What the hell was I going to do? There was no one else for miles around, no cover to hide me beyond the rocks I was cowering behind. I couldn’t stay where I was and there was nowhere I could run to without them seeing me. Even if I could make it back to the safety of the van, my keys were gone. I crouched silently, willing myself to stay calm, to breathe evenly, not to give in to the panic that was fluttering in my throat. They must know where I was hiding; before long, they’d be coming to get me.

I dared a glance over the rocks. The two of them were striding towards the cairn.

I looked around: short grass, broken rocks and stunted thorn bushes; open country, nowhere to hide. I glanced up at the tree. I could climb it, but it was so small and stunted that its branches wouldn’t put me beyond their reach. I could sneak in amongst the rusty bracken, crawl on hands and knees, but my movement through it would be slow, noisy and easy to detect. Better to run, try to reach the road and pray a car might come along, pray the driver would stop for a wild-eyed woman with wilder hair, out on the moor, crazily flagging him down.

‘Juuunoooo.’

They were closer now. I bolted, veered away from them in a wide arc, racing across the grass towards the road. They spotted me as soon as I emerged from the shadow of the rocks and shouted. I kept running. I’d been a good runner once. If only I’d kept up the training. They split up, Igor breaking into a shambling jog after me, Vlad sprinting on ahead to cut me off before I could reach the road. I stopped, breathing hard, blood roaring in my ears, then jinked back the way I had come, back towards the cairn, forcing them both to change tack.

But we all knew they had me. I couldn’t keep this up for long. Sunlight flashed on something silver in Vlad’s gloved hand: a blade. I scrambled back up the rocks to the tree, stood up and screamed for help at the top of my lungs. A cruel wind whipped my voice away, carrying it off like a lost soul, rendering my screams useless. Igor and Vlad were closing in on me from either side.