Or the horrors.

‘I’ll be back,’ I say once more but, even to me, my promise is gossamer-fine, easily broken.

I trail after the wisp of memories of three girls hand in hand who were as desperate to stay hidden as I am to be found.

‘Archie!’

His name echoes through the windowless rooms. The ghosts of the past whisper, You know where he is.

And I do.

The decontamination chamber. Where everything ended last time.

Where everything will now begin.

Chapter Sixty-Five

George

Now

George vows he will make it up to Leah somehow. He swerves in and out of traffic, slicing through lights on the cusp of turning from amber to red. He screeches onto the empty driveway. Leah’s car is missing.

Where is she?

It isn’t like her to take Archie out in the evening, she must be distraught to upset his bedtime routine. He can picture her face crumpling after reading his goodbye letter.

Why had he written it? He’s such an idiot.

He needs to call Carly and Tash. Leah must be with one of them. She has no other friends. George is her best friend and he has let her down.

The house is cold and dark. He slinks inside like a scolded puppy with his tale between his legs. There is no scramble of paws.

Where is the dog? Has Leah taken him with her to keep Archie amused while she pours her heart out to her sister or her best friend?

It doesn’t feel right.

Why haven’t Tash or Carly come here?

George strides up the stairs two at a time. The envelope he addressed to his wife still stands against her bedside lamp. He picks it up and runs his fingers across the unbroken seal and thinks how lucky he is that he got here first. That she hasn’t read it. He can make it right.

All of it.

But still. Where is she? Archie? The puppy? Something is off. He sinks onto the bed. Their bed. Pulls out his phone to call her and sees her unopened text.

Archie is missing.

The bed rocks beneath him as he reads, seasickness swirling in his stomach. He pounds down the stairs and throws himself into his car.

Archie is missing.

George hares towards Norwood, calling the police as he drives.

‘Please hurry.’ He garbles out the details. The operator tells him to stay where he is. Not to put himself in any danger. He cuts the call and tosses his phone onto the passenger seat where his wife should be. His eyes flicker to the rear-view mirror. The sight of Archie’s empty booster seat is a punch to the gut. He should have believed Leah that Simon was back. He’s going to kill the bastard with his bare hands.

I’m coming-I’m coming-I’m coming.

He grips the steering wheel tightly.

He hopes he’s not too late.

Chapter Sixty-Six

Leah

Now

Twenty years ago I had made this trek, the security of my sisters dulling my panic. Now there is only me. Injured by my fall, my back shrieks with protest but I don’t care. I don’t care about anything except finding my son. I burst out of the main building. It seemed inevitable that I would be greeted with a clap of thunder, a flash of lightning, but the sky is a flat, cloudless grey and it’s worse somehow. The silence. A storm would no longer faze me. I am incredulous that I was ever scared of the weather. This sharp-tongued fear relentlessly licking at my organs, coating my insides sour, is like nothing I’ve ever experienced.