I stormed back outside. Rosie had to be on this island somewhere, and I was going to find her. It was still dark but at least the fog had cleared. Dad and Kate both followed me for a while, talking and pleading, before eventually Kate went back to be with Charlie, and Dad ordered me to return to the 183lighthouse too. I refused, and when he tried to grab my arm I ducked away and set off at a run down the path, ignoring his calls.

I wandered around Bird Rock for hours. In fact, there was a faint touch of pink starting to stain the sky by the time I finally found myself back at the lighthouse. Its light flashed out to sea, warning people to stay away from the island. God, I wished we’d listened. I was exhausted in every limb, and there was no point searching any more. I’d come close to the guga hunters’ camp a couple of times – and Dad had been stumbling around the island calling for me half the night too – but other than that I’d seen no trace of any person at all, including my sister. She’d simply vanished, along with those other people I’d glimpsed in the fog. It was unthinkable and impossible – but somehow it had happened.

As I stared at the lighthouse, I wanted to cry at how right Will had been. There was something very wrong with it. I thought back to the camera going off in our bedroom that night, and the hands I’d seen pressing against the glass downstairs, and the room full of photos, the writing on the walls.

184It couldn’t be a coincidence – those words printed over and over again – and now it seemed my whole family had completely forgotten that Rosie ever existed. Not only that, but she had also disappeared – vanished into thin air, just like the missing keepers all those years ago. I was certain that the lighthouse was responsible for what had happened to my sister. My entire body seemed to scream at me to run away from the building and to keep on running, but of course I couldn’t. I had to do the opposite and walk straight back inside.

When I finally trudged into the kitchen, I found Dad at the table with an untouched mug of tea in front of him and his head in his hands. He looked up as I opened the door, and I saw that he clearly hadn’t been to bed.

“I’ve radioed the mainland,” he said. “Kate will stay here with Charlie, but you and I are leaving this afternoon.”

“No.”

Dad sighed. “Jess, if you truly believe what you’ve been saying about a sister, then you’re obviously 185having some kind of breakdown, and I’m just not equipped to handle—”

“I don’t,” I said, my mind working quickly.