The quartz pebbles rattled at the bottom of the bag as she pulled out the salt, a packet snatched from the kitchen cupboard, and turned towards the fence, lurching in the dark, scattering salt along the edge of the boundary, pausing to drop a couple of the pebbles in the corner, one hand holding the bag, the other her scrap of paper, her prayer, a charm hastily torn from one of her mother’s books. She stumbled in the dark, tried to focus, to still her mounting panic. She’d meant to wait, to find a quiet time when no one was around, but now – there was no time left.

It was as if, as if – there was someone behind her, breathing onto the back of her neck; her skin puckered into goosebumps. She should go, get to the street. Evie turned, then stumbled; she fell to her hands and knees, her fingers clawing into the earth as the ground shuddered.

The paper fluttered into the dark.

She shook her head, there was a pain, like a single long scratch at the back of her throat. She coughed, once, twice, tasting blood, but the pain grew worse, and she couldn’t catch her breath, and the ground seemed to be shifting below her. Her mother’s words came back to her.

A reason for all those protections.

She looked up towards the house, it wasn’t enough, any of it, the salt and the pebbles and the prayer; it was just childish nonsense.

Then it seemed to her that the land beneath her began to twist and shudder, that the shadows had come to life and one of them was moving closer.

*

The light in the master bedroom cast a sickly glow, and the smell was back too; damp, decaying.

One-two, one-two – closer now.

Kneeling by the bed, Nell paused, she could almost see the child framed in the doorway, but then the shadows stretched and she realised she’d made a mistake. It was a man, but the air around him seemed to shift and fold and he vanished and there was something else, something old forcing its way into the house.

It took an effort to turn away, to drag her attention back to the gap in the wall.

One-two, one-two.

She couldn’t look, wouldn’t look; certain now that whatever was limping towards her was no child.

One-two, one-two.

Two shoes, lying on the bed.

One-two.

Time to choose. Time to go on instinct. Nell worked as quickly as she could, fumbling in her haste, then pressed the panel back into place.

One-two.

*

Not a shadow, Evie realised, but Gina, all dressed up in a cotton print frock, shivering in the cool night air; reaching down and helping her to her feet, a silver charm dangling from a chain around her neck, the faint scent of violets warming the night air. ‘Come on, pet, that’s enough, don’t you think?’

*