The build

The previous tenant of my new flat left a survival guide. I'm not sure I want to live here anymore.

I moved in with my boyfriend yesterday. We've been together for 5 years now and we're old and wise enough to settle down and finally leave our parents houses. He just turned 24 and I'm 22. He's the love of my life. His name is Jamie and I couldn't be happier to be living with him.

When we decided to make the leap we spent 2 months looking at flats and houses, we couldn't afford to buy yet so renting was our only option but the prices were astronomical. For our budget we would have been lucky to get a box room and a stove.

Jamie works for a local 24 hour fast food restaurant and I'm training to be a teacher. The early stages of training don't pay much and I owe a lot in student loans so finances are tough.

We had almost given up hope until we found our flat. It was nothing special, but to us it was a palace. A spacious 2 bedroom apartment with views of a city park, a balcony and local conveniences. It was in a tower block in a not so nice area, but neither of us had been wealthy growing up, we weren't fussy. Just grateful to be together.

The advert was sweetened by the deposit free option and open ended tenancy. The landlord was happy to sign a five year contract if we wanted. That sort of thing never happens in the city. We were told that along with no deposit we would also have no inspections, but would be liable to pay for any damage when we ended the tenancy. I'd never heard of anything quite like it.

We knew that for our budget and location we weren't going to get any better. We snapped the place up fast, not even bothering to view it. It felt like our only chance.

Move in day rolled around quickly and yesterday we got the keys to our first home together, it was such a strange feeling. The day was chaos, getting our stuff in and up in the lift. We were flat number 42, on the 7th floor. The items we couldn't get in the lift had to be taken up all the stairs by the removal men. I think they were grateful we weren't any higher but I still wish we had been able to give them a better tip.

In the evening we settled down on our second hand sofa, given to us by a cousin of a friend and watched some tv. We smoked cigarettes on the balcony looking at the park and fell asleep on our mattress on the floor super early because we had no energy to put the bed together yet and Jamie had work at a hideous time of the morning.

We slept soundly last night, I felt safe and happy. I don't think that feeling is coming back any time soon and it's all due to the note I found this morning.

I found it in the kitchen, having a coffee, hours after Jamie had left for his early shift at work. It was in one of the cupboards that were fixed to the wall, there were a bunch of useful items from the previous tenant. Spare keys to the flat, a set of tiny keys that locked and unlocked the windows (necessary for those with kids this high up), spare smoke alarm batteries and a folded up piece of paper.

The note was handwritten with "New occupier of flat 42" in beautiful cursive on the blank side. I opened it up and sat down to read. I can't really describe it to you, so I'm going to copy it out below.

Dear New Occupier, Firstly, welcome to your new home. I lived here before you for 35 years with my husband. Unfortunately he had an incident at home recently that I'd rather not discuss that claimed his life. My sister has now decided I can't keep up with the demands of the property and has insisted that I move in with her and her husband. I was reluctant at first, but the stairs do kill me at my age and without Bernie it's filled with sadness. Anyway. When you've lived somewhere for as long as I have it feels like a person that you know. You understand it's personality and what makes it tick. I thought it was probably pertinent that I impart some of that knowledge on you. It's a wonderful home, honestly, I have lived through best and worst years and leaving it behind is very emotional but if you are to survive and get the best out of it then there are some steps you need to follow.

The landlord will never bother you, he doesn't visit, call or communicate in any way. But make sure to pay your rent in a timely fashion always. I have only dealt with him once in 35 years and let's just say I never missed another rent day. Any repairs required you speak to the agent you rented the place with.
DO NOT use the communal lift between 1.11 and 3.33 am. Just don't do it. This step is vital if you are to have a happy life here. It really is life or death. Don't do it. This has cost me and many others in the building greatly and I would rather not elaborate on why you shouldn't do this. Just please don't do it. I cannot stress this enough.
When you hear the strange animal noises coming from flat 48 don't question it, Mr Prentice lives there and he's a lovely chap. Don't be afraid to say hello to him in the corridor or on the stairs (he's old school, so he never risks the lift) but whatever you do, don't check on him when you hear the noises. You'll know when you hear them.
If you ever come across a window cleaner on the balcony ignore him. He may seem like the nicest fellow you've ever had trying to sell you something at the door but it really is best that you don't engage. He will go away if you ignore him. But he tries pretty hard the first few times so you'll need some resilience. Whatever you do, don't offer him anything. No money, no hot drink.
Don't leave food scraps out. Bin or refrigerate them immediately. If you have small animals, it is imperative that you watch them eat and take away any leftover food immediately after they are done. This and rule 2 go hand in hand, the things forage all day and seem to really love animal feed. You don't want them in your flat. I promise. You can leave what you want out between 1.11 and 3.33am so you may want to feed your pets then.
Don't communicate with any neighbours who claim to come from flats 65-72. These flats suffered a fire in the late 80s that devastated the whole floor, all the residents died in their homes. The building was mostly council owned at the time and they never bothered to renovate the flats. They've been empty ever since but every now and again someone will knock at your door claiming to live in one of these flats and ask to borrow some sugar. They will seem entirely average but you must shut and lock the door immediately. I installed two extra security bolts to avoid these fuckers. I don't like to swear at my age but they really are fuckers.
Simple one for you here, keep a weapon in each room. Sometimes you follow all these steps and something still slips through the net. Better to be safe than sorry.
The building has a committee that will try and get you to join. It's one of those neighbours groups about improving living conditions for all residents. It's a nice group and the lady who runs it - Terri from flat 26 - is a fantastic neighbour. By all means get involved. But I wouldn't recommend babysitting Terri's 2 children. She'll ask you, because the poor woman needs a break, but if you accept don't say I didn't warn you.
Stray hairless cats sometimes roam in the hallway. I know they're supposedly a special, expensive breed, but they don't belong to anyone. They're mostly harmless, but don't pick them up. Not unless you see one of those neighbours that claims to live in 65-72. Then grab the cat and lock it inside with you. It'll burn your skin a little but the cats are friendly and I wouldn't want to see them hurt.
There is no way to fix the damp patch on the ceiling in the bedroom. Sometimes it will turn a deep crimson and look quite concerning, but please try not to be alarmed, it doesn't drip, it doesn't get any bigger and it's been there longer than I have. The landlord won't budge on it, according the the agents. I flagged it many times, even called the police the first night it changed colour, but it was a waste of time and it will be for you too. It's best to ignore it.
You can trust the postman. His name is Ian Flanders and he's been the postman since before I moved in. He has his own key to the main door and delivers post to the door every morning at 8h54. I can't include everything here, or it would become a novel but if you have any questions Ian will help you.
Finally, the first few weeks are the worst. You'll feel like you've made a mistake, I'm sure reading this you already do, but if you can get through the first few weeks it really is a lovely block to live in. Every property has it quirks and this one is a little extra special, but you can be truly happy here if you just take my advice. I wish you all the best, I really do.

Yours truly,

Mrs Prudence Hemmings

I don't really know what to think after reading the note. Hopefully it was some sort of joke but the agent had said the previous tenant was an elderly lady and I can't see anyone named Prudence Hemmings attempting to play practical jokes on someone they'd never met.

There were also parts of the note I couldn't disprove, there was indeed a large damp patch above the bed that me and Jamie had already discussed reporting. No crimson but it definitely existed. I had also commented on a beautiful Sphynx cat roaming the halls as we were moving in. I started to get seriously freaked out.

Our dream, our beautiful little home had just become a source of fear and confusion. I checked the time and it was 9.14. Damn it. Out of time to catch postman Ian. When I opened the door to check, sure enough, two letters addressed to a Mrs Hemmings sat on the doorstep.

At about 11.15 my worst fears were truly confirmed when a friendly middle aged looking man carrying window cleaning equipment knocked on my balcony door. I ignored him. I didn't want to take the risk until I'd spoken to Jamie and showed him the note. I'd texted him already to rush home. I felt bad as the man rapped his knuckles against the door for over 10 minutes, but honestly the longer it went on the more I was terrified.

My windows were sparkling, and due to our lack of curtains I couldn't even hide from his gaze. I felt so exposed. He stayed for a total of 30 minutes exactly and never once did he stop looking at me or knocking. He shouted the occasional ultra friendly line or humble request for a beverage in the heat through the door but I did my best to avoid eye contact.

When he finally left I looked outside every window in the flat, but I couldn't see him on any of the other balconies or see any equipment suggesting he was around. He had vanished completely.

Jamie still hadn't text me back, he must have been having a rough shift, it was a Friday and they were always busy. It wasn't often that he didn't reply. He was due home in around an hour anyway.

I read the note probably hundreds of times over, I tortured myself reading it for the next hour. Desperately waiting for Jamie to come through the door to tell me it was all crazy and I should relax.

I hoped for that so much.

But Jamie never came. His shift should have finished around midday but by 2pm he still wasn't home. I panicked, I cried, I left over 100 voice messages on his phone but got nowhere. I finally decided it had been long enough that calling his work wouldn't embarrass him and his boss told me that he had never turned up for his shift.

I thought about it, what could have happened? And then it hit me. Jamie's shift started at 4am today. He would have left the flat at 3.15 and taken the lift down the stairs.

I don't know what to do. I've tried to convince myself it was all just a big joke. Maybe Jamie wrote the note and got his boss in on it. A voice in my head kept telling me that he couldn't write like that if he tried but I had to attempt to fool myself. It's getting late and he still isn't home, what if it's all true?

So much has happened in the last 24 hours. I'm so stressed and I've barely slept since I discovered that Jamie was missing. It's starting to make me feel a little twitchy. But I thought I'd better update you guys.

I was overwhelmed by all the suggestions you gave me and have taken more than a few of them on board. I'm definitely going to be getting a huge planter full of sage for the balcony and I did spill a little salt in my doorway. I'm sorry to disappoint but that didn't help at all.

There's nothing I'm following quite like Mrs Hemming's rules. I've followed them to the letter so far, and lo and behold I'm still alive. That's not to say it hasn't been tough. Il start from the beginning.

I was going crazy. And a few hours after my last post Jamie still hadn't returned. He had been gone for almost 24 hours. His work have called me multiple times. I don't know what to say so I just keep ghosting the calls.

I was bang in the middle of the danger time when I decided checking the lift had to be my first step. But I wasn't going to break that rule.

I waited. I waited desperately for 3.34 to come and I'm ashamed to say that when it did I remained paralysed to our sofa for almost half an hour before I found the nerve to leave the flat. It was 4.02 when I finally reached the lift.

The lift in this building is old and rickety. It hasn't been updated in a very long time and has likely been here as long as the building. It's big, clunky buttons stared back at me as I glared at them, hoping for some sort of answer or clue. My heart thumped and I was overcome with a feeling of dread but nothing came of any of it. It was hopeless.

I stepped inside the lift, rode it up and down a few floors and searched the entire perimeter with a phone torch for anything I could find. I found nothing. Jamie had completely disappeared.

Sobbing and exhausted I rode back to floor 7 and turned my key in flat 42, the perfect home that felt anything but home at that point.

I sat at the cheap flat pack dining table we'd managed to put together on move-in day and cried. My hands shaking as I held my phone.

I was flitting between reading all your comments and contemplating calling the police for an hour. But I decided to call my friend Georgia instead. I needed a real person here, things were so crazy I wasn't sure the police would be able to help with what little information I had. But I knew I needed to sound it out with someone.

Il spare you the details again, but I told her everything. She promised she'd be with me in the late morning, she had to take her younger brother to school.

I waited anxiously. Not before arming every room exactly as advised. Before I knew it I looked at the clock and it was 8.23, I had around half an hour until the postman was due to show up.

There was no way I was missing him today. I stood by the door looking vacantly at the wood, like someone in a film who was possessed. The exhaustion was really setting in but Jamie was all I could think of. Pure adrenaline was keeping me standing.

At 8.52 I opened the door. The next two minutes were the longest of my life but when I saw him a wave of relief swept my entire body.

Right on cue, 8.54 the postman, Ian Flanders stood in front of me, a smile that barely hid his concern covering his younger than expected face. He didn't look old enough to have been the postman for over 35 years but I was too distracted by the answers that I needed from him to care.

"You must be the new tenant." He stated, but in a way that it sounded like a question. I struggled with my answer, so I got straight to the point.

"Mrs Hemmings left me a note, she said to speak to you if - "

"Can I come in dear? I think we need to chat."

I ushered Ian in, my hands still shaking as I flapped them in the direction of the sofa, gesturing for him to sit down. I shoved the now slightly crumpled note into his lap and waited.

"I'm glad Prue still thinks that highly of me. I will miss that old girl." He said with a coy smile as he reached the end of the note.

"Can you help me or not?" I had no time for his ego trip over a moved on neighbour.

"I can help. But I can't stop for long so it'll have to be quick. I've walked these halls delivering the post for 40 years. I've seen it all, everything Prue's mentioned and more. What do you need to know?" He said.

Ian was nothing like what I expected. The note made me feel like he was going to be a kindly, old grandad type figure, but I couldn't have been more wrong. Postman Ian spoke with a thick city accent, and wore a heavy gold chain around his tattooed neck. He had dyed his greying hair boot polish black.

His demeanour was thankfully non threatening but extraordinarily cocky. He was the sort of man I imagined in a betting shop, rubbing his grubby hands on notes as he bragged over a win.

He didn't ask as he lit a cigarette in my living room. I didn't question it, we would usually smoke outside but I wasn't going to argue over technicalities. I grabbed a bowl for the ash and lit one too.

"Let's start with the things in the lift. My boyfriend is missing and he took the lift at quarter past 3 over 24 hours ago. We hadn't got this note yet. I haven't heard from him since. I need to get him back." I barked at him as if the louder I spoke the more I could influence his answer. But nothing prepared me for what he said.

His skin turned pale and his harsh looking face became more sympathetic as he explained.

"He's dead, love. Forget about him now. Only one person has ever come back from the lift at that time of night and it was Prue herself. After witnessing it. Those creatures ripping their victim apart. Poor Prue was traumatised. Your boy is gone, let go and follow the rules." He was blunt but I could tell he felt sorry for me.

"There must be something I can do!" I pleaded.

"There are things I've heard to bring back those who are lost but I've never seen solid proof they work. It would be irresponsible of me to tell you to do something that might get you killed too. It's nice here, honest, just get over him and live the status quo. Sorry if I sound harsh, I don't mean to, but you seem like a decent young lady and I don't want to see you go too soon."

I asked about what Mrs Hemmings had seen in the lift and if they were sure it happened to all who entered it. I refused to believe that Jamie was dead. There had to be something I could do and if I knew what I was dealing with I could be better prepared.

"It was awful what happened. I wasn't there, but this is what I was told.

Little Lyla was such a cute kid. She used to open the door and give me a tip when I delivered the post. She was Prue's granddaughter. Lyla was her sons little girl and that night She was staying over for the first time. Prue finally felt confident that she could protect Lyla from all the strange things that happen here...

She was wrong. Little Lyla had a problem with sleepwalking. And she took a trip into the hallway at half 1 in the morning, Prue took a little too long to notice the sound she had heard was the front door and by the time she reached the lift she saw the creatures dragging Lyla's limbs away from her body. She tried to fight them, even killed one, but she couldn't save the little girl."

I was hysterical, imagining Jamie's fate.

"What are the creatures? Have you ever actually seen them." I asked.

"No one really knows what they are love. They're something to do with the building and all its quirks, no ones ever seen them elsewhere. We don't know where they came from, just that they're here.

I've seen them a few times over the years, usually when new neighbours have left biscuits down for their cats and dogs or haven't disposed of food waste properly.

They're curious little creatures. Mostly harmless out of the hours Prue warned you about, but if they're fed they can become quite viscous looking for more food.

That's why you have to bin all your scraps, or hide them or pack them or whatever. Just don't leave them out and don't use the lift at those times and you're safe from the creatures.

They're a little smaller than humans, but they're a similar shape, they come with grotesque rodent like features, and are far larger than any rodent could be. Like rodent children I suppose. They have two sharp rows of teeth per jaw and are consistently hungry.

When they eat they crunch down in a violent and disgusting way, dripping spittle everywhere, Prue said she could hear her granddaughters bones shatter in those jaws." He went pale at the thought of that, but continued.

"When they first arrived in the building there were hundreds, it caused pandemonium amongst the residents. We lost the residents of more than 30 of the individual homes. But the residents fought back and managed to kill all but the strongest minority of them.

The creatures left over were incredibly dangerous and seemingly impossible to eradicate, so the residents struck a deal. A deal that they will be left unharmed and allowed to live in the building in return for the residents safety at all times, but if anyone wanders into the lift between 1.11 and 3.33am they are fair game.

This timeframe is the period the creatures are at their most frenzied and restricting them to the lift was safer for all parties. God help anyone who encounters them during those hours.

They've been here ever since, claimed lots of unsuspecting people avoiding the stairs, but nothing like when they first arrived. A few got put down for not holding up their end of the bargain but we haven't had an incident outside the lift in years. Count yourself lucky you missed that crisis.

Everything here's pretty peaceful right now. I'm sorry about your boyfriend. I really have to go, I'm late for my round." He scrawled his phone number on a bit of paper and handed it to me. "Emergencies only, I don't like to be bothered."

"You can't go! The note said you would help me!" I exclaimed.

"And I will!" He snapped back, "when there's something I can help with. I can't resurrect your boyfriend and I don't like to be late delivering the post. I will see you soon love."

I was in shock, I couldn't believe what I was hearing, and I couldn't believe he was leaving me after the information overload and the small ray of hope he had lit inside me and then squashed.

"I'll call the police!" I shouted, desperate to feel as if I was solving this somehow.

"You can try if you want." Ian sighed, as he opened the door to leave. "It just aggravates the creatures, and it isn't going to bring your boy back. Mr prentice hates it when police come too, if you want to get any sleep in the next week then I'd avoid it. Wait a week, report him missing and learn to adapt to life here love, or you'll be dead in days."

And with that he shut the door behind him. I opened it again, I had so much more to ask, but he was gone, no sign of him anywhere in the corridor.

Maybe it was me losing my mind, I might be imagining all these things. But no matter how much I willed it the note was still there. And Jamie still wasn't.

Georgia arrived not long after Ian had left. I, of course, asked if she had seen him in the corridor, to try and affirm to myself that he was real, but she hadn't. She looked at me worried, and held me as I sobbed and told her what the postman had said about Jamie and the creatures.

I wasn't sure she believed me. Even as she read the note she looked skeptical. If she was skeptical I wouldn't have blamed her, but she had always been supportive. She sat with me for hours while I just sobbed, heartbroken. I was so conflicted as to what do to. It felt insane that I hadn't contacted anybody, but this note had turned out to be accurate so far and if the postman was to be trusted then I should wait.

Georgia had been my best friend for many years, she stuck up for me when I was too scared to do it for myself and had always been the brave one of the two of us. I felt safe around her, so after hours of crying and despairing at the way my life had changed in a matter of days I finally decided to take a nap. It was early evening and Georgia was watching some tv. Just there for me if I needed her.

Despite the deprivation, I struggled to fall asleep, I tried to imagine Jamie's arms around me but it became a more painful reminder that they probably never will be again. Eventually, after what felt like an eternity of staring at the damp patch on ceiling I drifted off.

About three hours ago, I woke up, staring at the goddamn damp patch on the ceiling and could hear chatting in the living room. I jumped out of bed and walked towards it.

Georgia was on the sofa, with a middle aged looking woman, both nursing a cup of tea in the matching mugs that Jamie had got me as a move in present. My blood boiled but it wasn't their fault, I cleared my throat to get their attention.

"Oh Katie! This is Natalia, she lives upstairs. We got chatting so I made her a cup of tea. I hope you don't mind." I looked at the dark haired woman on the sofa, drinking tea from my cup and nodded. Georgia was a sociable idiot with no understanding of when to not be herself. I wasn't going to lament her for it right now. It was her coping.

"Of course. Hi Natalia, what flat do you live in?" I tried my very best to be polite. I would have to discuss not bringing people into my home mid tragedy with Georgia after she had left but until then I would be neighbourly.

"Flat 71. It's so nice to meet you, you have a lovely home." Natalia responded, her lips curled at the corners into a smile that wasn't replicated in her eyes or the rest of her facial expression. She looked at me smugly, with full knowledge that I was aware of the implications of what she had just said.

The rules...

The flat number....

every now and again someone will knock at your door claiming to live in one of these flats and ask to borrow some sugar. They will seem entirely average but you must shut and lock the door immediately. I installed two extra security bolts to avoid these fuckers. I don't like to swear at my age but they really are fuckers.

Prue's warning echoed in my mind and I couldn't take my eyes off Natalia. Something really was off about her. I looked at Georgia sat on the sofa next to her and noticed her sweating. Anyone in the uk knows that it's been a hot for few days but this was beyond just the ambient temperature. Her entire body was dripping.

Suddenly, she began to pant. Natalia's eyes were locked to mine just like the window cleaners had been. Nothing happened before with the cleaner, except this time the rule had been broken. She was already in the flat.

Georgia started to scream as her skin blistered and charred. Her hair fell from her scalp as the skin flaked and melted away from every inch of her. She was being burned alive without a flame in sight. She scratched frantically at her own melting face, digging into the exposed raw flesh. The sound a person makes when they burn alive is like no other. That will never leave me.

I screamed and screamed but no one came to my door. I tried to grab my phone to call postman Ian but the wooden surface I had set it down on burned my fingers to the touch and forced me to recoil. She was going to set the whole flat alight.

My actions needed to be quicker than a phone call.

I grabbed hold of the large knife I had set down on the side earlier when weaponising, the handle blistered my fingers instantly but I didn't care, I needed to get her out now and help Georgia if I could. I ran towards the dark haired lady, sweat dripping from my brow the closer I got and plunged the knife into Natalia's throat. She gripped it and fell to the floor.

She didn't bleed like a normal human. Her insides were black, she was still moving, and I figured it probably wouldn't be long before she stood right back up and tried again. So I dragged her into the hallway ready to bolt the door.

