One of the picnic tables, that was it. But it was the wrong shape – too tall and thin. Well, the light played tricks, and the way the snow piled up on top of stuff could do the same with shapes and outlines.

But he knew the layout of the Height by now, after all these years, and there was no table directly ahead of where the car was parked now.

He’d got himself mixed up, that was it. Hadn’t parked quite where he’d thought. Besides, whatever he was looking at wasn’t moving. It was just standing still.

Same as it had been until he’d turned on the lights.

“Sod this,” he muttered aloud. He’d been heading back anyway, hadn’t he? Well, then; if this wasn’t his cue to shift his backside he didn’t know what was.

He shifted into reverse, looking up to check the rearview.

The wind lifted the snow like a curtain, revealing three thin, crouching shapes at the edge of the snowed-up picnic area, beside the road.

Tom Graham was not a man given to any language stronger than “bloody hell” and “sod that” – Thelma had cured him of that habit long ago, to the extent he’d ever possessed it – but he quite distinctly heard himself utter the words “Fuck me sideways” at this point, and in a dismayingly thin and wavery tone.

They weren’t moving. They were at the edge of the light. He remembered how the first thing, if he hadn’t imagined it – but by now he knew he hadn’t – had bolted when the headlights came on. Didn’t like the light. If he reversed quickly, they might scatter from the tail lights.

Although those weren’t as bright as the headlights. And maybe the first thing had only been startled by the light, rather than actually afraid of it.

Tom looked forward, through the windscreen, and could no longer deny another thin shape was indeed crouching in front of the car. Or, moments later, several others.

Reverse at full speed towards the road – that seemed the best option. Even so, he glanced left and right, out of habit, only to see there were more of them. They were much closer on either side of the car.

Tom shifted gears into reverse; as he did, something hit the rear of the Land Rover, shattering glass. When he looked back, he saw one of the tail lights was out, the darkness behind the car thicker, and that the thin things were moving.

Then something hit the front of the car, and one of the headlights went.