I darted back to the path at the side of the house – hating the giveaway sound of stuff crushing under my feet – then realised something horrible: I was trapped. I’d have to wait for Mr Clemm to go into the house, otherwise he’d see me. But once he was inside, how could I get past those long windows without being seen? And where was Sam? Had he hidden my bike?

The silence was worse than the footsteps.

Then I realised – there was another way out of this garden. It was a hard way, but better than walking in front of the house. I headed further into the trees, wading through nettles too big to squash down. If I could climb the huge garden hedge and get into the field, I could run away without being seen. If.

You don’t really climb over hedges. You climb through them, and it’s very hard. They’re a thousand times thicker than you think.

At the other side, just as I tore free from the thorns and branches – leaving bits of my jeans behind – Sam’s text landed:

Hadn’t meant to make such a total wreck of the hedge. I’d stretched it, which shouldn’t be possible, but you could definitely see gaps where I’d been.

Shot across the field and headed for the road, where I’d be safe and legal – but as I was climbing the final gate, a little electric shock vibrated through my hands and feet.

I thought that was it, but I’d taken about three steps on the tarmac when a whopping crack of thunder sounded behind me and I looked back. Ash House was under a massive black cloud. It hung low and lashed rain at the house like the roof was its target. Thunder crashed again. There was no lightning, but a warm wind blew down the lane straight into my face and spooked me. It smelt eggy and bitter. I started sprinting, but when I looked back, it was all over.

The cloud brightened then disintegrated. Halfway Lane went back to its full summer day, as if nothing had happened.

8

The Stupid Puffer Coat

23rd July

Sam’s furious with me. ‘I only just got away with both bikes before the Cloaked Strider came back,’ he said on the phone last night. ‘What if he’d caught us?’

‘But he didn’t.’

‘Brainless, the whole idea,’ he said. His voice was fast and cold and full of sharp edges.

Things improved when I told him all about the box. I tumbled the words into the phone before he could hang up.

‘You let something loose?’

I fed him every single detail. I knew he’d get fired up. ‘The opening it came out of was minuscule, Sam – I mean, it was a tiny crack. And yet something ultra weird came out. We need to find out what.’