Alena, eyes grey like the winter sky stands tall and proud, waiting as the priests pray once more to their gods.

‘Yorm’ they chorus.

She shivers, their plaintive tones grow louder as she looks towards the stone alter, sees the sacrificial sword, sees the large alter bowl awaiting the sacrifice; cries as the sword drops.

Clay, wounded reaches the alter. He drags his body up the high steps.

The bloody alter, the dripping…

Libby walked into the park, across the neatly mowed grass to sit on the empty park bench beneath an old oak tree. Time passed slowly, as she waited, waited until dusk fell, waited to savour the autumn smells – the dying leaves, the pungent earth.

She smiled at the sight of a solitary man walking towards her. As he neared the bench, Libby felt a rush of pleasure, her heart pounding; she bent down as if to retrieve something from the ground, bent down until the man became level…

I lay awake for most of the night, my mind turning, twisting, and with a small burn at the base of my stomach. By morning I was aflame, my every instinct alive, tearing at me to do something.

She was there, with him – at her flat: I saw them through the window. There was a smile on her face; his arms were around her waist, I wanted to . . . .

Dr Barton says - ‘I lost it.’

I’m not sure what he meant, but I do vaguely remember matches in my…

She could hear the shower running, listened to his soft hum, and felt her heart miss a beat.

She pulled aside the shower curtain; saw he had his back toward her, his shoulders wide, the tan of his back ending just above his buttocks and on the tiled floor close, beside the shower-end of the bath sat the electric fire, its bars a fiery red.

She’d loved him so much, and for so long, how could he have uttered such cruel words, ‘It’s over, think of it as just one of those…