I leaned back in my chair, staring at the logbook, feeling an odd sense of dread creeping across my skin. I remembered that John Porter was the name 115of one of the last keepers ever to be stationed at Bird Rock. He was Cailean’s grandfather, the one who had fallen to his death. It made my blood run cold that he had seen those hands too. And the mention of eels was unnerving, after what Rosie had said about her nightmare. But surely it was just a coincidence? People have nightmares, and my brother just happened to be outside playing and had decided to press his fingers against the glass, that’s all. And yet … the description of the hands was so familiar. The whiteness of them, the wrongness. That lighthouse keeper and I could have been looking at the exact same thing.

I carried on flicking through the logbooks for a little while and found multiple references to the Strangers’ Room that Will had mentioned. As he’d said, it was located near the top of the tower, just below the lantern room itself, and seemed to be a sort of guest room for important visitors, including inspectors or poets, who came to write in peace. It was described as more ornate and comfortable than the other living areas, and the keepers were allowed to use the room when there were no guests on site, but they didn’t seem to like it much. Several of them 116reported hearing strange noises from inside whenever it was unoccupied. And one of the keepers claimed he saw bloodstains appear on the floor…

I pushed the logbook away, shaking my head. These men had let their imaginations get the better of them, that was all. It was no surprise, given the setting. The island was so remote, and the flies and the birds would definitely become unbearable after a while.

I stood up, intending to go back downstairs, but then I noticed something about the lighthouse photos on the wall. They all had a single lit window. It was right at the top of the tower, where the Strangers’ Room was supposed to be. Surely that hadn’t been the case before, had it? My head buzzed with confusion. I couldn’t know for certain, yet I felt sure that the lighthouses in the photos had all been dark a moment ago…