Ella realized that the thing he was dragging was Scarface. The father had him by the ankles. Ella didn’t know what to do. Even though she had her club, she couldn’t fight this man. He was huge – to Ella he seemed to be a giant – and she was feeble. A little girl, Daniel had called her. A useless little girl. And he was right. Ella couldn’t hit hard enough to hurt a fly.

There were flies in here. They swarmed round the father and over the dead bodies. Their buzzing set her on edge.

She looked down at her club. It was shaking so much in her sweaty hands it looked like it was attached to a motor. She put a finger to one of the bits of metal that were stuck in it. It was sharp. If she hit the father in a soft place she might hurt him. She couldn’t kill him with it, but she might slow him down, maybe make him let go of Scarface, give him a chance to escape.

It was that or watch him drag Scarface off somewhere to be eaten in private and then wait for him to come back and start on her. Where could she hit him, though, that would do enough damage?

The father was getting closer and closer. She could hear him grunting with the effort. His long legs stiff and awkward as he shuffled backwards, kicking arms and legs out of his way with his heels. And then Ella had an idea and, before she could talk herself out of it, she ran at the father and swung the club with all her strength at the backs of his knees. Ella let go of it and it stuck there, the spikes digging into him.

He gave a girlish cry and crumpled to the floor, letting go of Scarface. Ella was breathing so hard it hurt her chest. She was crying. But she’d done it. The father was down …

He rolled on to his front, leaving the club behind, pushed himself up on to his hands like someone doing exercises and stared at Ella. He didn’t look angry or in pain, he just looked as if there was something he needed to do and nothing was going to stop him. He began to move, pulling himself along on his arms, eyes fixed on Ella. She went over to the door and started to open it when she saw the huge head of a dog sticking its nose in the crack and snuffling like the mother had done earlier. She slammed the door shut as it started to bark.