Sam tried not to look, but it was impossible to avert his eyes from the horror, and in the half-light that a hidden moon behind storm clouds afforded he could see everything. Katie’s chest was ripped open, and the beating heart that had been in McGee’s mouth pulsed in the snow beside them. She threw her head back and laughed.

‘At least he’s white, you Indian shit. He fucks like a man!’

Sam panted through clenched teeth for a moment, willing himself to walk on, then he put his head back and bellowed. He closed his eyes and punched the air. ‘You bastard! You evil fucking bastard!’

He gasped for a moment, swallowing back the bile that had risen in his throat, and when he opened his eyes there was nothing in the snow at all. Sam spun round to see if there was more. New tableaux for his amusement. Nothing.

But a voice in his head said quietly and seductively,

‘Then destroy me, scum.’

Sam dug his nails into the palms of his hands and walked on, fighting back his rage, while far behind him Craig McGee heard the shout in the muffled night air and quickened his pace.

The tunnel mouth was ahead. The steep bank that ran up to its right was black with pines, darkening the white strip of track with their gloomy bulk. Sam staggered on towards that deep black arch.

‘Calvin?’

His shout was sucked into the night and ignored. Sam’s breath clouded out in front of him, and his heart became so heavy he felt it beating in his stomach.

‘CALVIN!’

Nothing.

Sam took a few more faltering steps towards the archway. His foot kicked something in the snow. He stooped and dug into the soft white blanket. His hand met cold, hard leather and he closed his fingers round the object and lifted it. Calvin’s medicine bundle.

The young shaman dropped to his knees with the pouch held out in front of him like an offering. His voice was a croak.

‘God. No. No.’

That would be too much. To lose someone, find them again, then have them taken away once more. The bitter cold of loneliness blew in his soul and he bent his head to weep, and the snow he had prayed for fell on his head like a betrayal.

Then a noise made him look up. There was a small staccato crack from the tunnel mouth. Sam held his breath and struggled to his feet. With that breath still held prisoner in bursting lungs he walked a few more paces forward until he could see the arch full-on. There was a faint orange glow from that black hole. A fire. A fire cracking with life in the heart of the blackness. Sam let go a huge gasp of air, nearly laughing in his joy. He ran forward, slipping and stumbling as he went, and skidded into the tunnel mouth.