I was chatting to my mum a little bit before we made our way up to Manchester. The journey would maybe be around four hours or so, without stopping. But knowing both myself and my Aunt we would definitely need a toilet stop and a leg stretch, so maybe an extra half hour on top of that. Possibly a cheeky Maccies if we fancied it too which wouldn’t go amiss.

‘Hey mum. Yeah I’m okay. How are you?’

‘I’m fine sweetie. You all ready for your trip?’

‘Yeah we’re setting off soon. Auntie M wants to drive her new car.’

‘Oh Christ another car?’

‘Yeah another car. Arne got it for her as a Christmas present but it wasn’t ready till last week.’

‘And let me guess, it’s another eighties monstrosity.’

‘A 1985 Ford Escort RS Turbo.’

‘He really does spoil her.’

My Aunt had made the choice of driving to Manchester instead of teleporting because of the “eighties monstrosity” as my mum referred to it; Auntie M’s new addition to her car collection, a absolutely stunning Ford RS Turbo, in Diamond White. I just knew Arne had paid an absolute fortune for it, as the thing had been completely gutted and put back together with any new parts or replacements it needed, cleaning etc. The only thing that was completely new in there was the stereo and the speakers, as Auntie M couldn’t do without her music or Bluetooth. Mum had then informed me that RS Turbos from the eighties fetched a high price in barely half decent order, never mind in good condition.

‘Yeah you’re talking about sixty to seventy grands worth of car there. Arne’s just bought her the cherry on top of the cake.’

And now I was riding shotgun in the damn car, barrelling up the M1 motorway at warp factor six with my Aunt at the wheel; grinning like a Cheshire Cat as she forced her already heavy lead foot further on to the gas pedal.

‘Auntie M, I know you wanna push this car to it’s limits but I’d really like to live y’know?’ I said as calmly as possible, my entire body being forced in to the bucket seat.

‘Oh, oh yeah sorry. Got a little carried away there.’ Auntie M said as she slowed the car right down and carefully got back in to a slower lane on the motorway. She turned the music she had on down to a less severe level, seeing as she wasn’t speeding any more. I then realised that we had actually been listening to The Cure but I couldn’t hear over the sound of my own panic and the cars engine. I calmed down a lot though now thankfully.

‘So you thought of anything specific you want to do while we’re in Manchester kiddo?’ My Aunt asked me.

‘Not really.’ I replied. ‘ I mean I wouldn’t mind just a good walk around and I dunno… do some shopping, eat some good food that kinda stuff.’

‘That’s no problem at all. You have any things you need to get?’

‘Maybe some stuff for school but nowt spesh.’

My Aunt glanced over at me when I said that, her lips were tightly pursed as if to stifle a laugh but it eventually failed. She burst out laughing.

‘Ha! Bloody ‘ell Maddie where’d that come from?!’ She cackled at me. ‘Christ you can tell you’re one of us!’

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‘I don’t know!’ I shrieked. ‘It just came out.’ I laughed along with her. Yes I had been spending a lot of my time with my Aunt; who’s Northern accent was fully intact and as broad as ever, even several years after being away from her home town. She was fiercely proud of her home, upbringing and her accent and I guess, I was starting to pick up a few words. My phone then brought me out of my pondering as it vibrated. I swiped at the screen to see what it was.

‘Duncan messaged you yet?’ My Aunt glanced at me.

‘No, not for a few weeks now. The last message he sent me was a photo of the sun rising over some lake. And before that, a landscape photo of some hills.’

‘No text or anything?’

‘Nope, just pictures.’ I sighed.

‘Cheer up kiddo, it won’t be for much longer.’ Auntie M reassured me. ‘Vampires go a bit weird on their retreats and you’ve got to just leave them to it. Some don’t even contact anyone at all during the whole time they’re away, some document absolutely everything. But more often than not, they just send send a letter or a text these days just to show they’re still kicking.’

I thought I had a lot to learn about witchcraft and the life that went with that, now it seemed like I had more to learn about vampires too.

‘It was Katie and Vic in our group chat anyway.’ I said as I scooted round in my seat, readying my phone to take a selfie of me with my Aunt. I snapped a quick shot of us grinning and doing peace signs for some reason. Whatever, it was a good picture so I decided to send it to my friends and also send it to my mum. I got instant replies off Katie and Victoria telling us to have a nice time in Manchester. I didn’t get a reply yet from my mum but she was probably busy with work. My Aunt however in the meantime had decided we needed to stop for a break and had pulled in to some services. I was thankful as I could do with a bit of a leg stretch. I was just about to open the car door when Auntie M parked up when my phone pinged again. Another message.

