“Bea,” I say. “D’you remember what you said to me that day? You said you’d do whatever it takes, go to the ends of the earth for me.”

Bea looks at me. She says nothing. But she stops moving away from the door.

“You said if you were mad and lost, I’d pull you back from the brink. Bea, you said that. You said it’s who I am. Well, I’m here now. I’m pulling you back.”

She shakes her head. Looks down the passage. A man’s voice floats to us.

The Old Man? No. Bea’s dad.

I grab hold of Bea’s arm, willing her to come with me, begging her with my eyes. This isn’t her world, it’s not where she belongs. Bea’s eyes are swimming with tears. She looks confused, lost, smaller than she was before.

“Don’t make me leave, Moon. Please,” she says, her voice cracking. “You don’t understand. He’s been gone for so long. It hurts.”

“I know it hurts. I know.”

“It never stops hurting. It never goes away. It hurts so bad.”

“Bea, I know. I know it does.”

She’s crying now. Tears flow down her cheeks.

I yank her to me, pull her close and we hug.

“You have to come with me,” I whisper against her skin. “You have to.”

“Why?” she says, sniffing, wiping her eyes. “Give me one reason.”

I pull the wedge of hair out her face. I take her hands in mine. I look her in the eye. “Because,” I tell her, “back in the real world, she’s waiting for you, Bea. Your mum—your real mother—she’s waiting for you to come home.”

And that’s when I feel a shift in the atmosphere.

We’re not alone.

Frankie and the Old Man are standing side by side in the corridor with us.

“You need to come back,” Frankie commands. Her voice is weirdly harsh. “Your father and I, we’re waiting for you, Ana. Come back to us.”

I feel a warmth pulling me down the corridor to them. Something needful.

Now it’s me taking a step away from the door.

Bea stiffens next to me. She’s stopped crying.

The Old Man holds out his hands to me. There’s something not right in the way he looks at me. Something in the eyes. “Come,” he says sharply. “We’ll go back to Bristol. Just the three of us. You, me and Frankie.”

I take another step. Something is wrong here. But it feels so good, so warm with them. We’ll go to Bristol. Things will go back to the way they were.

Bea grabs my arm. “Moon! Snap out of it.”

“But, Bea, they’re—”

“Not your parents. Look at them. Just look!”

I look at them. And I see.