As we reached the entrance of the corridor one of the cats was waiting, hissing at her semi conscious body, I caught her eyes fixate on it as I dumped her on the floor. I grabbed the cat, pulled him inside, wincing as it's skin caused more burns up my lower arms, shut the door and watched through the peep hole. She got up and held her hand to the wound, cauterising it and walking off towards the lift. As if she hadn't been injured at all.

I'd dropped the cat by that point but every bit of naked skin it had touched throbbed and burned for at least an hour.

Georgia hadn't been as lucky as Natalia with injury recovery. I anonymously called an ambulance for her. I couldn't believe it but she was still breathing. She was badly burned and her life wouldn't be the same again but she was alive. And for that I was grateful.

It sounds awful but I left her at the park across the road from the building. With no phone or i.d. She's my best friend and I want to be there but if I own up to involvement in injuries that bad they'll suspect me, and I lose the already slim chance that Jamie might be saveable. It doesn't mean I don't care about Georgia, but she's alive. I won't believe Jamie isn't until I see it.

So now I'm alone again, in the flat, conflicted about what to do.

I want to leave. So badly. But this was mine and Jamie's first home together. If he's alive, and I can save him then I want it to be here for him to come back to... and if he's dead, and the postman is right then I don't know if I can leave his memory behind.

There's only one person I think could help me right now. So tonight I'm going to do some research, hunt down an address and tomorrow morning I'm going to visit Prudence Hemmings.

I didn't get much sleep last night either. The lack of sleep is making me wonder whether all these things happening are in my mind or not. But I'm reminded every time I see that damn note that it's all real.

I spent hours last night searching for anything I could about Prudence Hemmings. If she had lived in a big creepy mansion I imagine she would have been easy to find. But us folk who live in tower blocks aren't so well documented. No one cares about our lives, no matter how extraordinary.

I found an article about missing person Lyla Hemmings. It suggested that she went missing under the care of her grandmother while playing in the park opposite the flats early in the morning. Interviews with her parents stated that they had both disowned Prudence.

Despite the many years that had passed since Lyla's death/disappearance her parents appeared to have remained unforgiving of Prue. There was no mention of her on either of their social media accounts and she appeared to have no involvement with the children they had acquired since.

Searches for the Hemmings family in the local area were equally dead ends, I looked at link after link, desperate to find something but they all started to blur into one. Until finally I saw something.

An obituary for Bernard "Bernie" Hemmings, who had fallen from the tower block in unexplained circumstances after being diagnosed with dementia months before his death. I was surprised it hadn't made bigger news. It had only been about a year. There were no details of where to find them, but his wife Prudence and her sister Bridget were listed as contacts to get find out details of the funeral.

It's scary what you can do with the internet these days, but just with those phone numbers I was able to put them into a reverse directory and find an address for Bridget and Tony Bishop, the sister and brother in law that Prudence was supposedly living with.

About 4am I managed to get some sleep, not much though, I was back up and wide awake at around 7am, planning my route and working out my day. I saw a post on social media from one of her relatives that Georgia was identified and is stable. This loosened the knot in my stomach that has been present since I found the note somewhat.

At 8.50, I opened the door to my flat hoping to see postman Ian. 4 minutes passed and instead of the postman an elderly gentleman made his way down the corridor. He had a walking stick and kind eyes. In his free arm he carried a small plastic bag containing a newspaper and milk, he smiled and said "good morning" as he passed.

I smiled back. He reminded me of my grandad. I imagined him pulling cola cubes from his pocket for his grandkids and shushing them when their parents weren't looking. A little further down the corridor the old man stopped and turned. He looked me dead in the eyes with a sympathetic expression and spoke.

"No post on a Sunday, if that's what you were waiting for." He smiled knowingly and turned to unlock a front door that until shut I couldn't see the number of. When I saw the door close and the number 48 boldly displayed above the peephole I understood what Prudence had meant. Mr Prentice did seem to be a lovely chap.

I sat back in my flat and sighed, staring at the various tabs open on my laptop. At about 9.15 the knocking on the balcony door started.

The window cleaner was back.

I didn't feel half as terrified as I had the first time, if anything, I was just angry. It took every ounce of restraint I had in my tired body not to engage with him, if only to tell him to fuck off. His genuine seeming requests just irritated me. After about 20 minutes of being watched the knocking started to give me a headache, so I grabbed a bag and left the flat.

I decided there was no time like the present. If I was going to turn up on the Bishops' doorstep looking for her sister because of the freaky flat she's left behind then I had to get it over with. If the address was old, or the bishops weren't the people I was looking for then I was going to look stupid whatever time of day I went.

And I couldn't take the window cleaners eyes anymore. There was something about them, they really do make you want to open that door.

I looked at the lift as I entered the communal hallway and decided today I would take the stairs. I couldn't stand to be in a small box that my partner probably died very painfully in. My heart dropped into my stomach just at the sight of it.

The stairs were as grotty as the lift. We'd taken them multiple times on move in day but I hadn't really taken it in the same way I could now. I thought about the rules and all the strange things happening in this building. I looked at the badly painted numbers on the walls as I reached each landing.

Nothing in this building is simple.

I looked at the numbers. 7, 6, 5 ... 5, 4, 3, 4, 2, G. Maybe it was the sleep deprivation but my legs were in agreement with my mind that I had definitely just descended more than 6 flights of stairs. They'd glitched.

I looked at the dusty and poorly lit stairwell from the bottom. It seemed dark despite the sun pouring in from the glass panel in the main building doors. The note never mentioned glitchy stairs, maybe I really was losing my mind.

As I turned to exit the building a woman walked in. She was in her late thirties to early forties and had 2 small children in tow. One boy and one girl. I guessed that they were twins, they were both incredibly blonde, with deep brown puppy dog looking eyes and couldn't have been any older than 6-7. They were as close to identical as it gets in twins of different genders. I'm not a fan of kids, but they were super cute.

The lady had a short bob haircut that got longer at the front, it was uniform and dyed a perfectly even auburn colour. I knew it was dyed because her roots were blonde like her kids. She looked as tired as I felt, but she pulled herself together when she saw me, running fingers through s part of her hair that she must have missed how ever early she left this morning.

"Hi, are you here visiting?" Who opened with, trying to make small talk.

"No, I just moved in to flat 42, on the 7th floor, I was just leaving actually. Whereabouts are you?" I was desperate to go, I had feared myself up to see Prue but I didn't want to be rude.

"I'm flat 26, my name's Terri. This is Eddie and Ellie." She gestured to the two small children hiding shyly behind her skirt. "Welcome to the block. If you ever need anything please feel free to give me a shout."

"My name is Katie but people call me Kat too. That's really kind of you, thank you. I will.... hey, is there something wrong with the stairs?" I stopped myself before going into detail.

"Nothing wrong, they just skip sometimes." She answered, shrugging.

"Well I'd love to stop and chat but I actually really need to get going. It was nice to meet you Terri." I tried to work out what was wrong with the children as I stepped forward to walk away. Still baffled by the stairs.

"By the way, we have a residents committee, you should come to one of our meetings, they're every Tuesday in alternating flats. This Tuesday is at Molly Jefferson's place in flat 31, come along. We'd love to have you!" Terri suggested, waving me off.

I walked out the doors after my encounter with Terri feeling sick. Every minute in this place made the note more real. Every word jumped off the page and into my life. Made it more likely that Jamie was really gone.

I rode the bus from a stop not far from the flats. It felt like it took and eternity to reach the little suburban area I was looking for. A five minute walk away from the bus stop I got off at and I was staring at a quaint little bungalow, belonging to Bridget and Tony Bishop.

I knocked on the door. The lady who opened it was unsteady on her feet, she was probably in her 70s, with wispy white hair neatly scraped back into a bun, two strands left hanging that just softened her wrinkled face. She wore a dusty rose coloured dress that hung just below her knees and smelled of stale cigarette smoke.

"Can I help you?" She asked bluntly.

"My name is Kat. I'm looking for Prudence Hemmings." I answered, stuttering slightly.

Her eyes widened slightly.

"Why?" She asked, bizarrely.

"Is she here? It's private."

The lady ushered me into the house, and sat me down on a sofa, within minutes there was a cup of tea in front of me. She didn't say anything to me for a while, we just looked at each other. Then she finally broke the silence.

"I wondered if you'd try and find me. It took me a long time to decide whether to leave that note or not but I decided that you deserved a head start. That's more than I ever got."

The woman was Prudence, she was nothing like I had imagined. She seemed tough and hardened and spoke with a mostly blunt tone, she contributed before I could answer.

"Terri called me not long ago. Told me that she had met the new tenant. She said you looked shaken up, and said that my note may not have been enough. I did say I couldn't fit everything on there. And the stairs didn't seem too important. The committee wanted to organise a meeting with you on your moving in day but I told them that was intrusive. The whole committee thing always seemed a bit excessive to me anyway." She spoke flippantly, like it was nothing.

"It may have been intrusive, but we needed a warning, we spent a night in the place before I found your note! My boyfriend had already left for work at 3.15 and taken the lift.... he didn't know." I broke as I told her what had happened. Her face dropped. And so did my hope for Jamie.

"I'm so sorry... I really don't know what to say. I thought my note would reach you in time." She mumbled, her face to the floor, refusing to look at me as tears streamed down my face.

"He's gone isn't he. I didn't want to accept it but I spoke to the postman and your face says all it needs to. The postman said there might be a way I can have him back." I bit at her, devastated and angry.

"He's gone. You can't have him back. What Ian is referring to isn't what you think. There's a way to get people back from the lift. But not as themselves. Trust me, I learned the hard way. Once they're back you can't reverse it. I'm sorry about your man. But he's gone forever. Don't dig into the other way, to be gone forever is luckier than that alternative." She still wouldn't look up from the floor.

"What do you mean..."

"I don't want to talk about it. I said in the note that there are things I'd rather not discuss and I need you to respect that or I won't be speaking to you at all. Now move on and ask what you need to ask." Prudence cut me off, I decided not to push the topic further, and moved on to some other things I needed to know.

"What's the deal with Terri's kids? They seem sweet and normal."

"Those little demon creatures are anything but normal." She answered, wincing slightly at the though of them. "When she went into labour Terri never made it to a hospital. They were the first children ever to be born inside the building and with everything that goes on it's like something's rubbed off on them. They're average children in the daytime, but they never sleep, ever. Poor Terri hasn't had a days rest since they were born. They also really love to steal birds and rats they find the cats playing with and torment them. Really annoys the cats."

As she finished speaking a small hairless cat strutted out from behind an armchair across the room, meowing softly. It brushed its head up against Prue's exposed legs, leaving scorch marks where it touched. She didn't react, she reached down and stroked the top of its head, smiling as it purred.

"And those?" I asked, eyes stuck to her now badly burned legs.

She chuckled, pulled out a box and lit a cigarette, tapping the top layer of ash into a small silver dish in front of her. She offered me one and I took it gladly.

"They've always been my good friends. I couldn't leave the building without bringing a part of home with me. This little guy is Damon. He's seen some things." She gushed, not taking her eyes off the cat.

"But where did they come from, why are they everywhere?" I asked, watching in disbelief as her burns subsided. It seemed impossible, but I looked at my arms where I had picked up the cat the night before and there was no evidence it had ever happened. They didn't even appear sunburnt.

"No one really knows. They started to appear after the fire, a few years after I'd moved in. It was rumoured that they were the pets of the residents that burned, and that was why they had no fur. But I don't think that's true."

I interrupted.

"I met one of those neighbours last night. She said her name was Natalia. She almost killed my best friend. You're crazy if you think your note was enough of a warning!" I ranted emotionally.

"Look, girl. If I had made a song and dance about warning you, then you'd have thought me crazy and challenged the rules. You'd have been dead already. Be grateful you got anything. I didn't. I had to work it all out. Your generation are so spoiled." She tutted in frustration at me. I was angry, but she was probably right. An elderly lady telling me rat like creatures would kill my boyfriend in a lift would probably have got some laughs from me a few days ago. I stayed quiet and waited for her to calm down, after a while she sighed and started again.

"I think the cats are the neighbours that burned. They've never meant any harm and they hiss and run from the imposters that roam the building. Besides, there's no way there were that many cats living on one floor.

The imposter people don't even match up with the residents that died in the fire, none of them look like, or claim to have the same name as the dead. They just claim to live in their flats. I've met Natalia before, she left a bad scar on Bernie's leg from an incident we had, nasty girl.

Before the fire there was cctv and there was a recording saved of about 15 people marching into the flats and up to that floor about half an hour before the fire started. It was the only evidence found. CCTV wasn't great in the eighties so they were never identified. And the flames melted the relevant cameras so nothing ever came of it.

I think the people that entered that night are the ones that ask for sugar. I don't know any more than that but if you avoid them like I said you don't need to know more. They hate the cats. I hope your friend survives, but I've seen what those people can do so maybe she was better off dead." Prue carried on stroking Damon. I watched the skin of her fingers melt and twist as they made contact with him.

"What happened to your husband?"

I asked the question so fast I didn't have time to consider that this was a topic she had explicitly said she didn't want to discuss in the note. But I had to know.

She scowled at me. "I said I didn't want to talk about that." She hissed.

"I just lost the love of my life. I need some answers." I begged.

"What happened to Bernie won't help you. I know you'd think any deaths in that building would be down to the quirks but this wasn't. For the most part anyway.

Don't forget that we had lived there for 35 years, Bernie knew the rules, we knew how to take care of ourselves and have a happy life there. It was our home."

"I don't doubt that's Mrs Hemmings, I'm sorry" I interjected.

"Bernie had dementia. It started about 6 months before he died and he deteriorated very rapidly. Towards the end he started wandering, the doctors said it was common, but in our position it was incredibly dangerous. More times than I can count I pulled him away from the lift just in time.

Along with wandering he was forgetting the rules. He let that smug awful window cleaner in 3 times, thank lord for the big metal pipe I kept by the balcony door, chased him out a treat. Not that anything stops him from coming back. I'm sure you're already acquainted.

After all the dangerous situations Bernie was in, by the end he made the smallest and most fatal of errors.

He left a bowl of food out for Damon at 10am. I was out shopping with Terri and a few of the girls from the committee and when I came back I found one of those awful creatures..."

Prudence started to cry. I put my hand on her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her, after all, I truly knew how she felt.

"It was eating him." She sniffed and steadied herself to continue, moving my hand. "I chased the creature away with the same metal pipe I had the window cleaner and pushed Bernie off the balcony. He was heavy but I didn't want anyone to know what really killed him. It's teeth.." she shivered "...they made such an awful noise. It reminded me of -"

"Lyla." I finished her sentence. I hadn't meant to. I was so invested in her story I couldn't help it.

"I gather you spoke with Ian then." She said sounding resigned. "I never meant to hurt that little girl. I loved her so much." Tears rolled down her wrinkled cheeks. Damon, who was now sat next to her on the sofa, shuffled closer as if to cuddle her.

"Haven't you ever been curious about getting her back?" I asked, my mind turning back to the methods hinted at by both Prue and the postman. "I miss Jamie so much. I'd do anything to get him back."

Her face filled with a look of horror and shame. "Of course I have." She answered, "which is exactly why I'm telling you not to."

But I couldn't let it go.

"Surely anything must be better than gone forever?" I pestered. I wish I hadn't.

Prudence, frustrated, stood up and gestured for me to follow, she lead me outside to the back garden of the bungalow. At the back was a large shed, the kind people used for a man cave or a summer house. It was pretty, the sun shone down on it lighting up the few cobwebs in the corners and making them twinkle.

Mrs Hemmings was careful to look into both neighbouring gardens to ensure there was no one around before she unlocked the door to the shed. We stepped inside and the first thing to hit me was the smell, it was putrid, like rotting meat. I looked at the floor and covered my nose with my hands, staring back at me was a pool of blood.

I followed the blood with my eyes as Prudence locked us in the shed. Then after I made it past the animal bones I finally saw it.

Just like postman Ian had described.

One of the creatures was watching me, from a heavy duty metal dog cage in the corner of the shed. It looked reinforced but still the metal had chew marks. Their jaws had to be strong to cause that.

That didn't surprise me looking at it, it's rodent like nose and beady, yet somehow human like eyes were nothing compared to the two very visible rows of jagged sharp teeth that lined each gum. Despite its small stature, it was terrifying.

Prudence opened a drawer in a dusty cupboard across the room and pulled out a can of dog food, she poured the contents into the bowl and passed the bowl through the feeding hatch. The cage had a safety feature meaning the animal couldn't access the food until the hatch was locked from the outside. I was grateful for this.

Prue turned to me and spoke. She brushed one of the two strands of hair framing her face behind her ear. Gesturing to the hideous creature she said;

"Kat, I would like to introduce you to my granddaughter, Lyla."

I was in complete shock. Looking at it. At her.

Prudence had a facial expression filled with guilt and now I knew the truth I could see it. The creature was exactly how Ian had described, except with wavy ginger hair and a sadness in its beady eyes.

This abomination was Lyla. This was how Prudence had bought her back, and this was the only way I would ever see Jamie again, a risk I wasn't going to take. After days of disbelief the reality finally hit me like a ton of bricks. Jamie was dead and he wasn't coming back.

"Why did you do this?" I asked, my voice shaking with horror.

Prudence scowled at me, trying to mask her shame.

"I didn't want this. If you think this was my aim then you're sicker than I am. I just wanted my granddaughter back.

When she died a part of me died. My son blamed me, his wife blamed me and although he never said it, I could see in Bernie's eyes that he did too.

I'd pushed for her to stay, I wanted to spend more time with her. I got cocky about my ability to cope with the strange occurrences in the flats. I know what you must be thinking. But I swear I didn't know about the sleepwalking until it was too late.

We had moved into the flat not long after my son left home to move in with his girlfriend. He's the youngest of three and was the last to fly the nest, so we downsized for the two of us. He never knew what we were facing in that flat, or the dangers that he sent his little girl into.

When it happened it was a few years after the fire and the troubles with the creatures. We'd struck the deal with the things in the lift and the neighbours of the burned flats had become a fixture just like the other quirks. I really thought she would be safe."

Prudence paused to gaze longingly at the mutated little girl in the cage, the creature just twitched. In return it barred its 4 rows of teeth and made a gentle hiss.

"But how did you do this!?" I stopped her with more urgency this time, looking at rat-Lyla in disbelief. I had to get answers out of her fast. I didn't want to spend anymore time than was absolutely necessary in this shed.

"The gardener helped me." She answered, her voice trembling.

"Who the fuck is the gardener?" I grew more impatient with every new confusion she threw at me. The last thing I needed was something new and potentially malevolent in the mix.

"I didn't mention him in my note because he's been gone for over 20 years, he'll be of no concern to you so don't worry. His damage is in the past now...

Around the time Lyla went missing the council granted planning permission for the tower block next door. But before that was built the land it sits on acted as a communal garden for ours and the neighbouring tower block on the other side. It had a regular gardener named Derek who you would often see tending the flowerbeds out front.

Derek was one of the first people I met when I moved in.

Like I said, I had to work it all out myself and the first time the window cleaner came to the balcony I naturally reached to let him in and offer a cup of tea.

As my hand applied pressure to the handle to open the balcony door, there was a knock at the front door. I made a gesture to the cleaner to indicate that I would only be a minute and answered.

There was Derek. He stopped me and told me not to let the man in, that I would be making a huge mistake.

I thought he sounded crazy, and I told him so, after a while of arguing I got up to reboil the kettle and let the man in and Derek grabbed my hands and shouted at me to look at the man outside.

When I turned to look, there was no man outside, but a monster. He was tall and impossibly thin, flesh and bones but somehow thinner than bones with greying skin stretched over them. He had eyes that seemed to be so deep set they went on forever, like the blackest cave you can imagine. Saliva dripped from his mouth and landed on my balcony floor, some sliding down the glass panel of the door.

I opened my mouth to scream, but as I did, Derek let go of my hands and the monster was gone. In its place was that smug, friendly man, begging for a drink while he cleans the windows.

It took me a minute to process it, but I know what I'd seen. That was the real window cleaner. I never intentionally opened or tried to open the door for him again.

That day Derek didn't stay long. He didn't tell me what the window cleaner is, or why he visits every few days. He didn't explain anything about the weird things that go on. As much as Derek was a part of the strange happenings he was like one that had been carved from light.

He said that he'd always be around when I needed him, that it was his job to look after the residents just like the flowerbeds.

Over the years he appeared a few times. He was instrumental in striking a deal with the creatures. When the neighbours died in the fire he created a special display for them in the garden, and made sure that nothing planted was poisonous to the cats as soon as they arrived. He also stopped an imposter from killing Bernie at our front door.

He seemed like such a good thing for the residents. Always there to help. Offer some gentle advice or a creative solution. Someone to be trusted.

He changed when they granted planning permission for the other block though. He knew his garden would be dug up to lay foundations and his uses redundant. He became grumpy and bitter over time but no one payed enough attention to notice. Especially not when my tragedy struck.

When Lyla died I was devastated. Derek appeared to me as I sat on a bench in the garden crying. He offered to help me, to use the garden to get her back. I snapped at him. I told him it was his fault and that he should have been there when it happened to stop them.

He worked so hard on the agreement with the creatures, he spent a lot of time with them. Lyla broke the rule and he had to allow them to do what had been agreed, he said. He couldn't have stopped them. But he wanted to help make things right.

I understood why he hadn't intervened. But I couldn't accept it, I lashed out at him. I'm embarrassed to say I actually slapped the poor man along with stamping on his freshly planted flowerbed. I was angry and grieving.

I quickly burned myself out and collapsed into a blubbering heap on the floor. Derek attempted to comfort me but his mind was on his garden.

He said he was sorry for my loss but I shouldn't have attacked the flowerbed. That he'd always been nice to me and I should be kinder in return.

I snapped and told him that it didn't matter because it was all about to be bulldozed in the next few days anyway.

I should have taken more note of the way he twitched as I said that. He snapped.

He said that he knew I was angry. But there was no need to take it out on him, if I was that desperate to get Lyla back he knew a way. But it was dangerous.

