‘Well it never is, is it? You’re always here, hanging around, wherever I go,’ I said.

‘It’s not like I’ve got a choice. Trust me, if there was anywhere I could go, then I would love some time away from you. All three of you.’

‘Stop it!’ said Kate. ‘Stop it. You’re all making it worse.’ She started to cry. ‘It’s not going to help if you all get cross with each other. It’s just . . . it’s just . . . for a minute there, I thought . . .’

We all knew what she thought because, yeah, for a minute we’d been thinking it too. I could almost feel that hard tarmac beneath my feet, imagine that stable, unmoving earth.

‘I feel sorry for the rest of the human race, actually,’ said James, ‘because they don’t get to experience our gorgeous sea views.’

I smiled up at him, and Kate gave a more cheerful sniffle.

‘Wait, what?’ Lana sat up. ‘How stupid are you dickheads? Do none of you even think about it all? Do none of you think about our world? What the bloody bollocking crap do you think about?’

‘I spend a lot of time trying not to think about the world, Lana,’ I said, because it was true. And I think it was true about most of the people on board the Jellyfish. If we thought about it too much, our lives would be rubbish, wouldn’t they? Even more rubbish than they already were, I mean. ‘Go on, then. What should we all have been thinking about?’

‘Well, you don’t think we’re the only ones stuck on one of these things, do you? That’s a start. There’s no way we’re the only humans in the world who are being kept like flippin’ animals in a zoo. There’s no way this jellyfish is a complete one-off freak of nature. There’ve gotta be others, that didn’t just destroy ships and then go back beneath the water. So, yeah, other people have got the sea-view hellhole, James.’

We sat there for a minute, completely shocked. Because, the thing is, I had thought we were the only ones. And even though he tried to hide it by looking fake-casual and giving a yawn, I don’t think James had ever thought anything else either.

The tentacles nearest to us sank suddenly below the surface, leaving behind a smooth, glassy area of water. Only the occasional drifting bubble or dark shimmer gave a hint of the threat below.

‘And those flippin’ crab kriks out there are running out of food now, aren’t they?’ added Lana. ‘We’re not seeing as many humans as we used to, so they’ve caught all the easy ones. The only humans we’ve seen in the last few months have been krik killers, right?’

‘Right.’