The dog twisted and squirmed in my arms and I had to put him on the floor. There was no choice; he was so excited to see Aiden that there was no holding him. As soon as his paws hit the ground, he scrambled across and jumped on the bed. Aiden laughed and put out his arms, but the dog launched into his face, licking frantically wherever he could find flesh. The dog’s whole body was charged with joy. It took Aiden a good few moments to settle him down, by which time I’d sat on a chair by the side of the bed. Z had also given me just a few seconds to find my composure. Or the illusion of it.

‘Hey, bro,’ I said. I tried a smile, but it didn’t feel right.

‘What are you doing here? I thought you weren’t allowed in.’

‘I thought I wasn’t, too,’ I said. ‘But I threw a hissy fit, said the dog was going crazy missing you and that we had to come in to visit.’

‘And that worked?’

‘No,’ I said. ‘So we weren’t allowed. This is all an illusion.’ I don’t know where I was finding the words. They rolled off my tongue and I had no idea whether I was making any kind of sense or not. But Aiden smiled, so I guess they did. And his smile nearly broke my heart all over again.

‘The dog missed me?’ said Aiden, rubbing behind Z’s ears. ‘But my sister didn’t? Is that what you’re saying?’

‘Of course I missed you. Like a hole in the head. Which is kind of ironic, when you think about it, since that’s the reason why you’re in here.’

‘You’ve turned into a comedian.’ He put on a spooky voice. ‘What have you done to my sister? I want her back.’

We sat in silence for a few moments. I knew I couldn’t keep this up for long. There was a cyclone of emotion breaking against the barriers I’d put up and I knew they couldn’t hold for long. And when they were blown away, I’d be no match for those destructive forces. That wouldn’t be fair to Aiden. Not at the end. At the end, I couldn’t do that to him. Suddenly a monstrous crash of thunder made the room’s windows rattle and a flash of lightning painted the walls silver.

All the storms were coming together.

‘I have to go, Aiden,’ I said.

He looked pained. ‘You’ve only just arrived,’ he said. ‘Talk to me a bit longer, Ash. It gets lonely in here and I don’t know when I’ll be coming out.’

Another section of the defence crumbled.