unconvinced by my industry even though I was doing my best at my task. Once I'd finished, I began strewing reeds upon the floor, which were interspersed with sweet-smelling sprigs of heather, to sweeten the air.

Once I'd completed that chore, I was set the task of peeling potatoes, carrots and beets for that evening's dinner. I was also set the task of making borsch, holubtsi and other things that I normally didn't know how to make in my modern-day life, yet my hands - work roughened and older - flew through the tasks as though they had done them a thousand times before and perhaps they had in that lifetime.

It was as I was preparing some garlic and herb butter-infused chicken that I heard voices in another room. I didn't hear all of the words, merely things like 'Baba Yaga', 'no sacrifice this year' and 'through the woods.' I frowned and yet continued to work. Time grew late and the family, such as it was, finally sat down to eat.

I had to admit to some surprise at seeing Alexander - now referred to as Oleksandr - seated at the table. He looked as pale and as wan as I felt yet wouldn't meet my gaze over the meal I'd slaved over. He was dressed as poorly as I was - in a raggedy canvas sack tunic and breeches, barely suitable for the icy cold outside. There was no sign of Marianna however.

The adults in the room - one of whom I knew to be the Penrose father in my time, were dressed far more richly though I didn't know the woman. I had already referred to her as 'step-mama' however, so I knew that in that timeline, the elder male Penrose must have remarried. Why I was in the room with Alexander and his father, I had no idea. While it was true that we were like brothers without blood we had not grown up together. My family was different - the 

Traskers and not the Penroses.

I didn't have much chance to ask questions or even to mull over the myriad mysteries that were surrounding me, as the conversation was mostly frowned upon by the forbidding 'step-mama.' The conversation was restricted only to herself and to Paul Penrose - now referred to as Pavel.

As soon as the meal was over and we were dismissed for the night, Alexander pulled me to one side and hissed at me - "I'm worried about Marianna. She should have been home from the market by now! I think Baba Yaga's taken her because we refused to offer that witch a sacrifice this year. You know what that means. Marianna's not going to come back. People never do - not from Baba Yaga's house."

Though my modern self knew nothing of Baba Yaga, my former self did - Baba Yaga was the witch of the woods, said to live in a house on chicken legs, who accepted children as sacrifices from families willing to protect their households from Baba Yaga's dubious attentions.

"If we don't go and get her, then we'll be sent next year. You know step-mama hates us all," Alexander said next.

I nodded, glumly. I didn't much fancy the idea of going to Baba Yaga's house at all, yet my need, shared with Alexander to save Marianna, was tantamount.

"You don't have to come," Alexander said to me once he'd noticed my reticence. "I know you were just a foundling child and owe nothing to me and my sister - "

His voice trailed off as though he felt guilty for even suggesting such a thing. I sighed and my former self seemed sad, wearied, put-upon as though weary of everything in that life and perhaps I had been. Things had seemed pretty dire, for me, for Alexander and for Marianna.

"I'm coming," I said far more resolutely than I'd expected.

I was surprised to find that in that lifetime, I was not gay, that I was secretly in love with Marianna, and that I wanted to marry her and to spirit both of the Penroses away from such a sad existence. A fire burned within my former self's gut to fulfil that dream and I felt that desire leaching into my modern self.

I steeled myself and so when the hour came nigh, we snuck from the house and slipped off in secret, through the night-time snow that swirled down from the darkened sky.

When we were halfway to Baba Yaga's house, Alexander and I were stopped by a kindly woman who we'd never met before, who gave us meat, a bone and a yellow ribbon as well as oil, to give to the ones that most needed it. Puzzled, we accepted the strange plethora of gifts and made our way through the woods.

We soon found ourselves at Baba Yaga's house as the moon rose high in the sky denoting midnight. Outside, a panther stood guard and she accepted the meat gladly. Inside the door, we met a large dog, who accepted the bone. We oiled the hinges of the gate with the oil we'd been given and decorated the tree that threatened to bar our way into the house with the ribbon.

Then Baba Yaga herself appeared and both Alexander and I shied away from her, both terrified of her bad reputation.

She laughed before she said - "You did not recognise me in my other form in the forest which is all to the well and good. You still knew just when to give the gifts and to whom. You have proved yourself worthy of me as kind and generous youngsters, much like your sister."

She stared at me before she said - "Adopted sister."

