‘Please!’ Miss Otis wailed. ‘Please! For the love of God, step back!’

And suddenly the man did. A murmur ran through the crowd.

‘Did you see that?’

‘It looked like a hand!’

‘No, not just a hand: an arm. I saw a whole arm!’

‘A young girl’s arm!’

‘Yes! Reaching right out of her! Out through the poor girl’s chest!’

‘You mustn’t touch her!’ Miss Otis screeched over the din. ‘She is a bridge! She is a bridge and people will cross!’

‘A bridge?’ murmured Lady Caroline slowly. ‘A bridge to the other side?’ Light dawned in the big woman’s eyes. ‘Billy,’ she whispered as she clawed her way out of her seat. And even as she dropped to her knees, something small and grey and shadowy was already rising out of my chest to greet her.

UK English edition

Cover photographs by Captain Console, Harris & Ewing, Inc, and whatsthatpicture

Cover design by Negative Negative

Published by Seventh Rainbow Publishing, London