"Right," Kay said, sitting down on the trimmed lawn. "Well, we both know how this started. After Mum died. When, you know, he began to take an interest in me... us."

"What are you talking about?"

"Four or five years ago, when you were nearly thirteen."

"Yes, I was thirteen four years ago. So? What started then?"

"Grandad. You know."

"Oh, when he started going mental?"

"That's one way of putting it. Wandering hands, I was once naive enough to call it."

"Eh? I meant when he started going senile. What's this wandering hands stuff?"

Kay frowned. "Senile? No, he wasn't senile at all. You mean he didn't start, um, touching you?"

"No, of course not. He would never do that."

"Oh." Kay looked shocked. "Things really were different for you."

"Are you saying...?"

"Yes. I'm saying exactly that. But if it didn't happen to you... Well, that probably explains why you didn't end up shoplifting."

"Are we really the same person?"

Kay stared at Cassie for a moment and then said, "Mum died on the twenty-fourth of January 2011 – correct?"

"Yes."

"Cancer?"

"Yes."

"And you started seeing weird people and things about a year ago?"

"No, a lot longer ago than that."

"What, round about the time your Grandad started, um, losing his mind?"

"No. Earlier. A lot earlier – before Mum died."

Kay pursed her lips, digesting the information. Then she slowly said, "My Grandad didn't lose his mind. Sometimes I thought it was me that had."

"Um, what exactly did he do to you?"

Kay's face fell and she swallowed.

"Okay," Cassie said. "I get the picture."

"No, you probably don't if, as you say, it didn't happen to you."

"It didn't."

There was silence for a while. A small flock of sparrows fought for something further across the green – pieces of bread or discarded chips probably. Cassie hadn't ever seen sparrows in such numbers before in the city. The chip shop a few yards away was closed and she wondered what time it was. She stood up so she could see the city hall clock – it said ten-fifteen.

Sitting back down she asked, "What are they? The weird people. That man on the bus and the things that chased us?"

"Some are the ghosts of real people that once lived – as far as I can tell."

"Like Robert Kett?"

"Yeah. You can't avoid him any time you go near the castle. Ones like him are mostly harmless, I think."

"You think?"

Kay shrugged. "Sometimes. A few of them are friendly like the Grey Lady, providing you don't let her chew on your legs. Most aren't. Some seem to be there just to keep an eye on you... well, us. Observers of some kind. Some can even be useful like the bus man."

"Talk crap, though."

"Yeah," Kay smiled. "Though sometimes what they say comes back to you later on and you realise it wasn't quite as crap as you first thought."

"What, like riddles?"

"Hmm, I suppose so. Though often of absolutely no use by the time you understand what they meant. You connect things in retrospect only once you've figured them out for yourself. Totally pointless, mostly."

"Like what?"

Kay frowned again. "Next time it happens, I'll remind you. What they say changes each time. Sometimes there are common themes, like the elements, other times..."

"Yeah, bus man said I was elemental – actually I thought he just meant mental but that's probably true as well. But..."

"But what?"

"But what's the point? Of all this happening, that is?"

Kay shrugged. "I really wish I knew. It just seems like an endless merry-go-round and there's no way to get off."

"So. Just how many times have you met me, then?"

"Lost count. Hundreds, possibly thousands."

"Really? Thousands? Wow."

"Sometimes, especially at first, I didn't meet you. I just watched to see what happened." Kay lapsed into silence.

"Well? What did happen?"

"Sometimes the falling gateway got you. Sometimes you ran off on your own and something else later on must have got you."

"Oh. And what happens when you do meet me?"

Kay turned her head away as if she was unable to look at Cassie directly.

"Well?" Cassie said.

Kay sighed. "You really want to know?"

"Of course. Why wouldn't I?"

"Yes, but... um, somehow you are never quite as forceful as you feel this time around."

"So?"

"Okay. You're not going to like this but most of the time they get you."

"They?"

"The nasties. The ones that aren't friendly. The things that come up out of the ground or through the walls. The ones that talk just as much crap while they are trying to devour you whole."

"Bloody hell."

"Sometimes I take my eye off you for a moment and you're gone as if you were never there. Other times I just lose you and have no idea what took you. But, usually..."

"What?"

"I've watched you die so many times..."

"That's, um, very reassuring."

"Once I think I saw the one that became me."

"Eh?"

"No one helped me. So I think I must have been the first, or at least the first one to survive all the way through a cycle. There wasn't a Kay to help the Cassie that I used to be. I had to do it all on my own."

"Um, so why did you call yourself Kay?"

"It was what he liked to call me."

"Who?"

