He leaves you both behind with the unanswered question of why. For some incommunicable reason, you conclude that your primary purpose now is to solve it. You pore over the plotted points of your shared timeline, charcoal pupils darting between them: frantic, determined, and leaving behind a spider’s laboured trail.

Laura works as a secondary school pastoral assistant and relishes sharing the therapeutic potential of the arts with young people. She writes to navigate life’s more painful moments and, although she has attended a writers’ group for over a year, has yet to find the courage to share her own work.