‘Oh shit.’ I said as I opened the message. ‘Duncan’s ears must have been burning or something.’

‘He’s messaged you?’

‘Yeah gimmie a sec.’

I swiped across my phone screen and tapped it a few times. It was yet another photo, but this time I could see the top of Duncan’s head, from the bridge of his nose upwards; showing his twinkling eyes and messily styled hair. It looked like he was lying down; in fact he must have been lying down on a beach or something as in the photo, there was a message scrawled in to what looked like slightly damp sand in capital letters.

“MISS YOU X.” The message in the sand read. It was actually really sweet. I showed it to my Aunt.

‘Oh he is adorable.’ She smiled at me. I felt really happy and beamed back at her.

‘I can’t wait till he comes home.’ I said. ‘I miss him too.’

‘Yeah you two have become really close haven’t you? That’s good though, you should bond with him.’

I smiled at my Aunt. I don’t know, the process of bonding with a vampire for some reason seemed like a serious one to me. And the way some of the others talked about it, made it seem like it was a really, really big deal that required a lot of thinking; that’s probably why I thought about it that way. I still didn’t really know what the process was either, everybody sorted of skirted the subject or spoke really vaguely about it.

‘Hey lets go inside, I dunno about you but I’m getting a bit hungry.’ My Aunt shook my shoulder. I nodded and got out of the car; following her in to the motorway services. Soon after we were sat in Maccies with a share box of twenty chicken nuggets each as my Aunt so eloquently put it; “No bugger wants to share chicky nuggies.” Which she was obviously right at. Why bother calling it a share box when I could demolish twenty on my own?

‘Has Arne been away whilst you’ve been with him Auntie M?’ I asked her as I dipped a nugget in to some ketchup before scoffing it whole.

‘Yes actually. It wasn’t that long ago, about four years maybe. He went back to his home town for a month, it’s Trondheim now really lovely place from the looks of it.’

‘And how did you get on when he was away?’ I continued asking my questions.

‘I didn’t. Now he sent me photos a few times a week and the occasional message. I mean there’s always the temptation to teleport to them but it’s just not the done thing. I actually think it’s the longest we’ve ever gone without nobbing each other…’ Auntie M trailed that last bit off as she spoke. I just giggled at her.

‘Auntie M!’ I chuckled in slight shock at what she said. She just shrugged her shoulders. Her candidness did have a tendency to catch me off guard sometimes.

We had settled in to the drive again and after a few more hours, finally got through in to the outskirts of Manchester city. It was a lot different than what I remembered from years ago obviously, but it still had this weird familiar ambiance; with it’s odd combination of incredibly old buildings and new ones and the feeling of a bustling metropolis, that for some reason also felt like a close knit community. It all lent itself to making me feel comfortable, like I knew the place intimately. And I definitely didn’t feel that way about London, that’s for sure. London always felt really hostile to me, while Manchester felt like even though it seemed as if nobody wanted to even acknowledge you; they wouldn’t bite your head off or glare and ignore you, like they did in London if you asked for the time or directions.

When we had finally got off the motorway, Auntie M began pointing out places to me as we drove past; giving me little bits of info about the area. Through Moss Side which Auntie M told me was “nowhere near as rough as it used to be.” Hulme, which was now in the process of some kind of gentrification was classed as an “up and coming” area. Then we made our way in to Castlefield, which was actually quite affluent.

‘So where is this new place then?’ I asked my Aunt, she still hadn’t told me. Not like I’d knew where it was anyway.

‘Actually…’ Auntie M said as she slowed the car down and shuffled the steering wheel through her hands. ‘That’s the building right there. Elizabeth Tower.’

I looked up to where Auntie M nodded her head. The building was huge, a massive building of glass and steel.

‘It’s one of the tallest residential buildings in the country. And it has the tallest situated residential swimming pool in the country too.’ My Aunt mused over a few facts about the building. ‘And I just managed to bag one of the duplexes in it.’

‘I bet that wasn’t cheap.’ I mumbled as I looked ever further up the building.

‘Oh you don’t wanna know. C’mon, lets park up and get inside, I wanna see if all the furniture’s been put where I wanted it.’