Episode 3 - Chapter 14

It feels like she's walking through jelly. Not actually unpleasant, but distinctly unnatural. Before she knows it, she pushes her way out, into the same alleyway stretching before her.

The cats follow closely behind. Fiona laughs when they shake themselves, as cats do. It looks too comical when they're in their human form: two beautiful women shuddering in a minor fit.

The breeze is stronger now, and it carries the aroma of roasting meat. There are faint sounds too, a busy street somewhere in the distance.

Fiona is surprised to find her clothes have changed too: her shirt and jeans have become an elegant, fitted linen suit.

Episode 3 - Chapter 13

As they get closer, the shimmering begins to look like a pool of water, only hanging in front of them.

“Vertical water,” she laughs to herself. It fills the alleyway, leaving no way round. She either steps into it or turns back.

Reaching out, she touches it gingerly. It has a silken feel, not wet at all. Pushing further, her hand sinks deep into it. She keeps going, until it reaches her elbow, when her fingers push through into air beyond.

“This isn't going to be pleasant” she says, holding her breath and pushing her way in.

Episode 3 - Chapter 12

Further still, and the ground changes. No longer the rough hewn stone of a secret tunnel, the ground gives way first to rough cobbles which gradually become refined.

The distance between lamps grows shorter, while the walls turn from stone to brick. Fiona realises she is no longer in a tunnel but an alleyway.

“Do either of you know where this leads?” she asks the cats.

They pause a moment, sniff the air. “This way,” they reply and walk on.

“That's helpful,” Fiona tells them as she follows.

In the distance she can see something silver that shimmers.

Episode 3 - Chapter 11

The tunnel seemingly goes on forever. As they pass one gaslight, they can see the dim glow of the next in the distance. Fiona's not sure how long they keep walking, quickly losing track of even the number of lamp posts.

After a time, the tunnel begins to get taller, until the ceiling is beyond view, even when they're directly under a lamp.

“Curious,” she says, almost to herself, but the cats have already left her. They continue on for a long while, one lamp to another, when she starts to feel a cool, gentle breeze. Looking up now, she can see a thin band of stars. They are no longer in a tunnel.

Episode 3 - Chapter 10

In a place that is no place, by the memory of a lake, old adversaries meet...

“Is it that time already?”

“Corvus, I know how much you anticipate our little tête a têtes.”

“I've told you before, don't call me that.”

“But its your name.”

“Not any more it isn't. Raven, that's my name.”

“Then Raven it shall be.”

“Why have you brought me here?”

“It is you who chooses to come here.”

“No, not here here. Why bring me into the Weave?”

“That again? You really should work on your small talk.”

Episode 3 - Chapter 9

The smoke coming off Rose's body started to thicken. Without warning, she started to twitch and convulse, her back arching dramatically. Her head was thrown back as if to scream, but only thicker smoke emerged.

Oak clutched her hand, stroking her brow as he made gentle, soothing noises. “Shhh, just let go,” he said gently. Her spasms grew increasingly violent, her whole body shaking across the floor. Smoke started to emerge from her clothes, coming out of sleeves and other gaps, so thick that before long I couldn't see her at all, only the silhouette of Oak himself.

And then it just stopped.

Episode 3 - Chapter 8

Oak ignored his fallen comrade, focusing instead on our impromptu prison. He moved his mirror slightly, ensuring mine was perfectly balanced before gently lifting my hand away. He did the same with Robert, then my wife, and finally his own. Only then did he turn to Rose, laid stricken on the carpet.

Wisps of smoke were rising from her whole body as Oak leaned over her. “I'm sorry...” she began, but Oak silenced her with a finger to her lips.

“Hush now,” he said, stroking her brow. “And rest. You have served the Forest well.”

Episode 3 - Chapter 7

“An assassin in a rainbow...” continued the song.

“Nearly there,” shouted Oak, covering the penultimate gap with foil.

“...Killer rainbow...” the child's voice withered.

“One more” Oak called.

“How will it kill you?” the rhyme concluded.

