‘Thank you.’ Will waits for her to round the corner at the end of the corridor.

He seals himself back inside the darkroom. He places a chair in the middle of the room. ‘I’m ready for you,’ he whispers.

And he really is now. He flicks the light switch and wades through the rich blackness to the seat.

He’s comfortable. He isn’t afraid. It’s deathly quiet, and perfectly dark. Soon his own heartbeat starts to quieten, his breathing becomes calm. And there Will waits: eyes open, ears open, mind open.

He doesn’t have to wait long.

And, just like that, I know.

Should it be a shock? For someone to discover that they’re dying? Dead, actually – technically speaking.

Because it isn’t. It is instead a sliding of things into place. I’m heading for the end. It’s so obvious now.

Whoever I am, death is coming for me, fast.

Yet I’ve been given you, and maybe a chance to change things.

Why?

Why that chance?

Why with you?

Where would we be without Ms Calloway? I always had a feeling she could sense me here. We aren’t able to communicate, but her mind is receptive; she is aware. Why her? I wonder.

Now I know what I am, things make so much more sense. Those flashes, those horrific scenes I keep seeing, the screaming children, their strange bright clothes, the bright light, the noise – those are my memories. It’s the moment that has just happened. The moment of my death. It feels so long ago, yet it was so recent. For you, for your world, it’s not happened yet. But it will, sometime soon. Very soon.

But that isn’t the only memory that’s been haunting me. It’s the most vivid, sure, but not the only one. As well, there is the vision of the guy, on the marshes, a shadow in the morning mist, the rope, the air beneath his feet. That is something I saw when I was still alive. A memory not even dying can erase.

And now, I can see that same event coming up. You are soon to be upon it. My peculiar ability to see what lies ahead for you has converged with my own darkest memories.

And right now, in the blackness of this darkroom, we have connected. And now you know too. About Alfie, about what’s coming. You know how to stop it. And I believe you’ll do it. You haven’t let me down so far.

This has implications, doesn’t it? If we can fix this, what else can we do? Can we head off the tragedy that’s coming? The disaster that put me here, all those – what – minutes ago?