I nod. He’s right. Though the man seems to think we’re trespassing, given the warning written in blood on the door.

‘If there is a boat,’ Liam goes on, sounding energised, ‘we could steal it and use it to get off the island.’

He looks at me and my eyes widen in terror; we’d have to travel to the other side of the island, past the castle, to get to the boathouse, and the man with the gun is probably out there waiting for us. He may even have followed us back to the cottage. He could be outside right now.

‘We’re sitting ducks here,’ Liam says. ‘We can’t stay until Friday. Whoever he is, he has a gun. And he’s obviously crazy. We’re not safe. We need to get off the island, and we need to go now.’

He walks out into the hallway. ‘We’ll take just one bag; essentials only.’

I follow him. ‘What about all this mess?’ I ask, gesturing at the destroyed living room.

Liam shrugs. Not ten minutes ago he was yelling about it but now he doesn’t seem to care. ‘Fuck it,’ he says. ‘I’m not giving them a penny. They should be paying us compensation. What kind of a bloody holiday is this? They set us up in the middle of nowhere without a phone or any way to get in touch.’

He jogs up the stairs and I follow him, watching as he snatches his backpack from under the bed and starts to toss in a few things. After a second he looks up at me. ‘What are you doing?’ he asks, staring at me as I stand there, dazed and unmoving. ‘Come on, hurry up!’

I snap to and rush into the bathroom, hurrying to gather up my medication, hairbrush and toothbrush and digging through a box of tampons to find my anti-depressants and the pill, which I stuff into the pocket of my jeans. To me, they are essentials. Liam knocks impatiently on the door, reminding me to be quick, and I leave the bathroom and hand my items to him, to throw into his bag. We head back down the stairs at a run, not even pausing to look around the cottage before we rush for the back door. Liam takes the map he stole from the man’s bag, folding it and shoving it into his inside jacket pocket.

Just as Liam opens the door, I remember the bird. Oh god, I can’t just leave it. But we can hardly take it with us either. I hesitate, not knowing what to do, but then Liam steps out, pulling me with him, and it’s too late.

Chapter Nineteen