Michaela stood in the doorway, half-eaten roll in one hand, coffee in the other. She was silent, thinking. More than one of them, Caro had said. And definitely entities. The one Michaela had seen when she first arrived – that hadn’t felt mindless. It was more as though the thing was taking a deliberate look at her. And had it been an accident that she’d seen it as it did so? Michaela wasn’t sure.

Caro was still looking at her, waiting for her to speak. She put her coffee and roll on the table and pulled out one of the chairs, sitting down and stretching out her long legs, she laced her hands behind her head and stared at the ceiling. Her thinking position, Trisha had called it.

‘We’re not asking the right questions,’ she said after a minute or two.

Caro was shaking her head. ‘We want answers, not more questions.’

‘Sure,’ Michaela said. ‘But what do you have to do to get the correct answers?’

Caro understood. ‘Ask the right questions,’ she said.

Michaela gave a little laugh. ‘Franz Kafka said “a first sign of the beginning of understanding is the wish to die”.

‘That’s not exactly very encouraging, is it?’

Michaela sat back up. ‘Actually, I’ve never been able to decide whether it is or not,’ she said. She looked at her page of notes and wondered where Trisha had gone.

‘Okay,’ she said. ‘When did you first notice these shadow people?’

Caro yanked on a curl of hair as she thought about it. ‘A few months back, I guess,’ she said at last. ‘But it was just something I was seeing out of the corner of my eye, to start with. I didn’t give it much thought.’

‘When did it start bothering you?’

‘When I started getting this creepy feeling whenever I went into my room, that it was really crowded in there. that I wasn’t the only one in there, you know?’

Michaela nodded. ‘Okay, so the phenomenon was fairly unobtrusive to start with then worsened. I wonder what the triggering event was?’

Caro frowned. ‘What do you mean triggering event?’

‘Well, think about it. Something must have happened to bring these things here, and that something most probably had to keep on happening to keep them here and getting stronger.’

Caro was silent.

‘You and your friends didn’t do anything like mucking around with an Ouija board or anything, did you?’

‘No way.’ Caro was shaking her head. ‘No way am I dumb enough to play with one of those. Everyone knows they’re dangerous.’

Michaela laughed. ‘It’s a human condition, I think, to be drawn to danger.’ But Caro was still shaking her head.

‘I haven’t done anything. I’m thinking about it and it can’t be anything I’ve done. This year has been the pits. Dead dull – all I do is go to school, come home and go to work at the diner. In fact, I’m due at the diner this afternoon.’ She gave a dissatisfied sigh.

‘Okay,’ said Michaela. ‘Fair enough. What about people at school. Is there anyone there with something against you?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘People can be unbelievably mean and even more unbelievably stupid. I know that sounds awful, but what if someone did something, maybe as a prank, but it got out of hand, and had real consequences?’

‘I can’t think of anyone who would do anything like this to me. And how would they anyway? I mean how? There’s no dial-a-freak show in the phone book is there.’

Michaela laughed. There was a family resemblance between Caro and her sister, that was for sure.

‘Something triggered this off,’ she said. ‘Either something someone did, or a change in circumstances within the house and your room, I don’t know. But there must be a reason, however far-fetched it is.’

‘Eliminate every possibility and what’s left, no matter how impossible, must be the truth?’

Michaela grinned. ‘Sherlock Holmes. Exactly. Absolutely exactly.’

Caro smiled back and Michaela thought again what a stunning girl she was. Smart too. It was no wonder Trisha was so protective of her. This girl could go far in the world. Given the chance.

‘Would it be all right,’ Michaela asked, ‘if I could have a look at your room?’

Caro nodded, and they got up and walked down the hallway to her room. Michaela looked out the windows on the way past, aware that part of her was still wondering after Trisha. Where was she? And why the hell had she taken off like that?

She sighed and followed Caro into her room. Caro drew the curtains while Michaela stood in the middle of the room and looked around. She guessed it was a pretty typical teenage girl’s room. Posters on the wall. Set of drawers covered in hair brush and ties. Not a lot of make-up though. Lots of books. Bed in the middle of the room, an armchair beside it, next to the window.

‘What do you say to me staying in that chair tonight?’ she asked.

Caro looked at it, surprised. ‘While I’m asleep, you mean?’

‘Yeah. I want to see if they will come out while I’m there.’ She remembered the shadow in the hallway, and thought there was a chance they would. Maybe.

Caro looked doubtful. ‘I don’t know if I’ll be able to sleep with you there,’ she said.

‘I’ll come in when you’re already asleep.’

‘Okay. Do you think you’ll be able to see them?’

Michaela took another look around. The room looked perfectly cheerful and normal in the sun from the windows. ‘I have no idea,’ she said. ‘But it’s worth a try, don’t you think?’