Austin suddenly had the awful feeling that Cole had somehow circled round behind him, that he was standing there with that gun out, that he could see Austin perfectly in the dark and he was smiling as he watched his prey begin to panic.

But then the gloom lightened even more, and Austin could make out someone kneeling ahead of him.

He started forward on his hands and knees. His fingers brushed over something metal. The gun. He seized it, feeling its weight, feeling a rush of reassurance and excitement that passed as quickly as it had come. He sat back on his haunches, raising the gun. He didn’t need to see it to know it was shaking badly in his grip.

He could see the figure better now. It wasn’t Cole. The dim light (dim, but getting brighter) seemed to be coming from within him. It was a man, definitely a man, and he was on his knees and holding Cole Blancard in his arms.

Austin stood, turned, ran straight into the door and jammed the key into the lock. At the last moment, he remembered the twisting rule, and he turned the key and turned it again, all the while picturing the last door he’d come through, the door to Cole’s bedroom, the one with the naked woman in chains on it, and he opened the cell door and stumbled through, into the hallway.

He turned, glimpsed the glowing figure as it sucked the life out of poor Cole Blancard, the psychopathic thug who had bullied Austin since he was eight years old, and right before the door slammed shut the figure erupted with a startling orange light. Then the door was closed and the house was normal again.

Austin stuffed the key in his pocket. He still had the gun, and even though he had no intention of using it he gripped it tighter as he hurried to the front door.

Bill and Betty fought the Narrow Man in the snow outside.

Their claws tore through the Narrow Man’s clothes and raked his flesh, but while his clothes remained torn his flesh closed up over the wounds, like putty. The demons, on the other hand, weren’t nearly so quick to heal. They had black scales growing on their skin, like armour, and while the scales were enough to deflect swipes, when the Narrow Man jabbed straight at them, those long, thin fingers of his actually slipped between the scales, and drew blood. From the looks on their faces, Austin could tell that Bill and Betty hadn’t expected this. They circled him warily, snarling their hatred. The Narrow Man stood ready between them.