She rolled over for the fiftieth time, trying to get comfortable on the somewhat musty-smelling bed. Or maybe it wasn’t the bed that was musty. Maybe it was her. She hadn’t washed since this morning and it had been quite a day. There was a shower downstairs next to Moses’s room and tomorrow, she resolved she would use it. Trying it now was out of the question: she’d seen too many horror films and knew that a woman in a shower late at night in a spooky lighthouse was never going to end well.

Yes, tomorrow.

With Ethan on guard outside the door.

She sighed and sat up. There weren’t even any books to read. Stepping carefully over Ethan’s sleeping body, she walked barefoot downstairs to the kitchen and got herself a glass of water.

‘Hello?’

Moses’s voice. They’d left the door open.

‘Is someone there?’

She crept to the door and peered in. He sat up straighter at the sight of her, using his shoulder blades to push himself up. There was a floor lamp next to him, bathing his bed in a cosy glow, but the shadows it cast, and his bald head, made him into a skeleton, albeit one that was trying to have a polite conversation.

‘I remember you. From earlier.’ His voice sounded different this time, not manic and strained but low, thoughtful even. ‘They’ve moved me. But you’re not a guard.’

She shook her head.

‘Who are you?’

‘Thea. I’m one of the patients at the Sleep Centre. Well … I was, anyway. You’re Moses, aren’t you?’

He bowed his head. ‘Yes.’ He looked at his hands and stretched his fingers. ‘So it’s started.’ With a cry of frustration, he kicked his feet against the mattress again.

Thea retreated a few steps.

‘No!’ He took a deep breath to calm himself. ‘Don’t go! I won’t hurt you. See? I can’t move.’

‘You hurt my friend. She’s in the hospital because of you.’

A look of confusion crossed his face. ‘I-I … the guard? I thought I saw a … guard … had to get out … but they gave me these pills …’ He trailed off, his jaw slack, a peculiar glaze to his eyes.

With a shake of his head, he snapped back to Thea.

‘You! I don’t have much time. Only myself to blame for that though.’ He chuckled bitterly. ‘I did it to myself.’

Then he muttered things to himself that Thea couldn’t hear, his head lolling back on the pillows and she wasn’t sure if he was talking to her or to people she couldn’t see.

‘It’s in my watch …’ He tried to sit up again but didn’t have the strength. ‘Do I still have my watch? Max wouldn’t bother to take it off me. The truth … about it all … in my watch …’

And he slipped into sleep once more.