“What the actual …” I gasped as I tumbled out of the spinning, travelling thingamajig back into my living room. I scrambled away as it sealed up behind me, almost like a zipper closing between two dimensions. “Did that … am I still dreaming?”

Luci was making frantic scrabbling sounds from her cage in the laundry. I rushed in on wobbly legs, bundling her out and nestling her around my neck.

“Mummy went somewhere really … strange,” I explained, stroking her soft little nose. She responded by licking the inside of my ear. I shrieked.

“Luci, don’t!” I protested weakly through my giggles. “You know how ticklish I am!”

I tugged her away from my ear, depositing her on the floor, where she quickly scurried off, no doubt on the prowl for those two filthy roaches from the night before.

Roaches. Thai food. Texts from Ezra.

FiendPay … no, I was sure it was FriendPay! Well, about eighty per cent sure, anyway.

“He was lying,” I reassured myself. I found my phone on the bench, charged enough to switch on. With shaking hands, I navigated to the messages app. Ezra’s name appeared at the very top of the screen.

Ezra: Having brunch with HP

Ezra: OMG have so much to catch you up on!

Ezra: I know you’re probably sleeping off your wine, but … I’m starting to worry about the no reply thing

Ezra: You missed a call, but the caller didn’t leave a message.

Ezra: You missed a call, but the caller didn’t leave a message.

Ezra: You missed a call, but the caller didn’t leave a message.

Ezra: WAKE UP JEMMA!!!!!!!

Ezra: REPLY NOW SO I KNOW YOU’RE ALIVE!!!

Ezra: Sorry for the caps, but if you don’t reply, I’m defo coming home to check on you

Ezra: Jem …

Ezra: Don’t make me get Joe involved …

The last message was from about thirty seconds ago. Heart in throat, I quickly tapped out a proof of life reply.

Jem: I’m alive, just hungover. About to get in the shower. DO NOT CALL JOE! Go have your banging brunch

There was no way I was telling him a word of what had happened to me overnight. I didn’t want my crazy to ruin his budding love story with Hottie Potter. But threatening me with Joe? That was a low blow.

I tapped back to the main screen. There, under the messages from Ezra, was a thread labelled …

“Shitting bugger it!” I snapped, dropping my phone on the bench. “FiendPay.” Even the profile picture was a little pair of neon devil horns.

My headache was back with a vengeance. Somehow it had completely disappeared while I’d been …

Holy … Hell. I’d been in Hell.

I couldn’t deny it—that had been real.