‘It isn’t a boy,’ Ella went on. There was no stopping her now. ‘It’s the bogeyman. A spider man with long arms and legs, all stretched and black, like a spider. It’s the slenderman.’

Maxie laughed, trying to reassure Ella.

‘Well, which is it, babe? A spider? A bogeyman? The slenderman?’

‘All of them maybe.’ Ella didn’t sound too sure of herself any more.

‘Have you actually seen him? This monster? I mean, you yourself, with your own eyes?’

Ella looked at the floor and gave another little shrug with a tiny shake of the head.

‘I haven’t,’ she said very quietly. ‘But other people have.’

‘I bet they haven’t. I bet they all say it was someone else who saw the monster. It’s all just hype. You’re all just getting panicky and making stuff up.’

‘But there’s something …’

‘And whatever it is we’ll find it,’ said Maxie. ‘I don’t want you to get scared. Trust me, OK?’

‘I don’t like it here,’ said Ella. ‘I want to leave.’

‘You can’t leave,’ said Maxie. ‘There’s nowhere to go, OK? So you just hang in there. As I say – you trust me now.’

Ella didn’t respond straight away. She stood there for half a minute chewing her lip, then said, ‘OK,’ and abruptly turned, walked over to the stairs and sat down, resting her head in her hands.

‘She gonna be all right?’ Brooke asked.

‘I hope so. She’s done all right so far. Funny how some kids are cool and some just give up. She lost her brother. He was a good kid. Small Sam we called him, because at one time we had, like, three Sams I think, maybe four. Small Sam, Big Sam, Curly Sam, who had curly hair, and there was another. I forget what he was called.’

‘Fat Sam?’ Brooke suggested and Maxie smiled.

‘I can’t remember,’ she said.

‘Me either,’ said Maeve. ‘You put them out of your mind when they get killed. Otherwise …’

‘So what happened to Small Sam?’ said Brooke.

‘He got taken just before we came away,’ Maxie explained. ‘One of the reasons we left. It was getting too dangerous there. It was a real shame about Sam. They’d been good together, him and Ella. He looked out for her, even though he was only young himself. Not even ten I don’t think. I was worried she might lose it when he was taken, but so far she’s done good.’

‘It’s like you and me,’ said Brooke.

‘How so?’

‘When I was lying there in the palace I was only pretending to be asleep a lot of the time. I was listening to what you were saying. You and Blue. I learnt quite a lot about you both.’

‘We kind of forgot you were there.’