As it did, Oak slapped a last piece of foil over the remaining gap. His fingers closed over the hole, but a beam of pure white shot out as he did, catching Rose in the chest. She cried out, falling backwards. The smell of burning leaves filled the room.

Quicker than I would have imagined possible, Oak grabbed her mirror, keeping it in place.

Episode 3 - Chapter 6

“Now!” shouted Oak, and we all rushed in, forming as much of a box as our mismatched mirrors would allow. Oak darted around us, trying to cover the gaps with foil.

“Red and yellow...” a child's voice began to sing, but no ordinary child, the sound of an old scratched record, crackled and slow, a voice locked in a nightmare of childhood, the most disturbing voice I'd ever heard.

“And pink and green...” The voice terrified me, a younger me within responding...I so wanted to just hide. “Orange and purple and Blue...”

“Hold the box” Oak shouted. “If we keep it contained, we're safe.”

Episode 3 - Chapter 5

Robert took Oak's place with the mirror, while Oak himself began cutting foot squares from the foil.

“Now,” he said, speaking cautiously, “I want you all to move closer to the big mirror. Do it slowly, and be ready for my command. When I say, move quickly to form as much of a box holding the beams as you can.”

On my knees, I crawled forward gradually, catching and reflecting the beam as I inched along.

“That's it” called Oak, “Now be ready.”

Without warning, the main beam shot out of nowhere into our double game of light beam ping pong.

Episode 3 - Chapter 4

As I came down stairs with two more mirrors, Oak was shouting something at Rose. Entering the living room I found them bouncing the pink beam between them with mirrors. My husband stood in the corner looking confused as always.

“More mirrors,” I declared.

“Give one to your husband, keep the other for yourself,” Oak commanded. I did as told while Oak continued. “Try and catch the purple beam in the same way.”

When Robert came in with the foil, Oak shouted “Give me that, and take my place here. Now,” he continued. “Time to close the trap.”

Episode 3 - Chapter 3

“What happens if it does?” I asked.

“Right now it'll just burn you,” he replied. “We need more mirrors. And kitchen foil.”

I gave Rose the other mirror and headed for the kitchen. As I did, Oak crouched down in the path of a slow moving violet beam, angling his mirror to reflect it into the larger mirror by the chimney. “Be ready to reflect it back” I heard him shout.

In the hall I could hear mum and Fiona muttering upstairs, but couldn't make out what was being said.

I dashed into the kitchen, grabbed the foil from its draw and rushed back.

Episode 3 - Chapter 2

I struggled into the living room with the big mirror from the hallway. Oak and Rose were flapping at the beams with newspapers, but to little effect. Oak grabbed the mirror from me, carefully placing it in front of the fire.

Only three beams of light remained separate now, moving sluggishly while the four colour one darted niftily around the room. Within seconds it had found blue, entwining it into itself, then moving ever faster.

Robert came in carrying two more mirrors.

“Give me one of those.” Oak grabbed one from him. “And try to avoid letting it touching you.”

Episode 3 - Chapter 1

Prologue

Elsewhere, three voices speak at a gathering of four...

A royal bird preens

“This is a house with a bridge to dreams

Touched by an angel and his ancient schemes

This is a house where noughts what it seems

A palace of riddles and silent screams”

An abacus counts

“Now this is a place on the edge of a blade

This is a place too bright to fade

This is the place, fuelled by the trade

Of slivers and whimsy, all man made”

A door closes

“Poppycock peacock plans are naught

but pointless moves in a plan ill thought

There's no refuge nor peace to be sought

Not in a place where dreams have fought”

The future holds its silence...

Second Interlude - Part Twelve

“Now,” Robin says, turning back to the man as she pulls pencil from pocket. “Let's get this sorted out.”

Balancing the pencil a few inches in front of his face she begins to speak. Soft words, spoken slowly, repeated often, and he's under. She speaks directly to the lost future, explaining the situation, presenting the options. With a click of her fingers the trance is broken, leaving two identical men on the wall: one real, the other of mist.

“Where am I?” the real man asks.

