"It always starts in Castle Mall with the gate falling," Kay said, matter-of-factly as they reached a door at the road level. "Then, at the lifts, it branches. We always come out in the early nineties but sometimes it's winter with the fireworks and other times it's late summer. Always at night, though."

Kay opened the door – it only required a key from the other side – and they slipped out and joined the crowd.

"How did we get here?" Cassie said. "And why?"

"So many questions," Kay laughed, pushing her way through the crowds watching the fireworks display.

"They don't seem to see us," Cassie said.

"No," Kay agreed. "Stand on someone's foot, though, and they will. We're out of our time. It's like it's hard for them to focus on us so, mostly, they just ignore us. I think they find that easier than dealing with it."

"How does that work?"

Cassie thought she saw Kay shrug as she led them past the Bell pub.

"Can you feel it, Cassie?"

"Feel what?"

"The next portal. Or crossing point, worm hole, gateway or whatever you want to call it. I prefer portal."

"How should I know?"

"You felt the gate coming down before it happened, didn't you? And the stuff around the Cow Tower?"

"Er, yes. How do you know about that? Just who are you?"

"Who do you think I am?" Kay stopped pushing past people and turned to stand directly in Cassie's path.

"I don't know," Cassie said, shivering and wishing she'd worn something that didn't have short sleeves. Then again, she hadn't expected to come out into nineteen-nineties November weather on the same day as experiencing a June 2018 heatwave.

But the woman was far too familiar. They stood inches apart and, as they were pretty much the same height as each other, Cassie stared directly into Kay's face and eyes. She had one of those deja vu moments. Except this was more like a looking in a mirror moment.

"Are we related?"

"Hah!" Kay shouted. "Come on. I could've sworn you were brighter this time around."

"What do you mean 'This time around'?"

A picture of her mother entered Cassie's head. She remembered that same wild hair. Her Mum had never had hers straightened. It had never been straight except, of course, near the end, just before it had all fallen out.

"Are you..."

"Your mother? Nope, close but not close enough."

"How did you know I was thinking that?"

"You always think that first. Well, when you're capable of thinking, that is. I just cut you off before you mentioned it this time."

Then Cassie noticed a small scar on Kay's right cheek. Her hand moved her own right cheek, to the identical scar caused, when she was six, by a sharp stone that had cut it deep after she'd fallen off her pushbike. So no, not a mirror – this was back to front.

"Yeah, now you get it."

"How?"

"Tell you in a while. C'mon, I'm hungry. Let's find a hot dog or burger stall or something. Then maybe something warmer for you to wear."

They stood in front of the library eating the hot dogs that Kay had bought from a stand a couple of minutes earlier. Before them the bulk of the Saint Peter Mancroft church obscured the view of the castle and fireworks. But Cassie was staring at the library.

"It burns down in two or three years time," Kay explained in between bites.

"So, how do I become you?"

"By failing to d..., er, to get home."

"But wait, you said 'This time around' earlier on," Cassie said. Her brain was in knots trying to figure things out.

"Yes, I did. Confusing, isn't it!"

"How old are you?"

Kay shrugged. "How old do I look? It sometimes feels like I've been doing this for much longer than the time I was you."

"I– I don't know. Forty-ish, I suppose."

"Well, thanks a lot."

"How come you don't know?"

"It's hard to keep track of birthdays when you keep dodging around in time."

"And you keep on meeting me?"

"Yep, lost count of how many times."

"What happens?"

"Well, we often have a conversation very similar to this and then I, well, I try to keep you safe."

"Try? What do you mean try?"

Kay made an expression and stared off into the distance.

"Wait, are you saying that I don't stay safe?"

Kay said nothing but stuffed the rest of the hot dog into her mouth and threw the greasy napkin onto the ground.

Cassie finished her own off but folded her napkin neatly before pushing it into a pocket of her jeans. How could she have turned into Kay? She could see how the woman's face resembled her own, but age had taken the smooth roundness she knew from the mirror and replaced it with lines and harder angles. But that was the obvious visible changes – she wondered what else had changed inside.

Kay was looking around as if she was expecting company. "We need to move. You feel the next portal yet?"

Cassie certainly felt something, but it had nothing to do with portals. She felt scared and lost, but also that, somehow, this was far less of a surprise than it should have been. It was almost as if she had been expecting something like this to happen for years. It was both new and familiar at the same time. And, while it was definitely scary, she also thought she should be far more terrified than she was. How could that possibly be?

But then, something else nagged, and she became conscious of – well, she didn't know what it was or how to explain it. It was something wrong, though what could be more wrong than standing in front of a library that had been destroyed before she was born? But there was a feeling and, not only that, it had a direction.

"Back that way," she said, pointing past the church. "Maybe off to the right a bit. Not too far away."

"Probably one of the Debenham's portals, then."

"There's more than one?"

"You'll see. Oh, and here they come," Kay said, jabbing a thumb over her shoulder towards the steps of City Hall. Cassie looked in that direction. There were several people around but, in between them there was something else. Several somethings.

"What are they?" she asked, a squeak of fear tainting her voice. The somethings, numbering around five or six, were flowing towards them, their feet gliding above the ground. Their empty faces, containing nothing more than a hint of eyes and mouth, peered at each real person they passed.

"Bad things. Nasties. Call them what you want. They're definitely not friendly."

"Yes, but what are they? Ghosts, zombies or something else?"

"Nothing you've ever heard about. Definitely in the 'something else' category, I'd say."

"What are they going to do?"

"If they get hold of you?"

"Yes."

"Kill you, probably."

"What?"

"Get used to it. Right, let's go."

Kay grabbed Cassie's hand and dragged her off running.

Thank you for reading Time Portals of Norwich. If you liked it then please don't forget to vote.

Also, if you are interested in the locations depicted in this novel then please go to my website via the external link (below next to the share icons) and download the Location Files which will pinpoint the various places mentioned using Google Earth. I have included more about each one and often included photographs and links to sites giving further information.