I begged. Anything I said. I would do anything.

He told me it was simple and that all I had to do was enter the lift and offer the creatures some food whilst repeating the phrase revertetur mortuis during their frenzied hours.

He said that there was no guarantee they wouldn't be crunching on my bones before I even got the first word out but that if I succeeded I would have Lyla back.

Of course, it was successful. There wasn't a creature in sight as I performed the ritual as instructed.

I thought nothing happened at first. She didn't appear straight away, but a few days later I found her running round inside my house, she'd taken a chunk out of Damon's ear with her teeth. I tried to kill her at first, but just as I was about to finalise it I saw in her eyes who she was.

I tried to look for Derek but by that point the workmen had started. Nothing was left of his garden, and nothing was left of Derek. No one's seen him since. You see, Kat, nothing in that building is totally harmless. You have to be on your guard at all times.

I've kept her like this ever since. You may think I'm crazy but I couldn't kill my own granddaughter. I'm not a monster."

Prue sighed and ushered me back out of the shed, she locked the door behind us, closing the padlock on her most hideous secret.

I was exhausted. It was a lot of information to take in and as a result of the information I'd received, real grief for my boyfriend was finally settling in. Every hope I had was dashed. I know many of you tried to tell me in the comments that he was gone but I wanted you to be wrong so bad.

I couldn't bear to look at Prudence Hemmings for another moment. I made my excuses and left, morosely riding the bus back to the tower block I had once been so excited to live in.

It was mid afternoon by time I got home. The choice between the stairs and lift didn't strike much enthusiasm into me but I opted for the stairs, and after what I'm sure ended up being 11 flights, I made it the 6 flights up the stairs to my flat.

I laid on our mattress on the floor and sobbed for Jamie. I sobbed so hard my throat went dry and hurt and my stomach cramped with each gasping breath. I sobbed myself to sleep. My body and mind must have given up fighting the need to rest and shut down.

When I woke up it was late, about 10pm. I wrote as much of my update as I could for you guys, hit post and just sat at the dining table with my head in my hands.

My whole life had fallen to shit and I knew it.

I thought about so many things, questioned why they were happening to me. I searched social media for updates on Georgia but there were none. Jamie wasn't super close with his family but I knew it wasn't long before they'd start to worry. Everything I considered just snowballed in my mind.

The loneliness in dealing with this situation was killing me.

I decided to do something I usually wouldn't. I went downstairs and I knocked on the door of flat 26.

Terri answered. Her perfectly bobbed hair was a little unkempt and out of place, she had huge bags under her eyes and I could smell wine on her breath.

"Are you ok Kat?" She looked concerned. I found it ironic that she looked so disheveled I had forgotten it was me who came for help.

"I'm not... I'm sorry... I know I don't know you ..I ... just..." I could barely speak.

"Don't worry. Prue called me. She told me everything. I'm sorry about your boyfriend, it's a shame I never got to meet him." Terri stared back at me with the same expression a mother would, warm and understanding. "Would you like a cup of tea, maybe something stronger?"

"I'd love a coffee please." I answered meekly, making way way into the living room, her sofa was comfy, it reminded me of being back home at my parents before any of this started.

Terri trotted out to the kitchen, stumbling slightly. I could see the kitchen counter from the sofa, and the empty bottle of wine that accounted for her stumbling.

As she boiled the kettle there was a huge crash from somewhere inside the flat. I jumped, feeling startled. Terri coughed in a meagre attempt to conceal the noise.

"Excuse me for just a moment please." She muttered apprehensively as she walked out of the living area and into the hallway containing the bedrooms.

I heard another crash, giggling and some inaudible shouting. After a while things went quiet and Terri came back into the living room.

"Sorry about that, kids you know." She announced, brushing off the noises. I'd almost forgotten about Eddie and Ellie. It was late already and by the resigned expression on Terri's face indicated that this was how all her nights began.

I nodded. I couldn't muster up much more of a response. I think she could see that I just needed to sit there. She got up to finish making and then set the cup of tea in front of me with 2 digestive biscuits. I hadn't eaten properly in days and I really needed the sugar.

It turned out me and Terri get along really well. We have similar taste in movies, music and food despite the age gap. We spoke for about an hour about random, normal stuff. It was nice to get a break from the madness. I got used to the crashing around from the twins. I even laughed a few times. I'd forgotten what that felt like these past few days.

The break didn't last long. The next noise that we heard was louder than the first. It was quickly followed by two small children, running into the living room diving into their mothers arms.

I was taken aback for a moment. Eddie and Ellie were dressed in pyjamas, and were still the cute children that I had met in the hallway, but something was different. Their brown puppy dog eyes had become deep voids, like what I'd imagined when Prue described the window cleaners true form. And at the ends of their fingers were long sharp claws protruding from where nails should be.

I didn't have time to recoil in terror at their new looks, Terri clutched them and asked what was wrong. They wailed and buried the voids where their eyes should be into their mothers shoulders. Despite their terrifying exterior, these were two very scared little kids.

It had been a very long day and I thought my nightmare was over but it was only just beginning. Ellie mumbled into Terri's shoulder, in that high pitched voice kids do when they're scared.

"Mummy, were sorry, we didn't mean to let them in. We were just teasing..."

"Shhh they're coming!" Hissed Eddie, in the same distressed high pitched tone.

"Who's... what have you done?" Terri asked, colour drained from her face.

The kids didn't get a chance to reply. Terri's face turned paler than I thought possible. I looked up and standing in the living room doorway were about 10 people, all incredibly average looking.

They were almost expressionless, they didn't look angry or pleased to see us. They were dressed in non descriptive clothes. I imagined trying to describe them to one of those artists that draws pictures for the police and I genuinely don't think even one of them had a distinguishing feature.

That's why it took me a while to spot her in the crowd, even though she had been glaring at me the entire time.

Natalia.

When I first saw Natalia all I could picture was Georgia. The way her skin melted off her face, the smell of her hair burning and the sound that she made.

I didn't have time to count but there were more than I originally thought. I figured these must have been the 15 people Prudence talked about, entering the flats that burned before it happened. I already knew that Natalia was one of them.

Eddie and Ellie clutched Terri's skirt, trembling with fear. I wanted to help protect them, but I still couldn't help but tremble a little myself every time I caught a glimpse of those hollow voids where their eyes were.

"Hi Terri, the kids said we could borrow some sugar?" She asked menacingly, grinning at the frightened family stood next to me. After a moment or two of intense staring Natalia finally addressed me. She appeared to be the spokesperson for the group. "How's your friend doing? It was a shame we had to end our visit. I was enjoying her company."

"Don't speak about her! She's got nothing to do with you, you sick bitch!" I screamed at her, I couldn't bare looking at her face again. "You don't scare me with all your freak friends. I'm not going to let you hurt this lady or her kids!"

Natalia chuckled. I gulped.

I may talk a good game but I am no hero. Mere days ago I was just a young girl excited to move in with her boyfriend and now here I am. My boyfriend's dead, my flat is like living in my own personal horror movie and I'm standing up challenging demonic flame neighbours to defend demonic looking children.

But when I said she didn't scare me, I meant it. Something inside me was eradicating any fear of these people, I just wanted to protect the residents. Life really does throw curveballs.

"I know you aren't scared. I saw it in your eyes when you stuck that big knife in my throat. That's why we're here.

"My brothers and sisters are not freaks. You're the freaks! Thinking that your lives have meaning. We watch you people go about your day to day lives and your mundane routines and nothing really changes. Your lives are pointless and disposable.

"That's why we set the fire, all those years ago." She chuckled throughout her words. There was an animation in them like she was a psychotic cartoon character, finally catching its prey after 138 episodes of chasing.

"Those people weren't disposable..." Terri mumbled, barely a decibel higher than a whisper.

"What was that Terri? Did you have something to say." Natalia went from psychotic cartoon to school bully. She made my skin crawl.

"I was only a child, but those people were friends of my parents, they were good people." Terri said with slightly more confidence.

None of the other people had moved. They just stood there staring.

"Why would you burn people alive? What can you possibly gain?" I interjected, taking a slight step between Natalia and Terri and the kids. I could see she was getting ready to go for them and I couldn't let it happen.

"We were living with the great leader, Michael. All of us. Living in the righteous manner that he had directed us to live" She gestured to the people around her. The name Michael appeared to inspire some sort of emotion in the group.

"Michaels brother Jonathan lived here, on the floor we burned. He let us hang out there sometimes, but he didn't live the righteous way that we did. He didn't like our beliefs, but he took us in when we lost the place we were staying because of the growth of the group. Him and Michael rarely saw eye to eye. They argued passionately.

"Our group never believed in living within the constraints of societal norms and we were up at all hours, we came and went as we pleased, embracing freedoms and listened to music as we did introspective work."

Terri shoved the kids further behind her and snapped, infuriated.

"You were a group of entitled, bratty hippies following some middle aged, mentally ill twat. Listen to yourself! The stereotypical cultish drivel coming out of your mouth right now!" Terri cried. I was shocked at her outburst. Although I couldn't have agreed more. It did sound like cultish drivel. It made me so angry that this was what an entire floor of people died over.

As Terri ended her rant the curtains hanging on the window behind her burst into flames. I jumped and felt my heart skip a beat.

"Don't insult us. I'm sick of hearing simple minded people call us a cult." Came from the back row. An average looking man with dark hair and jeans had piped up, smiling and watching the curtains burn. He had done that. They were all capable of what Natalia had done to Georgia at the very least.

For the first time since the people had entered Terri's flat my nerves of steel had wavered. I realised that we were only alive because they were allowing it so far. We were in big trouble.

Terri swiftly shut up and Natalia continued her story.

"Michael was the true leader. Not like all the fakes you hear of in the news. The people you're talking about. He was teaching us to build a world of peace and harmony. But he didn't deny that in order to do that you had to eradicate the non believers. He taught us to embrace the bad in us. To harness it so that we could do extraordinary things." She smiled wickedly as her hands glowed hot coals as she spoke.

It may have sounded like cultish drivel but Michael being a total faker wouldn't explain their powers.

"Things went wrong when someone went to the police after Michael and Jonathan had a terrible argument one night. When the police arrived Jonathan told us to go.

The group had been planning to leave this building anyway. We'd had nothing but interruption and trouble in our time here, this place is weird. But we had nowhere immediate to go. The police already disliked us after overcrowding the last property. We didn't need any more attention.

"Michael was furious. We brainstormed in a field for hours who could have done it. I personally suspected the next door neighbour, Mavis. The woman was so nosey, always knocking and asking us to keep noise down, interrupting our spiritual sessions.

"Michael couldn't make a certain judgement on the person who had done it. All we thought we were sure of was that they had to be on the same floor. So he instructed us to go back that night and eradicate the whole floor and every non believer who lived there.

"As you know, we obliged." This incited sick laughter from the crowd. I waited, forcing myself to let her finish. Buying time.

"We took pleasure in their screams, in watching every man woman and child go up in flames through their front door windows. It was the first time we'd unleashed all that energy and we felt so powerful!

"But then as we left the burning hallway behind us and entered the stairwell, this building found a way to fuck us over one more time.

"I couldn't give you a number on the amount of times we tried to run down those stairs, leave our glorious victory behind us and return to Michael. It didn't matter how many times we tried.

"We couldn't make it past that floor, the stairs wouldn't let us. It didn't take long before the fire reached the stairwell we were trapped in, burning us all, along with the non believers. We died just in time for the fire engine to arrive.

"We may have been dead but we didn't disappear. We couldn't leave the building, we were stuck just wandering it, in and out of the burned flats and hallways but not allowed anywhere else unless we were asked. It was awful. We didn't try to cause any trouble at first. We waited for Micheal to come and find us, instruct us.

"Two months passed and he hadn't come. Instead came confirmation. A newspaper put through the door of the building. Headline news.

" Tower block resident Bernie Hemmings information vital to imprisonment of local cult leader on drug charges. "

I gasped. I couldn't believe I hadn't found that when I was researching Prue. But I suppose local news wasn't so heavily online back then. Natalia saw my shocked expression and grinned wider than before.

"The old bat didn't tell you that then?" She asked, although it wasn't really a question. "That her stupid husband is the whole reason we're here!"

"We started to really cause issues then. Did anything within our power to fuck the whole building over. But it didn't take them long to work out that we had to be asked to come in.

"We only stopped when Prue worked out a way we could die a second time, and that we wound come back again. She killed two of our group. She was the only person that could stop us. We couldn't do shit with her around. We stopped and reached a stalemate. Then she moved out. We were going to honour that stalemate. Until you stabbed me. Prue's gone. It's fair game in here now."

As Natalia got angrier a member of her group started getting agitated, they all soon followed like a hive mind, working as one, the stillness became chaotic, with all of them moving and making noise.

I didn't notice at first when one started walking towards Terri and the kids, but I noticed when it got near.

It was a teen girl, slender and pretty, but still unsettlingly average. As she got within a metre of the family Ellie suddenly went rigid. The claws that replaced her fingernails grew longer and sharper, with jagged edges from growing so fast. The voids deepened, if that was even possible.

She opened her mouth to reveal rows of sharp teeth, blood caked where the tooth meets the gum where they had grown too quickly as well. Ellie jumped. She reached out towards the girl and slashed her face with the claws, leaving deep gouges across her eyes. She clung on to the girl using her claws as wall pegs keeping herself at eye level.

Eddie controlled the crowd. His own claws grew and he ran towards them, sending them scattering out of the flat, random bursts of flames erupted everywhere. Lighting up the whole room.

Shit had hit the fan. The two demon children were successfully fending off a group of 15 dead superhuman cultists. Natalia ran from them too, but kept her eyes locked on mine as she did. As she ran from the flat she spoke to me.

"This isn't over!" She screamed, and I knew that it wasn't.

I stayed on Terri's sofa that night, we organised all the burned items in the house and threw things out before we crashed out in the early hours. The kids claws retracted and they returned to their earlier state. Causing mischief in the hallways. They were too young to really understand.

I didn't sleep much. Nothing new.

When I woke up Terri was still asleep. I didn't want to disturb her so I walked back to my flat, desperate to avoid anything strange on my way. The stairs must have noticed, because they didn't skip on my way up.

I hadn't checked the time when I left Terri's but I reached my door at the same time as a familiar face. Postman Ian was stood there, dropping letters on my doorstep.

"Hey, love!" He shouted as he noticed me.

"I need to talk, can you come inside, just five minutes? Please?" I practically begged him at the doorstep.

I told him everything that had happened the night before. How Natalia was out for revenge and I was the object of her rage. I begged him to tell me how to kill them, but he claimed he didn't know. He said if kept my doors locked and didn't let them in then I'd be fine.

He looked shirty as I mentioned killing them. Didn't even suggest asking Prudence how to do it. Something was telling me there wasn't much point. He seemed so disingenuous.

I wanted to trust him. So badly I wanted to trust him. I had been so vulnerable with him over Jamie.

But if Prudence Hemmings could forget to mention what Bernie had done, and conveniently never pass on the method to kill these awful people, leaving them around to terrorise her friends and neighbours... then could she be a liar too. Could I really trust Ian?

When he provided no answers and no real help something inside me told me that I needed to get him out of my flat. I needed to rethink. Start working things out on my own. I made excuses to Ian and sent him on his rounds.

Prudence left me these rules, but she left so much out. How do I know I wasn't always a pawn in some sick game. Her fantasy life as a puppet master, setting me up to fail. She's kept her granddaughter in a cage for years. Maybe she enjoys suffering.

I wasn't going to give up easily though. Natalia wasn't going to win.

I decided then and there that I needed to attend the committee meeting today and start building an army against Natalia. I didn't need Prue's help or her methods. With enough manpower I could do it myself.

This was war.

I sat all morning thinking about everything, cup after cup of coffee in front of me to keep me awake. Once the postman had left and I was alone with my thoughts they just continued to get louder.

I thought about Natalia and the cult. About the kids and their nighttime antics. About the committee meeting. Jamie and how much I missed him, Georgia and my burning guilt and Mr Prentice, who was finally making those aforementioned animal noises.

Most of all I thought about the note left for me on move in day. How it had changed everything. My whole life was different now, I was alone and it felt like my new home was attacking from every angle.

I re read the note a few times over my coffee. I worried about my rent, it was tight but manageable. School is currently out in the uk but as a training teacher assigned to a school I still get paid a small amount through the summer. The rent is low and with a second summer job I can just about make it without Jamie.

It sounds strange. But it felt nice to worry about something normal for a minute; even if I should have been worrying about my survival and the many entities currently trying to kill me.

I didn't get to stew for too long, I had to get ready for the committee meeting. After the events of the night before and my growing mistrust of prudence it was imperative that I got the neighbours on side if I was going to achieve anything like my goals of eradicating the imposter/cultist neighbours.

The meeting was at noon in flat 31, there was a poster on a communal notice board by the entrance that I was glad to spot, Terri hadn't mentioned the time when we met and all our meetings since had been a bit hectic to discuss it. The poster promised tea and cakes and my stomach rumbled at the thought, I hadn't eaten properly in days.

At 11.55 I left the flat, and wandered out into the corridor. I'd never seen so many neighbours. Mr Prentice, however, was still making that awful noise and I watched in disbelief as every single person in the corridor walked past his door as if it was silent.

I did my usual deliberation on whether to take the stairs or lift but yet again the stairs won. I still couldn't bear being where Jamie died and all these extra flights were keeping me fit.

Flat 31 belonged to an older lady named Molly Thompson and her husband Eric. She had a blue rinsed head of curls attached to her head and had gone to the effort to make homemade batten-burg cake. Other neighbours had bought along baked goods as well. It reminded me of a school fair.

The flat itself was decorated for the 70s, with plenty of china cat ornaments littered around. I sat down on a dusty plastic garden chair, one of many that Molly seemed to have acquired and laid out for the residents pouring in. I hadn't seen community spirit like this in my life.

I smiled as I saw Terri, Eddie and Ellie wander in. It was nice to see some familiar faces. I had noticed people looking at me, wondering who I was. It probably wasn't often they got new neighbours. Eddie came running up to me, swung his arms round me and sat down in the rickety garden chair next to mine. It was so sweet. Terri smiled at me and took a seat the other side of mine, Ellie sat next to her brother. The brown puppy dog eyes were back. No claws.

"I'm glad you came!" Terri said to me, loud enough to hear over the voices of the other neighbours. "I really want you to see the good side of the block. We don't bite really!" She laughed nervously as she realised the irony of her statement.

"Terri I need help, we need to stop those people from coming back again and from terrorising people. The block can't go on like this." I wanted to make the purpose of my attendance clear to her, it was time for things to change.

"But if you don't let them in then they don't bother you. I've spoken to the kids, they know not to do it again, that those people are dangerous." She paused for a moment and sighed. "Although them running away didn't help, the kids think they're indestructible now. They've been telling me all morning that they're going to kill the bad guys."

She looked so resigned. But it was true, they did run away from the twins. Maybe there was something in that, I knew they could die I just had to work out how. But as the thought crossed my mind and I looked at Eddie and Ellie, I couldn't imagine taking the risk.

I could've flat out gone back and asked Prudence. But to be honest I didn't want anything to do with her. She gave me such a bad feeling. I was doubting everything she told me.

"It doesn't matter if you can keep them away. We can't all live in fear. Yours aren't the only kids in this building." I knew this from surveying the room. "But I bet not all the kids here are as ... special ... as yours. What if another family burns to death because their kids were hyper one night."

I could see this struck a chord with Terri. She looked at me with glassy eyes as if on the verge of tears.

"You're right. Molly's the chairwoman and she can be a little strict but you can bring it up under any other business." She spoke with a lump in her throat. "Here you go by the way." She handed me a piece of printed paper.

Any other business felt a bit lacklustre but it would do. As long as it got discussed.

I turned my attention the the piece of paper, it was the agenda for the meeting. For something written so formally it appeared farcical. It seemed other flats and floors had different but equally strange issues to mine.

There were only 6 items on the agenda for the meeting with AOB as the 7th. They were as follows.

Welcome and introductions with apologies for absence. 2. Replacing of the flickering lights on floor 11, it seems to incite vicious behaviour from the pets and elderly of that floor. 3. Serving a formal residents letter of concern to the man who doesn't move from the bottom of the stairwell on floor 5. 4. Finances - budgets for general maintenance and the annual barbecue. 5. The stairs with no grip leading up to floor 14 at the very top and the health and safety hazards this presents. 6. Soundproofing of Mr Prentice's flat, number 48.

I was comforted to know that I wasn't alone in dealing with all these strange occurrences. I was also chilled to the core to know for certain that it was the entire building that was more than a bit odd.

What really struck me as odd is that when I thought about it, I had seen that man on floor 5 when going down the stairs. But I'd never noticed that it had been every time, or that he had never moved, until this moment.

The meeting begun with a loud and dissatisfying clink.

By this point the tiny, 70s themed flat was packed. Garden chairs had all ran out and people were standing. Molly Thompson stood up from her floral patterned arm chair and bashed a teaspoon against the outside of her cup.

She reminded me of a very strict, disciplinarian school teacher I had worked with during my university placement. She commanded quiet in the room.

"I think we should get started everyone!" She shrilled, her voice growing louder with every word until the crowd came to a silent hum.

"Right, firstly, we are not going to skip the introductions today. Apologies have been given by Jo and Steph of flat 2 and yet again by Mr Prentice. We have a new face in the room as I'm sure many of you have noticed." She gestured to me and looked in my direction but didn't really make any eye contact. She was just talking about me as I sat in the room. Eventually she addressed me directly.

"Stand up dear, introduce yourself. We're pleased to have you here."

I was deeply uncomfortable. I could feel some sort of panic coming on. I never liked standing in crowds very much. But I stood up anyway.

"Ermm, hi. My name is Kat. I live in flat number 42, I moved in with my boyfriend Jamie but he was killed in the lift by the weird rat creatures you people have living here. The people that claim to live in the burned out flats won't leave me alone and one in particular seems to want me dead. Oh, and that window cleaner outside my flat makes me want to scoop my own eyes out with a spoon every time he knocks on the door. Nice to meet you all." The crowd had gasped a little.

