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thought.
    I ran down the stairs to get a hold of Clare and was hyperventilating and struggled to get any words out when I reached the living room to see Clare, on the phone, hopelessly trying the emergency services.

Chapter Thirteen
     
    "What is it?" Clare asked.
    "There's something on the roof."
    "What? One of... them ?" Clare shot up and was clearly anxious, thanks to my unwelcome announcement.
    "I don't know."
    "Shit. What do we do?" She then snapped her fingers at me. "What would they do in the films?"
    I looked at her blankly. "Er...depends what films you mean. If it was Home Alone—"
    "Don't get smart. I meant—"
    "Shoot them in the head."
    "Have you got a gun," Clare said excitedly.
    I shook my head.
    "Oh." Her excitement was short-lived.
    We glared at one another and being a man—yes, I know, it sounds pathetic—I felt that I should do something. I said, "I'll sort it."
    "You want me to come with you?"
    I tried to act cool and sighed, "If you must."
    I grabbed a steak knife from the knife rack in the kitchen and went upstairs first, with Clare following. It was fair to say that I was scared and although I had gone earlier, my bowels were loosening once again. As I got into the bedroom, I paused and stared at Clare. She made a face at me translating into: Well, what are you waiting for?
    I cleared my throat and slowly climbed the ladders into the attic. I stood in the second floor room and hesitantly looked up to the skylight. There was nothing there. All I could see was the blue sky on this June evening, but no face of a girl that had initially filled me with fear.
    "You can come up." I bellowed down to Clare who was standing on the bedroom floor, looking up at me.
    "Is it safe?"
    "Seems to be."
    I looked back up to the skylight as Clare was noisily making her way up to the second floor of the house. She looked around the room and said, "We'll get this cleared tonight so we can use it as a bedroom."
    "But if these things can climb," I pointed up at the skylight, "we're fucked anyway."
    Suddenly, the face appeared again, and this time both Clare and I released a shriek as we looked up at the blonde girl. The girl then waved at the pair of us.
    "She's human," Clare shrieked. "Open it up."
    I did as I was told, and then held onto my stomach, and felt my face flush as a small bit of unformed shite left my arse. Clare held onto her nose. "Ew, have you..?"
    With embarrassment, I scolded, "Just let her in. I need to go downstairs."
    "Well, you know what they say," Clare spoke with a wide beam.
    "What?" I was now nearly at the bottom of the stepladders.
    "Shit happens."
    I then heard Clare welcome the little girl in. During my short trip to the toilet upstairs, I shouted, "Don't forget to shut the attic window!"

Chapter Fourteen
     
    After going to the crapper for the second time in a day, I left the upstairs toilet and went back up the ladders to see our young, new guest. She was obviously distraught and was being comforted by Clare.
    The little girl yelped when she saw me. Clare explained who I was and that I was the owner of the house that she was now in. I sat on one of the boxes in the attic and watched the two girls as they broke away from their embrace.
    Clare sat next to the girl, put her arm around her shoulder and asked her a few questions, without making it sound like an interrogation. The little girl was dressed in black leggings and was wearing a Moshi Monsters T-shirt.
    Her name was Abbie Thompson, ten years old, and she lived three doors down from me. I knew she existed, but I can't say that I had ever seen the girl much, and even though it's fair to say I never really mingled with people from my street, I thought it was kind of strange that this was a girl I had hardly saw over the years, or even had seen playing in the street.
    Abbie tearfully told us her story about what had happened. Her father had come back from the shops and had been attacked by some men, or so Abbie claimed, and once he came back