Page 44 of Forever is Now

And then she came right up to me, and I got a little worried. But my head was also hazy still, so I didn’t really register what she was saying to me at first.

But she was saying, “I’ll sort this for you.” Saying it over and over again.

Under a street light, I got a good look at her face. She was blond. Kind of beautiful, really. And she had these really earnest eyes. And she was still saying to me, “I’ll sort this for you.”

I sort of shook her off. I don’t know if I actually said anything back to her, but then she was just gone. Just like that. Vanished.

I began to wonder if I’d imagined it. If there’d been no one around at all. Like, I wouldn’t have been surprised if I’d been hallucinating.

There was a big icy patch outside the garden gate for number 11. That was their house. A frozen puddle, I think. And I tried to step around it, while reaching to open the gate, but I ended up sort of slipping on it anyway. I had Crocs on. Mum’s Crocs. I don’t know why. But I grabbed the gate to steady myself, and there was a sharp bit on the gate. It cut my hand.

Anyway, I was halfway down the path through the little garden when the front door opened. And I was sure that that was going to be it: the moment that I’d dreamed of. Where Ruari would look at me and he’d remember.

He’d remember everything.

But he didn’t.

Because it wasn’t.

It wasn’t him.

It was Mia.

She looked tired. That was the first thing I saw, and I don’t know how I saw her face so clearly when my vision was still a bit blurry. I had this pain in the back of my eyes, but the pain felt a bit like a comforting blanket by then. Reassurance.

She looked at me and her mouth dropped open. She said, “What are you doing?”

And I said, “Hello,” and then I didn’t know what to say. She looked about ready to drop—and I remember thinking how even though she was so obviously tired, she had this glow to her.

And then I was about to ask whether Ruari was in, when... It all happened so quickly.

There was just this blur of movement—like, really quick. And that woman—the blond one from a few moments earlier—she was here. I didn’t realize she was holding a knife at first. It was only when she was right in front of Mia, and when Mia made this strange noise, and then when Mia sort of fell in slow motion, reaching out to the doorframe, trying to catch herself on that—her fingers, just stretching out, but missing anything, grasping at empty air...

Mia fell, and the blond woman turned back to me, and she said, “I told you I’d sort it.”

Ashley Kincade: I heard the screams.

Summer Taylor-Braddon: It was me screaming. Mia didn’t make a sound. She just...

She didn’t make a sound.

Ashley Kincade: It was... Man, I don’t know.

Summer Taylor-Braddon: I had never seen that woman in my life before that day. I didn’t know who she was, or anything.

She just ran off.

And I was left with Mia, bleeding at my feet.

Of course, I tried to help her. And I had my phone in my pocket, so I was calling an ambulance. Had to wait for it to turn on though, because it was off. It was off in my pocket.

And I kept looking around. I thought the woman was still nearby. I could hear other shouts now—some sounded like her, but there were men’s voices too. I was so scared.

[Silence for six seconds]

Summer Taylor-Braddon: I called the ambulance.

Dante Fiore: And you’d already got Mia into the house then, hadn’t you?

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