The Clurichaun ignored her and continued his theatrics. ‘You’ve trapped me! A poor innocent creature! Where is the justice?’

Cat sighed. She didn’t have time for this, but she knew from experience the best way to deal with a child throwing a tantrum was not to give into it. ‘If you’re going to be like that, I’ll leave you here all night,’ she said in her best no-nonsense voice and turned on her heel to leave the room.

All of a sudden, the doorbell began to chime and the Cluri-chaun let out a shriek and plugged his long fingers into his ears.

‘It’s only trick-or-treaters. Ignore them, they’ll get tired and go away soon,’ said Cat.

But the doorbell rang again, more urgent this time, and the Clurichaun fell to the floor wailing and crying, ‘The bells! They hurt my ears.’

The Clurichaun wasn’t playing around this time, Cat realised. The bells really did hurt him.

‘Fine!’ she said. ‘If I get rid of them, will you actually listen to me and tell me everything I need to know?

The Clurichaun nodded through tears.

‘All right. In the meantime, keep quiet!’

She ran to the hallway, closing the living-room door tight behind her to muffle the Clurichaun’s wails and hide him from curious eyes.

She pulled open the front door and there, unexpectedly, was Shane Culligan.

‘What did you do to my sister?’ he said, without a word of greeting.

‘I’m sorry, what?’ Cat said, taken aback by his abruptness.

Shane’s hands were balled into fists and his face was so screwed up Cat wasn’t sure whether he was about to cry or to yell at her.

‘Jenny’s been acting strange all day and I want to know what you did to her.’

‘I didn’t do anything to her,’ Cat said. ‘She was like that when I found her.’

Shane snorted. ‘Right, because she was taken by the fairies,’ he said, drawing out the last word and rolling his eyes in that infuriating way of his. ‘This isn’t some stupid make-believe game of yours.’

‘Stupid make-believe ga–’ Cat cut herself off. There was no point in arguing with him. Not with so much at stake. She took a breath and counted to three. ‘Now really isn’t a good time,’ she said, already closing the door in his face. ‘So if you want to continue being a pain, can you do it tomorrow?’

‘Don’t you ever get tired of being weird?’

Cat froze. She had been more than patient with Shane, but this was too much.

‘Why are you here, Shane? You tell me to leave you alone, but you come knocking on my door. What do you want?’

For a moment they just stared at each other. Shane opened his mouth to answer when a loud crack and a howl from the living room drew both their attention.

‘AAAIIIEEEEEE!’

‘What was that?’ Shane said, pushing past Cat into the living room. She tried to hold him back, but it was too late. He flung open the door and stopped short when he spotted a small creature hopping from foot to foot and swearing under its breath.