The girl on the bank eyed me suspiciously. She was a lot less scary up close and a lot more realistic once I had stepped beneath the light of the streetlamp. I tried to give her my most reassuring smile.

'Hi,' I said as I got closer, 'are you okay?' She didn't give me anything in way of response, so I cocked my head. 'Are you lost?' I continued. Again, there was nothing. The wind whipped through the trees and the streetlamp flickered again. 'It's getting late, your mum and dad will be wondering where you are–'

Quick as a flash, she bolted, and for a second I didn't know what to do. I saw her running back up the path away from me, and for a moment I thought surely if she was gone then I could go over to find Connor and the creature. Then my conscious got the better of me and I realised I'd be leaving a little girl on her own out here at nightfall. And quickly deciding that wasn't a good idea I reached a verdict, and giving one unhappy glance back to Connor's little figure on the otherside of the river, I started after her.

She was fast.

Or maybe I'd left it far too long to go after her because she was already at the end of the road by the time I'd started running.

As I reached the end of the path, coming out on a road in the housing estate, and I looked around somewhat desperately.

She'd gone.

Or at least that was what I'd thought.

She must have slipped into one if the nearby houses and to some extent that was a relief because at least she was home–

There was a noise above me and I looked up.

She met my gaze from her spot on the tree branch and I tried to smile softly at her again. 'Hi,' I called up to her.

She was out of breath, and somewhat afraid presumably at the fact that I'd found her. 'Hi,' she returned quietly.

'Do you want to come down?'

I watched her climb down from the tree branches as best I could in darkness. There was one streetlamp about twenty feet up the path so little light permeated down through the trees to us, but it looked like the girl knew what she was doing.

She jumped down off the lowest branch and dusted off her hands against her mac before she took a couple of tentative steps towards me.

'Am I in trouble?' she asked.

I cocked my head. 'Not at all,' I assured her gently in response, 'what makes you think that?'

She shrugged. 'You chased me.'

There was a twinge in my chest as I suddenly considered how frightening that could have been. Given I didn't look very threatening and I certainly wasn't intimidating but I was still bigger than her.

'I did,' I replied, 'didn't I? Sorry. I wasn't trying to scare you; I was a little bit worried about leaving you on your own in the dark because it might not be safe.' Another thought struck me and I winced. 'Oh god, and you probably shouldn't be talking to strangers.' It was a minefield. 'Where do you live– No. Oh…' This was a nightmare.

'My mum told be about stranger danger,' the girl said.

'Did she?' I returned. 'Oh good. That's good.' I sighed and rubbed a hand across my eyes in frustration.

'You don't seem very dangerous.'

'No,' I agreed, 'I'm not, but that's exactly what the dangerous people will say too. Don't accept lifts from any of them, and if anyone asks if you want to pet the dog in their car… run the other way, okay?'

'Okay,' the girl agreed. 'I'm allergic to dogs anyway.'

As I lowered my hands and caught her eye, she smiled. 'I'm Anna,' I said, and I held out my hand for her to shake. 'It's nice to meet you.'

'Emily,' she said, as she finally took my hand, shook it once vigorously before she pulled back. 'Now we're not strangers anymore.'

I winced again. 'I'm not sure that counts.'

'Yeah, but my mum also told me that if I got lost I should find another mum to help me get back to her. You're a mum, right?'

For a moment I wondered if she could see the bump beneath my cardigan even with the front of my coat open and slightly disguising it, but my experience in paediatrics also meant I was pretty okay with kids and I wondered if that was what she was picking up on.

I nodded. 'I will be soon.' I smiled softly back at her. 'You're not lost, are you, Emily?'

She shook her head.

'Okay. What are you doing out here?' I asked.

'I have to tell people,' she answered. 'I have to warn them not to go into the house.'

'Why?' She didn't respond to me straight away. Her gaze dropped to the ground. I could see that there was something she wanted to say but again was probably scared of getting told off. But the last thing I wanted to do was to make her feel like she was in some sort of trouble. I was far too worried about her to even consider it. 'Do you know what's in there?'

When she snapped her eyes up to meet mine, I had my answer. 'Don't be scared,' she said, 'it won't hurt us. I look after it.'

'It's your friend?'

She nodded. 'I feed it, so it doesn't eat Alfie or the other pets.'

'Have you seen it…' I continued. 'Have you seen it eating any of the pets.' It was a horrific idea. Seeing something like that could scar her. I didn't want her mind to get warped the image of that violence.

To my relief, she shook her head. 'I haven't really seen it at all, only sometimes I can see it. Everyone else pretends it's not real.'

'Oh, I don't think they're pretending sweetheart,' I told her, 'I just don't think they believe.'

'Me?' she questioned.

I shook my head, 'in it,' I responded. 'Its special, isn't it? That's why you can only see it sometimes.'

'Sometimes it's shy,' she answered with a nod. 'I have to stop it from being bad. It's my job.'

'Your job?'

'Umhmm,' she returned, 'it's quite difficult, sometimes. Sometimes it doesn't want to be good. Sometimes I think it might hurt me, but it doesn't, it never has.'

