Maureen is a seriously prolific writer and feedback buddy who’s sold over 200 tales since we started swapping stories a decade ago, but this is my favourite because I love a ghost story that takes me somewhere unexpected. It’s the tale of a journey on the narrow-gauge railway that takes travellers up Yr Wyddfa (the mountain sometimes called Snowdon or Eyri). It’s set off season so there are no other travellers to accompany protagonist Trish, except one who she was sort of expecting. The travellers chat as they chug their way up, engaged in conversation that doesn’t make proper sense, until you come to know what they are moving toward and away from. This story, which has haunted me ever since I first read it, taught me the valuable lesson that if a reader is misdirected skilfully enough to be suspecting other twists, then writers can take liberties with plot and spin perfect endings that, though they are seeded all the way through, readers will still not see coming.

First published in The Weird and Whatnot, 2020