I sat down. Instantly mortified, I don't know what happened, the normality and structure of the meeting overwhelmed me. There's something about a sense of order and normality amongst chaos. It does something to your brain, and for me, for the first time in this whole journey, it sent me into a meltdown.

I sobbed as I hit the chair, both in pure mental exhaustion and disappointment that I had blown my chance at building any sort of army against Natalia. Terri rubbed my shoulder. Molly broke the awkward silence that had blanketed the room.

"Nice to meet you Katherine, I understand life in this building can be a little overwhelming. We did ask the previous occupant to let us intervene when you moved in but she was insistent. In hindsight we may need to review our policies on new tenants. I am so very sorry for the loss of your partner. The lift is a most unfortunate situation."

She had been in positions of power in her life for certain, she responded professionally but coldly, there was no feeling in her condolences. She came off like a corrupt politician digging themselves out of a hole. She did decide to skip the introductions after my outburst.

I also hate it when I'm called Katherine. My parents named me Katie and I shorten it to Kat. Her presuming it was Katherine added to her school teacher demeanour.

She carried on with the proceedings pretty swiftly and interesting characters present at the meeting started to emerge.

My favourite was a large middle aged Caribbean woman named Precious St Fluer who would not accept Molly's claims that there was not enough in the budget to replace the lighting on floor 11.

She got up and lifted her shirt to reveal a large deep bite mark across her stomach caused by her dog after a long episode of the lights flickering. When that didn't change Molly's answer she lifted her trouser leg to reveal a smaller, but still noteworthy bite mark on her leg, from her elderly mother who lives with her. Molly didn't budge.

It took what felt like an eternity to get to any other business. If I weren't so focused on my goal I would have enjoyed hearing about the quirks of the other floors, maybe tried to engage a little, but I just couldn't concentrate.

When the chairwoman asked if anyone had any other business she scanned the room quickly. I stood up from my chair and she locked in on me with her eyes.

My hands were shaking and I could feel a cold sweat forming all over my body.

"Katherine, what can we help you with dear?" She asked in a patronising tone.

"I want help in getting rid of the people pretending to be from the burned out flats. I can't be the only person that doesn't like living in fear." I stated boldly, trying not to break down again.

"Dear we have had this discussion multiple times and it's been taken off the agenda. I am aware you're new here but there is nothing we can do about certain problems within this building and for this particular issue we would appreciate you not letting them into your home and ignoring them like the rest of us." She snapped back.

"But that's not good enough! Terri's kids answered the door last night, they're children, it's easily done, what if someone else's child does it and aren't so lucky to survive. One burned my friend so bad a few nights ago that she's still unconscious in hospital." This I knew from social media.

A few people called out in agreement with me from the crowd.

"The only one who has ever been able to deal with them is Prudence. And that difficult woman never revealed her methods. Don't think we didn't try. You're suggesting a suicide mission. You'd do well to remember you are new here." Molly hissed through her teeth.

Did she have to mention I was new so many times. It was grating on me.

"Well I'm willing!" Shouted Precious. She seemed stronger than the rest in her earlier rant. I was glad to have her on side.

Where she came forward, a few others followed. Soon I had 5 people plus myself willing to form a sub committee to get rid of the cultists. Molly didn't like it but she agreed to let us do it.

There was me, Precious and Terri along with lady named Shanti who lived a few doors from me.

A man named Anton and his friend Leo from floor 8 made up the group. To be honest they just seemed keen to get involved with any kind of battle. Leo was the loud one, Anton was mostly silent.

I invited them to my flat after Molly swiftly adjourned the meeting. Inviting anyone into my home made me anxious now. I found myself studying each of their faces to ensure they're weren't too average and I hadn't invited the wrong people in. I was fairly certain I hadn't. Eddie and Ellie settled in front of my tv in the bedroom so they didn't hear our conversation. They may only be kids but I felt safer with them there.

We discussed for hours how we could bring the imposter people into one place and kill them all.

Leo was particularly creative, he came up with weird and whacky ways to end them; from locking them in a room and blasting with fire extinguishers until they freeze, to herding them into the lift between 1.11 and 3.33 am.

The whole time I waited nervously for a knock on the door, for them to come for us. But they didn't. We got time to plan. But despite the time it never really took off, no idea seemed feasible.

I shared everything I knew. My conversation with Prue, the night before in Terri's flat... everything. Precious listened to my tales intently before speaking.

"Derek would have helped us. He was a great man, he used to turn up at my door in the dead of the night just as those lights started and take my dog for a walk." She spoke of the gardener with a fondness.

"Prudence told me about Derek. She said he's been gone since the garden was demolished." I replied flatly.

"It was awful when he left. That woman that used to live here was nasty to him. I watched out my window as she tore up the garden. I know she was grieving for that little girl but I know Derek only ever wanted to help." Shanti spoke up from the corner. She had been pretty quiet the whole time. "He was the whole reason we don't have those awful creatures from the lift all over our homes anymore. My brother was killed by one before the agreement. He was 4 years old."

I twitched as she told her story. Shanti has such sad eyes and speaking about her brother only filled them further with sadness.

"This is another thing I don't understand. Why have any agreement, if you managed to kill most of them, why not all?" I asked, feeling anger over Jamie burn through my throat as I spoke.

Precious laughed. Terri shot her a look from across the room.

"No ones told you the whole story have they?" Shanti asked, a single tear running down her face.

"What do you mean?" This was driving me insane, nothing was simple, how could I trust anyone.

"When Prudence and some of the others killed the creatures they killed a large group of them in one hit. They had started to work out that food scraps and pet food were attracting them and they gathered all the pet food in the tower block into one empty flat on the floor the fire had happened. They creatures came in droves just like expected and they set the flat alight. Again.

"The flat was burned to ash on top of preexisting ash. Nothing could survive that." Shanti was interrupted after this by Leo.

"And then 3 giant rat motherfuckers literally rose from the ashes, triple as smart and strong and fucked shit up!" He said, a look of excitement on his face.

Shanti rolled her eyes and continued. "So all Prudence did was cause a quite literally bigger problem. She didn't kill them, all she did was help them evolve.

"There was only three of them but they learned to sneak attack. More people died than during the original infestation. They were more intelligent but not in the way it comes across when the agreements spoken about. We couldn't speak to or reason with them."

Terri was looking at the floor.

"Only Derek was able to do that, he spoke to them like he spoke to the garden. He made it safe for everyone again, I wasn't there. I was too young but there we were told he didn't even have to use words. They understood just a series of movements and eye contact.

"Derek explained the rule with the lift. He told us it was a gesture of goodwill. The creatures needed a home and seemed attracted to the building and we would let them live there and stop killing their kind if they would stop killing ours. But to show them some respect we would allow them a small time frame where unleash their instinctual nature. But only if someone came to them.

"There are only 2 left now. Prudence killed the other during what happened with her granddaughter. But that only made them 2 stronger. Like they absorbed the 3rd."

I tried to take in all the information I was receiving but I couldn't. It was too much.

"Derek isn't coming back, it's been years, this is pointless!" Terri finally erupted. Precious laughed again.

"How do you know?! You speak to dear old Prue all the time, know something we don't?" Precious spoke sarcastically but I think she meant what she said. It was becoming clear that Prudence Hemmings wasn't too popular in this building.

"I don't speak to her all the time! We just keep in contact, she was always nice to me!" Terri tried weakly to defend herself.

"That's because you're naive and a pushover! She used you because no one else would give her the time of day!" Precious was about to launch into a full rant on Terri. I was glad Eddie and Ellie were in the other room and couldn't hear. I wondered if she'd seen them at night.

I decided to stop the rant. This was becoming counter productive and we were getting nowhere with our plans. I interjected and told them all I needed them to leave so that I could sleep. Partly true, although I knew I couldn't sleep. I had other things to do.

They all filed out of my flat, Terri and the kids were the last to leave. She gave me a hug as she left and told me to get a proper nights rest, telling me she was always there for a cuppa and a chat. It was sweet. I felt sorry for Terri. The kids hugged me too as they left.

I know she spoke to Prue, but I was certain that it really was entirely innocent.

I sat in the empty flat disheartened that my assembling of an army had turned into a bickering shit show with no real suggestions on how to kill the imposter neighbours.

I felt totally alone. I couldn't trust Prue or Ian or pretty much anything I thought I knew. Maybe Prue didn't even kill those neighbours. They only told me half truths about the creatures after all.

I was left alone with my thoughts again. And after a few hours, a good one finally struck me, but I needed supplies.

I left the building and went to the nearest shop to gather the items I needed. For what I needed and the time of night I had to travel to a 24 hour supermarket. It took half hour each way on the bus. But I stayed focused. My bags were heavy and awkward on the way back to the block but if it paid off this was going to be worth it.

I trudged up the stairs. It took me 2 trips and 24 flights of stairs instead of 14 to get everything in my flat and organise myself.

It only took 16 and a large gym bag that was much easier to carry on the way back down, thankfully.

I passed the man on floor 5 twice. Now I'd noticed him, he made my skin crawl a little.

I walked through the downstairs corridor, diverting away from the main entrance and passing all the ground floor flats to the door at the back of the building.

The door at the back lead to a small concrete area with a grass strip along the side and a bench decorated with a memorial plaque. This was the blocks outside space. As is typical in the city the whole bench was covered in graffiti. The memorial was unreadable.

I got to work. I dug the strip of grass, turning soil with my new equipment. I had never been green fingered and to be honest the shrubs I had bought had been so heavy I had grown to resent them a little. I worked for an hour and a half. I was sweating and night had come, it was pitch black and I was using my phone torch to see.

I had almost given up until I got up from my crouching position to stretch my knees. I reached my arms out, put down my shovel and took a seat on the bench.

I hadn't seen him arrive but the man was already sat there. He wore a flat cap and a jacket, despite it being the middle of summer and a beautiful night. He just smiled warmly at the shrubs for a moment without a word. Eventually he spoke.

"I've missed this place. Names Derek."

I sat silent for a moment in shock that my plan had even worked. It seemed almost too simple, too easy. But here he was.

Derek had a kindly face, wrinkles around his eyes and cheeks only added to the softness of his expression. His white hair poking out from beneath his flat cap stood out in the dark night.

"That's a lovely little patch you've planted. I can look after it if you like, I used to maintain the last garden here." He said, breaking the silence that had followed since his initial words.

"I know who you are. We need you." Was all I could manage, the mental exhaustion and fatigue from the whole experience had built up, but his arrival was like finishing a bad day working at school. I felt like I could relax again, even if only a little.

"Whats your name darling?" He asked.

"It's Kat. I live in flat 42 now." His face lit up as I confirmed my flat number.

"Prudence has gone?" He asked.

"She's gone. But the whole place is a mess, so many things are happening and the residents are suffering." I answered.

We chatted for what felt like hours. Outside with nothing but moonlight. He told me how he used to consider the building part of the garden, a place for him to maintain, the residents just like the plants he looks after.

I explained my whole experience since moving in. I told him about Jamie and I sobbed. Derek held me as I cried and made me feel safe, something I had forgotten the feeling of since receiving Prue's note. He didn't interrupt, he just listened.

I told him about Natalia and the cultists, the problems they had been causing. He was particularly heartbroken when he heard that they had used Eddie and Ellie for entry. He had gone before they were born, but remembered Terri as a child and how sweet she was, he was pleased when I told her what a sweet adult she had become.

My claims that Prudence was the only person who knew how to kill the imposter neighbours were met with a skeptical expression which gave me some hope.

Derek listened to my entire tale with barely a word. When I finished he stood up and asked me to follow him. I was confused, but I did as I was told.

He walked me to the entrance of the lift. I lifted my arm to check the time on my watch. We had been outside for quite some time and the idea of the creatures being inside made my heart pound and my stomach turn.

"You are safe. It's 12.32am, there's no need to worry or to check your watch." And with that he pressed the "call lift" button. Despite his insistence that I was safe my stomach continued to do gymnastics.

It felt like forever before the lift finally made the clunking sound that meant it had reached the bottom. I felt my whole body shaking violently as the doors opened, I don't know what I expected to see, we were in the safe time zone but every time I looked at the life I pictured Jamie's dead, crunched up body.

"Step inside." He said.

"I can't. Please don't make me." I begged

"I won't let anything happen to you. But you need to see something." There was such sincerity in his eyes as he spoke. I had never trusted someone so completely so quickly, but every fibre of my being told me this man was entirely good.

I stepped inside the lift.

Derek stepped in behind me, placing a comforting hand on my shoulder as I hyperventilated. He gently turned me to face the panel of buttons that control where the lift stops.

"What is wrong with this panel? Do you see it?" He asked cryptically.

I studied the panel. Read all the numbers, counting them. I couldn't see anything wrong. I tried. I really tried, but nothing seemed out of place at all. Everything you expected to find was there and nothing more. I shook my head, barely regaining my composure.

"Can you take us to floor 9 please?" He smiled slightly as he made the request.

I looked back to the panel to press the button, but floor 9 didn't exist. I was so confused, I had counted the numbers, I was sure of it. Derek must have made it disappear. But the panel didn't look any different to before. I can't explain it, looking at it, I would have sworn blind nothing was wrong with it even once I knew, but floor 9 didn't exist. Derek could see my frustration. It was like the building was now playing tricks on me.

He walked me out of the lift and sat me down on the bottom of the stairs before he finally began to speak.

"The building is like a living organism. It can seal off parts of the world, and it can open up others you never could have imagined. When those awful people burned that whole floor of residents I was devastated.

"Some wonderful people lived in those flats, both of the usual and unusual variety. But those people had no limit to their cruelty. Whole families burned alive, it was a tragedy that made me so angry.

"I felt so guilty when it happened. I can predict what some of our more tricky residents are going to do and make sure I'm there to help. But those people were nothing to do with this place. I couldn't see what they were planning, so I couldn't stop it."

At this point I noticed one of the hairless cats had sat between us, Derek looked at it with tears brimming in his eyes, he stroked it and it moved on to his lap. Dereks fingers didn't burn at all. He continued.

"When it happened the building used its defence mechanisms and sealed off the entirety of the floor. It stopped the fire from spreading and kept the perpetrators there, to die by their own hands.

"The building only allowed the floor to be unsealed once they were dead.

"It took about a week before those awful people turned up again. Asking for sugar at people's doors, the first few let them in. It was so difficult, so many residents burned alive that I was having to use their remains for my garden just to hide the dead. The entire community were terrified and grieving for those that died.

"No matter how hard I tried I still couldn't predict them, or see them, so I took Prudence, who at the time seemed a perfectly reasonable woman, to the burned out floor.

"Floor 9, however, had been sealed again. There was no button in the lift, and it always skipped on the stairs. Only no one had noticed. This building really is a magnificent creature."

I stared at him in amazement through the whole story, I was exhausted but my brain was working in overdrive to process what he was telling me. I had started to stroke the cat too, my fingers did burn, but I didn't flinch, I found it's company comforting. He carried on.

"I went back later that night and took the stairs again, alone this time. I think my intentions were clear and the stairs allowed me access to floor 9 for the first time since just after the fire.

"I bought Prudence to the floor within the hour. The stairs had stopped skipping floor 9 for me, although I later learned that when Prudence had tried alone she was not allowed access.

"We explored the floor, walking amongst the remnants of our dead friends belongings. Eventually, we came across one of the soulless arsonists, roaming the halls. It appears that's where they spend their time when they aren't out terrorising the residents trying to claim more victims.

"He was disturbed and disoriented to see anyone not like them on that floor. He twitched a little and spat out the sugar line as if it was an automatic response, I almost felt sorry for him. He claimed to come from flat 66. More were approaching behind him.

"Prudence was terrified, she was starting to sweat profusely and back away from the man, but it didn't cool her down, he was burning her slowly. I felt nothing; See, the stranger things in life just don't seem to affect me, I've never known why. Sometimes I even just know how to deal with them, like it's programmed into me. On this new playing field, in their domain. I knew what to do.

"I grabbed the man and ran him down to flat 66, 4 doors from where we were standing. I threw him into the flat and waited. The other arsonists were approaching.

"The man tried to exit the flat, that was doorless after the wooden doors all burned to cinders in the fire. But as he reached to door something stopped him. He couldn't leave, no matter how hard he tried, or how much he screamed.

"Prudence lit up, she grabbed hold of one that had tried to kill her friend, Molly. She remembered the flat number she had claimed to be from and repeated my actions, with a lot more sweating and some winces of pain. It worked again.

"Prudence wanted to go after the rest, but as they got closer I could see the blisters forming on parts of her body, I dragged her out of the hallway and back into the stairwell. We ran.

"She begged me to take her back, kept telling me that the stairs wouldn't let her, that it was too dangerous. The residents had started to learn not to let them in and we had no casualties at all after we trapped the first two. Don't get me wrong, it's a problem I was intending to deal with, but it was around that time that we first learned the council would be building that monstrosity over the top of my garden." He gestured to the window that just showed some of the neighbouring tower block.

"This left me not at my best, my intuition was failing me when a few months after that, I allowed Prudence and Molly to heard the creatures from the lift to floor 9. It's one of my biggest regrets. I should never have walked them up there. But I didn't know she was going to burn them all. She didn't give me a chance to reason.

"I became mistrusting of everyone and distracted. Not long after I went away for a long while. So I guess the arsonists remained and now they're threatening you.

"Tomorrow I will go. I will fix the mess I left behind. I am so sorry it's affected you so badly, I'd love to meet these twins. They sound incredibly brave."

"They are." I finally interrupted, "And I want to be there tomorrow. I want to lock Natalia away for good."

"I can't allow it. You'll be attacked." He cut me off entirely. I let it drop instantly but in the back of my mind I knew I would be there, no matter what.

I went to sleep that night with my mind reeling. I wondered where Derek slept and if he even needed to.

The next morning I left my flat early, passed the man on floor 5, and sat at waited on the steps at floor 8. I tested it of course, and just like anticipated, ascending any higher took me straight to floor 10. Or 11 depending on if you hit a skip. So I returned to floor 8, and I waited.

Derek hadn't indicated what time he was coming. But I was ready. I would wait all day and night if I had to. But luckily I didn't.

Derek was climbing the stairs at around 11am, I had already been there for 3 hours but it had been worth it. He looked particularly unimpressed to see me. His face still looked kind though, even with the sour expression.

"I can't stop you can I?" He sighed, sounding resigned in his tone.

"Not for anything."

"You have to promise to stay back. If you get your girl approaches you can do what you need to do, but you have to stay back." He pleaded.

I nodded and stood up. We ascended the stairs and for the very first time in my new life here I saw the big plastic sign saying 9. The floor that didn't exist.

As we pushed through the door it was like entering an entirely new world. Everything was black. Burned to carbon. You could smell nothing but charcoal. Literally nothing but empty shells of homes and flakes of what used to be sentimental objects remained. It was devastating to witness.

If you've ever visited a mass grave site you'll understand partly how I was feeling. It was sickening, to think of all the lives needlessly lost. But I didn't get time to think.

Natalia walked towards me. Flying down the hallway.

"How the fuck did you get here?!" She screamed. Her eyes were wide and angry, I started to feel hotter already.

Derek grabbed my arm and pulled me next to him. Making sure to keep a tight hold of my arm.

"Where do you live?" Derek asked her, I started to back away as the sweat dropped from my brow. I desperately wanted to shout out the number, but I couldn't. I was so hot, I wasn't functioning properly, everything became so overwhelming I couldn't remember what Georgia had said, what flat Natalia had claimed to come from.

"I'm not that stupid. I saw what happened to them." She gestured over her shoulder to what must have been flat number 66, where a man laid on the floor, breathing but looking broken. Just existing in that room. Prudence had been creative with the truth yet again. She didn't kill them, you can't kill them.

What had Georgia said? I racked my brains as I felt the skin on my face start to sting. I imagined her melting away, it was happening to me. I was next.

And then, as my hair started to singe at the ends, it came to me.

"71!" I screamed as loud as I could. I could barely see as Derek grabbed her and ran towards me with her. She was clawing at his eyes and face screaming at him to let go. But he didn't burn. He just kept hold of her. When he approached flat 71 he beckoned me over.

"You do it. Then get off of this floor." He was blunt but reasonable, I complied.

I pushed hard. There was nothing but anger in her eyes, she pushed my face hard with her hand as I got her to cross the boundary into flat 71. I felt my skin sizzle and blister. My whole face was in agony, but I didn't stop pushing.

Watching Natalia try to fight her way out of a door that didn't exist was both satisfying and humorous. The others had started to approach at the sound of the commotion. I lingered, hoping to watch her suffer but derek shot me one look and I knew. It was time to go,

I ran out the corridor and back into the stairwell. I stopped for longer than I probably should have. But I knew I might not get to see that 9 again and it would be worth it. I waited for Derek on floor 9s stairwell. I couldn't help but imagine the cultists burning to death the first time around.

I could hear angry screams faintly from inside the corridor, they made me worry about Derek but I knew that really I didn't need to. It took a while, but he eventually left the corridor and joined me in the stairwell.

He didn't say anything, he just looked at me and the third degree burns across my face. He didn't need to speak, I knew he'd fixed the problem.

We walked silently back down the stairs towards my flat. I looked back up at floor 9, knowing the building would seal it off for good. It took a few floors to reach floor 7 and I invited Derek in for a cup of tea. He rejected it, saying he wanted to go visit some old friends.

Despite my injuries I couldn't help but smile, something I'd done was going to help these residents. I stood at my door and watched Derek walk away, pleased that there was some true good in this building.

After a few steps down the hallway, Derek started to fade, almost like a cgi ghost in a movie, every step he became more transparent. I felt my stomach turn again, like it had outside the lift. I ran out to follow him. I called after him but by the time I had reached where he'd been he was gone. I walked the entire corridor to the window at the back. I looked out the window into the small concrete heavy garden and hoped to see him sat on the memorial bench.

I didn't see him, instead I saw Prudence. Hacking at my tiny planted patch with shears.

