It was pitch-dark, rain was hammering down on the water all around, the swell of the river lifted her up, spun her around and then sucked her down, time and again, and each time she went under, it seemed to be for longer.

It was so cold. So very, very cold. And she was feeling so tired. So heavy and tired. She couldn’t keep battling, the river was so much stronger than her.

And then Suzie was pulled under by the current, and this time she knew it would be for the last time, she wouldn’t be coming up for air again.

It was just Judith and Danny now.

And somehow, now that Judith had accepted she was on her own, she began to find a sense of calm. Danny was going to shoot her dead. There was nothing she could do about it.

Danny took another step closer.

Raised the pistol.

He was close, but still out of reach. Judith knew there was no way she’d be able to rush him before he could pull the trigger.

There was nothing she could do about it. It was over.

She put her hand on the green baize of the table, just to feel something reassuring in her last few moments of life.

‘You think you’re so clever,’ Danny said. ‘But you’re still going to get a bullet through the brain.’

Judith saw his finger tighten around the trigger, and that’s when she noticed there were no more sweets in the travel sweet tin. It was completely empty. Was that really going to be her last thought?

Although, it wasn’t entirely empty, was it?

Judith’s hand picked up the tin and threw it straight at Danny’s face, its icing sugar contents exploding in a white cloud around his head, which gave her the split second she needed to grab up one of the sharpened pencils from the table, close the distance and plunge the pencil deep into the bicep of Danny’s right arm, the gun falling from his hand as he dropped to his knees screaming in pain, his left hand grabbing at the pencil as he tried to staunch the flow of blood from his arm.

Judith grabbed the gun and stepped back, making sure it stayed trained on Danny.

‘Don’t even think about moving!’ she hollered.

But Danny didn’t seem to be Danny any more, he’d become a snarling creature, and he rose to his feet, pulling the pencil from his arm in a gush of blood he barely noticed.

‘Don’t move!’ Judith shouted again.

Before Judith had time to react, Danny picked up Judith’s card table and threw it at her. She put up her arms to defend herself, but the table knocked her back onto the floor, the gun spinning from her hand.