'I think you've done a wonderful job,' I replied. 'But if it's okay with you Emily, do you think me and my friends can do that now? Is that alright?'

She nodded. 'Yeah. I have homework I have to do anyway.'

'Uh,' I sighed, matching her level of annoyance at the statement. 'Homework is the worst, isn't it?'

'Do I have to do it?'

I scrunched my nose. 'Kinda,' I said. 'Sorry. Your teacher probably just wants to check that everyone was listening the first time. I bet not everyone is.'

Her eyes rolled. 'So it's Jimmy's fault we get homework?'

Sounded like Jimmy was a cutup. 'Yes,' I said. 'One more thing, have you ever seen it outside the house? Does it leave sometimes?'

Emily shook her head. 'I haven't seen it out here before. It lives in the house. I push the food through the window. It doesn't come out. Please don't go in there.'

'Don't worry, we won't. Now, we've got to get you home, okay. I bet your mum and dad are wondering where you've gone.'

'Okay.'

She turned on her heel and started walking. I fell into step beside her. As we walked along the path back up the road towards the housing estate the conversation played over in my mind.

'Is Alfie your dog?' I asked in realisation. She pursed her lips together in a sort of small smile and nodded. I laughed under my breath. 'You're a genius.'

I had only just dropped her off and made it back down the front path of her house when I felt my phone going off in my pocket.

By now, it was completely dark. Emily's house had been a little way from the river, not too far, but not exactly close and with all the time I'd spent chasing her and waiting for her to talk to me, I must have been gone for over an hour at least.

I assumed it would be Connor when the phone line connected so I didn't bother to give him a chance to say anything before I'd already started to apologise. 'I know, I'm sorry, I'm on my way back right now–'

'Um, yeah, okay,' he interrupted, 'but… little snag, I'm not actually at the house anymore so, can you come and get me…'

I frowned. 'Oh, yeah, sure. Where are you now then?' I waited for him to respond, and immediately following his confession my mouth dropped open. 'What!'

The woman behind the desk was very obliging.

She wore a smile all the way through the police station to the cells, where, upon stopping in front of one of the doors, she pulled out her keys and unlocked it.

'Oh my god!' Connor cried as the door swung open. He came running out. 'Oh my god, thank you so much. Come here.'

I didn't get the opportunity to counterattack his flailing limbs as he flung them around me and grabbed me in a tight hug. 'Ah!' I complained.

'It's so nice to see a friendly face,' he continued obliviously, as he rocked me back and forth in his arms. 'I've been going stir crazy.'

'It's been like half a night,' I replied. I would have got here sooner but I had to make a few stops on the way.

'Alright so I'm not Nelson Mandela.' He pulled back just far enough that he could look down at my face, leaving his arms around me. 'It doesn't mean I haven't suffered, does it?'

'Oi!'

My tutting was outrageously masked by the sound of the Detective rounding the corner.

'What the hell do you think you're doing?'

Connor pulled back and moved to stand behind me.

'Right…' I started but cut myself off as I realised I couldn't remember his name. 'Err…'

'Detective Constable Quinn,' he said. Very handy: he had obviously gathered that I wasn't going to remember on my own.

'Yep. Detective Constable Quinn,' I repeated with a smile. 'I've come to retrieve my colleague. You might…' I winced, unsure how to phrase it without seeming rude so in the end just spat it out anyway. 'You might want to stay out the way.'

'What exactly are you gonna do if I don't, Ace?'

As if on cue, my phone rang. 'Oh, yeah, this is for you.' I pulled my phone out my coat pocket and threw it at him and he only just caught it before it hit him in the face.

'DC Quinn,' he answered. 'No sir, course not. Yes sir. I'll do it right now.'

'I heard the home secretary hates being woken up in the middle of the night,' I said. He hung up the phone and I held my hand out in a demand for him to return it. And to my surprise, instead of launching at me, he took a step forward and pressed it firmly down into my palm. Then he leant in.

'If you go near that house again none of your fancy phone calls are gonna help you, do you understand–'

'Mate,' Connor interrupted from over my shoulder, 'you arent seriously threatening a pregnant woman, are you?' Quinn pulled back just enough to drop his gaze somewhat cautiously to my stomach where the bump was just noticeable beneath my coat. Connor tutted. 'Not cool.'

I raised an eyebrow. 'Sorry,' I said, 'you didn't finish… what–' I cut myself off and lifted a hand to cup around my ear.

'Leave it to the professionals,' he said.

'Why do you think we're here?' I reached into my other coat pocket. 'Also, it's actually now out of police derestriction,' I said, holding out the court order for him to take, 'it's government business. So if you or any of your men go to that house again, you'll be trespassing.' I stepped around him to make my way towards the exit. Connor followed after me. 'We need to go back to the house,' I said, 'and we'll need back–up. Let's get this thing found and dealt with before it can hurt anyone else.'

'You really think we're gonna be able to find an invisible creature?' he replied.

