I stood and stared at them, my own hands trembling where they gripped the straps of my bag. When I’d seen them before, I’d assumed there must be a person attached to them, standing out of sight in the darkness or hidden within the warped glass of the mirror, but this close to the window I could see that there was no one beyond. There were only hands pressed so hard against the glass that I could see the veins running through the skin.

My breath seemed too loud and ragged in my ears as I stared at them. I knew that I wasn’t the first person at the lighthouse to have seen them, but I still had no idea what they meant. It felt like I was no nearer to discovering the truth about anything than I had been since the day I arrived, and a great rush of despair crashed over me.

But the despair made me angry too, and the anger made me feel less afraid, so I walked right up to the door and pushed it open. I expected the hands to move back with the door, or else to melt 265away into the night, but instead they came right through the glass, breaking it with a smash. I stared in horror at two hands poking through the jagged pieces of glass – dark red blood pouring over the white skin. But the worst thing about it – the worst thing – was how the hands trembled and reached out towards me, as if silently pleading for help.

I ran. Even if I’d been brave enough to stay, I was afraid the breaking glass might have woken Dad and Kate. So I slipped out of the door and set off along the cliff. I didn’t dare turn my torch on in case I was seen, but my eyes quickly adjusted to the moonlight, and I hurried along as fast as I could. I paused to look back at the lighthouse just once. There was a light on, near the top of the tower in what I guessed was surely the Strangers’ Room, and I saw a figure standing there, just for a moment. Then it was gone, and the light winked out.

Sea mist settled around my shoulders, along with a sense of hopelessness as I went across the island to the bothy Will had shown me – the one that was a little apart from all the others. As I walked, a couple of stone cairns loomed out of the darkness, looking like people for a split second before my eyes adjusted. 266I dreaded seeing those motionless figures once again.