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than
myself. I wanted nothing more than to move away from the sleepy lakeside town I
grew up in, and start a new adventure in the big bright city.
    I
had rented a modest one bedroom flat in a rather dodgy part of town, to say the
least. It was based above a launderette. If I close my eyes now, I can still
remember the smell of the detergent they used in the machines, and how it would
take over the whole building. I always find it intriguing that a smell can be
the link to so many memories.
    I
soon secured a permanent job working as a waitress in a local Spanish tapas
restaurant not far from where I lived. The hours were terrible, and the pay not
much better, but I’d hoped it was just a starting point. Admittedly, it was a
real struggle at first and I worried my parents sick, but I loved the city so
much there was no way I would have allowed myself to fail.
    Life
in the city was so different to what I had grown up knowing, and although I
loved my hometown, I knew instantly that I would never return there to live. My
dad had offered to help me out with money, knowing that I was having a
difficult time, but I politely refused. He was hoping to retire early. I
couldn’t take a penny off him. He and Mum had worked hard for their future
together, and I didn’t want to be any hindrance to that.
    I
started work as a secretary at a law firm at the age of twenty-four, and I
thought all my blessings had come at once. It was a far cry from the jobs I had
been performing until that stage, and I felt that I had found an occupation
that suited me well.
    Daniel
Parker was an up and coming young business lawyer, and my boss. Even back then,
at his young age of twenty-seven, he showed immense promise and I knew he would
go far. What I didn’t predict was that we would fall head over heels in love,
go on to be married and have a happy future in the years ahead of us.
    I
worked for Dan for another year after our relationship started. However, the
cliché of the boss and secretary having a ‘fling’ didn’t really suit, and I got
fed up with the stares and gossip throughout the office. Our relationship was
far more than that, and I didn’t feel that I should have to answer to anyone in
the way I felt I was being made to. I soon left the law firm, making it easier
for Dan and me to continue on with our private lives together. Over ten years
later, here we are, happily married with a son. I honestly wouldn't change a
moment of it.
     
    I
climb out of the bath, its temperature now only tepid and slip into a cosy
short nightdress, warmed from hanging near the bathroom radiator. Even wearing
this, I still feel cold, and shiver slightly as I go into the bedroom. I close
the blinds, shuddering as I look out the window at the rain that hasn’t seemed
to ease in its force. I sit on the bed, propping my feet up and search for the
TV remote, which has slipped under the bed covers.
    Turning
on the flat screen television positioned on the wall in front of me, I
half-heartedly flick through the numerous channels before finally deciding on a
re-run of a comedy show I have probably seen a thousand times before. The
bedclothes beneath me are warm and fresh. I shuffle further down the bed and
rest my head on the fluffy pillows, pulling the heavy duvet up to my chin and
relaxing further. Thoughts of the day flash through my mind as I feel my eyes
getting heavy. The sound from the television becomes distant, before eventually
disappearing altogether. Then, once again, like so many times before, the dream
returns.

Chapter 3
     

 
    The
cold is always the first thing that I feel. It’s the type of cold that lies
deep in your bones, and you know that no amount of heat will ever disperse it.
My heart beats rapidly and I am instantly terrified, frozen to the spot on
which I stand. This is the first sign, clearly indicating that I have now left
my mortal body and I’m once again seeing the world through my sister’s eyes, on
the last night she spent on this