“Virgil, wait, it’s not safe here. Hell Night has started. We’re … Jesus, there are demons everywhere.”

“Are you in danger?”

“Yes,” she whispered. A rustling followed, the sound of running, and then she spoke again, breathlessly. “We’re doing our best to stay away from it all. I have to go. Virgil, if you can, leave. Just drive out of town. Drive and keep going. Good luck.”

She hung up without waiting for an answer.

“Austin’s been taken,” Virgil told Javier. “Hell Night has started. They’re trying to get back to my house to lie low.”

“Did she say what we should do?”

“She said we should run.”

Javier nodded. “And what are we actually going to do?”

“Go back to my house. See what we can do to help.”

“Right then. Let’s get going.”

They climbed the steps out of the bunker just as another demon emerged from the treeline. Her hair was as red as her skin and she was quite breathtakingly beautiful, despite the tears running down her face.

She saw them and they froze.

“You,” she said. “Who are you?”

“Uh,” said Virgil.

“Do you know Amber? Are you helping her? Does she like you?”

Virgil didn’t say anything more. Javier kept his mouth shut.

“Screw it,” the demon snarled, stalking forward. “I’m going to kill you, anyway.”

“Back, back, back,” Virgil whispered, and they stumbled inside the bunker and slammed the door after them, turning a wheeled handle that locked it.

The demon began pounding on it from the other side.

“I’ll kill you!” she screamed. “I’ll kill you!”

They hurried down the steps, stood at the bottom beside the second door, the heavier door, ready to close it if the first seemed in danger of giving way.

The demon pounded and screamed and pounded and threatened, and after two or three minutes they began to hear sobbing, and then the barrage stopped and the sobbing went away.

Javier glanced at Virgil. “Think it’s a trick?”

Virgil didn’t answer. He climbed the steps, put his ear to the door, and heard nothing.

Javier went off to find the toilet, and by the time he’d returned Virgil had made up his mind. “I’m going to take a look outside.”

Javier nodded. “That’s stupid.”

“I can’t just stand here.”

“Stand over there, then.”

“I’m opening the door, Javier. Turn out the lights.”

Grumpily, Javier found the light switch and plunged them into darkness. “Fine,” he said. “But if she kills us …”

He didn’t really have anything to say after that.

Virgil turned the wheeled handle slowly. It creaked and he winced. He kept turning, expecting the demon to kick it open at any moment and send him hurtling down the steps. But she didn’t kick it, and he opened the door without smashing any bones.