‘Firewood,’ Liam replies, as the axe head buries itself again into the side of the pew with a loud thwack. ‘I’m going to build a bonfire on the cliffs. We need to signal the mainland. It’s our only option.’

‘We only have one more night to get through,’ I tell him.

‘And who knows what he might have planned,’ Liam fires back. ‘We have to get off this island and we have to get off now.’

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Liam makes short work of the pew, turning it into a pile of splintered fragments. He’s pouring with sweat, stripped down to just a T-shirt and jeans, even though evening has fallen and it’s growing cooler by the minute.

I jump with every blow as it crashes into the hard wood, covering my ears, terrified that the noise is loud enough to be heard on the other side of the island and imagining the man out there, searching for us, hearing us and coming running.

When he’s finished, Liam starts stuffing some of the wood into his emptied-out bag. ‘We’ll carry the rest,’ he says to me, pausing only to wipe the perspiration from his brow.

I look up at the stained-glass window. It’s growing darker by the minute. We gather the wood in our arms. Liam straps the gun over his shoulder with a strip of blanket that he’s fashioned into a makeshift strap, staggers to his feet and together we exit the chapel. It’s inky dusk outside now, the sky a deep mauve, and the wind is picking up and starting to howl, shaking the branches of the trees as we pass beneath them and making them creak. I look around in frightened anticipation, barely able to breathe. I feel eyes on me, somewhere out there in the dark. We’re being stalked. I know it. But I can’t see anything. I can just feel it, a prickling sensation crawling up my spine, sending goosebumps rippling down my arms and legs and stuffing up my mouth with a silent sob.

Liam is still limping; every single footstep makes him wince and hiss between clenched teeth with pain. He carries the bag of wood and my arms are loaded with another heavy pile and we make slow and unsteady progress, stopping every few feet for Liam to catch his breath. Every crack of a branch makes me spin around in alarm, imagining I’m seeing people standing between the trees.

We make our way down into a gully of the woods, and Liam leads us over the creek and up finally the last stretch towards the top of the cliff. Halfway up the steady incline I feel the first splatter of rain on my face. I cast a glance up at the sky and more raindrops land on my eyelashes and cheeks.

‘Let’s hurry,’ Liam says, struggling to limp faster.