I keep the thought to myself; Liam has not yet given up hope. He keeps fanning, trying to protect the flames by using his coat to shield it as best he can from the driving rain. It’s a losing battle though and eventually the fire splutters out and dies.

Liam drops his arms to his sides and stares out across the water as if hoping he’ll see the lights of a boat heading our way, a sign of rescue on the horizon. We’re both drenched through now; my jeans are sodden and sticking to my skin and my feet are numb. The rain feels like needles being flung into my eyes. Thunder booms overhead, followed almost immediately by lightning striking the ground not twenty feet from where we’re standing. I scream but it’s cancelled out by another crack of thunder.

‘Let’s go,’ Liam says, shouting to be heard over the storm.

The moon is invisible, offering not the faintest shred of light, and we make our way slowly down from the cliffs, slipping and sliding on now muddy paths, blinded by the rain, the thunder continuing to deafen us at regular intervals, shaking the earth. It feels as if the universe is a raging beast, opening its jaws and tearing into to the earth.

I am almost as frozen cold as I was when we fell in the loch. We trudge through the unrelenting rain until we reach the wood, Liam clutching on to me for balance. I almost stumble and fall several times and Liam swears under his breath, no longer able to hold in his frustration and pain. I try to gather my bearings and orient myself, despite the darkness and storm.

‘So much for summer in Scotland,’ I mumble to myself. Liam doesn’t hear as my words are drowned out by yet another sonic boom of thunder rolling overhead and a flash of lightning momentarily lighting up our surroundings. I jerk on Liam’s arm and pull him to a stop. He looks in the direction that I’m pointing in. I saw something moving in the wood, heading in our direction, but now I can’t see anything at all. We’ve been plunged back into the shroud-like dark. I have the torch in my pocket, but I don’t want to turn it on, in case it gives our position away.

A few seconds later another crackle of lightning illuminates the wood, and I spot him again, lit up brilliantly just for an instant. His face is ghostly white and he’s wearing a black hood and standing not fifty feet from us. I’m not sure if he’s seen us as we’re shielded partly behind a huge fir tree. Liam’s seen him too.

‘He must have seen the fire,’ Liam whispers to me through a clenched jaw.