That was her first mistake. Had he got angry or upset atthat point, it would have been easier to break away. Kay would still have had afew days to get her act together for her trip. But he had been one step aheadof her all the way. She was sure now that he had known exactly what he had beendoing in order to turn the situation to his advantage. She had seen manysimilar examples of his cunning in the intervening years. Unfortunately, backthen she had still been blissfully unaware of how he operated.
It was just one of so many “what if?” moments she had playedover and over in her mind in the long, lonely hours she had spent in her flatlately. The morning she had been due to fly from the airport was one of thepivotal moments. That one wrong decision she had made that day had followed herdown the years, like a lead weight dragging behind her.
She had let him talk her out of going at the eleventh hourand after that the opportunity never arose again. He had got his own way and itwould set a precedent for the rest of their relationship. Without realising it,she had already become subservient to him.
Twenty-five years on, she had still not seen the midnightsun. It seemed there was precious little chance now that she ever would.
Chapter Three
December 2018
Wearily Kay dragged herself out of bed, trying feebly togather the strength to face another day.
It wasn’t far to the bathroom, if it could even be calledthat. It was a tiny room with a toilet in one corner and a shower cubicle shecould barely squeeze into in another. There was also a sink, even smaller thanthe one in the kitchen. There was no towel rail – the only place she could hanga towel was over the back of the door.
That was her luxury en suite bathroom, as McVie hadoutrageously called it when he first showed her around. It wasn’t even a properroom. The wall separating it from her bedroom was just a cheap partition, ofthe type used in offices to separate conference rooms, and it wobbled when shewalked across the floor.
The faded yellow ceramic tiles, ingrained with decades ofother people’s dirt, were icy to the touch. The cold was a shock to her feetafter the threadbare grey carpet of the bedroom which at least provided asmidgeon of warmth.
Avoiding the tile with the large crack running diagonallyacross it, she fumbled for the shower controls. As fast as she could shereached for the left-hand control, turning it clockwise and quickly pulling herhand back. She wasn’t quick enough, and got a splash of cold water across herarm, just as she did every other day. The shower head was ancient and cloggedup with black mould. Rather than one continuous flow, it sprayed what littlewater it gave out in all sorts of unpredictable directions.
While she was waiting for the hot water to come through, shekicked off her skanky T-shirt and knickers, eager to feel the relief of the hotshower as she shivered in the cold.
It was definitely colder in the room than usual, evenaccounting for the freezing weather outside. She was soon to find out why. Asshe stepped into the shower she got a much bigger shock than the one the tileshad given to her feet. The water was icy cold. She gasped for breath andquickly stepped back, catching the big toe of her right foot in the crackedtile, giving it a nasty pinch.
“For fuck’s sake!” she shouted out in frustration. It wasjust one thing after another. She really had had enough of this miserableexistence. As so often in recent days, dark thoughts filled her mind as hereyes welled up with tears once again.
And then she caught sight of herself in the mirror above thesink. The cold tiles and cold water may have given her body a shock, but thatwas nothing in comparison to the surprise that now greeted her eyes.
Looking back at her from the mirror was not the tired,tear-stained face of despair that she could barely bring herself to look atthese days. Instead she saw a vision of youth and beauty that she instantlyrecognised as her own. Only a few moments ago she had been lying in bedthinking all about that pretty girl she used to be, and now here she was,looking right back at her.
Before she had a chance to ponder as to why she might beseeing the image of her younger self in the mirror, she had something else tothink about. A split second after she had first set eyes on the reflection, itspoke.
“So you recognise me, then?” said her younger self in clear,unbroken tones.
“What? How?” croaked Kay, incredulously, her voice dry andrough from last night’s smoking and drinking. She couldn’t even begin tocontemplate how this could possibly be happening or why. Before she could evenbegin to try and make sense of the situation, the image from long ago spokeagain.
“Let me put your mind at rest and save us the routine ofgoing through the usual questions,” replied her youthful reflection. “You’renot dreaming, hallucinating or mad. I’m not your younger self, just aprojection of her, to remind you who you used to be. There is nothing to beafraid of. I’ve come here to help you.”
“How?” asked Kay again, so gobsmacked by this strange turnof events that she was unable to muster any more than this monosyllabicresponse.
“Well, I suggest you think of me as your guardian angel,”replied her reflection. “That was the moniker another lost soul I helpedrecently gave me and I rather like it. I have been given a lot of differentnames in my time. Another I visited long ago dubbed me ‘The Ghost of ChristmasPast’. I think that’s quite appropriate, given the time of year, don’t youthink?”
Kay couldn’t even fashion a single-word response this time,as her hung-over mind wrestled
