After Kirsty screamed, Bex had hidden in her room, listening to the low murmurs from below, too scared to go downstairs and discover what was happening. But now the police had gone and she knew she had to face her family.

She crept downstairs and pushed open the living room door. Kirsty was on the sofa, their dad next to her, ashen-faced.

Bex’s eyes flicked around. Everything was wrong. A vase left smashed on the floor, Kirsty’s expression solid like concrete, their dad’s brow pulled down towards his eyes. Whatever had gone on here, it wasn’t about what had happened to Bex. Her stomach felt cold.

‘Come and sit down,’ her dad said. ‘Sit down, Bex.’

‘Just tell me what happened,’ she whispered.

Her dad started to speak but his voice didn’t come out. All she could hear was the ticking of the grandfather clock, too loud and intrusive. Her dad coughed and tried again. ‘Daniel’s car was found on the edge of the woods. It had gone into a tree. The two of them weren’t wearing seat belts.’

‘Lucas is dead,’ Kirsty said. ‘Lucas was killed.’

Bex staggered back as if she’d been hit.

‘Daniel is in hospital,’ her dad said. ‘He’s broken his back.’

‘Oh my God.’ Bex walked over and sank into the uncomfortable old armchair opposite her dad and Kirsty.

‘They found a lot of alcohol in Daniel’s bloodstream. We don’t know why he was driving.’ Her dad’s voice was controlled. She couldn’t work out his feelings. Lucas was dead. Was that Daniel’s fault? Daniel was in hospital. A broken back. Did that mean he’d be paralysed?

Her dad stood, hauling himself from the sofa like a much older man. ‘I’ll make us some tea.’

Bex looked at Kirsty’s bleached face. ‘I’m so sorry,’ she said.

‘I can’t believe it’s happened,’ Kirsty said. ‘It feels like a bad dream.’

Bex shifted on her chair, her physical discomfort seeming like nothing now, compared to her sister’s pain. ‘Why would Daniel drive?’ she said.

Kirsty looked up and her face hardened. ‘It was because of you. You’d passed out. It started throwing it down. You were cold and we needed to get you inside quickly. You know how he feels about you, so don’t pretend otherwise. He drove us home and then took Lucas.’

Bex felt the breath leaving her body. It was as if the air had left the room too, as if there was no longer any oxygen. ‘I didn’t know it was raining,’ she said, a stupid, irrelevant space-filling comment.

‘What is this? Four Weddings and a fucking Funeral? It was raining. You’d passed out.’

‘Did we see … the Pale Child?’ Another stupid comment. But wasn’t the Pale Child always there when bad things happened?