When I saw her out the window, garden shears being gripped by both hands and a maniacal expression on her face, I just stood still.

I was frozen to the spot in shock. I felt no pain at all from the burn on my face, everything was numb. The relief of eradicating the imposter neighbours and the joy at finding a friend in Derek was hacked away in an instant. Just like every leaf from my shrubs. Why would she do this? What had I ever done to her?

Every question possible crossed my mind. I could feel the frustration bubbling inside me, everything about this place just threw up question after question and for every answer I got, there were ten new questions waiting to be asked. At that moment in time though, only one was truly important.

How did Prudence know?

I thought about Terri and her telephone conversations. I didn't want to think that the sweet lady I thought Terri had turned out to be would do that, but it did cross my mind. I thought of Ian the postman, I'd had bad vibes from him for a while, maybe he'd seen Derek coming up the stairs while on his rounds that morning.

I stood there frozen pondering all these things until I saw Prudence collapse onto the memorial bench sobbing, head in her hands. She was surrounded by the remains of my attempt at a garden with the shears laid out on the floor.

The stairs were kind to me on the way down, it took 4 flights to make it to the bottom. I ran down the corridor and out the back entrance of the block, no idea what I was going to say.

"Prudence!" Was all I could manage. Nice one, Kat.

She sat bolt upright before turning and standing quicker than I thought it possible for an old lady.

"You evil, stupid little girl! Do you have any idea what you've done?!" She screamed, so much animation in her face that the spaces between her wrinkles pulsated like veins on an angry weightlifter.

"Me?! You think I'm evil! You left that shitty note hidden, missing everything I need to know and got my boyfriend killed! And what you're doing to your own -" I screamed, tears beginning to roll, before she interrupted me.

"Don't you dare talk about her!" Her voice cracked and she broke down again, this time falling to her knees, twigs and leaves sticking to the bottom of her dress.

I didn't know what else to do. So I sat down on the floor. I knew that it was probably a bad idea, this woman couldn't be trusted and I hadn't forgotten that, but seeing an old lady crying on the cement floor still made me feel awful.

"How did you know about the garden?" I asked her calmly, trying to change my approach.

She shoved a crumpled up piece of paper into my hand, she didn't look at me, her eyes remained on the floor.

Dear Prudence, I couldn't exist knowing what I'd done. I should never have told you about it. The last two won't grow stronger, she was never theirs to begin with. But I have to end her suffering.

I knew what he had done as soon as I finished the note. Lyla, or what was left of her, was gone for good. Of all the creatures only Jamie's killers from the lift remained. That's how Derek had spent the few hours I'd slept between our encounters.

"This is all your fault." She sniffed. "My whole family are gone because of you."

That hurt a lot. I trembled as I tried to speak but I always really hated confrontation and I could feel myself starting to glitch.

"H..how can you say that! I saw... her and she was trapped in a tiny cage eating dog food and small animals. Your family died in that lift. Just like my Jamie." I may have struggled to get my words out, but I wasn't about to let Prudence Hemmings blame me for her decisions. Lyla was better off dead than what she was, however awful that may sound.

"What happened to your face?" Prudence growled at me. "Take you to visit floor number 9? He did this to her in the first place, not me! And now he's disfigured you!" She was spinning things. I could feel throbbing as she mentioned my face, I really should have had medical attention.

"This isn't his fault! You messed him up and he did that to her because of you! You told me that yourself." I tried ferociously to defend Derek but something inside me still felt uncomfortable about what he had done. I couldn't help it, Lyla was an innocent little girl who shouldn't have been punished for Prue's mistakes. This whole thing was such a mess.

"I was grieving! And then I had her back for all those years, and then I lost Bernie, and then my home and now I have to grieve for her all over again." Prudence continued to cry, but softer. I looked around at the chaos she created and up at the block my boyfriend had died in and rolled my eyes in disbelief that she could be so selfish. She continued.

"Let me tell you about Lyla. She was a beautiful little girl. As I mentioned before, I have two other older children, they've had many other grandchildren, however I hadn't spoken to my eldest two in years even before what happened with Lyla.

"Lyla was my first opportunity to get to know one of my grandchildren. Bernie adored her too, always reading her stories and sneaking her sweets.

"I begged my son to allow her to stay. My children were all incredibly ungrateful, they had it easy growing up and still resented me. I gave them a good, strict upbringing but they didn't appreciate it. They said I was a cruel mother. Lyla's dad was the only one I spoke to, but our relationship still wasn't that of a typical loving mother and son. But she was a second chance.

"It was a miracle when he agreed. I was more shocked he had convinced his wife to allow it. That awful harlot of a woman never liked me, although I didn't like her either.

"They refused to speak to me after everything, I haven't heard from them since. They had more grandchildren I'll never meet. I knew at the time my relationships with any of my children were over for good. So when Derek gave me a solution I took it.

"I wasn't entirely truthful when we first spoke. I said I hadn't wanted this, but I was desperate. There was never a way to bring her back safely. Derek explained what she would become to me. He was initially trying to put me off even trying to get her back. I knew exactly what I was getting myself into.

But I couldn't pass up the idea of my beautiful little Lyla, needing her grandma forever. I suppose I was too ashamed to admit it before. But why should I be ashamed?

"My altercation with Derek happened after she was back, when he tried to kill her the first time. Spouting the same things on that note, what kind of monster wants to kill a little girl? That's why I trashed the garden. He said he wasn't coping with the news of the new block when he suggested it, that he shouldn't have told me it was even possible and she had to die. I hid her until the bulldozers came in.

"When he disappeared I thought I was safe to spend the rest of my life with her.

"Bernie hated me. Spending time with Lyla was all I lived for, I grew to love her how she was."

I felt sick. Listening to Prudence talk bought up so many repressed feelings about Jamie. I hadn't had time to grieve or process anything, I missed him terribly. My old life and my old future felt a million miles away.

I was relieved to know that Derek hadn't tricked Prudence, or even intended to create rat-Lyla. He was truly good.

"But she didn't get to have a life. You lived for her but she wasn't really living. How could a sane person do that to their own flesh and blood?" I retorted.

"You have no idea. This place can make you do irrational things! But she had a life! She had me. It's all she needed." She was certainly right about the building and irrational actions, the pain intensifying on my face throbbed in agreement. But I was still convinced she had lost it Dr Frankenstein style where rat-Lyla was concerned.

She had stopped crying. Her rage levels were rising again. I tried to tell her that it wasn't really the child she'd known, but she seemed to have grown an entirely new attachment to the creature that replaced what she lost.

Every rational argument I gave was met with increasing levels of screaming. She got less coherent as she went on. The argument was going nowhere, we went back and forth for what felt like forever.

After a while she started to get closer to me. We had both stood up by this point and despite her haggard and frail appearance, Prudence was truly frightening. She looked unhinged.

Her words were no longer going in, I was overwhelmed and had too many thoughts rushing through my mind to process her ranting. I took a few steps back clearing a small distance between us.

By this point, out of the corner of my eye, I could see neighbours in windows of the block, watching the altercation outside, Prue's screaming had bought a lot of attention. It was bright and I couldn't see well but I turned to scan the windows and did recognise Eddie and Ellie watching from their bedroom, trying to wave at me.

They frantically waved and pointed, I tried waving back and gesturing to them, but they kept pointing at me.... why were they pointing?

Then I heard it, the garden shears scraping against the ground as Prudence picked them up and charged towards me. "You ignorant little bitch! You aren't even listening. You're don't deserve my home! You killed her!"

The twins had been telling me to turn around, I shouldn't have taken my eyes off her.

Luckily, unlike my earlier shock when I had first seen her, I didn't freeze. My fight or flight instincts kicked in and I ran faster than I ever have before. I burst back into the building and heard neighbours on the bottom floor lock their doors in a symphony of bolts clicking.

I couldn't blame them. Prudence wasn't far behind me and I wouldn't want to take her on in her current state if given a choice. But it didn't stop me pounding on their doors begging someone to call the police, although something told me that in this building that wasn't going to happen. I ran up the stairs, still being followed by her.

By the second floor most were still locked but a few had come out of their homes, armed with a variety of heavy objects. Even in a crisis, I couldn't fault the community spirit here. I ran another flight of stairs that became two but still lead me to floor 3 and then to the back of the corridor. I pounded on Terri's door.

My heart was racing but when I turned Prue was nowhere to be seen. I was hoping the people who came out on floor 2 had stopped her but something was odd. I hadn't heard any commotion. This wasn't the end of it.

Eddie and Ellie hugged me tight as Terri let me in and bolted the door shut quickly behind me. I told her about what had happened. She couldn't believe what Prue had done. It turned out no one knew about Lyla.

I was edgy for the first hour. But Prue had disappeared. Terri helped to clean up my burn and put some cold compress on it. She offered to take me to the hospital, but I couldn't.

I was too shaken up from what had just happened, I couldn't face trying to explain how I'd sustained my injuries and I still hadn't reported Jamie missing. He still hadn't had any messages from his family, and work had given up calling, but his friends had started. They were harassing me non stop but I had been too distracted to come up with a decent lie.

It had been a week since I moved in and it wouldn't be long until people realised something was seriously wrong. My conversations with my family had been short, with me insisting they didn't visit until we were "unpacked and set up".

On top of a murderous old lady and an untold amount of abnormal issues the real world problems were starting to creep up on me.

I sat with Terri for hours, drinking tea and chatting to her. It started to get dark and Eddie and Ellie came into the living room after playing in their room for a while. The voids replaced the big, brown puppy dog eyes again and their claws looked especially sharp, but to me they were still adorable.

Their transformation prompted me to head back to my flat, it was late. I needed to work out what to do next and how to dig myself out of this giant hole. I couldn't just keep planting gardens. I needed to do this myself.

I wandered up the stairs, they went on for a while, but nothing too horrific. I passed the man on floor 5, nodding politely and continuing my ascent. I wondered if he'd received the letter of concern yet, he was a little unsettling.

When I got to my floor Mr Prentice was making his animal noises again. I smiled, which hurt my face. After all the madness I was starting to find the seemingly benign horrors of this building oddly comforting.

I reached my flat and turned the key in the door before bolting myself in like Terri had.

I could feel something wasn't right the moment I entered. The flat was in chaos, which was nothing new because we had only moved in a week ago and I had been too preoccupied to unpack. But things were out of place, the organised chaos wasn't how I'd left it.

Then she strolled out of my kitchen. Prudence Hemmings. She was carrying a large carving knife in her left hand this time, she had prepared for her attack. She smiled at me and lifted her right hand, jingling a set of keys that she had entered with.

I turned to unbolt the door but she grabbed me from behind before I could turn the handle to open it and held the knife to my throat.

"I will kill you for what you've done." She whispered into my ear.

Without a second thought I leaned forward just a tad and swung my head back as hard as I could. I couldn't believe that it worked but I must have broken her nose. Prudence dropped the knife and clutched her face, blood streaming between her fingers.

I went to grab the knife but she was closer and doing the same thing. I had no other option but to run again. I grabbed the door handle and turned it to exit the flat as she tried to stab me. I was mostly out the door, but her arm was close enough to reach my side, and I felt the knife pierce the side of my torso.

I was in searing pain but I didn't stop running. As I stepped outside my flat I could still hear Mr Prentice's noises flooding the entire hallway. It gave me an idea.

I ran towards his door, Prudence stabbing at me frantically with blood gushing from her nose. A few got me as I stopped outside flat 48, the pain was awful and I could feel myself starting to drift out of consciousness, I was losing a lot of blood.

I would give my last breath to end Prue. So running on nothing but adrenaline I knocked hard on flat 48, and shouted.

"Mr Prentice, can you help me?"

It was a shot in the dark, I didn't know what would happen but I had to try something.

She had stopped stabbing at me, she was enjoying watching me bleed out slowly from the wounds she had already inflicted.

I was incredibly weak, and I lost consciousness not long after that, but before I did I heard heavy clunking from the inside of flat 48, chain locks being released and bolts being undone. I watched with blurry vision as a large creature, that I can only describe as a cross between a bull and a wolf, charged out of the flat and trampled the old witch to death. I heard hear bones crunch just as slipped away.

I woke up in the hospital a day later. My parents were there as were the police, apparently I had been found just outside the tower block with my handbag missing, by a neighbour who had been watching from a window as it happened.

The police told me that the person had seen the mugging out of their window. They had seen two men approach me and Jamie, splash something in my face, attack us, and when he tried to fight back, they bundled my boyfriend into a car, which the police had been searching for to no avail. He was officially missing.

I was baffled, but grateful that Jamie's disappearance wouldn't be blamed on me. I went along with it and made out that he had ghosted work to enjoy our first week living together.

I had been stabbed 4 times but thankfully in all the right places, if there is such a thing as the right place to be stabbed. I lost a lot of blood but I was going to be fine. They were all shallow. They assumed my burns were chemical and happened during the mugging too.

The police promised to keep us updated but they still can't find the car. They never will. I wish the story the police had been told were true, it left some hope for Jamie.

My parents weren't keen on me returning to the flat after what happened, they said the area was too rough, and that I was living proof it wasn't safe. They offered to collect my stuff for me. I insisted though, told them that I wanted to see how I felt and they couldn't force me not to.

I was released from the hospital two days after I woke up in there. When I arrived at the flats, it was strange. It felt like home. Despite everything, something about this place drew me to it.

I took the lift for the first time since Jamie had died. I had to, I wasn't recovered enough to conquer too many stairs just yet, and I couldn't guarantee they'd be kind to me. I smiled at the lack of a button 9 and winced at the thought of the creatures.

As I reached my corridor I saw Mr Prentice walking along with his newspaper and milk in a bag. He turned to me and smiled.

"I wasn't sure you'd come back. It's nice to see you're up and walking." He made small talk as if I hadn't seen him literally trample a woman to death a couple of days prior. The whole experience had been so disorienting that I started to wonder if I really had been mugged and had dreamed the note and everything that's happened since. Then he said something that confirmed everything was real.

"I never liked that woman. But you've got a real friend in the lady downstairs." He winked at me and turned the key in his door.

I got into mine and sat down on the second hand sofa. I felt empty but relieved. With Prue and the imposter Qneighbours all gone the only threat left were the creatures in the lift, who were only a threat between 1.11 and 3.33.

Maybe I could start to live a semi peaceful life in this place.

Terri knocked on the door, my handbag, that I had left at hers before Prue attacked in my flat, on her arm. Mr Prentice was right, she was a good friend.

I thanked her for what she'd done and for what she'd told the police. She said it was pure luck that she found me, she had been walking up to return the bag and found me and Prue sprawled out on the floor. I asked what happened to Prue's body and she just pointed in the direction of flat 48.

"He was eating it." She said.

It's been a few days now and I've decided to stay. I can't imagine going back to complete normality after everything I've been through and I've grown quite attached to some of the buildings quirks.

I tried replanting the garden with the help of the twins. I ripped a few stitches doing it and Derek never came. I think he's gone for good.

I'm ready to fully embrace life here. The last few days have been hard but there's some time to breathe. Along with the time to breathe, came the time to grieve and I've been grieving badly for Jamie.

This leads me to the last thing I have to tell you.

Last night I laid in bed, plagued with thoughts of Prue and everything that had happened, but what I couldn't get to leave my mind was how much happiness it bought her to have Lyla back. It infected every part of my thoughts. I know you all warned me not to, but I did it. I repeated the ritual.

I haven't caught him yet, but I've heard the scratching. Jamie's back.

It's been a long time since I moved into this apartment, picked up that damn note from the tenant before me and unlocked a world of demon window cleaners and vile, rat-like creatures that live in the communal lift.

If you don't know me, my name is Kat and months ago I found myself living in a home filled with unusual occurrences, you can start here if you want to know more. If any of you do remember me, I'm back again, begging for your help.

I don't even really know how to begin this but I think I owe you all an apology. You warned me, gave me advice and tried to stop me from making the biggest damn mistake of my life. I didn't listen. Instead, I let my emotional immaturity get the better of me. I really wish I'd listened.

I'm sorry I ghosted you all. I was embarrassed. I know I disappeared without a word and for that I really am sorry. I can't blame any of you for comparing me to Prudence.

The events following my moving into the block had me in such an emotional place. You have to understand, it was a lot to take in, no one can be truly equipped to live somewhere like this, it was bound to catch up with me eventually.

The months since I last updated you have been hellish and now I've found myself in further trouble. It wasn't long after my last post that I caught Jamie. I enticed him into the flat with cat food left out by the door. I ran the risk of being mauled alive by the remaining lift creatures to capture my monstrosity of a boyfriend.

He was smaller than I thought. I expected him to be much larger than Lyla because of the age difference, but he wasn't. Maybe as big as a large dog. Something I missed about Jamie more than anything was his once huge stature, an odd quality to consider, I know, but he was 6'3 and his cuddles felt like the safest place I'd ever been.

Looking at the small, deformed, humanoid creature, hunched over, crunching on cat biscuits with its sharp, jagged teeth tucked under a grotesque rodent nose made me feel sick. I instantly knew that I'd made a mistake, that the love of my life was gone for good, but that thing had Jamie's eyes, they were unmistakable.

Suddenly Prudence's need to keep Lyla around made sense. I could see an entire life in those eyes that had been ripped away from me and I was too selfish to let it go. I suppose in that respect I'm exactly like her. Exactly what you all think. A monster.

I fashioned a place to keep him hidden in the large built in wardrobe of our bedroom. It wasn't like Lyla's cage was - cold and restrictive - it had space, lights and photos of us before everything happened.

It was like a walk in wardrobe, ironically it was something that originally attracted me to the flat. The only similarity to Lyla's tiny cage was the large padlock that secured it.

I tried everything to bring that little piece of Jamie left inside the creature out, I really did. I sat with him for hours, talking about our lives, reminiscing and trying to feed him his favourite meals. He would make awful raspy noises when I spoke to him at first; grunting and wheezing as if he were struggling to breathe.

I received more than a few bites and scratches and he refused to eat anything that I gave him, opting for scraps instead.

I thought about killing him. A lot. It's a position I never thought I'd be in when we were searching for a home together and at some point I realised I consider it daily. I've come close to attempting it more than a few times but every time I look at those damn eyes I can't. I'm weak.

So I've tried to cope. I've taken the best care of him that I can. I've gotten involved with my neighbours, I babysat Terri's twins twice a week at her place while she slept and I'm actively involved in the residents committee.

I never told anyone what I did, aside from all of you. There's only two people I feel I could admit my mistakes to; one was locked in my wardrobe, whilst the other was seemingly gone forever.

Despite this, I kept the garden immaculate in the hope that one day Derek would return and it kept me sane. I even managed to revive one of the shrubs that Prudence tried to butcher during her attack, but no matter how much love I gave, it just wouldn't flourish and the bench remained empty.

All this whilst I kept my deepest shame in my bedroom cupboard.

Regardless of all the anguish this place has bought me there's nowhere else in the world I would consider home anymore. I've never felt more connected to a place in my life. So I've stayed, I've coped and I kept busy.

The tower block may be special, and it's residents may often live in another world but we weren't completely immune to the outside. Government lockdown hit us recently too. With lockdown came the loss of routine as we knew it.

The whole building went into chaos and I was no exception. Being trapped in the flat with him all day undid months worth of self distraction and denial in a matter of hours. I'd never been more aware of what an abhorrent thing I'd done than those first few weeks.

The other residents were going through their own crises. Terri hadn't slept in weeks, we FaceTimed regularly and I missed her and the kids terribly, every time I spoke to her she looked awful. There was wailing at night, banging at all hours of the day and a whole buildings worth of inhabitants struggling.

When they deemed window cleaning non essential it sent that particular pest into chaos; he still appeared on the balconies but instead of the relentless niceties he just scratched desperately at the window. I tried not to open the curtains I finally got round to buying a few months ago, I couldn't take his pleading eyes.

The residents committee tried to put things in place to keep the block going. We were running zoom meetings and a number of us started collecting essentials for the elderly and vulnerable residents of our floors. Having socially distanced chats with them from the corridor as we drop off. To be honest, it was as much a lifeline for me as the elderly residents... anything to get out of the flat, away from him.

I was allocated three residents from my floor, living in flats 48, 51 and 43.

Percy and Sylvia live in flat 43, they're next door to me and generally very pleasant. Sylvia has a breathing problem so they had to isolate. They're older, but very independent, most of the time they just needed a few essentials and didn't want to chat.

Mr Prentice from flat 48 was easy too, he'd been an intensely private man since I'd known him and lockdown hadn't changed that. He did seem to make more of the animalistic noises I'd come to know him for, but I think being trapped inside would do that to anyone with his particular afflictions. Since he trampled Prudence I'd been much more tolerant of the sounds anyway.

The only thing I really learned about him from doing his shopping is that he loves a drink and there's often a bottle of whiskey in the bag he carries home with his newspaper inside.

Once a week he asked me to drop off an envelope of cash to the pub he drinks in, The Pickled Gnome. He said that the owner is a good friend and he worries about her getting by financially with the pub shut at the moment. It warmed my heart. He's such a lovely man.

Flat 51 was different from the other two. I hadn't ever met the occupant, despite having lived here for almost a year now. I'd seen a young man going in and out occasionally but he never stayed long.

The flat was occupied by Ms Esther Beckman, a blind, elderly widow. The man visiting was her son, who had his own profoundly disabled child and couldn't support his mother through the pandemic.

The first time I knocked on her door I was nervous. I wasn't sure why, I just felt uncomfortable trying to help someone I knew nothing about. I knocked and stood back, it took a few moments for Ms Beckman to answer.

Esther had wild greyed hair, she hadn't cut it like most older ladies tend to, she'd allowed it to grow and it had formed spectacular waves. She was well presented and I'm embarrassed to say I didn't expect that from a blind person. She wore a satin blue dressing gown over the top of a white day dress and had a pair of comfortable looking slippers on, that perfectly matched the colour of her dressing gown.

"Are you the girl Molly phoned about? I told her I'm fine but the interfering old bat insisted." She greeted me with, rummaging in the pocket of her dressing gown for a packet of cigarettes, I watched her open the pack and light the last one.

