Under the cypresses Conway stopped. I heard Mackey’s long leisurely stride catch up with her, felt her stretch out an arm: far enough.

He stopped because he’d been going to anyway. If anything led even an inch towards Holly, Conway wouldn’t be able to hold him back.

I stepped out into the clearing and stood in front of those three girls.

The moon stripped my face bare to them. It turned them black-invisible, blazed their outline like a great white rune written on the air. Joanne and her lot were danger, bad danger. They were nothing compared to this.

I cleared my throat. They didn’t move.

I said, ‘Do yous not have to head indoors for lights-out, no?’

My voice came out weak, a limp thread. One of them said, ‘We’ll go in a minute.’

‘Right. Grand. I just wanted to say . . .’ Foot to foot, rustling in the long grass. ‘Thanks for all your help. It’s been great. Really made a difference.’

A voice asked, ‘Where’s Holly?’

‘She’s inside.’

‘Why?’

I twisted. ‘She’s a bit shaken up. I mean, she’s grand, but that thing back in the common room, with the . . . you know. Chris’s ghost.’

Julia’s voice said, ‘There wasn’t any ghost. That was just people looking for attention.’

A shift, under the curves of that rune sign. Selena’s voice said softly, ‘I saw him.’

Another movement, quicker and cut off. Julia had elbowed Selena, kicked her, something.

I asked, ‘Rebecca? How about you?’

After a moment, from inside the dark: ‘I saw him.’

‘Yeah? What was he doing?’

Another ripple through that rune, changed the meaning in subtle ways I couldn’t read.

‘He was talking. Fast, like jabbering; like, he never stopped to breathe. I guess he doesn’t need to.’

‘What was he saying?’

‘I couldn’t tell. I was trying to read his lips, but he was going too fast. One time he . . .’ Rebecca’s voice split on a shiver. ‘He laughed.’

‘Could you tell who he was talking to?’

Silence. Then – so soft, I would’ve missed it, only my ears were wide open as an animal’s – ‘To me.’

A tiny catch of breath, almost a gasp, from somewhere else in that condensation of darkness.

I asked, ‘Why you?’

‘I told you. I couldn’t hear.’

‘This morning you said you and Chris weren’t close.’

‘We weren’t.’

‘So it’s not like he misses you so much, he had to come back and tell you that.’

Nothing.

‘Rebecca.’

‘Probably not. I guess. I don’t know.’

‘Not like he was secretly in love with you, no?’

‘No!’

I said, ‘You know how you looked, in there? Scared. Like, really scared.’

‘I saw a ghost. You’d be scared too.’