The creature lurches away from the table then drops its head as if it’s looking down at itself. It only has one foot; the other leg ends in a misshapen bloody lump. Tom backs away but neither of us runs. We stare at it, wide-eyed, and I feel time slow down. The demon steps in our direction and I bite back a cry. Its face is a mangled mess of flesh, two tiny nostrils opening and closing in a flat nose, its red slash of a mouth making a wet rasping sound.

Tom rushes to my side and pulls me behind him and the thing jerks towards us, dragging its half-formed leg behind it, the twitching raw stump slithering across the tiles and leaving bloody tracks in the flour. It raises an arm, its finger probing its eye socket, and one of the grubs boring and twisting inside it drops to the floor.

Tom looks as if he’s going to be sick. I can’t imagine how it must feel to know that the thing standing before us was once one of the shadows inside him. I nudge his elbow then glance over my shoulder and he answers with a stricken nod. The creature is blocking our path to the front door, so the only option is the hallway.

We take several slow steps back, edging our way out of the room, and the demon leans to one side and then another, its nostrils puckering. It sniffs in our direction and we hold still, not daring to move as it shuffles closer. A long black tongue slithers from its mouth, its wet lips slapping together as if it’s trying to taste the air. The pungent stink of it makes me gag and I clamp a hand to my mouth and retch.

The demon pounces at me and everything happens at once. I turn and run for the hallway and it snatches hold of my hair, yanking me to the ground and dragging me back. Tom lunges for the table and pulls the knife from the cake, slashing the creature’s side, and I tug myself free and get to my feet. The demon wails but doesn’t stop. It comes at me again.

Tom swipes with the knife but misses this time. ‘Run, Ivy!’

I race down the hallway, the demon right behind me. It’s moving fast, too fast for me to make it up the stairs. The passageway to the lighthouse … I rush towards it and wait for bony fingers to grab me but instead there’s a yelp. It’s trodden on one of the nails on the floor. While it’s distracted, I snatch up a plank of wood and whack the creature’s shoulder. It staggers back and lets out a cry, blood dripping down its arm.