I stopped smiling when Mary screamed again, long and low.
'Come on ladies,' Lorna said.
The slope was bare in front of us, speckled with erratic rocks and unutterably bleak, with the mist swirling around, creating strange shapes and unusual patterns. We scrambled down, gasping, scraping knees and shins off rocks, twisting ankles as our feet gave way beneath us and occasionally swearing.
'Look up,' Lorna said.
The mist spread horizontally above us, a lowering grey sky that shifted and altered shape, sending down serpentine tendrils to sweep across the rough ground.
'We are separated from the world,' I said.
'Where's Mary?' Lorna scanned the ground. The screaming had stopped. Now there was only a long bleating whine that set my hair on end.
'That way,' I had never known Christine as d
