“I’m calm. I’ll be calm.” But the way she said it, far too quickly, and the way Pauline looked at her with eyebrows slightly raised, cast doubt on her words.

The nurse put the telly on, that big rectangular pacifier. The notebook came out a moment later, the pen scratching away at the paper for what seemed like forever, recording all of the things Lauren had said and done, all of the things she didn’t want the doctor to know about. Lauren’s hand twitched. She wanted to get hold of that book and rip the pages away from the spine. There had to be a way to get it off her.

A knock-knocking, a cry of “dinner,” and Pauline tucked the notebook out of sight. She got up and unlocked the door.

“Lovely, thanks,” she said to someone outside and the door gave a squeak as it closed. She came back with the tray and placed it on Lauren’s lap. Horrors. On the tacky wood-effect surface were two plastic bowls and a plate piled with matter; all of it emitting a thick odour of meat, fat and over-boiled vegetation, none of it Lauren would have chosen to put in her mouth and chew. Next to the bowls and the plate, plastic cutlery. Patients weren’t trusted with metal. I could still fashion something pointy from those, she thought.

The nurse was watching her. Lauren needed to get this right. She was on the back foot now. There needed to be a plan if she was going to get out of this place before it was too late.

Staying focused was crucial—she couldn’t afford any more mistakes. Morgan and Riley were somewhere out there, waiting for her to rescue them, and she was the only one who understood the truth about what was happening. The creatures inside the bodies of Morgan and Riley had fooled everyone but her. She could see why; she wouldn’t have believed it herself if it hadn’t been happening to her. And why was it happening to her? Maybe she deserved all of this, for being a bad mother. And perhaps she deserved it because, when they were born, she didn’t love them immediately, the way you’re supposed to do, the way she expected she would.