I shake my head but it hardly moves. I’m stuck to a plastic sun lounger in the recline position, trying to communicate with a delusional monster, and I can’t talk, and I can’t even shake my head.

‘Excellent,’ he says. ‘First things first. I need to inspect your teeth and gums. There’s one tooth at the back there, next to your wisdom tooth, that’s been causing you some distress, I hear. We dentists call that tooth the “second molar”.’

I groan but the groan is muted with my lips tight shut. The noise feels animal. It reverberates through my skeleton.

‘After I take a look I’ll use some local anaesthetic. You’ve had that done before I expect, if you’ve ever had a filling. I don’t yet have your full notes from your old dentist. Have you had local anaesthetic before, Tuva? Not allergic to anything, are we?’

He moves his chair back.

‘Don’t fucking touch me,’ I say, before clamping my jaw closed again.

He looks over. ‘You’ll hardly feel a thing, I assure you.’

I snort in and out through my nose. The air is cold and it stinks. Something sour. Old mince.

‘Okay, let’s try this one last time, Tuva.’ He places a syringe and needle on a small tray. The tray itself is covered with clingfilm. ‘Open wide.’

I clamp my jaw even tighter shut and I close my eyes. Then I panic and open them. He’s just staring at me blankly.

‘Nurse, please,’ he says in a calm voice.

The shower curtain dividing the train carriage moves and Julia walks through with the top end of a thermos mug. What the hell is she going to do with that?

‘Here you go, doctor.’

She passes the thermos to Tobias and he takes a sip and says, ‘Roasted almond milk?’

She nods.

He smiles. ‘Thank you so much.’

I strain at my ankle tape but it won’t budge. Why am I not stronger? In my head I am the strongest beast on the planet, capable of bursting out of these bindings, but in truth I am locked down here, in the middle of Visberg forest, with a man playing dentist in a rotting train carriage.

I convulse. It’s a half cry that I choke back down.

Tobias is washing his gloved hands again. I’ve never seen a dentist or doctor do that.

‘I just need your assistance for a few minutes, if you’re not too busy, nurse?’

Too busy? Are they for real? Like there are families in the other room, the one with four patio chairs and a tank of dead, floating fish. Too busy?’

‘Of course, doctor.’

He comes behind me and I cannot see him. I lift my chin as far as I can off my chest and bend my head back and strain my eyes in their sockets. But I can just see the train ceiling.