Inside, past the police tape and the warning signs, the house was still, the smell of mould she remembered from last time lingered in the air but now it was more potent. The floorboards creaked underneath her steps. She thought about the pool of water in the cellar and Alexia’s body half submerged in it. The death pool.

‘Hello?’ she called out, her voice reverberating around the empty hallway. She knew there was no one there but it made her feel better to hear a voice. She stepped forward and jumped, the door had slammed shut behind her.

She whipped round in horror.

It was just the wind.

The door slamming had put her on edge and she crept forward, no longer confident she had made the right decision. The back of the house was dark, and ahead the doors were shut, their secrets contained, save for the door leading to the basement where Alexia’s body had been left.

They will have moved it by now, surely. They wouldn’t leave it here.

Georgie made her way through the corridor so she could see the front door at the other end of the hallway. There were no cameras around that she could see but this was still a silly idea, she realised. She should go back. There was nothing but death in this house. Death, rot and mould. And darkness.

She was about to turn back when she heard something in the distance. At first, she thought it might have been a tap dripping, but as she moved cautiously further into the hallway, her chest fluttering, she realised it was something else. Ting . . . ting . . . ting. The soft tone of music, coming from the open stairwell leading to the basement.

Chapter 53

Chapter 53

Georgie stared down the stairwell into the gloom and shivered. The darkness was waiting for her, like in her dreams. She could sense its moist hands rising from the bottom of the stairs and edging towards her.

She jumped back. It was ridiculous, of course. Darkness doesn’t move. There’ll be nothing down there, she told herself.

She walked back towards the stairs leading to the first floor; beyond that was the front door. The music became quieter with every step she took. Six steps back and it was almost imperceptible. The same phenomenon took place when she walked the other way past the stairwell and stood in the kitchen doorway. No music. It’s definitely coming from the basement.