I feel the tears building. Shaking my head I pull myself back into the car. I should’ve been freaking out. I don’t know this place and I sure as hell don’t know where I am. A Miller is driving me to God knows where. Instead of looking for escape routes I’m just staring out the window trying not to think of Laney.

We bump up to a gate. Jumping out I run over and swing it open for the car, pulling it shut and taking extra care to latch it tight. The Potters might be pricks but I’m not, and no decent country kid would leave a gate to swing open. I get back in the car and we continue on, finding our way onto a road that’s a couple of ruts through long grass. I grab the panic handle and hold on tight to keep myself from bouncing around too much. This ‘road’ and the gate is how you know you’ve passed from council land onto private property. Once upon a time the shire had been filled to the brim with rich property owners that would’ve paid for their own roadwork, but that was back in Nan and Pop’s day when it was all dirt anyway. When the money they didn’t have to pay their slaves went in their back pockets.

Like most places around here this one is hilly. You can’t see much but those open graveyards where trees should stand. We’re headed straight for the base of a mountain. I’ve never seen it before but I don’t need to ask which one it is. At least here the trees aren’t totally decimated, rising up around us like sentries. I’m not sure whether they’re there to protect or to warn, but the closer we get to that hill, the more freaked out I’m feeling. The track comes to a little open area where you can see people have done U-turns. The end of the line for us too, because from here and beyond the trees, the mountain towers before us. Sam pulls over and stops.

With the engine off the silence feels oppressive.

‘I’ve never been out here without Mum and Dad before,’ Sam murmurs.

‘I think this is close to where Ty said they parked,’ Rhi’s tiny voice comes over the back seat.

A sense of dread is building. I have to escape it.