‘The last time it was awake, it got two teenage boys who thought they were too clever to listen to their parents. Not too long before that it got a whole family. The children in that family weren’t very well behaved at all, and to punish them it gobbled up their parents in front of them before it went to work on them, too.’

Tim could feel his whole body shaking. There was a whimper caught in his throat that was doing its best to escape, and it was taking Tim all his effort and concentration to make sure it didn’t. His dad wouldn’t like that.

Tim swallowed and his eyes shot across to the hatch in his ceiling once more. His father followed his gaze, then smiled again. It was wide and unpleasant, that smile, the same one the bad crocodile from Tim’s storybook had; the type of smile adults did when they weren’t really smiling at all.

‘I know, you’re wondering how this monster could have got to all those children if it lives up there, above your room,’ said Tim’s dad. ‘And the thing is, you’re right. But it has to come down every now and then, doesn’t it?’

He shifted closer to Tim on the bed and leaned forward until Tim could smell his breath. It was faintly unpleasant, half-minty and half-rotten, like toothpaste that hasn’t quite covered up the smell of pork.

‘Just keep your ears open,’ his dad whispered. ‘And if you ever hear something moving about up there, or that hatch starting to creak open, you’ll know it’s getting ready to come down.’

Tim’s dad’s eyes were wide, yellow discs. Tim wanted to shut his own eyes, but he couldn’t.

‘You’d just better behave yourself, Timothy, or it’ll be coming down for you one of these days.’

3

They were standing side by side, looking down at Tom’s body. Mr Stevens was humming lightly under his breath, drumming his fingers against his thighs as he crouched to study the purple-faced corpse.

‘Now, you know what you did with the watch, so I’m not going to tell you about that,’ he said. ‘That was your mistake, and this is your fault, but we fixed it and I don’t think it’s going to be an issue.’

His tone was light and airy, as if they were discussing the best route to navigate to the next tor.

‘Hmm?’ Mr Stevens glanced down at his son, eyebrows raised, and Tim nodded his head.

‘Yes, Dad.’

‘Great. Well, ideally, I’d have liked to have got them all tonight after some stories around the fire, but that can’t be helped. I was feeling tired before anyway, so maybe this is actually a good thing.’