‘Hi,’ Claire said, without any warmth; she still felt weird about this. She didn’t like being doorstepped, especially by someone with that odd look in his eyes. ‘Look, it’s late. Sorry, I don’t mean to be rude, but I—’

He held up his hands, but somehow, she didn’t take it as an apology, or a sign of surrender. ‘No problem. Just wanted to find out what your name was.’

‘Claire,’ she said. ‘Goodnight.’

She kept her eyes on him as she stepped inside, closed the door, and shot the bolts. For the first time, she was grateful for all the locks. Derrick didn’t move, at least until the door closed, but she felt a weird tension in him, as if every muscle was shaking with the desire to rush her.

Claire slid aside the small metal flap over the peephole and looked out.

Derrick’s face loomed huge, right there, staring as if he’d known she’d do it. She let out an involuntary gasp, let the flap slip down, and backed away until she bumped into the stairs. Honestly, she’d faced down vampires on her doorstep, and they generally weren’t that creepy.

She sat down on the steps, and in the dark next to her, in the shadowy space between the stairs and the hall table, she heard a breathy whisper. ‘It’s him, isn’t it? Derrick.’

Somehow, Claire wasn’t surprised it was Liz, huddled there with her knees drawn up to her chest. She was wearing fuzzy pyjamas that were a pale grey in the dimness, and she looked like a terrified little girl.

Claire got up, sat down in the narrow, dark space with her, and put her arm around her friend. Liz leant in, and she was shaking, really shaking. Claire stripped off her coat and put it over Liz’s shoulders. ‘You’re all right,’ she said, and hugged her. ‘Liz, it’s okay. He’s outside. The door’s locked.’

‘But he’s here.’ Even though it was a whisper, it sounded like a wail of despair. ‘I didn’t think he knew where I was, but he’s here. He knows.’

‘Liz – who is he?’

‘I met him at my old school. It was a blind date, my friend set us up. I didn’t like him, but he – he just kept trying to date me. At first it was just texts and calls and flowers, but then he started following me. I started dating this other guy and he – he—’ Liz’s voice faltered, and she swallowed hard. ‘He just disappeared. He finally called me and said he had to move away, because Derrick had shown up and told him if he didn’t that he’d be dead. He told me – he told me that Derrick said he’d rather see me dead than with someone else, and to watch my back. So I left. I quit school, moved out of town, changed my hair and how I dressed, made new friends. I didn’t think he’d follow me, I really didn’t.’