Her brash attitude didn't put me off, I liked people with a bit of tenacity and I wasn't particularly fond of the residents committee's chairperson, Molly Thompson, either.

"I'm Kat. Although I'm sure Molly will have referred to me as Katherine... not my name by the way. Anyway, I'm happy to pick up anything that you need, and I'm here if you just want to chat." I stumbled a little as I spoke. Esther laughed.

"See, even interfering in something as personal as your name. I never liked that woman." She paused and took a few drags of her cigarette, hesitating before she continued.

"I don't need much. If you could grab me a pack of cigarettes and a microwave meal every day I'm fine. I don't like to ask, but my son can't come and without a smoke I think I'd go potty." She took another long drag of her cigarette and reached into her pocket to pull out some change and a twenty pound note. She winced a little as she asked for help, it clearly wasn't something she was used to.

"Throw me the packet, so I know which brand to get." I answered.

Ester threw me the empty carton after shoving her money inside and I barely caught it. She smoked the same brand I did so I reached into my pocket and pulled out 3 or 4 individual cigs and tossed them back. They hit the floor. Shit. She's blind, I thought, mortified.

"There's a few cig's on the floor in front of you... sorry... I didn't think. But they're the same as yours, they should keep you going until I get back." As I said that she smiled properly for the first time.

"You're alright, aren't you. Thanks. Before you go, just a bit of advice for you, take the route through the park instead of round." She answered.

I thought it was strange but everything in the tower was. I told her that I would and said my goodbyes. The stairs that constantly skipped weren't kind to me that trip, the 7 flights became 18 and by the time I reached the bottom my thighs were burning.

I exited the building and thought about Esthers suggestion. The route around the park was quicker, but I decided a pleasant wander through the trees would only keep me away from Jamie for longer so without any further hesitation I took her advice. My legs were sore from the stairs but it was a beautiful day.

About halfway through the park I heard a loud crash and the screeching of car tyres followed by screaming. I sped up and when I finally reached the exit I turned the corner towards the shop and the source of the noise. It was utter carnage. A car had slammed into a motorbike at a zebra crossing and caused a devastating accident. Crowds gathered, with multiple people on the phone to emergency services.

I was shaken entering the shop, I couldn't stop thinking about the poor people involved in the crash. Esthers words echoed in my mind as I thought about the fact that had I taken the usual route I would have probably been crossing at the crash site as it happened.

The realisation that Ms Beckman's suggestion had saved my life sent my mind into overdrive. I know that many of you think I learned nothing from my experiences moving into the block, but I did learn that there are no coincidences here. She had known exactly what was going to happen.

I left the shop and chose to go back through the park, I was leaving nothing to chance, but it frustrated me that I couldn't get back home quicker. When I reached the building I flung the main door open and started to climb the stairs. They must have sensed my urgency, because they only made me climb 4 flights this time.

I stared at the numbers on the flat door. 51. Why had I never met her before? Why had she been hiding in her flat? I placed the shopping bag close to the door, rapped hard on it with my knuckles and shouted.

"Ms Beckman!" A few moments passed. I knocked again.

"Give me a chance to open the door Kat. And please. It's Essie. Or would you prefer I called you Katherine?" She opened the door and replied, scoffing as she said Katherine.

"How did you know?" I demanded.

"Know what?"

"You know what. You saved my life. The crash!"

"I didn't save your life. I knew that if you walked around the park you'd be in trouble. I had no idea there would be a crash, I just made a suggestion. You saved your own life when you took it." She said flippantly.

"So you can see the future?" I asked, desperate for answers.

"Don't you dare! Blind woman... second sight. My whole life the residents of this block have tried to reduce me to a walking cliche and I'm not doing it anymore! I don't see anything, I've been blind since birth. I've just always had a particularly accurate instinct." She spoke with passion. I could see why she locked herself away, if the other residents knew about her talents I'm sure she was hounded.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you. I haven't been here long, these things still surprise me. Thank you for sharing your instinct. I would've been squished if you didn't."

"Well I'm glad you weren't." She reached down and picked up the shopping bag, taking out the packet of cigarettes to open and light one. "Thanks for this, she said rustling the bag with her fingers. What flat do you live in?"

"Number 42." I answered. Essie beamed.

"Hah! I overheard someone saying that the old witch was dead but I wasn't sure I believed them. I thought Prudence Hemmings would ride out a nuclear apocalypse like the cockroach she was." I cringed at the sound of her name. I try not to think about her too much, or what she put me through. I try to focus on what I love about the block. Essie could tell she struck a nerve. "Did I hit a sore point?" She continued, noting my discomfort.

"I wasn't a fan of Prudence either. The idea of her coming back with cockroach antennae's in the night will keep me awake now." I answered, trying to lighten the mood.

"You're funny. If antenna would've benefitted that woman she'd have done anything to grow them. It's nice to have some young blood in this place. It was all starting to get a bit old and stale. Take care Kat." We said our goodbyes and she closed the door.

That night I thought about Essie. I imagined introducing her to the twins, I was sure she would love them, and I thought of trying to get her involved in the block again when all this was over. It made me smile. Unfortunately, my happy thoughts were soon interrupted by Jamie.

I sat on my bed with a cup of tea and could hear him from the cupboard, scratching and wheezing. I went and opened it up to stroke him a few times. Saliva dripped from his sharp teeth down his deformed jaw. It disgusted me.

I shut my eyes and tried to imagine my once gorgeous boyfriend, arms round me on the mattress on the floor of the flat for the one night that we got to spend here together. I wished every day to go back to that, but it would never happen. When I opened my eyes there he was... that monster.

I got close to Essie over those first few weeks. I got her cigarettes and a microwave meal every day and we chatted at the door. After a few days I was taking my morning cup of tea to sit in the corridor and talk to her. I started making enough food for two so that she could have something home cooked. She hated my lasagna, but she was grateful.

She had lost her husband young, not long after she had her son and never dated again. Her life was fascinating. She'd spent years as a social worker before she retired. She said that her instinct helped her give great advice to her clients and she'd managed to help a lot of people out of bad situations. Essie may have been older, but she was full of life.

I asked her why I never saw her, why she never came to committee meetings or got involved. As I suspected, she'd grown sick of the whole block hounding her for predictions about their lives. She told me that once Molly had begged her to tell her the gender of her unborn grandchild before the child's mother had found out so that she could hold it over her.

It sounded like it got intense. People were offering to pay for the winning lottery numbers, or the bank details of Bill Gates. They didn't want to listen when she tried to tell them that it wasn't how it worked; so she kept a distance, saw her son and that was about it.

It made me sad, I vowed that even after this lock down was over I was going to keep spending time with Essie. I didn't want to think of anyone hauled up at home all the time without anyone to talk to. I told Terri about her, and she remembered Essie being friends with her parents while she was growing up. Terri told me she'd been a resident forever.

I dropped Essie's shopping at the door and sat down in the corridor to chat as usual one afternoon. We spoke about music and her love of Jazz. It was pleasant. Just before I left she stopped me and told me that she had an instinct that she needed to tell me about. It was unusual, she didn't like to share them and I didn't like to pester, but she insisted it was important.

"Kat, one of your friends needs help. You need to know that it is possible, it won't be easy but if you look hard enough you will find a way."

That was all she said. She claimed it was all she knew, but I think Essie liked to hold things back sometimes. Either way it was cryptic and confusing. I lamented her for it.

"That's all your giving me? What am I supposed to do with that?" I quizzed her.

"Haven't got a fucking clue." She replied lighting yet another cigarette. "I got an instinct and I told you. What more do you want? There's others in this block that would kill for one of Essie Beckman's famous instincts." She laughed and flipped her wild hair mockingly.

I sat in the corridor outside hers for a while, even after she closed the door. I thought about what her instinct could mean.

When I finally gathered up the stomach to enter my flat I thought of Jamie. What if it meant I could help him? What if what I'd done was reversible? What if there was hope?

Or maybe it meant that killing him really was the only way I could help him, and if I looked at myself hard enough I'd finally find the strength to follow through.

I struggled to sleep that night despite trying to go to bed early. Every scratch, wheeze and gasp from the cupboard sent me bolt upright and it took until just after 1am before I finally drifted off.

When I woke in the morning I had 5 missed calls from Terri, 2 from 3am and 3 from that morning. My heart dropped. The kids. I knew Ellie had been going through a stage of trying to get out of the flat and I was terrified something had happened to her.

I could barely hold the phone as I dialled back. Thankfully, she answered quickly.

"Terri! Are you ok? What's happened? Are the kids ok?" I practically screamed at her down the microphone.

"Kat. I'm fine, we're fine! But I have to tell you something." Terri was serious, she was never serious.

"What is it?"

"Last night, Ellie got out. She made it all the way up to your floor to try and visit you by the time I caught up with her. As I was about to march her downstairs I spotted something. It's Ms Beckman, Kat....She was walking into the lift." Her words cut into my soul. I let out a gentle sob.

"I'm sorry Kat. I tried to stop her, I screamed her name but she didn't turn. She just walked in. I couldn't do anymore, I had Ellie there and when I checked the time.... it was quarter past 2. I'm so sorry."

And that's where this predicament begins, in an ironically similar place to before, with me mourning the loss of a loved one to the lift.

he death of Ms Esther Beckman hit me hard. She would've lambasted me for writing her name that way but I feel like it's important that people remember it in its entirety. Essie was special, she deserves that much.

I didn't get to spend long with her, but I was grateful that I'd met her at all. The committee's initiative to shop for vulnerable residents during lockdown had been devised to benefit those residents but I believe that I had needed Essie more than she ever needed me. She'd become my lifeline in that short time. The only distraction from my atrocious misjudgments. And she was gone.

When I got off the phone from Terri I lit up a cigarette for Essie. I quietly sobbed at my fold up table into my cup of tea. I couldn't understand why she would do what she did. Walking into the lift between 1.11 and 3.33 as the creatures who inhabited it were at the height of their frenzy was an unmistakable suicide.

I felt the pang of loss. It, in turn, ignited an emotional muscle memory and I was put back in the place I had been in all those months ago, I felt every emotion I had felt when I stepped into the lift and repeated the ritual. When I sentenced Jamie to a life spent as one of them things.

Essie was the first to perish in the lift since the creatures ripped Jamie apart on the night we moved in. The whole block are aware of the dangers, which ironically, made the risk pretty low. Prudence Hemmings' negligence had lead to my tragedy but there was nothing to explain what had happened to my new friend.

I had only known her for a short time but she really was full of life. She spoke about missing her son and grandson and how we would get to have a cup of tea together that I didn't have to drink in the corridor one day. She had plans. I didn't believe that she'd wanted to die.

Her last words of advice to me rang through my mind.

One of your friends needs help. You need to know that it is possible.

What if she had been talking about herself and she just hadn't realised? I wondered if I'd already failed her. Maybe this wasn't about Jamie at all. Ideas snowballed in my mind for what felt like hours, sat at that table.

My thoughts were eventually interrupted by a knock on the door. It was Terri and the kids. I opened and they stood back a safe distance.

"I'm sorry Kat, I know you probably want to be alone but the the kids knew you'd be sad about Ms Beckman and they wanted to come and see you.

"I've already dropped some bits off to Mr Prentice and the couple next door, so you don't have to worry today."

Terri was sweet. She's been nothing but nice to me right from the start and I loved those kids like my own flesh and blood. She was wrong about me wanting to be alone, just seeing the twins faces lifted my spirits.

"Here's an air hug Kat!" Eddie made a cuddling motion with his arms, gripping the thin air of the corridor. It was adorable. One of the hairless cats that walk the halls played at his feet, being careful not to brush against him so as not to burn his young skin.

"Air hugs back." I answered. "I miss you guys."

"We miss you too! Mum says she can't wait until you can babysit us again! Don't be sad." Ellie added, melting my heart a little. They were growing into such kind and amazing people. You would struggle to believe that they looked like demons all night long and never slept.

I could see that Terri was struggling. She had huge dark circles under her eyes and had yawned multiple times in a short interaction. I felt for her, as much as I love those kids the lack of sleep when I do sit for them is killer. I couldn't imagine having gone as long as we'd been locked down existing on stolen hours here and there like Terri does.

"I can't wait either! We're going to have so much...." I couldn't finish my sentence, my attention was grabbed by an almighty scraping sound coming from inside my flat.

"Are you ok?" Terri started, noticing my sudden silence and change of expression.

"I'm fine." I answered bluntly.

I wasn't. The noise became more frantic in the background.

"What's that noise Kat?" Eddie asked with a childlike innocence. I didn't want to lie him but I had no intention of telling the truth, there was a reason I only babysat in Terri's flat. I couldn't bare for the kids to be at risk or think of me as a monster. The scraping and scratching slowly started to become bangs and crashes.

"I have to go. Thank you for coming to see me. You've made my day guys, you have no idea. I'll see you soon I promise." And with that I shut the door and bolted the latch.

I felt awful. I never wanted to be so rude, they had treated me as family but after dragging them through so much when we first met I didn't want to subject them to him. They didn't deserve to suffer my mistakes.

I ran to the padlocked wardrobe and froze, staring at it for a few minutes. I watched as the central line where the two doors met expanded and contracted with every pound from inside. As if the doors were breathing. He had started to wheeze and grunt uncontrollably. In all these months I hadn't seen behaviour like it. I was genuinely fearful that if I opened the door he would rip me apart, limb from limb.

How the fuck did my life come to that? Hiding from my undead, semi-rodent boyfriend.

I sat down in front of the breathing doors with my back to them in an attempt to keep him in and cried. I felt like that's all I'd done. Cried. The fighting spirit had been knocked out of me. I'd been reduced to a snivelling mess.

The pounding on the door didn't stop. As the time passed he didn't calm down, he just became more desperate, frenzied. I wondered if this was how the ones in the lift had behaved before they tore him to pieces... or as Essie waltzed into their territory. Maybe he was only behaving this way because the others had finally gotten a victim.

My phone went multiple times, it was Terri. I threw the still ringing phone across the floor and held my head in my hands.

It became a pattern. The pounding against my back, the phone ringing. All the noises around me started to become formulaic and repetitive. I wanted it to stop so bad.

"I don't need this right now Jamie." I begged, frustrated. I didn't expect a reply. I'd spoken to him often, trying with everything I could think of to dig out the man I knew, with increasing futility. Regardless, I found it therapeutic to talk.

Not once had I gotten a reply. Until then.

"KA.....KA" he rasped in something that I can't really describe as a proper voice. The pounding had stopped. Only the raspy breaths and sounds of saliva dripping from his mouth remained. "KAA..AT" he wheezed finally, as if in pain.

The tears stopped, I jumped up immediately and fumbled with the key to the padlock to open his prison. As it opened he stared at me, Jamie's eyes looking sad and desperate. I stared back, wiping the tears from my face. For a brief interlude, it wasn't the creature looking back at me, it really was Jamie.

It hurt. For just a moment, I was truly alone with my soulmate. But it didn't last, it couldn't.

His eyes turned from the familiar blue tone to black. It made him look more rodent like, the lack of a distinguishable iris made them beady, just like a rat. I stood still, watching uncomfortably as he stood on his hind legs, stretching out from his usual hunched positioning. I noted the sharp teeth, tucked underneath his deformed and fleshy nose. It was one of the few patches with no fur.

In the blink of an eye he launched himself forward, clawing at my face. I was taken off guard and flew backwards as he made contact. He hesitated on top of me, my face inches from his grotesque snout for a moment, baring his teeth with a lust in those black eyes, spittle dripping onto my face from the tips of his sharpened fangs.

He didn't seem so small anymore.

It gave me just enough time to roll the fire poker I kept up against the wardrobe towards me. Weaponising the entire flat was a rule of Prudence's that, unlike others, had actually proved useful. I gripped it with my right hand as I felt his claws start to penetrate my chest, sending a seering pain through my body.

I plunged the poker into the side of Rat Jamie's neck. Watching as deep crimson blood splattered across the room and the doors of the wardrobe, I started to hyperventilate. He rolled off me in a heavy slump.

Had I killed him? I thought. Was my nightmare finally over? I agonised over the fact I hadn't had the bottle to put him out of his misery but had been able to follow through when he attacked me. I felt like such a selfish person.

Despite this, I was relieved, looking at the blood and the unmoving fur heap on the floor next to me. My hand shook violently, alerting me that I was still holding the poker. I dropped it instantly with a loud clank and took a moment to breathe.

My relief was short lived. The furry patchy heap on the floor started to slowly rise and sink rhythmically. He was breathing. Blood stopped pouring from the wound and he lethargically raised a clawed hand to wipe at the area like an animal would. I took no chances and dragged him back into the cupboard before his strength rebuilt.

I know what you're all thinking and I assure you, it crossed my mind too. Just keep going, keep stabbing until he doesn't wake up. It's a reasonable thought process. I wish it were that simple, but nothing in this building is. If he got up from that attack, stabbing wasn't the answer. He should've been dead... 3 times over with the amount of blood lost. Even if I wanted him dead, at this stage I had no idea how.

It fucked me up. Trying to make connections between his sudden ability to communicate, the attack and Essie's prediction. I didn't even know where to start.

I placed a bowl of cat food next to the weary creature, locked the cupboard and placed the second, unnecessary chair from my fold out table against the centre of the two doors. I was at a total loss and things were spiralling out of control.

I sat on the now singular chair in my living room and smoked. I smoked and I drank tea. I think it must be some kind of ingrained British coping mechanism I've adopted, because whilst it didn't cure my anxiety, it did calm me down.

I texted Terri to tell her everything was fine. I tried to type out the truth... multiple times, but I deleted every single attempt. I didn't know how to tell her I'd lied to her for all this time. So I carried on lying.

She had always told me she was there if I needed to talk. I know she meant it, she was the most loyal friend I'd ever had. Which is why disappointing her was even more terrifying.

After a few hours the screaming started. The inhuman, earth shattering screaming with intervals of low growls. Jamie had come to.

The noises rivalled Mr Prentice's and I wondered if the neighbours would be concerned, but in a block like mine late night screaming and growling is the norm. Jamie could be eating me alive and no one might think to check. Even if they did, there's not much they could do to help. I visualised Percy and Sylvia turning up their television to drown out my screams.

It wasn't screams of pain, it was anger. A battle cry. The attack he'd subjected me to was just a warning. I could feel the disdain coming through the thin wooden barrier separating us. If his behaviour continued, I was going to be dead, for sure.

About 11pm I couldn't take it anymore and I decided I was going to take my government approved exercise and get the fuck out of my four walls.

The halls were alive. The more peaceful of our not so average residents had utilised the quiet time to enjoy their home. The cats frolicked, wrestling and chasing each other up and down the stairs. I wondered if they skipped for the them too and if they'd ever escaped each other by ending up on different floors.

As I descended, the man on floor 5 was as stoic as ever. I smiled, he had become somewhat of a favourite of mine, passing him on the stairs always meant that home was nearby.

"Hi Clive!" I waved at him as I passed. I gave him a different name every time in the hope that one day I would get it right. He didn't respond, didn't even look, but then again he never did. I added Clive to my catalogue of not-names.

The boy who lived in the mirror that runs adjacent to the stairs waved. His hair was tousled and messy and he wore a stained green stripe t shirt. He pulled faces and blew raspberries frantically at me in my reflection. I blew them back, pushing up the centre of my nose to resemble a pig, which was met with silent, roaring laughter.

The stairs were poorly lit at night, but I still managed to count every landing I reached. 9 flights this time. Not bad, I thought, grateful it wasn't any worse. When I reached the bottom I felt a release, like everything bad about my life was locked away in that flat and I was free.

It was chilly outside. I had worn a thin cardigan but I could still feel it in the air. I made a beeline for the bench by the postage stamp of a garden next to the block. It was strange to see the city so empty, usually outside the tower was brimming with activity, but the threat of the virus had left it desolate. As I sat in the cool air I tried to clear my mind.

A good friend once told me that being in nature helps our brains to release serotonin and it's true. The soil will literally make you happier. I tried to embrace the serenity of the nature but it was soon infiltrated by a series of tiny mewing sounds coming from the foliage I had planted against the outer wall of the block.

I fumbled in my pockets for my phone and played around with it until the torch turned on. I approached the greenery with caution, not wanting to spook a cat if it was injured in there.

The fallen bits of foliage crunched underneath my feet as I got closer to the small shrub but the mewing didn't stop, after a gentle search I realised that the sound was coming from 3 tiny kittens.

They were so small, with wrinkled, furless skin. They weren't newborn, their eyes were open and they were relatively alert. They were for certain offspring of the cats that wandered the halls. I was baffled, I'd had no idea they could reproduce. As the largest of the 3 rubbed its head against my hand I felt my fingers singe a little.

I sat with the kittens for ages, they took the opportunity to sit in my lap pretty quickly and I waited for their mother to return. I grew increasingly worried and the 3 little naked kittens seemed to get cold. I set them down on the bench wrapped in my cardigan and started to call for the mother, shivering myself.

About 20 minutes passed and nothing appeared. I wrapped the bundle up a little snugglier for extra warmth and started to search the bushes. They were part of a planted bed that stretched a third of the length of the tower block. I kept an eye on the bench and moved further along the foliage.

I looked hard until I eventually found something. A fair sized ventilation grate was hidden behind one of the shrubs, I hadn't remembered it being there when I planted it. Poking through the metal bars was a vine of some sorts that seemed to be growing upwards through it from the inside, making it impossible to see. The grate lead to what must have been a basement.

A basement that the block didn't have.

I squinted hard, trying to make out the inside of the room but I couldn't see a thing. After a few seconds I noticed that the vine was visibly growing around my feet, twisting over my shoes. It freaked me out, I dropped my phone and started to wriggle my feet free when I heard an almighty yowl coming from inside the grate. It was the kind you heard when cats were fighting outside your window.

I fell backwards and was tripped by the vine but broke the piece that was holding onto me as I kicked at it. The shrub I had moved aside covered up the grate again and the yowling stopped suddenly. I ripped the piece of vine off my foot and grabbed my phone with the other hand. The torch was still beaming into the night sky.

