Everyone makes a face, but no one objects, so Mak goes to the door and opens it. Trent falls into the Lookout, slams the door shut behind him and starts looking around the doorframe like a lunatic. ‘Where’s the lock?’ he shouts. ‘We need to make sure nobody else can get in.’

‘It can’t be opened from the outside,’ Mak says. ‘Otherwise you would have got in, wouldn’t you?’

‘Is it held shut with witch magic from your country?’ Trent says. 207

‘That’s it. You can leave.’ Mak opens the door again, at the same time as the rest of us make the sort of disgusted-slash-outraged noises that you’d expect to hear after a comment like that.

‘Told you we shouldn’t let him in,’ Ade says.

‘Wait!’ Trent shouts. ‘The information I have obtained is of great value. It might even save your lives.’

‘Go on, then.’ Mak sighs.

‘Mind if I have a drink first?’ Trent helps himself to a bottle of coke, opens it and gulps the whole thing back in one go. Well, I say the whole thing, but a fair bit of it dribbles down his chin. We all sit back down where we were before, which leaves no seat for Trent. He walks over to Ade. ‘Mind if I share?’

‘Yes,’ she says. ‘The floor’s free if you really need to sit.’

Trent huffs about for a bit, but eventually grabs some pizza and sits on the floor. ‘You guys are going to owe me for this,’ he says.

‘I seriously doubt it,’ Kat says.

‘Shut up freak girl, or I won’t tell you.’

‘For someone who desperately wanted to come in,’ I say, ‘you’re doing a really good job of making us want to kick you out.’ 208

‘Alright, fine. Makes sense that if some mental stuff is happening in this town, it all leads back to you lot. That’s all I’m saying.’

‘What do you know, Trent?’ Ade says.

‘I’m not sure we should even listen,’ Chets says. ‘He’ll probably lie.’

‘Maybe,’ I agree. ‘But I think we should hear him out first, and then we can decide.’