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That portrait is as genuine as you and me. Have it checked out yourself, if you want. Any expert will tell you.”
    She was no expert but had seen her fair share of genuine seventeenth century portraits and Harry was right. This was either a damn good forgery or the real thing. She breathed deeply, trying to calm her rising panic. It didn’t work. She shook fiercely, her head swam and the room around her swayed as she lifted her knees and dropped her head onto them. She felt him rest his hand gently on her shoulder.
    “It’s ok, Grace,” he whispered reassuringly, “I’m here, we will figure this out.”
    “Tell me, Harry, how did this happen?” she wailed hysterically.
    “I don’t... I’m sorry... I just don’t know.”
    “You must know! You must!”
    “I don’t! Grace I have no idea how you came to be in that portrait.”
     
    THE END... (or is it?)
     
    On that note and with many thanks for your time - I bid you a warm farewell from York, the most haunted city in Britain. If you want to know more about Grace be sure to look out for ‘Changing Grace’, the second short story in the ‘Beyond Time’ series.
     

Note from the author
     
    Creative Dreamer or Prophet?
     
    Artists and authors have been dreaming up the impossible for hundreds of years. Mr Verne wrote about submarines and travel to the moon, Captain James Kirk had us all dreaming of shiny little flip phones, and Leonardo da Vinci conceived the idea of the helicopter several hundred years before the first aeroplane took to the sky.
     
    The list of fictional fantasy that has gone on to become reality is endless and suffice to say there are some who believe that scientific invention has its origins in the minds of the creative dreamers.
    Perhaps this is true and the line between fiction and reality is thinner than most would like to acknowledge. Necessity is after all the mother of invention. Perhaps when first imagined their creators had a need, either within their own lives or the lives of their characters. Years later, in the real world, clever scientific brains took these imagined creations and turned them into reality.
     
    But what if necessity had nothing to do with predictive imagination?
     
    Consider the possibility of a link between fantasy and reality that is so profound that it could change our perception of life as we know it.
     
    In 1503 a man was born in France whom some believe predicted some of the world’s most catastrophic events. His name was Nostradamus.
    On the first of July 1566, Nostradamus wished his assistant goodnight with the words, “You will not find me alive at sunrise.”
    He died that night!
    His prophecies were legendary but his writing was confused and muddled. Rumours suggested that his coffin contained a document which would clarify his predictions. In 1700 his coffin was opened, no documents were found but the year 1700 was engraved on an amulet inside the coffin.
    His predictions are common knowledge, both world wars, three antichrists, the twin towers, and a third world war.
    Was he a prophet, magician, or a fantasy writer whose predictions coincidently came into being?
     
    In recent years I have noticed a shift towards fantasy writing with strong paranormal links.
    Are today’s fantasy writers tapping into public demand or something more significant?
     
    Consider Diana Gabaldon’s stories and Claire’s journey through time. So far-fetched? Perhaps not!
    For centuries the people of Scotland have believed in the magic of the highlands. The Irish believe in fairies and banshees and the Zulu’s in the tokoloshe. These beliefs are based on myth- and myth is based on legend, derived from tales.
    What is to say that these tales have no factual basis?
    Some would argue that there is no scientific evidence to confirm the existence of magic. Well here we run into the conundrum.
    If scientific invention has its origins in the minds of creative dreamers, then the future can only be seen as today’s