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of my bedroom opened. Someone was there, opening the door. Someone I couldn’t see. And now it was no longer my bedroom. There were no green curtains, no tall mirror, no old chest at the bottom of the bed. Everything was white, clean and crisp like snow. Eleanor walked inside and I followed her.
    ‘I just love it,’ she said as she laid her case down on the bed. Sister Kelly, you’re an angel.’
    Eleanor turned and looked straight at me, straight through me. I swung round to see who it was she was talking to. There was no one there. Then, in the blink of an eye, the room was no longer hospital white. It was green and it was mine again, and there was no Eleanor. No invisible Sister Kelly.
    And the door slammed shut.
    And a shadow shifted in the chair.

Chapter 13
    The sixth day
    The cup slipped from my fingers and hot chocolate splashed everywhere. It seemed as if I was moving in slow motion. I wanted to pull at the door, but my hands would not obey me. I could not move. My fingers curled tightly into my palms. Something was sitting there, in that armchair in the corner. Something that meant me harm. And if I stood there long enough, it would come alive, stand up, come towards me.
    The door was flung open. Light spilled in from the hallway and Aunt Belle stood there in her lilac dressing gown.
    ‘I’ll dehydrate waiting for that hot chocolate.’ Then she saw the cup on the floor, her hot chocolate spilled on the carpet. She looked back and saw my face. ‘Are you all right, Tyler? What are you doing standing here in the dark?’
    I longed to tell her what I had just seen. But even Aunt Belle, with her rich imagination, so like mine, might find it hard to believe. I hardly believed it myself. I managed a smile. ‘I only came in for a book, and the door slammed shut again. It scared me to death.’
    She slipped her arm in mine. ‘Well, let’s head out to the light and make some more hot chocolate.’
    She led me back into the kitchen, and I glanced back for a second and in the shadow of my room something stirred. I was sure it did.
     
    I spent the rest of the night curled up in the armchair in Aunt Belle’s room. She didn’t know. Aunt Belle was in a sound sleep well before midnight. When the sun was up, I went back to my own room and fell into an exhausted sleep. I slept soundly too, until Aunt Belle came bustling in with a late morning cup of tea for me. ‘The realtor’s coming at two,’ she said. She felt my brow. ‘Are you sure you’re not coming down with what I have?’
    She always made me smile. ‘You think I might have jet lag too?’
    ‘I think I more likely have a virus of some kind . . . I was sick this morning. Maybe that hamburger was off.’
    She waved away my worry about that. ‘Oh, I’m fine now. I’m never ill. Not for long. I just don’t want to pass anything on to you,’ she said.
    I swung my legs out of bed. ‘Don’t worry about me, Aunt Belle. I’m just lazy.’
     
    The ‘realtor’ was a young woman in a black business suit, wearing heels that were too high and carrying a leather briefcase. Power dressing, I think they call it. We went into the living room and she opened her briefcase and took out her sheaf of papers and I saw how her hands trembled. She was nervous, I thought, probably new to the job.
    ‘Call me Susan,’ she insisted as she sat asking questions about the bungalow. Eventually, she stood up. ‘I’ll just have a look around now, if that’s OK?’ She began to walk around the room, informing us of all its features as if we didn’t know them already. ‘A lovely front room, with a bay window. Being on this promontory you’re surrounded by the sea. So every room has a sea view. A great selling point. I love the bay windows.’ She smiled and opened a cupboard beside the fireplace. ‘Ample storage space.’ As she spoke she was listing all the house’s selling points on the pages on her clipboard. She began walking round from one room to another. Aunt Belle