***

Cathy parked next to the van and they both ran towards the open kitchen door. She took in the scene that greeted her and paled at the sight of Will lying there bleeding out on the floor with the old woman whose house it was tied up, but trying her best to stop the bleeding. Kav scooped Martha from the floor, sitting her down on a chair.

‘Go find Annie. I’ve got this.’

Kav nodded then turned and ran for the cellar door. Before he got there the most terrible sound he’d ever heard filled the stairs and hall and he felt his bladder loosen. There was a human scream this time, which made his feet move as he took the stairs two at a time, ready to rip Henry Smith’s head off. But as he got to the bottom he didn’t understand what he was seeing. Henry Smith was fighting with something that looked like a giant man, only it wasn’t. Its sharp claws were slashing at his body, drawing blood.

Jake snapped into action, running to scoop Annie up in his arms and pull her away from whatever it was. Kav stood next to him. ‘What is that thing?’

‘I don’t know, but I think now’s the time to leave.’ Jake ran up the stairs first as fast as he could, with Annie thrown over his back.

Kav was pushing him, screaming, ‘Go, go, go.’ As Jake reached the landing he stumbled out into the light with her. Kav was halfway up. He couldn’t move. The thing had just drawn its long, sharp claws across Henry Smith’s throat and Henry collapsed towards it, the hot, coppery smell of blood filling the air. He looked over at Megan’s body, shrugged his shoulders and ran up behind Jake in case the thing came after him. He didn’t care that Henry and Megan might not be dead. He wasn’t about to risk his life to go and check on either of them. He slammed the cellar door shut and threw all the bolts across.

Annie clung on to Jake. ‘Is it over?’

He hugged her back tightly. ‘I think so.’

Then he carried her into the kitchen where she locked eyes with the ashen figure of Will on the floor and Cathy with a mound of blood-soaked towels in her hands, trying to stem the bleeding. Annie screamed and untangled herself from Jake’s arms. Still light-headed, she tripped and fell to the floor, crawling the last few feet to Will.

‘No. Please, Will, open your eyes. Please, you have to open your eyes, Will. Don’t you leave me here on my own.’ She cradled his head in her arms while Cathy was pressing down with all her strength on the wound in his side.

‘Please God, where’s the ambulance? Tell me there’s one on its way.’

Cathy nodded at her and they heard the sirens coming closer. Jake ran out down the gravel drive to the gateway to flag it down.

Annie bent down and kissed Will’s lips. ‘Come on, Will, it’s over. We did it. Henry’s dead. Open your eyes.’

Will’s eyes fluttered open; he took one look at his wife and smiled before losing consciousness once more. The paramedics rushed in and began to work on him. Jake took hold of Annie and pulled her away.

‘Come on, let the experts do their job.’

He pulled her close and held her while she sobbed.

Kav untied Miss Beckett. ‘Are you okay? Did they hurt you?’

‘I’m fine apart from a bruised head and a cold bottom; I hope that young man is going to be okay. What on earth were they thinking? I’ve never seen anything so horrific in my life as the way that young woman stuck that knife into him as if he was nothing.’

‘I don’t know. It’s hard to say what makes people behave like that, but at least they won’t be hurting anyone else.’

‘Why, where are they now?’

‘In your cellar.’

The fear on her face told Kav that this frail old woman knew something about whatever the thing down there was, and he sat down opposite her.

‘I saw something in the cellar, but to be truthful I have no idea what it was, except that it was absolutely terrifying. Do you know anything about it?’

She nodded her head. ‘You saw it and you’re still alive to tell the tale? You are a very lucky man, officer. I don’t know what it is but it has lived in the sewers and drains under this house for a very long time. It took my little brother in 1930 and we never saw him again. Tell me, did it hurt those two evil bastards? Pardon my language.’

‘The girl fell down the steps and broke her neck, but the man…’

Kav wasn’t sure what to say. He had a feeling he shouldn’t be saying anything, but the look on her face was imploring him to speak, so he did. Jake had also seen it, and he wasn’t sure if Annie had been conscious at the time, but that was three of them.

‘The man got into a fight with it. There was a lot of blood, but I think the creature may have killed him. I don’t know about whatever it was, because the last I saw of them they had collapsed in a heap of blood and gore.’

Martha crossed herself and held her hands together to say a prayer, and then she looked at him.

‘I have spent my entire life a prisoner in this house, terrified of that cellar and the thing that lived within it, yet I couldn’t sell up and move away. I couldn’t put another family through what I’ve been through. It wasn’t right. I hope to God that it’s dead so I may finish off my days without living in complete fear.’

‘Well, we’ll find out for sure in the next couple of hours. I’m afraid it’s going to be a long night for you, Miss Beckett. We will need to bring in an armed team of response officers to secure your cellar and remove the bodies. I think you might be best going to the hospital and getting checked out. At least you’ll be well away from it.’

‘That’s very kind of you, but I have to be here. I need to know if it has come to some harm, or whether it escaped.’

There was some noise as the paramedics decided they had stabilised Will enough to take him out to the waiting ambulance and blue-light him through to the nearest hospital, where the surgical team was on standby to take him into theatre. Annie insisted on going in the back of the ambulance with Will. The paramedics had told her she should follow with Jake, but she wasn’t having any of it. ‘I promise I won’t get in the way. I can’t leave him. He’d never leave me if it was the other way around.’

Jake helped her to get inside then jumped straight back out. ‘I’ll meet you up there, Annie.’ He slammed the doors and watched as it drove away, sirens and lights flashing.

Cathy looked at him. She was covered in Will’s blood. ‘Is it over, Jake?’

He nodded. ‘Yes, it’s over. We might finally be able to start living our lives again.’

‘What about Will?’

‘He’ll be fine. He’s probably going for the sympathy card. How many times have we had to watch him fretting over Annie? He’s probably getting his own back.’

Jake winked at her. Even though his stomach was a bag of nerves, he wouldn’t let her see just how scared he was for his friend. ‘Are you coming to the hospital?’

‘Not yet. I’d better wait for the troops to come and clear up this big, bloody mess we’ve made. I can’t leave Kav on his own to deal with it all. He’ll want to go to the hospital to see how Will is as soon as he can.’

‘Thanks, boss. I don’t know what we’d have done without you.’

She laughed. ‘Probably exactly the bloody same. You lot are giving me stomach ulcers, I’m telling you now. I want a nice peaceful life after this is all over. Try and get that into Annie’s head, will you, Jake?’

Kav walked outside. He wrapped an arm around her waist.

‘Now can you wonder why I was so desperate to ship her up to you? I was hoping that she wouldn’t get into too much trouble up here. Sorry about that.’

‘You crafty old bugger. Yes, I do understand, but I’ll tell you something; there’s something about Annie we all love, including the local psychos, and if you hadn’t sent her to me I wouldn’t have found out that you might just be the man of my dreams.’

Jake clapped. ‘Aw, I love a good love story. Right, I’m off. I want to make sure Will doesn’t flake out and leave me to deal with Annie on my own for the rest of my life. I love her, but I don’t need this much stress every few months.’