‘I can hear this thing chasing me. I never see its face, just hear its breathing.’ Kerry’s voice was beginning to sound panicky now as she relived her nightmare. ‘I try to run, but the stones I’m running over hurt my feet. I turn around to see what it is behind me but it’s so big. Then a huge hand grabs me …’

‘And then what?’ Ace urged her, desperate to know how her dream ended.’

I don’t know!’ cried Kerry. ‘I can feel the hand crushing me, squeezing me. I’m screaming …’

She burst into tears, obviously still terrified by the memory. Her mum hurried to comfort her, the argument of a moment ago forgotten.

‘It was her screams that woke us up,’ said Mr Eldon quietly. ‘Screaming the place down, she was. I had to break down the door to her room.’

‘She’d locked it?’ asked the Doctor curiously.

‘No,’ Mr Eldon shook his head. ‘It was barricaded. A chair wedged under the door handle.’

‘I didn’t do that!’ wailed Kerry.

‘We know you didn’t, love.’ Mrs Eldon hugged her daughter to her chest.

‘We found her lying in the middle of the floor,’ continued Mr Eldon. ‘She was shaking, convulsing, like she was having a fit, and covered in …. slime of some kind.’

‘Slime?’ The Doctor and Ace looked at each other in surprise.

Mr Elson nodded. ‘Horrible stuff it was, thick, sticky slime. It was all over her, in her hair, her nose, her eyes … We thought it was suffocating her so we wiped off as much of it as we could with her bedsheets and then Tracy helped me get her into the shower.’ He rubbed his hands together at the memory. ‘Still can’t seem to get rid of the smell of it.’

‘Ectoplasmic material …’ The Doctor leaned across the table excitedly. ‘Did you keep the bedsheets?’

Mr Eldon shook his head.

‘We burnt the lot, said Mrs Eldon defiantly. ‘Even the slightest whiff of the stuff was enough to set Kerry off again. I never want to smell the filthy stuff again.’

‘That’s a shame, said the Doctor sadly. ‘I’d really have liked to have got a proper look at some of that slime …’

CHAPTER ELEVEN

On the other side of Perivale, the Range Rover carrying Graham, Yaz and Ryan pulled up in the street outside the block of flats where Chantelle lived. Inside the car, the three of them were still arguing. It was an argument that had been going on since they’d left Kirkwood Farm.

‘I’m just saying that making explosives in a secret location isn’t exactly normal,’ said Yaz.

‘But she’s the CEO of a world-renowned charity!’ argued Graham. ‘Do you really think that she’d be doing that if she’s some kind of terrorist?’

‘I don’t know!’ Yaz was getting exasperated. ‘It just gives me cause for concern, all right?’