One of the pipes burst, it flooded down here, and an eel came. I know Papa said they were dangerous, but perhaps I could make friends with it? I know it’s what I deserve, but being on my own makes me so sad sometimes. And an eel friend is better than no friend at all. Please don’t forget me. Don’t forget me, don’t forget me.

Love from your son,

C

The letter fell from my hand. Will and I stared at each other, aghast.

“He was down here?” Will whispered. “All alone?”

I was about to reply when a hand shot out from beneath the table and wrapped itself tightly around my ankle. I screamed and stumbled back. “Someone grabbed me!”

I looked under the table, expecting to see a person crouched there, but there was only a blanket. I leaned down, yanked it away and immediately 297wished that I hadn’t.

Curled up on its side was the small, sad skeleton of a child.

298

Chapter Twenty-three

The skeleton was so little – the boy couldn’t have been much older than Charlie. I felt a painful rush of sympathy. No child should be left alone in a place like this. It was monstrous.

“It must be his ghost haunting the lighthouse,” I said.

A noise made us both jump, and Will and I turned in time to see a pair of small feet disappear up the ladder. I had the sudden fear that the trapdoor would slam shut above us, and we’d hear bolts sliding across, sealing us inside and dooming us to share the boy’s fate. I raced up the ladder and pressed my hand against the wooden floorboards just as the trapdoor dropped closed on top of them. Pain shot through my fingers, and I yelled, but didn’t remove 299them. Instead, I pushed against the trapdoor as hard as I could, flinging it back.

When I stuck my head up, there was no sign of anyone in the room, although I thought I heard the ring of footsteps on the spiral stairs beyond. I lost no time scrambling out of the hatch, then reached down to help Will do the same.

“I think he’s gone up into the tower,” I said, nodding towards the doorway. “I heard him on the stairs.”

We glanced at each other. Were we going to follow him? Even though he’d just been a little boy who had suffered a short life of numerous cruelties, I shivered with dread at the thought of going after him, yet what choice did we have?