"Grandad, of course," Kay snapped and then shut her eyes. "Sorry. But it hurts. It never stops hurting."

"No, I'm sorry. But why stick with 'Kay' when it, um...?"

"Because at first I... well, I wanted to please him, I think. Please him so that maybe it would stop hurting. So I became Kay, strong Kay who could live a lie and wouldn't tell a soul about what was really going on."

"Oh."

"What a joke," Kay whispered.

"You blame yourself?"

"Yeah, stupid isn't it. Far too common, apparently."

"I... I don't know."

"When I first started hooking up with you, it seemed simpler than having both of us being called Cassie. So, I used Kay. I think I've been Kay for longer now than I was ever Cassie."

A few clouds drifted across the sky but didn't come anywhere close to blocking out the sun. At least it wasn't as hot as 2018, Cassie thought.

"But what I don't understand is how can the same, er, thing, er, no, the same event turn out differently if it's the same thing, I mean, if it's happening at the same time each time? Oh damn, that came out completely wrong."

"Yes, but I know what you're trying to say. Maybe it's different timelines but, as far as I can see, we're the only ones experiencing it differently each time. I used to think that before the castle gate fell our lives were identical. You're not exactly the first to make me think that's not the case, though..."

"Though, what?"

"I don't know. There's something about you. You're different in some way. Stronger possibly. Definitely more argumentative. But why? I really don't know."

"Oh. So, um, what now?"

"All I can do is try to protect you. Maybe this time I can get you through all the portals and transitions. Maybe you will be the one I can get all the way home."

"But how do we do that?" Cassie asked. "And, if I don't become you, then how can we both go home?"

"I sometimes think I can never go home. But I feel I've still got to help one of you achieve that. When it comes down to it there's bugger all else for me to do. Even if I don't help you, the nasties eventually start hunting me down – not that they've ever succeeded. It's just easier to find the next portal and get a rest from them."

"Have you ever got close to getting me home?"

Kay shook her head. "I'm not sure – how can I be? If it's just one stop short of home, I'd never know. The paths through the portals are never the same. I just think that if I ever do succeed then maybe all this will... well, um, end. Possibly, I may cease to exist. In fact, I damn well hope so. Because I've had enough. I've really, really had enough. This Groundhog Day life is not something I'd wish on anyone. So, that's the reason I keep trying."

Cassie felt a shiver go through her.

"Isn't it possible that the ones you lose get to go home?"

"I once hoped that. But, if they do, then why am I still here? And why does another version of you keep coming along?"

Cassie had no answer. They sat in silence for a while longer. Then Kay said, "We should be on the move. If we stay in one place for too long then the portals change and, worse, the nasties home in on us."

Cassie was about to ask why when some grey looking chips plopped down onto the grass in front of her. They were followed by a smell of rotting fish.

"Feed the birds," came a voice. "Nice birdies wanna chips?"

As Cassie looked up Kay shouted, "Run. Now!"

A shadow that failed to block out the sun reared up out of the ground in front of her. It was manlike apart from the extra arms and head. Okay, so it wasn't really manlike. She pushed herself backwards as a rain of chips fell where she'd sat. They were followed by a couple of metal forks, thrown with force, if little accuracy.

Cassie tried to spring to her feet but something grabbed her ankle and, instead, she fell sideways.

"Kay," she shrieked, but Kay was already pelting down Pottergate back towards the city centre.

For a moment Cassie watched transfixed as a sticky grey hand pulled her foot downwards so that it started sinking beneath the grass. Then she snarled and kicked out at the hand with her free foot. It took three kicks before it let go.

She scrabbled to her feet and ran after Kay, taking an occasional momentary glance behind herself. The green was filling with shadows, each a hulking shape that rose straight out of the ground, not that anyone else was taking any interest in them.

"You ran without waiting for me," Cassie gasped as she caught up with Kay. "They nearly got me!"

"Yeah, but you're like buses."

"What?"

"There'll be another one along in a while."

"I thought you said I was different?"

"Yeah, well, maybe I've just seen too many of you. Anyway, c'mon. We need to find that next portal pretty soon before they catch up."

"They don't move very fast," Cassie said. "They're like stupid zombies in films."

"Yep, but they don't sleep."

"How do you.. we sleep?"

"With one eye open," Kay grinned, but without humour.

"You're kidding!"

"Yeah. There are some safe-ish places. Usually when you find one of the friendly ones."

"How can you tell which ones are friendly?"

"Simple. They don't try to kill you."

To read on please purchase the ebook or paperback:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08JS9DWPX
https://www.vivadjinn.com/

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