The tourist board might issue a statement on her: ‘Homeless woman refused disability benefit or housing is found murdered while squatting in a derelict building.’ On Hogmanay! This is really not the look we are going for!

Heartbeat is still too fast.

Felt at .102 above the normal setting for human existence.

Do spirit doctors’ hearts beat like other mortals? Maybe a robot stuck a needle in her earth mother in the womb.

– This one comes from the dream world, boys – a pure one – an earth angel – a goddess – born with fangs and a unique pattern to her limbs. Let’s curse her to a life of yearning.

Dot knows who it is down there really.

Easier to think it might just be an average murderer than what she really knows.

Dot has seen the sharp tip of horns.

The building croaks and groans and she flies down the stairs.

Pushes open the door at 7F7.

Dot will know what it is when she finds it and she is not living in fear for one minute more, there is something more important than that for her to face right now – she uses the adrenaline to push herself harder and faster – she runs through the sixth floor – there are marks on the walls, old carpets but nothing else, Dot slows down – on the fifth-floor landing and approaches a flat door, it is already ajar.

Pushes it open.

– Is anyone there?

There is no creak but she can tell she is getting closer to something…

Dot steps into the long hallway.

There is a bathtub visible through a door on the right.

– Hello?

Into the living room.

An old, empty parrot cage sits on a stand.

Seeds are scattered over a patterned carpet.

She can feel it.

Evil.

It’s not the first time Dot has felt that presence.

She hauls her hand back and claws a huge hole into the wall. She kicks the plasterboard and rips chunks of it away – throws them down onto the floor behind her in a gloom of dust – pulls her arm back again – bang, bang, bang – fireworks out on the street – a shudder through the entire building. She has taken off nearly the entire wall before she even looks up. The air turns icy. Blinking she realises her skin has turned as cold as alabaster. A long, low howl rises up from the bowels of the building.

Dot screams.

Steps back – drops the hammer.

– Fucking hell!

She reaches out and then snatches her hand back.

Steadies herself again.

Two skeleton torsos hold hands – and in between them is a child.

The infant is the only one with skull intact.

It looks up at her.

Outside on the street, fireworks crack and there is cheering as bells go off.

Tears in her eyes.

– I’ll be back for you, she whispers.