I nodded but yet said nothing. I didn't know where the as-yet one-sided conversation was going so decided that words might prove to be disastrous.

Alexander had no such qualms because he managed to stutter out - "What are you going to do with us?"

"Nothing, dear Oleksandr," Baba Yaga laughed. "I keep up a bad reputation so that only the most desperate come to see me and you are the most desperate of them all. My sister is much worse than I am, don't you see? She is your step-mama, after all. She pretends to be good when she's anything but - yet I am nothing more than what I am. Good to those who are knee-deep in desperation."

"What are you going to do with us?" I asked.

"I told you. Nothing. You may live here if you wish without fear or anything. You can do as you wish, help if you want or don't if you don't. I have all that I need and helpers to do as I wish," she said and shrugged airily. "You can live a happy life here and go in peace when you're ready."

We nodded and decided to accept her offer. I woke up before I could see any more. The others were gaping at me as I found myself back in modern times again, in the office I'd started in.

"What happened?" I asked as I pawed at my eyes warily.

"Since when do you know Russian, Kit?" Marianna asked with a sudden laugh.

"Come again?" I asked baffled by the unexpected question.

I hadn't expected to be speaking aloud, after all, and as far as I knew, hadn't. Marianna's question made me wonder if the opposite were true.

"You were speaking Russian the entire time you were under," Marianna said and looked more amused than anything else.

Alexander rewound the video file and played it to me. I was indeed speaking Russian fluently for at least five minutes peppered here and there through bouts of unnerving silence. I shook my head and exclaimed in wonder at the sight.

"Can you tell us what happened in your vision, Kit?" Rose asked quietly.

I nodded before I began to tell them of my vision. Alexander shushed me and started recording my statement. I told them all that I could remember of what I had seen, puzzled through I was by it all.

Rose nodded sagely when I had finished before she said - "It is indeed a past life. It seems as though you were living in Russia a couple of hundred years ago. That was a dialect of Russian that hasn't been seen or heard in that long. It's interesting to note that you all knew each other in that life as well. Perhaps you were always drawn to one another, to know that you have a strong bond no matter what life you are in."

That intrigued me, yet Marianna seemed quite amused by the fact that I had been secretly in love with her in a former life. I blushed and knew she wouldn't let that one go for a very long time.

"I love you too, Kit but the gay thing kind of prevents anything happening in this life," Marianna said with a wink at me.

That at least made me laugh and nod. I didn't know what else to say and the sudden ding of the shop's doorbell as it opened interrupted the conversation somewhat.

"I think that that is my next customer," Rose said with a sanguine smile. "I hope that your session has provided you with everything you need?"

I nodded even as the Penrose twins began swiftly packing their equipment away. Once they had finished, I left with them, yet not before I'd thanked Rose for her time and expertise.

"We may be coming back as the terrible twins want to have a go," I said with a smile at her.

"You will be most welcome," she said with a smile of her own.

I nodded and bid her goodbye before I followed Marianna and Alexander outside.

"Well, that certainly was an exciting and informative time," Marianna said with great excitement lighting up her pretty face. "I'm certainly glad we went through with it."

"Excuse me? Who exactly went through with it?" I corrected with a sudden laugh. "Was it me?"

Marianna laughed and nudged me with her elbow before she said - "You knew what I meant. Alex and I were working by filming everything."

I just hummed and nodded even as Alexander peered expectantly down the road.

"What is it?" I asked him, curiously.

"Fancy going in the chippy?" Alexander asked as he indicated the fish and chip shop. "Or would you rather have some borsch? Comrade Trasker."

Both Penroses began to laugh yet I tried not to.

"Maybe another time, Alex," I said and smirked. "Or should I say Oleksandr?"

Alexander gave me a wry smile even as we trooped down the road to wend our way inside the warmth of the fish and chip shop. It didn't take us long before we were seated with our orders displayed before us and we tucked in to our greasy meal with great enjoyment. I had to admit even as I ate that despite my earlier worry and concern, the day had been a productive and even a fun one. I just hoped that the results of our work would go over well with our YouTube subscribers.

****

I needn't have worried about the reception to our video. Our subscribers seemed to enjoy that video as much as any of our other output and were particularly fascinated by my past life. It made me feel oddly proud for having gone through that experience and I certainly began to think more fondly on that session afterwards.