‘Happened.’ I see his mouth forming words and I hear them without being able to understand what he says. It’s as though I am separated from Eirik by an invisible membrane, like hearing him speak through water.

‘What?’ I whisper. My voice is raw and painful. He says something again and I can’t quite make it out. I close my eyes. Eirik kisses my neck, my face, my hands, and I sense his warmth. Don’t leave me, I want to say, but I can’t get the words to come. ‘Please,’ I whisper.

‘Jesus Christ, Kristina.’

‘Please…’ Please just hold me, I want to say, but still, the words won’t come, but it doesn’t matter now, because my husband understands, and very gently lies down behind me, enveloping my body in spoons. I close my eyes for a long while, and my mind feels blurry and strange, as though it has simply crumbled now I’m safe and don’t have to stay on high alert. I clutch Eirik’s big, impossibly warm hand at my waist. I feel dizzy and nauseated.

After a very long time, I open my eyes. Where we’re lying, we’re facing into the living room. I can make out the outline of Leah’s MacBook on the floor underneath the sofa, and just then, I remember her words, the terrible words I read just before the flashlight shone into the cabin.

Onto the next thing. The big thing. Kristina, we need to talk about your husband.

I need to think. And I need to know what Leah wrote next.

‘Water,’ I whisper. I need Eirik to get up off the floor so he doesn’t happen to catch sight of the laptop. ‘Please can you get me some water?’

*

He places me gently on the sofa, then sits down and places my head on a pillow in his lap. He strokes my hair, kneading out knots with his fingertips, tracing patterns on my scalp. I try to muster all my focus to gather my thoughts, but the fuzzy dense feeling remains. I sip water and watch the flames still dancing in the hearth. I think about Leah’s MacBook on the floor, just centimeters from my body.

‘What time is it?’ I ask. Eirik pulls his phone from his pocket.

‘Eleven forty,’ he says. ‘No reception up here. In fact, not since I parked, next to your car.’

‘How did you find me? I don’t understand?’