“You're safe.” Robin turns to the girl. “Here, why don't you take him back inside see if you can find him a stiff drink.”

As the girl leads him away, Robin turns to the future. She smiles at him as the mist begins to dissipate.

“Same time next year?”

Second Interlude - Part Eleven

“But how can he be a date that didn't happen?”

“He's not, he's the idea of a date that didn't happen. For centuries, anybody who gave it much thought knew the last millennium would end on December 31^st, 2000. Then sometime in the last two decades, some chap writes a song about partying like it's 1999. So suddenly, that becomes the end of the millennium and this chap's left high and dry. He's been showing up somewhere every year since.”

“Do you always talk in riddles?”

“Yes, I expect I do.”

Second Interlude - Part Ten

“What the fuck is a forgotten future? You said he was a date!”

“People imagine the future. Some of the things they imagine happen, in some form or other, so they're safe ideas, and some ideas that don't happen become part of a collective culture, like people in the sixties thinking there'd be jet-packs in the future. So they're fairly benign. But some ideas are around for a long, long time, and when they don't happen....well, that's a lot of power with nowhere to go.”

Second Interlude - Part Nine

Her friend grabs his other arm as the crowd parts to let them leave. Outside, it's warm for the time of year. They find a wall and sit him down.

“Who am I?” he asks, imploringly.

Robin looks into his eyes as she speaks. “You're the thirty-first of December, Two Thousand. You're the Millennium Eve that never happened.”

“He's what?” exclaims the girl.

Robin sees calm wash across the man's face before she answers.

“He's a forgotten future. Something that was imagined but never happened. I think your friends' new concoction allowed him to get through.”

Second Interlude - Part Eight

“A what?”

“Never mind. I'll explain later. We have to get him outside.”

Robin pushes her way through an increasingly agitated crowd. People shout at her as she shoves past, heading straight for the man.

Around him people are starting to get angry, fists being clenched. Robin pushes through them all, planting her self right in his path. He lurches towards her, grabbing her shoulders, pulling her face close to his.

“DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?”

“Yes,” she smiles. “I do.”

He stops at that, as if rudely slapped in the face.

“Come on,” she says, taking his hand. “Let's get you outside.”

Second Interlude - Part Seven

Finally she sees what she's looking for. In the midst of spreading confusion, a middle-aged man in a seventies jump suit, looking like an extra from a bad science fiction movie. He's grabbing people, shouting in their faces, angry and panicked. Lurching from one person to the next, terrifying them with his aggression. Each in turn shakes their head, pushing him away in fear and disgust.

“Come on, sober girl,” she says, grabbing her friend, “We have to help him.”

“Why?” The girl asks. “He's just some drunk.”

“Oh he's more than that. He's a forgotten future.”

Second Interlude - Part Six

“TEN!” The house itself seems to be shouting.

“NINE!”

“This should be interesting,” Robin says to her friend.

“EIGHT!”

She stands up, trying to get a better look at the crowd.

“SEVEN!”

“Come on,” she mutters to herself. “Where are you?”

“THREE!.....TWO!.....ONE!”

The whole house gasps in anticipation.

“HAPPY NEW YEAR!”

There are whoops and cheers as the first crackles of “All You Need Is Love” emanate from the PA.

As she watches, Robin sees the happy beaming faces of the crowd begin to lose their joy. Wrinkles are appearing in foreheads, scowls across faces. Their asking each other what year it is and nobody knows.

Second Interlude - Part Five

“Well that's certainly unusual. Maybe it's the tablets.”

“No, I don't think so. Nobody here seems to know. Every time I ask someone, they look at me like I've asked to shag their hamster and run away.”

“That certainly is interesting,” Robin replies. She calls out to a passing girl “Hey you, blondie, what year is it?”

“Don't be daft,” the girl replies, “It's...” Her face darkens for a moment, her eyes darting, panic dawning. “It's almost over,” she beams, recovering composure, leaving quickly.

“I see what you mean,” Robin tells her companion.

At that moment, the music stops.