I shrugged. 'Apparently it isn't invisible all the time. It can camouflage itself, probably at will if its primary skills are to hide from the naked eye. Either way, we've got to try.'

We'd only just made it back to the house and were barely out of the car when something caught my eye on the otherside of the river.

'Connor,' I called, pulling his attention up from his phone and distracting him from the call he was trying to make. He'd already tried to get through to Becker but had only been able to leave a voicemail stating we were at the house and waiting for back–up to head inside and deal with Tom's creature. We assumed Nick would explain what that meant to him.

'Hmm?' he responded.

It was still dark. I guessed it would be a good few hours before the sun came up so I couldn't really see over the water very clearly with only the one streetlamp as a light source. 'Is that Ryan?' I asked.

Oh god.

I heard Connor inhale sharply as he squinted across the river and finally noticed what I'd been looking at.

The figure moved up to the gate, pushed it open, and made for the steps leading up to the house.

'Shit,' Connor answered in agreement.

'Ryan!' I didn't know I could shout so loud. I actually frightened myself. 'Don't go in the house!' There was no way he didn't hear me, and so I knew he was ignoring us, and in frustration I reached back just to check my knife was still there under my coat, before I started off towards the bridge. 'Goddamn it.'

'Anna!' Connor yelled after me.

I turned, throwing him the keys from my hand. 'Get a gun!' I said, 'there's one in the case in the boot, come on!'

I heard him fumble with the keys, the boot popping open before he reached inside and unlocked the case.

I was halfway across the bridge before he set off after me.

As I skidded to a halt on the porch of the house, I heard him on the phone, feet pounding against the bridge in pursuit. 'Becker, hi! You know, what's the point in having a phone if you never answer it?!' So, it was another voicemail. 'Anyway, there's been a change of plan,' he explained in his customer service voice. 'Anna and I are going in. Don't worry, I'm armed… but there's a civilian inside.'

Reaching the front door, I rattled the handles but they didn't seem to open so as per I quickly kicked them in. 'Connor!' I shouted in a hurried panic back to him.

'Just… get here as soon as you can, okay. Bye… bye bye.'

He snapped his phone shut, leaping up the steps to the porch and stumbling after me into the hallway of the house.

In almost complete contrast to the chaos of our voyage out, the house was almost completely silent.

I reached up under my coat, already feeling the energy of the place sinking into me, and slipped the knife from its holder and seized the handle in a bruising grip.

Ryan had said the light– the anomaly as we knew it– had come from the upstairs, and figuring that would be where he would have gone, I made for the staircase.

I had one foot on the bottom step when a noise from the kitchen suddenly snapped my attention that way, and I stepped back.

'Anna,' Connor hissed in a whisper, 'stay behind me.'

I nodded, letting him take the lead because he had the gun, and we crept across the floorboards towards the door where the sound had come from.

I expected them to creak underfoot, but they didn't, and that was a lot more disconcerting than the reality.

Connor flattened himself to the wall beside the door, and I fell back against the fireplace, keeping my attention on him as I lifted a hand, 3 fingers up, and raised my eyebrows in silent question.

Ready?

He nodded. Yes.

I started to count down. 3– I lowered a finger. 2…1…

Connor burst through the door quickly scanning one side of the room, before he whipped around to check the other. I stepped in, walking into the centre and spinning. But there was nothing here.

I waited.

I tried to sense if there was something there in the room. When I turned back to Connor, he was already shaking his head. 'Nothing.'

And I trusted his conclusion. Between us, Connor was the sensing type and I was better gifted with the feeling of certain energies. It had always been that way. I got a bad feeling when something bad was going to happen, and a good feeling before good things. I'd woke up smiling on the day Nick proposed, hadn't known why.

Connor knew it had happened somehow when I came into his apartment before I'd even been able to get the words out.

'It's not here,' he said.

I nodded. 'Then what–'

There was a noise again, and Connor whipped up his gun just as Ryan stumbled out from behind one of the covered pieces of furniture, his hands raised. 'Don't shoot!' he cried.

Connor exhaled in exasperation. 'Ryan!' he snapped, lowering the gun, 'for crying out loud I almost took your eye out! Didn't you hear us shouting?'

'What are you doing here?' I asked.

He lowered his hands. 'Well, I said, didn't I… I had to come back here. I had to know the truth.'

In fairness he had said that. 'Yeah?' I replied.

'Well, your timing's lousy,' Connor told him nonchalantly.

'Couldn't have picked worse if you tried,' I added, then turned my attention back to the door. 'Come on.'

Connor walked back out into the hallway, gun drawn, and I gestured for Ryan to follow after him. They were both out in the hallway when I sighed. 'Uh, men…' I said to myself.

I didn't realise.

It was only a split second after I'd intended to set off after them to follow them out into the hallway before I stopped dead in my tracks. The realisation sank through me.

I looked up, my eyes widened slightly, and having heard me Connor froze, he looked back over his shoulder in terror, and I had only a second to meet his fearful gaze before the door slammed shut between us.

'Anna!'

I ran to the door and grabbed the handle but it wouldn't turn.

Oh god.