Michaela pushed the door open. The darkness in the room came out to greet them and Michaela felt Trisha’s grip tighten on her shirt.

‘You all right?’ she whispered.

‘Yeah. What’s it look like in there? I can’t see a damn thing.’

They took a few steps forward into the room. Caro lay in the bed, blankets tucked up around her ears, breathing steadily.

‘Caro’s okay,’ Michaela said. She panned the camera around the room. Everything looked ghostly in the green light in the viewfinder, but nothing moved or seemed out of place. The room was wreathed in shadows but none of them moved. Michaela turned to Trisha.

‘Can you turn the bathroom light on, babe? I want just a little bit of light.’

Trisha nodded and turned back into the hallway. Michaela heard the snap of the light switch in the bathroom. The room brightened a little.

‘I left the door open a fraction,’ Trisha said, back at Michaela’s side.

‘Excellent.’ Michaela felt uncomfortable being in the room like this with Caro sleeping in front of her, but she bent to the camera again and continued her survey. She looked toward the curtain, certain she’d seen something move. Trisha tugged on her elbow.

‘Over there,’ she hissed. ‘Under the wardrobe door.’

Michaela swung the camera over to the wardrobe.

‘Oh shit.’ Trisha was holding hard to her elbow now. ‘Oh fuck me Freddy it’s like some awful stain.’

Michaela watched through the camera. It was like a stain. The wardrobe was leaking dark matter. Under the door a black shadow was spreading, somehow almost oozing. Michaela had a mad desire to reach down and touch it, but Trisha’s touch kept her in one spot.

She held her breath and watched. She hadn’t been sure at all that they would see anything. But maybe she’d been right when she’d said the phenomena were escalating. Because here it was right in front of her eyes, and that shadow was definitely spreading.

It came shapeless from under the wardrobe door, spread across the floor and up the wall, a blackness staining the room. Heading up the wall beside the bed, it grew taller, almost toward the ceiling. Michaela adjusted the focus on the camera, panning back to fit it in, hoping like hell it was recording.

‘It’s going toward Caro,’ Trisha whispered. ‘I want Caro out of there.’

Michaela nodded but neither made a move to wake the sleeping girl.

‘Fuck! Michaela look!’

Where? Michaela panned the camera around the room and saw straight away what had alarmed Trisha. From behind the curtains another shadow was materialising, spreading across the wall, growing taller.

‘We gotta get the fuck out of here,’ Trisha said.

Michaela was mesmerised. ‘Wait a minute,’ she said.

Both shadows were spread against the wall beside Caro’s bed now. Michaela watched as they seemed to draw themselves together. She could see the shape of head and shoulders on them now. She could also feel her heart pounding against her ribs. She heard a low keening and realised it was Trisha.

The shadows were tall against the wall now, and the one from the wardrobe began to bend down as if to look at the girl sleeping in the bed.

‘Michaela, there’s more of them.’

Michaela looked back at the wardrobe and Trisha was right. More were flowing out from under the door. More were coming from behind the curtains. And the one on the wall was bending over, almost touching the pillow.

Trisha reached out and flicked the light switch. Light flooded the room. She leapt forward to the bed and grabbed Caro by the shoulder.

‘Wake up! Caro, wake up!’

Caro raised her head and Trisha flung back the blankets, grabbed her sister’s hand and wrenched her from the bed. They stumbled past Michaela and out of the room.

Michaela had flattened herself against the wall when the light had snapped on. Still holding the camera she watched in horror as the shadows drained from the room. They were fast, and she got the image of something dark and slippery, something that had reached out from another dimension. She swallowed, heart pounding, and rested her head back against the wall, eyes wide now, adjusted to the light, staring at the crack under the wardrobe door. She glanced at the curtain, and almost thought she saw it move.

On leaden legs she took a few steps forward until she stood in front of the wardrobe. She could hear voices from the living room. Trisha and Caro. In the bedroom it was silent save for her own harsh breathing. She stared at the door. Why was it always wardrobes, she wondered? The bogeyman had hidden in wardrobes when she was small and obviously nothing much had changed.

She grabbed hold of the door handle and pulled it open before she could change her mind. Something dark fell on her and she staggered backwards, tripping over onto the bed. Her breath hissing between her teeth she fought to get the dark thing off her. She flung it away and looked at it lying on the bedroom floor.

A coat. A black duffle coat. Fallen off its hanger when she wrenched the door open.

Michaela shuddered. ‘Fuck me Freddy,’ she muttered, cribbing one of Trisha’s favourites. She looked back at the open closet. Just a closet. Clothes hanging in an untidy row, the floor littered with shoes and bags and other pieces of Caro’s life. Just a closet. Michaela sat forward on the bed and rubbed her face.

The camera was lying on the floor at her feet. She picked it up and checked it. It looked okay.

‘Michaela?’ Trisha was calling her.

She got to her feet and made her way, slightly unsteady, to the door. She saw the other video camera still on its tripod in the corner of the room. She’d forgotten about that one. And the voice recorder on the bookcase. She walked quickly over and switched the voice recorder on. Then she picked up Caro’s robe from the end of the bed and walked to the door. She turned off the light and pulled the door closed.