I tried to dig back through the bushes but the grate was gone and so was the rest of the vine. I put the piece that had snapped off in my pocket and returned to the bench. The yowling gave me a bad feeling about the kittens mother, so I scooped them up and carried them back inside with me. They gently mewed the entire way.

I was frozen and covered in goosebumps, it was approaching the time that the lift became dangerous and I wanted to make sure the kittens were ok. So I didn't investigate the downstairs when I entered. I rushed up the stairs - only 5 flights this time- and unlocked the door to my flat.

The screaming had stopped and had been replaced by a loud, raspy snoring. Jamie had finally tired himself out. I set the kittens in a heap on the sofa and found a few cushions and a blanket for them to curl up on. I would go and get food first thing in the morning. They were adorable, cuddled up in a tiny heap.

I sat at the fold out table and stared at the piece of vine. It wasn't growing anymore, but it was healthy. I wondered how it had survived in a basement and how it had been able to grow at such an exponential rate. How had I lived somewhere for almost a year and not realised it had a basement? I placed the vine in a cup of water and started to stress about my inability to find the grate a second time.

My walk to clear my head had just bought up more questions. I couldn't make sense of any of it. Essie's death, Jamie's sudden behaviour change, the kittens, the basement... that vine. I had no idea what any of it meant, but I knew I had to find out.

I didn't want to sleep anywhere near Jamie, so I curled up on the sofa next to the kittens and put Netflix on in the background. I drifted off to thoughts of the secret basement and what the fuck might be down there.

I woke up the morning after my discovery of the kittens with them crawling all over me. I guessed that they were a little younger than 8 weeks old. They were strong and independent; pouncing on my chest with their sizzling paws to wake me up.

They were well looked after. It made it harder to believe that their mother had just abandoned them.

I thought I knew the block. My entrance had been dramatic enough to introduce me to what I thought were the majority of strange goings on in the place. I walked the halls with a naive confidence that the building wouldn't be able to surprise me anymore. I thought I was prepared for anything.

The events of the night before had squashed that confidence. I knew that the building had sealed off floor 9 after the fire, but I never considered the possibility of other hidden floors or flats. Every other floor from the ground up was accounted for and there were no stairs leading downwards. I hadn't set foot inside the lift since Derek had taken me in there and I couldn't remember an LG or -1 button from when he had.

I had never known the cats to reproduce either. By rights, they're all strays and if they had been working the place would be overrun with kittens. The cute little bundles on my sofa shouldn't have existed.

Jamie was growling still, making low and disturbing noises. Luckily the screaming had stopped. I nervously unlocked the wardrobe and placed a bowl of cat food in there as quickly as I could before locking it again. The wounds in my chest throbbed as I looked at him and let go of the bowl.

Jamie had scratched and bitten a handful of times but usually by mistake and he had never hurt me badly. It's only made doing something about him much harder. His attack the day before had been different though, intentional, and as I dropped his food in that morning he nipped hard at my finger, drawing blood.

I sighed with relief as I secured the padlock and shuddered as I listened to him slurp and crunch on his food. I noticed the bloodstains from his attack spattered up the wardrobe door and shoved the spare chair back over the gap to make sure the door was shut and keep the kittens safe.

Walking back to the kitchen to make tea I noticed the vine in the cup of water on my fold out table. It had grown. Way more than any plant should in a matter of hours. It had stretched out of the cup and down the table, producing large, healthy looking leaves. I had no idea what it meant, if it meant anything at all. If it had come from a room with no sunlight then, like the kittens, it shouldn't have existed.

Ms Esther Beckman's words echoed in my mind.

if you look hard enough, you will find a way.

Maybe the friend I had been supposed to help was the kittens mother. What if she was stuck in the basement and I just needed to find a way in?

I didn't have time to think too deeply about it. Terri had run my errands the day before but I couldn't expect her to do it daily. Percy and Sylvia wouldn't need anything until the weekend now but Mr Prentice would struggle without my help. I had to carry on. So I got dressed, placed a bowl of water down for the kittens, promised them I'd bring back proper food and made my way down the hall to flat 48.

I knocked and stood back to give him time to answer.

"Morning, Mr Prentice." I tried my best to smile and be chirpy, putting the whirlwind of thoughts I had to the back of my mind.

"Morning Kat. I'm sorry to hear about Essie, Terri told me yesterday. She was one of the longest serving residents here, you know, along with myself and Molly. A terrible loss." He hung his head as he gripped his walking stick.

"She was a great person. I'm sorry I didn't get to know her for longer." I answered, feeling the fake smile I'd plastered across my face collapse.

"She helped me out of a few scrapes, Essie had an extraordinary gift. Never once gave bad advice that I know of. She was a great drinking buddy too, back in the day." Mr Prentice chuckled at his memories but looked truly saddened by the situation. It was the most I'd ever heard him speak in one go and his mention of how long they'd lived here made me think.

"Mr Prentice, do you know if this place has a basement?" I asked. He pondered my question for a while.

"Well...I've never seen one. But that's not to say it doesn't exist." He smiled a little, I could see he had noticed the despair in my eyes and his smile was comforting. I struggled to find the words to respond, so he changed the subject.

"Could you drop some money to my friend at the pub today please? And grab me a newspaper and a bottle of whiskey if you don't mind." He threw two envelopes of cash onto the corridor floor between us and I nodded, told him I'd be back soon and set off.

As I exited the main doors I turned to look at the garden and considered searching for the grate again then and there but decided I would wait. It was torturous.

Instead, I thought of Essie as I made my way through the park, taking in the breeze and the bird song.

The Pickled Gnome, Mr Prentice's drinking spot looked sad and empty, with a sign in the window stating closed due to the virus. I popped the envelope labelled Carmilla through a letterbox in the large red door and began to walk away, noticing through the window a lone woman, sat at the bar in a dressing gown nursing a cup of tea.

As I carried on towards the shop I heard a voice behind me.

"HEY!!!" I turned to see the woman standing at the door of the pub, waving her arms. A large fluffy cat rubbed himself up against her feet. I turned and waved back.

"Please tell him thanks! I really appreciate it, drinks on me when this is over! You should come too!" She shouted, beaming at me.

"I'll tell him! Stay safe!" I shouted back as she ushered the cat back in and closed the door again.

Maybe I would have a drink with Mr Prentice when this was all over, I imagined him with a shot of whisky telling stories of the block and smiled. It was a nice thought.

I ventured further than the usual shop. To one I knew would sell specialised kitten food. I grabbed the whiskey, paper and a ready meal; although he never asked, Mr Prentice never turned down food and I hated to think of him hungry.

When I reached the block again I struggled to pass the garden a second time but made my way up the stairs and towards the flat, passing the man on floor 5.

"Hi Jeremiah." I waved at him. No response. Better take that one off the list.

I passed the woman from the gnome's message and the items onto Mr Prentice and rushed home to feed the kittens. As I placed the three tiny bowls I'd purchased down, I decided I should name them. I couldn't keep calling them kittens.

They became Wrinkles, Tetley and Mr Meow and they were about the only reason I could think of to smile. As they happily lapped up their food I could hear Jamie growling in the background, scratching at the door. He must have smelled the kitten meat.

I waited until they'd finished every last bite and washed up the bowls immediately to reduce any risk of him trying to pound his way out of the cupboard.

Then I left the flat to finally search for the basement.

I tried the bottom of the stairs. Searched the entire lower floor for a new stairwell or a door, but there was nothing. I tried the garden too, the same spot from the night before in the bushes was just plain concrete, no grate to be seen and no vine growing upwards to match the monster in my kitchen. There was no grate the entire perimeter of the building.

My heart sunk with a difficult realisation. There was only one place that I hadn't looked.

Standing in front of the lift was daunting. I imagined Essie and how it was the last thing she had looked at. I wondered if I would ever know her motives.

I imagined Jamie, before any of this, walking in obliviously on his way to another shift at work, smiling stupidly at the novelty of us having our own home. My body shook and my legs became weak, but I managed to force them forward and step inside.

Staring at the buttons inside the lift took me back to standing with Derek, how safe I had felt compared to now. Having him around felt like having my own private guardian angel, guiding me every step of the way. His absence left a painful void. It made that tiny metal box feel enormous.

I once again searched for button 9 but couldn't find it, despite nothing looking out of place. It was oddly comforting. Expected. Unlike the past few days had been.

The lowest floor I could find was G, the one I was currently standing on, but I knew the lift was able to play tricks. I could never be truly sure. Not without Derek.

I stared at it for what must have been at least 5 minutes, looking as hard as I could just like Essie had advised, but it turned up nothing.

I was grateful to get out of the lift, but frustrated that it hadn't made anything clearer. I stared at it for a while, it's rickety construction and dilapidated feel made my heart pound. I couldn't look at it without imagining blood and bones lining the floor.

"Fuck you, Essie." I cursed underneath my breath as I walked up the stairs towards my flat, defeated. "Why did you have to go?"

Her cryptic intuition had done nothing but raise questions and she wasn't there to answer any of them. My life was starting to feel like some sort of cruel joke. The stairwell, devoid of average human life, was eerie and just added to my sense of solitude.

I'd conquered a huge trauma to even stand in that lift, yet all my searching efforts had taught me was that the man on floor 5 wasn't called Eric or Mikey.

I reached the flat and paced around it for a while, being careful not to step on Wrinkles, the largest of my three adoptees, who seemed to really enjoy playing around my feet.

Mr Prentice was right. Just because I hadn't been somewhere and couldn't see it didn't mean that it didn't exist. I'd taken the building for granted and gotten too comfortable.

Derek had once described the place as a living organism and now I truly felt that it was taunting me and mocking my ill-placed confidence. I had to admit to myself that really, in all honesty, I knew nothing about it.

Jamie's growls had become like a background symphony to my life, I'm ashamed to say I was able to almost entirely block them out.

I couldn't ignore the vine though. It had wrapped itself around the table leg and stretched most of the kitchen floor, growing towards the balcony and desperately stretching for the light.

I wasn't sure what to do with it. If I returned it to the garden I might never see the grate again, the vine was the only proof to myself I had that it had been there in the first place.

I tried to trim part off, to take to the garden and compare with the other plants there, knowing that it would be an entirely futile endeavour, but as I clamped down with scissors they snapped in my hand.

The vine was rock solid. It was much tougher than it had been when I'd pulled my foot free, perhaps the sunlight had done something to it. I tried my best to bunch it into one corner but soon gave up, slightly terrified that it might suffocate me in my sleep.

Tetley was asleep on the sofa while the other two played gently with each other. I sat down and tickled them a little, feeling my fingers start to go numb from the heat.

I tried to think of other solutions to my problems than continually searching a concrete wall. I knew it wasn't going to turn up a basement... or tell me why Essie walked into the lift... or help me kill or cure Jamie.

Unfortunately, I'm from a generation thats solution to every issue is google, so that's all I could come up with, and I loaded up my laptop.

I tried to search for original plans of the block, to see if there was some kind of floor plan or architect drawings that could confirm the presence of a basement but it turned out the place is too old for those to be online.

The block was built in 1951, at the very start of the new high-rise trend. There was limited information on the place other than a few archived articles from around the time it was built and opened. I cursed the libraries having to be shut in this pandemic.

According to the articles it was a turbulent project from start to finish and was overseen by an architect and property development mogul who designed and paid for the building himself. There were reports that he was notoriously difficult to work with and that three construction firms pulled out of the project.

The next headline I came across intrigued me.

Cursed project finally completed, owner found hanged in unoccupied high rise flats.

There was little information on the suicide other than that it happened. If the building had been how it is today I can imagine that being alone in the place with no information or even confirmation that what you were seeing was real, could drive anyone mad.

None of the articles even had the name of the architect, leaving me at a dead end. It took a few searches and more obscure, archived city history blogs than I knew existed before I found anything else that piqued my interest.

Heir to tragic high rise architects fortune suspected of killing his own son.

The article was too blurred to read, it was a poorly taken photograph of a newspaper from the late fifties. This took away my chance, yet again, to find a name for the architect or even the son.

I thought about what bad luck the family had suffered. To be able to design and build something like that in those days meant you must have incredible wealth. But no amount of money could save them from tragedy, especially not somewhere like here.

I tried to adapt my search, instead entering a rabbit hole of murders in the late fifties. As I scanned the page I damned human nature, there were so many acts of evil detailed in the blogs. I even learned about Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be executed in the UK in 1955.

Eventually I found an entry that matched up. His name was Albert Miles and he was the eldest of two brothers. When his revered architect father died he took over management of the tower block that him and his brother had become the very first occupants of.

He was hugely successful and pegged to become one of the biggest names in property development in the uk. The once empty block was mostly full by the time the killing happened. Police were called by a resident living directly below Albert Miles who complained that blood was dripping onto their balcony from above.

When police arrived Albert was nowhere to be found but the body of his 19 year old son was starting to decompose in the sun on his balcony. He had been stabbed multiple times.

Albert was never found or convicted and the case remained unsolved, however, most were in agreement that he did it. A bloodied kitchen knife belonging to Albert, dropped just inside the doors to the balcony all but confirmed it.

It was interesting, but I wasn't sure it was helpful. I started to worry that my research had gone in completely the wrong direction. I wasn't sure how Albert Miles or the death of his son could help me and I was about ready to shut my laptop and give up. Then I felt something slither across my shoulder from behind.

The vine had grown exponentially, weaving a route from the kitchen to the sofa. I started to panic as it touched my skin but it didn't wrap itself around me or try to cause any harm, just gently glided across my shoulder and to the computer. It stroked the name of the blog on the header of the page a few times before falling to the ground, only a slight overhang left on the sofa.

It didn't want me to stop. There was no more information on google so I sent a direct email to the blog owner, asking for anything on the Albert Miles killing that they had or details of anyone they could direct me to. I claimed it was for a university project.

I stopped and watched the tv for a while, the kittens all cuddled on my lap. I was grateful for my blanket, creating just enough barrier to stop me melting. Raspy, wheezing snores came from the bedroom. I decided to spend another night on the sofa, it felt much safer.

I started to drift off a little and went to shut the laptop but a loud ping from my email box woke me. Chills ran up my spine a little as I opened the message.

Thanks for your email. Unfortunately that particular case is very little known and doesn't have a lot of information out there at all. As you can appreciate cold cases can be difficult to catalogue but I aim to provide the most comprehensive online case files possible. The only thing I have on this case that isn't on the blog is a photograph of Albert Miles and his unnamed brother outside the high rise flats. I was new to blogging at the time I wrote that entry and wasn't sure how to insert images, your message has reminded me to go back and include this one! I've attached here in case it's of any use to you. I would recommend checking out similar case files that may fit your project, please don't hesitate to get in touch if you have any queries. Thank you for reading. Murders In The Capital

I felt the frustration bubbling up. No further information. Another dead end.

I opened up the attachment to take a look at the mysterious Albert Miles. I was resigned that it would be of no use at all. Then the picture loaded.

Two men, handsome and maybe in their mid-late thirties, standing outside the main doors of the largely unchanged block. They were similar looking, with a strong family resemblance but very different demeanours.

One was dressed in a sharp looking suit and stood with a controlled posture. He had a serious facial expression and pointy features.

The other was slumped against the wall, a smile on his face and familiar, kind looking eyes. This man wore a casual outfit that you might expect to see on a labourer of that era. Atop his head was the clue that I had been looking for in the form of a flat cap.

Standing there, next to Albert Miles, was my lost friend Derek. TW: animal abuse

My brain hurt trying to process the things I'd learned. Derek had never mentioned his family or that he, by blood, had a claim to the building. He was always so in tune with it, it made sense but it was never something I'd considered.

I woke on the sofa that morning confused. I had no idea how to continue. The vine had grown almost the entire perimeter of the flat, carefully weaving between my furniture and appliances, it's waxy exterior reflecting sunlight from the windows. It stopped at the bedroom door, not crossing the threshold to Jamie's prison.

I bit the bullet and decided to call Terri. I hadn't spoken to her since her and the kid's visit a few days prior and I wanted to see if she remembered Derek ever talking about his brother or if she knew of any basement. Terri had grown up in the building, she was bound to have explored more thoroughly than Mr Prentice.

Before I could get on to any of that I owed her an apology. My interaction with her had been rude and I had been too distracted to check on her the past few weeks. I had been a terrible friend.

I hit dial on video chat and waited for a response. When she picked up the phone she looked even worse than she had the last time I saw her. The dark circles were beginning to look like deep, inky tattoos, permanently stained on her face. Still, she smiled, just like she always did.

"Terri, are you ok? I'm so sorry about the other day I was just..."

"It's fine Kat. I understand, everything with Ms Beckman must have bought back some tough feelings for you. I should've waited a day or two... I'm sorry." My heart melted as she spoke, I'd never had such a loyal and genuine friend.

"Thank you. Don't be sorry, it helped seeing you guys. How are you doing?" I asked.

"I'm ok. The kids aren't behaving great at night, I'm not sure if lockdowns got to them or something else. I have to watch everything that they do. The other day I caught Eddie trying to take apart the washing machine with his claws. By the time I stopped him Ellie had ripped up the shower curtains trying to climb them." She sounded defeated and, at best, definitely not ok.

"I wish I were allowed to help. I miss you." I sighed, longing for the day I could sit and drink tea with her.

"Are you ok Kat? You haven't been yourself." She asked; we may not have known each other that long but she could sense when things weren't right. Terri was the epitome of an empath. This, I'd come to realise over the months, had been the only reason she kept in touch with Prudence, she's just so damn nice.

"I'm not. I don't know if you know about Essie's predictions... but she made one for me and it's sent me to some strange places. I'll tell you more when I figure it out but for now I need your help."

I still chose to omit Jamie from my confessions, but I was ready to be a bit more open, I wasn't to ashamed to admit I needed help. Terri clearly knew about Essie's gift. She didn't bat an eyelid.

"Anything."

"Do you remember Derek ever mentioning a brother, even when you were growing up?" I asked.

"Not at all. Derek was always on his own, just appearing when we needed him. I was really young when he first disappeared though, so I don't remember him well and might not be the one to ask." Terri's face scrunched up in thought as she racked her brain.

"I'm going to send you something." I minimised the video chat and copied the photo from the email onto my phone and sent it to her by text. Her video paused for a moment as she did the same to check the attachment. "He was the first to live here Terri. His dad built the place."

Terri's video clicked back on.

"Where did you find this?" She asked.

I explained the blog and why I had been looking. It wasn't a short explanation so I'll spare you that. We even broke from the seriousness briefly for the kids to come and fawn over the kittens. Eddie loved Mr Meow whilst Ellie wanted to kidnap Tetley. Wrinkles just curled up with me, he was my secret favourite anyway.

Terri was fascinated by the vine. She wondered if it had a connection to Derek, especially given the photo I'd found on my search. I can't say the thought hadn't crossed my mind either. I learned more about him every day, but he would always first and foremost be the gardener. The vine made sense, but the basement didn't. I was struggling to connect it to the brothers.

"I don't know about a basement Kat. But if this place is as old as you say then who knows. I know I may look haggard.." she pulled on her cheeks and giggled. "..but I'm really not that old."

I laughed. I was sad that she didn't have anymore information but it was nice to just talk to a friend. For five minutes life felt normal.

I'd kept my secret, and talking to Terri I'd almost managed to forget about Jamie myself. If it hadn't been for the deep bite wound on my finger from the feeding the day before and the open cuts on my chest from his attack I might have been successful.

I still had no idea what the riddle Essie had given to me meant. I was looking as hard as I could and it had lead me down a rabbit hole that just kept spewing more questions.

What I did know, was that with Jamie's seemingly permanent change in demeanour I was running out of time. The growling hadn't stopped, the look of pure hatred as I dropped in food didn't end and I was getting frightened.

Something had to give. Either Jamie was going to die, or I would. There wasn't another option I could see and the former may have been entirely unachievable.

Derek destroyed Lyla, but he never returned after. Prudence claimed she killed the original wave of creatures by setting light to them all on the already burnt out ninth floor, again something entirely unachievable without Derek's presence. I had to find him.

I said my goodbyes to Terri, promised that I would update her when and if I could and left to do my daily errands for Mr Prentice and the couple next door. As I left for the exit I spotted a man going into Ms Beckman's flat. I recognised him as the son that I'd always seen visiting, eyes glazed with tears.

Terri had said that she would get Molly to inform Essie's family, but I couldn't imagine what Molly might have said happened.

I should've gone to him, just as a human being tried to comfort him, but I couldn't bring myself to do it without an explanation to offer. I promised myself that I would visit him when lockdown was over and I knew why his mother was gone.

I rushed out and completed my errands as quickly as possible, eager to get home; even having the name Albert Miles might have been helpful if I just kept digging on the internet.

After I dropped the bags off at Percy and Sylvia's door I turned the key in my own, entered and shut it behind me like I always would.

That was where the normality ended and my life was disrupted by an uninvited guest.

When I turned to face the flat and caught a glimpse of my fold out table there was a tall figure stood right next to it.

Albert, like Derek, was a little older than he had been in the photo. There was a family resemblance but the eyes weren't the same, Albert's weren't warm and kind, they were cold and filled with malice.

He wore a suit, similar to the one in the picture but it wasn't as sharp, it was covered in a thick layer of dust and tattered, with loose threads hanging everywhere, like clothes that had been dug out of a box in the attic.

He grinned at me. It was smug, like something you might expect from a slimy car salesman.

"It's been a long time since I had to visit any of the residents up here. I like what you've done with the place, much more modern than when that old bint before you lived here."

I was frozen to the spot. I hadn't been alarmed when his brother had appeared inches from me on a bench but something about Albert was much more sinister. The thought of his son, dead on the balcony played on repeat in my mind.

"Why are you here?" I asked.

He laughed. The smug grin extended across his cheeks.

"I like you. You didn't even pretend not to know who I am. You know, Kat, I've always appreciated a person who cuts the small talk. It's better in business and in life. That trait will hold you in good stead." He was animated as he spoke, gesticulating wildly.

