When they asked you about the dog, you shook your head and said No, I have no idea what happened, but you gave them a little smile, and let them look for a moment into your eyes – not much, but enough to get a glimpse of the soulless, bottomless evil at the heart of you – and then said It must have been someone else. Some kid, and they nodded. What else could they do? To accept the truth of what you were would have destroyed them.

But they were scared. More than scared. Terrified.

The baby is not scared, though. It does not know fear. Can it? You think not.

It will be interesting to find out though. It will be interesting to stare into its eyes in its last seconds and see whether it knows it is about to die.

You don’t think it will, but you are looking forward to finding out.

Janice Kettering

She was in a pub car park, for God’s sake. It couldn’t happen here.

Yes, her car was the only one there, and yes, it was in the corner. But come on. Here?

She and Sanjay had shut the pub – the landlord was always too pissed by this time – and lingered downstairs for a quiet drink.

As well as a few other things. Sanjay lived with his girlfriend, so they couldn’t go to his house, and he had to be home at a reasonable time, so they couldn’t go to hers.

Which left the pub. They hadn’t had sex in it yet, but it wouldn’t be long. They’d done everything else, and they could hardly keep their hands off each other, so it was only a matter of time, and she couldn’t wait.

She loved him, and he loved her. He had to extricate himself from his relationship, and then they could be together.

Except that would never happen.

Not now.

Because she was going to die. She was going to die in this shitty pub car park, still a virgin.

Sanjay couldn’t help. He had walked home. He had kissed her at the pub door and headed off up the road to his girlfriend.

So she was alone, and she was going to die. She knew it the moment she hit the clicker on her key fob and the lights of her car flashed as it unlocked.

The batteries were old and the range was poor, so she was quite close to her car when they flashed, and illuminated the person standing there.

Who was just as close to her.

And who moved incredibly quickly, the hammer in their hand swinging viciously towards her head.

Tom