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It was absurd to be afraid, as if the darkness and the ground could swallow her. She shook her head and walked away, willing herself not to run. She could hear Rob cursing and the bird’s agitated attempts to escape and then she was across the threshold and shutting the door behind her.

In the dark, Sky was singing to Simon. Her eyes caught the torchlight and reflected it back. An animal’s eyes.

‘Are you all OK?’ said Rose. ‘I’ve lost my phone. When the power went down, it was…’ How can I explain the panic to Andrew?

He stood quiet calm, propped up in the doorway, unfazed. ‘I didn’t realise they’d gone out in town too. We’ve been fine, haven’t we Sky? Why didn’t you just carry on with the dance? Wouldn’t it have been a bit of a laugh in the dark?’

‘It wasn’t like that. It wasn’t fun. Everyone was terrified.’

‘It’s just a power cut.’

‘The darkness is all wrong,’ said Sky. ‘It’s pressing down, and the ground is rising up to meet the stars.’

Andrew made a noise which Rose assumed accompanied eye-rolling. ‘Sky’s been poetic ever since the lights went off. I’m thinking of stealing her words and turning them into posters. Right. Have you got candles and a kettle? I’ll head off to my hotel in a bit, but I could murder a coffee first.’

‘Can you sense a pulse in the air?’

‘No,’ said Andrew.

‘I can feel it,’ said Sky. ‘The land is angry.’

Andrew pulled Rose away and into the kitchen. She rummaged around for candles and matches and after a bit of digging, found the small camping kettle.

‘Rose…’ Andrew started.

Her head was pounding. She felt stupid: unnerved and at the same time ashamed that had been caught up in mass hysteria.

‘Was everything really all right?’ she asked.

‘Not exactly. When the lights went out and the radio went off, obviously we were startled. The trip was OK and the light your neighbour had left on wasn’t visible.

So I guessed it was a power cut. I gave up trying to explain to Sky who was agitated, but not by the dark.

She said the ground was reaching up for the stars or something, like she did a moment ago.

She said someone or something was angry.

Then she became frightened. It got worse and worse.

She wanted me to barricade us in with Simon.

She wanted me to open the cage and let her in to protect him.

This went on right up until you suddenly screeched to a halt outside.

Then it was as if she’d woken from a bad dream.

She was confused but calm. She couldn’t remember being scared.

Her fear was catching. When she was frightened, it made me want to look over my shoulder which is ridiculous. ’

‘But Simon?’

‘He slept through. The moon’s nearly set now and the transformation has started. But Rose… the tests…’

There was a knock at the front door. They both jumped.

On the doorstep, Rob stood with a lantern.

‘I’m going back into town. That bird’s going to do itself a major injury if it keeps crashing round the way it is.

It’s like it’s trying to expand its way out of the box.

I can’t listen to that all night. I rang the wildlife place and they said someone would meet me.

Then I’ll help the lads pack up. If I find your phone I’ll bring it round in the morning if that’s OK.

Shame about the drink. I could do with one. ’

On the tip of Rose’s tongue were the words: If there’s still a candle in the kitchen window, knock. But she said, ‘Never mind. Another time.’

It was hard to work out whether he had expected any other answer. His face was angles of light and dark lit by the lantern. She could make out the rattling and squawking of the crow shut up in a box in Rob’s car.

‘Listen to it - see what I mean?’ he turned and walked away.

Rose watched him drive away, then closed the door. Andrew grabbed her arm.

‘Rose, I need to talk to you both about the tests. And Sky perhaps, although…’

‘Tomorrow. We’ll talk tomorrow.’

‘Can’t I give you the heads up now? I need you to understand because he won’t listen properly.’

Rose felt her shoulders slump and her jaw clench.

Why couldn’t anyone just let her feel one set of emotions at a time?

She was tired, she was unnerved, she was confused and now she was afraid.

Not of some vague sensation in the August night, not of the people running in the dark, but of Andrew’s news.

‘I’m sorry Rose.’ It was all anyone seemed to have said to her for years.

I’m sorry we couldn’t save your parents…

I’m sorry your application was unsuccessful…

I’m sorry your composition is not a match for us at this time…

I’m sorry your husband is dead…I’m sorry your brother is ill… I’m sorry I’m too busy to meet you…

Whatever Andrew had intended to say was interrupted by a sound from Simon’s room. Still sleeping within the cage, Simon was now half-human. The fur was receding and the shape of his limbs was almost normal.

In soft candlelight, Sky wept as she struggled out of her clothes. ‘I just want to speak with him while we can speak the same language and share the same thoughts but I’ll be changed before he changes.’

Rose calmed Sky’s hands and pulled her close, feeling the small frame shake in her arms, the wetness of tears on her shoulder.

From inside the cage, Simon made a noise, his eyes half open. The noise was harsh but sibilant.

‘He’s saying your name,’ said Rose. She didn’t know if he was, but it didn’t matter.

Sky raised her head from Rose’s shoulder and stepped out of her embrace to reach through the bars for the paw which was turning second by second into a hand.

It lay still under her fingers, twitched then half closed on hers. His eyes shut.

‘He needs to sleep,’ said Sky, slipping her hand from the cage. Her words held a sob. She pulled the clothes off and stood naked, alert. ‘The noise is stopping.’

Rose concentrated. ‘Yes it is.

She followed Sky into the sitting room and opened the patio doors. The moon had disappeared and the sky simply held the stars.

Sky dropped to the floor and when she stood again, it was as a wolf, who looked up at Rose then ran the length of the garden, leapt over the hedge and disappeared across the fields towards the forest.

The throbbing in Rose’s ears lessened and ceased. The room filled with light as the lamps came on and the inane sounds of midnight radio replaced the watching silence.