"You didn't answer my question. Don't you find that ironic considering your sentiment?" I answered back, still terrified but figuring that keeping him talking might somehow help the situation.

"I don't need to answer your question. You know why I'm here." He continued to grin, raising an eyebrow and adjusting the torn sleeves of his suit. "It's not often that I've come across a tenant that causes as much chaos as you do.

"It's usually issues with the rent, and even something like that hasn't happened for quite some time, but you are something special."

He stamped on part of the vine that was growing near his feet and I watched as the enormous structure withered and shrunk in size, as if it were in notable pain.

The beginning of my entire ordeal flooded back to me. I was back in my kitchen, discovering Prudence's note for the first time, reading the one rule that I'd never learned anything more about.

The landlord will never bother you, he doesn't visit, call or communicate in any way. But make sure to pay your rent in a timely fashion always. I have only dealt with him once in 35 years and let's just say I never missed another rent day. Any repairs required you speak to the agent you rented the place with.

Rule number one. So much happened that I hadn't thought much about that rule, but there must have been a reason she put it first, before even mentioning the creatures. Suddenly the literal monster in my closet seemed soft and fluffy in comparison to the ageless man stood in front of me.

"I've paid my rent. Why are you here?" I stood firmly, curling my shaking hands into fists. It was more for comfort than aggression. On the surface, I was hoping it would appear I was standing my ground.

The rent part was true. It was hard, but I always found a way. I was still training to teach and pulled in extra cash running after school clubs as I trained. Even during lockdown I was creating digital learning tools. This place was my home and I'd followed the first rule to the letter to keep it.

"Maybe you aren't as bright as I thought." He rolled his eyes. "Let's list reasons a landlord might want to visit, shall we?

"Damage to property. Unauthorised modification of communal spaces. Digging around where it's not wanted or needed. Nurturing my brothers unnatural experiments.." he went to continue but I stopped him.

"What do you mean unnatural experiments?"

Albert laughed even harder than before, I could see in his eyes that he considered me entirely dense by this stage.

"You think those three little abominations you took in came out of nowhere? They were a cry for help, you stupid girl. Like a flare. And all you could do was pick it up and let it burn your fingers." He scoffed, laughing at his own bad joke. My heart sunk wondering where the kittens were and if he'd hurt them.

"After all the trouble you caused when he helped you last time I wasn't going to let my idiot brother continue to roam my halls. Especially not after what you did once he was gone."

I gulped. I knew exactly what he was talking about. He knew that I knew as well, Albert was more than a few steps ahead of me.

I realised that Prudence destroying his garden had probably never banished Derek at all. He had been kept prisoner by the man in front of me. If Albert could keep someone with Derek's knowledge and abilities trapped, then I didn't stand a chance.

"Shall we talk about that thing you keep in your bedroom, Kat?"

"I didn't mean to. I'm so sorry... I've regretted it since." I stuttered. I felt a tear run down my cheek as I anticipated imminent death.

"I know that. You wouldn't have even known how if my brother had never told the last woman... and he pretends to be so pious." The smile on his face had disappeared, even the thought of Derek left him with a scowl.

"He just tried to help the residents here, please, I made a mistake." I protested, anticipating that I was about to die or even worse.

Albert didn't speak, he just huffed in frustration and turned to walk towards the bedroom. I followed him, trying not to stay too close. The floor was trailed with blood and as he entered the room I noticed the wardrobe door was practically shattered.

"You couldn't even contain your mistake properly." He gestured to Jamie who was in the corner, hunched over the blood smothered body of a kitten that he was crunching on the bones of. Tiny bits of muscle and skin in pools of blood, littered the floor.

His eyes were beady and black, any semblance of Jamie I'd once seen in them was gone.

I noticed Tetley and Wrinkles shivering together in the opposite corner, trying to hide from the monster. The brief relief I felt that they hadn't all met the same fate was interrupted when Jamie started to growl at Albert, baring his crimson splashed teeth as menacingly as he could.

I watched in horror as Albert just stood there, staring at the increasingly angry beast.

The creature I had been hiding for all these months lunged at him aggressively, claws outstretched. Albert wasn't phased. He barely even moved a muscle, just reached out a tattered sleeve and waited for Jamie to make contact with his hand.

The second Jamie touched Albert he let out the most almighty, inhuman scream you could imagine. It felt like my eardrums were about to burst and I instinctively put my hands over them. Albert put his hand back down by his side as Jamie fell in a heap to the floor.

He wasn't moving. Not like when I'd stabbed him with the poker. He wasn't just still, he was dead still. The heap of fur he had become started to morph on the floor, his jaw pulled inwards as if it were dislocating and his limbs began to stretch and shed their fur.

After a while, Jamie was laid there on the floor. Not the rat Jamie, the real one. The one I'd spent years with and searched for a home with. The one who knew me before all this shit ever happened.

And he was dead too. For real this time.

It took everything I had not to throw myself on the floor with him. I stopped myself multiple times but Albert's eyes bore into my soul and rendered me unable to move a muscle. I tried to fight back tears but I couldn't.

"Don't bother to cry. He died a long time ago." Albert kicked Jamie's corpse and bent down into a squat to get closer to him. Not taking his eyes off me. "I didn't let him out if that's what you were thinking. No Kat. You did when you locked an angry animal in a cage, eventually they all get free." I whimpered a little as he inspected the remains of my boyfriend, intensely taking in his hair and eyes.

"My brother had this preconceived notion that humans can live in harmony with the evil that inhabits this building. He's wrong, Kat. We can't. Eventually it drives us all mad. Your mistake made such an unusual racket I had to come and see what was going on.

"Did you ever imagine keeping him like that before you lived here?"

"Of course not -" I tried to interject, but he wouldn't let me. He was in full blown monologue.

"This place fucks us up Kat. You can't make it any better, regardless of how many shrubs you plant outside." He stroked Jamie's cold, dead face gently, barely touching it with his fingertips.

The body evaporated beneath them, becoming nothing more than a pile of dust on my carpet. I hadn't even got to touch him, one last time. Albert stood back up, salesman grin plastered back on his face, and brushed his sleeves.

"I've cleaned up your mistake. Aren't you going to say thank you?"

I held back the bile that was forming in my throat, took a deep breath and summoned every ounce of strength that I could just to speak. He was right, this place had fucked me up. But losing your partner like that would do the same to anyone. I thought of the little boy in the mirror, Mr Prentice... even Ellie and Eddie.

" This wasn't for me. You're wrong about this place, not everything here is evil. I made a mistake, but It's you that's evil, you killed your own son. What I did came from love." I blurted, trying to organise my thoughts.

"You don't know a damn thing about my son. And you won't. This is your only warning Kat, stop digging into my family. Consider my brother dead and keep quiet." He spoke sternly, I didn't dare try to talk back again, despite knowing I'd hit a nerve, everything about him set me on edge.

He took another vicious stamp on part of the vine as he exited the bedroom, it shrivelled entirely underneath his dusty dress shoes, back to the size that it had been when I pulled my foot free, except it wasn't green anymore, it was brown and rotten.

He turned to me once more before he reached the front door of the flat to leave and spoke.

"If you dare continue your pointless little mission to try and find Derek you will meet the same fate as that blind old bat from down the hall. People here will always do as I tell them.

"Let her be an example of why not to meddle in my family business. Feel lucky that I didn't eviscerate you on the spot... or worse."

He winked at me, knowing that he had complete control of the situation and left with a simple "bye for now, Kat."

As the door slammed the two remaining kittens bounded to my feet, shaking with fear. I scooped them up despite the burning and held them close. I wasn't going to let anything happen to them.

The flat had an emptiness I wasn't used to, even when it had been just me with no kittens, before I repeated the ritual to bring Jamie back as a creature, there was the comforting knowledge that he existed somewhere. There was hope. The pile of dust on my bedroom floor and the shattered remains of my wardrobe were all I had left of him now.

Then there were Mr Meow's remains, a glaring reminder of my failure to keep anything alive or safe. I cried for him, as I scooped his parts into a shoebox ready to bury in the garden the next day. It was all my fault. Jamie, Mr Meow, Esther... they were all dead because of me.

I considered calling Terri back, telling her what happened, but I decided to keep my mouth shut. My stupidity had already cost lives and I wasn't prepared to risk her or the kids, they really were family to me.

I wasn't about to give up though. All the heartache I'd caused, The tears of Essie's son and the months my boyfriend spent trapped in the body of a vile beast, maybe they wouldn't be in vain if I was able to save Derek from his brother. The empty, gaping grief that I felt left me perfectly accepting of the prospect of a suicide mission.

I cuddled the kittens and felt the skin of my arms start to melt and sizzle. If they really were a cry for help I had to listen. I just couldn't let it go.

The shoebox I'd placed Mr Meow in sat atop my fold out table. As I lit my morning cigarette and sipped a cup of tea I wondered if it was disrespectful to smoke next to a body.

I decided that disrespect was in the eye of the beholder.

I'd often thought of Essie as I smoked. Remembering how we bonded over a few spare cig's. That hadn't made me feel disrespectful. I was smoking more than usual with the stress I was under too, I found it was a welcome few minutes break from life.

I'd wanted to sit on my balcony that morning to try and get some light and escape from the claustrophobic feel of the flat. I knew that with my determination to find Derek it might be the last I saw the sun, but the window cleaner was out there, just howling and scratching at the door.

To be honest the flat felt so empty without Jamie, Mr Meow or even the vine, that for a moment I almost considered letting him in.

The longer I lived in the building the less I thought of the window cleaner as a sinister entity, he was more pitiful than anything and let get realistic, I'd grown accustomed to being surrounded by monsters.

Since lockdown he'd stopped bothering with the niceties and chit chat, instead he just whined and scratched like a scared animal. It was Wrinkles and Tetley, rubbing themselves up against my - thankfully covered - legs that stopped me from just giving up and opening the sliding door.

I spent hours in the flat that day dwelling on everything, coming up with wild plans and theories in my mind. I texted Terri and asked her to check on Mr Prentice for me, she asked what was going on and I said that I would tell her when I could.

It was weak but she accepted my explanation, or lack of, as always, with no questions asked.

I must've paced the length of the flat hundreds of times. None of the ideas that I had to help Derek seemed to develop into anything solid. It was frustrating, like trying to solve an impossible riddle.

I analysed every part of my interaction with Albert, trying to find hidden meanings amongst the words in my head.

I wondered if he could communicate with the creatures, just like Derek had when he struck the deal over the lift. Maybe that's why he had come to my flat when Jamie finally escaped, it would make sense if they were communicating all along. Maybe he'd been the reason for Jamie's aggression towards the end.

I knew that I wasn't going to find Derek without also finding Albert, so I decided that working to find the older of the brothers would be easier.

Translating all my loose threads of thoughts into a plan didn't come easy. I tried to stop myself multiple times, worrying that I was going down the wrong route, but when it finally hit me, I knew that I had nothing better. Eventually, I settled on my next steps.

I started after I had fed the kittens and washed up the bowls, after they'd fallen asleep on the sofa, after I'd had time to dwell and stress. After it got dark outside and no human residents were left in the dimly lit corridors. I had little faith in my plan and didn't want to risk anyone getting hurt as a byproduct.

I made my way down the stairs, carrying the shoebox coffin in my arms and a small bag of the dust that Jamie had left behind in my pocket, shovel wedged in the gap between my arm and torso.

"Good evening, Marcus." I greeted the man on floor five with less enthusiasm than usual. He responded the same way he always did - not at all.

The boy in the mirror blew more raspberries, making moose horn antlers with his hands and giggling. I waved back and tried to understand how Albert could consider every single special resident evil, these beings had become my family over time.

The outside of the building was empty again, a city that usually never slept was taking the nap of a lifetime. I felt peaceful in the garden with the breeze blowing my hair around. The park opposite was eerily mystical under the stars.

It was warmer than it had been a few nights before when I'd first discovered the kittens and the grate. Even though it had only been a short time, that night felt a lifetime away.

I fought the urge to sob as I dug the tiny grave amongst the shrubs I'd found them in, and for the first time since Essie's death I was successful. My mind was so focused on my goals that I managed to pull myself together and not become a wreck. I wasn't sure I had any tears left.

I made full speeches instead, first to Mr Meow and then to Jamie, who I sprinkled on top of the buried shoebox, vowing that I would do something good in all this before covering them back up with dirt.

I stood and stared at the patch of soil for a while, at one point I could've sworn I caught a glimpse of the metal grate but it was gone in a blink, replaced by flat, grey concrete. Either Albert was teasing me, or I was going completely mad.

I felt my heart start to pound through my chest as I re-entered the building. What I was preparing to do was dangerous, and potentially deadly, but it was better than never knowing if I could've done more. I didn't want to spend a lifetime imagining Derek trapped and alone.

Every time my life is in crisis in this place I seem to find myself outside the lift, and that night was no different. Even if everything in me was telling me to flee up the stairs and drop it, there I was, staring at the huge metal doors.

It had killed friends, taken me to places no one else could see and housed monsters that infected my nightmares.

As my own heart continued to pound I imagined that the lift could be considered the building's heart, carrying human life to every floor like we were the blood of the tower.

My eyes flitted from the intimidating metal doors to the display on my phone. I was a few minutes early and those few minutes felt like a thousand years. I edged as close as I could to the button to call the lift and as soon the numbers changed I knew it was time to start.

1.11am

I jabbed the button violently, took a deep breath and reached into my pocket. It was hard to fight back the bile as I pulled out Mr Meow's severed foot that I had carefully plucked from the shoebox earlier, but I managed and I threw it. It landed about three metres or so from the lift's entrance.

I retreated and stood to the edge of the stairs, just out of sight, my entire body shaking as I waited for the rattling noise of the opening doors. The first part of my plan worked as well as I could've hoped and soon, for the first time, I was faced with my boyfriend's killers.

I had only seen Jamie and Prudence's granddaughter Lyla's iterations of the monsters in person. The creatures that they were spawned from had remained largely a mystery to me and I had never considered they could be different from what I'd already experienced.

They were larger, much larger, than Jamie or Lyla had been. I remembered what Derek had said about the survivors strengthening with each one that dies. They were probably the same height as a fully grown adult male with fur covered, defined muscular limbs. They maintained the posture of a rat, and had long, razor sharp teeth protruding from their elongated jaws.

Their eyes were different to Jamie's too, instead of being a beady black they had a bright, daffodil yellow sheen. I thought what was living in my wardrobe had been frightening, but he was nothing compared to them.

The two huge, rodent - humanoid creatures skulked out of the lift. They were on their hind legs but their backs were hunched over in a way that would've allowed them to break into a four legged sprint at any moment. They started to edge towards the kitten foot, sniffing at it intensely.

Knowing I had moments before they smelled me too, I left my corner by the stairs and started sprinting towards the open metal doors. I hoped that releasing the creatures during their frenzy would be enough to summon Albert, he didn't seem to appreciate a scene. If I could just hide in that awful metal box for long enough he would have to come and if they weren't in there with me then I would be safe.

My stress and sleep deprivation had got to me. I knew my plan was severely flawed and I hadn't properly considered the risks. When I finally made it inside the doors I was confronted with worse consequences than I could've imagined.

Unsurprisingly, they spotted me. As I hammered on the button that should close the doors and lock me in I could see them snarling, long strings of saliva stretching from their mouths to splatter on the floor as they prepared to run towards me.

I was ready to die. I was almost certain that it was going to happen in that moment.

That was until I spotted the tiny figure weaving through the creatures legs. It was fast, and I could barely make it out, it was growling and making noises that seemed to genuinely frighten them.

Long claws slashed at the rat creature closer to reaching me and it yowled in pain as it fell to the floor. Horns first, the figure managed to enter the lift just before the doors began to seal themselves. It hissed at the uninjured creature, keeping him backed away just enough for us to hear the thud of the metal doors closing.

Most would be terrified of anything that could frighten off their worst nightmares in an instant, let alone being locked in a 4" by 4" space with them, but not me. As the figure became clear, I was both proud and devastated.

"Ellie! What are you doing here, your mum's going to kill us both!"

Terri's young daughter sat herself down cross legged in the corner of the tiny room as I slid down one of the walls to the floor myself, hugging my knees. I broke into hysterical tears, I couldn't believe I'd put Ellie at risk. I knew about the twin's late night escapes. She shuffled over next to me, her horns pinched a little as she nuzzled my shoulder but I didn't care.

"Don't cry Kat. Did you see how scared of me those things were!"

She was delighted, her smile lit up and if you could've seen anything in the deep black voids that replaced her eyes you'd have seen childlike excitement.

The creature outside scraped and hammered at the door and I could still hear the pained screams of the one she'd impaled. For a small child, she had no idea of the impact she'd just made. It was hard to comprehend how a little girl could cause so much damage.

"You shouldn't be out! Why aren't you at home? Is Eddie out too? Your mum will go looking, what if they get her?!" I started ranting. Ellie's face dropped immediately, I usually would have felt awful but I couldn't shake the thought of her whole family being killed because of me. Of the other people that might be in mortal danger.

How could I be so fucking stupid.

"Eddie's at home playing with his truck and mum fell asleep. I just wanted to come and explore and I was playing on the stairs when I saw you. I've missed you Kat... are they going to eat mum?" Her little voice cracked and she started to sob. I wanted to be reassuring and tell her that they wouldn't but I didn't want to lie. I started to understand the gravity of what I'd released.

I was still confident that my original plan would bring Albert out of the basement. However, I wasn't so confident that Albert would just let Ellie go, he might see her as evil, like he saw everything else here. I had to do everything I could to protect her.

Esther Beckman's ridiculous prophecy played in my mind once again and I silently cursed her.

How many more friends are going to be in danger, Esther? Why would you be so fucking vague.

I tried to calculate a comforting yet honest response for Ellie but I failed. Before I had a chance to speak the metal prison we were trapped in started to whirr and crunch, shaking and making awful mechanical noises.

I tried desperately to press the button for Terri's floor, in hope that I could drop Ellie off unharmed, but it didn't work, instead the box started to fall and the lift travelled downwards.

It wasn't high tech enough for a digital display, instead the buttons light up as you reach each floor. Not a single button lit as we fell much faster than any lift should, for what must have been at least 5 minutes.

Ellie was screaming. I couldn't do much but to hold her hand, being careful to interlock my fingers in a way that wouldn't result in a claw through my own.

I watched the button panel the entire time, occasionally trying to press on any number I could. Every attempt was futile. The lift ground to a halt and we were thrown into the air as it stopped with a huge clap.

Just underneath the numbered buttons had appeared a shrewdly drawn -1 scratched into the metal. I knew it hadn't been there before and could only signify one thing.

I'd done it. I'd made it to the basement.

As I looked at Ellie I couldn't help but wonder, at what cost? Was any of this worth the danger I'd accidentally put her in? I hadn't accounted for the extra person, or the lift falling.

My plan ended when I threw the foot and ran. In my optimistic mind Albert would've killed the creatures outside to avoid a scene and have to talk to me again, without being able to kill me like Essie. I knew, squeezing Ellie's hand, that I had misjudged the situation entirely.

"Where are we?" She asked, nervously.

"I don't know for sure. I think this is the basement." I replied.

"But the block doesn't have a basement."

"I know."

The doors slowly opened to reveal a huge darkened flat. It was luxury, like an underground penthouse, but without a single window in sight and it was largely empty. Not a soul inside.

I stood up from the floor of the lift, Ellie's hand still firmly gripped in mine, and tried to take in the surroundings. The lift had stopped directly in what seemed to be a living room, there was no hallway or corridor leading to a set of flats like when the lift usually stopped.

In the room was a black velvet sofa, a few side tables and an almost useless lamp, providing a dim glow in the corner. It lit up a few twinkling cobwebs and made it just about possible to see a huge, trailing pot plant sat on a table that matched perfectly with the vine that had wrapped itself around my foot and then my home. The lack of a nearby grate didn't bode well.

Ellie started to cry. I couldn't see actual tears with the voids for eyes but I could hear her soft whimpers. I searched my mind again for some comforting thoughts but I couldn't find a single one. If I was right, and Derek was trapped here, we were fucked.

Attempts to jab the buttons were pointless, it was as if the lift had run out of battery, we couldn't even close the doors. I took a step into the room and Ellie followed. Before I could say a word we heard the metal doors clap together and by the time we turned around the lift had been replaced by a blank wall.

"WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU?!" I screamed, desperately hoping that Albert's smug face would just appear from the shadows.

It didn't.

All my plea did was terrify Ellie, who continued to grip my hand. It's awful to say, but I was partly grateful that she was there, if only so that I didn't have to be alone.

"Who are you looking for?" She questioned.

"Someone that can help us get home... I need to to stay close to me all the time, can you do that for me please?" I hoped with my whole being that I could keep her safe, Ellie simply nodded in response, her horns bobbing in the dim glow.

I took a few steps in the direction of the plant, reaching out to touch it and see if it was limp or alive, like the version in my flat had been. I was disappointed that it was the former. As I ventured further into the room I noticed that the opposite wall wasn't nearly as blank as the one that had replaced the lift.

Instead, indented in the wall were another set of metal doors, identical to the ones that had closed and vanished behind us. Next to the left side of the doors was a button with the words "call lift" carved into the metal above it. It gave me a great feeling of unease.

Despite my unease I saw no other exit to the room and before I could even consider options my tiny companion had pressed the button. Even demon kids love buttons.

As the doors opened, relief washed over me to see that it was empty and not full of even more creatures. We took a step inside and I found myself once again staring at the button panel. This time, I wasn't searching for floor 9. In fact, I yearned for the days when that was my biggest problem.

The panel was much like the one in the lift we'd got here in, except alarmingly, every number came with a minus symbol before it... and there was no sign of a G for the ground floor.

Looking at that button panel in the lift that didn't lead home I felt a knot form in my stomach. Why hadn't Albert appeared, and which button was I supposed to press?

"Where are we going Kat?" Ellie asked; she had stopped crying but every word was heavy with fear. In truth, I didn't really know the answer to her question. I stared at the panel, taking in every number and noting it's inclusion of a -9.

"We're going to see if there's anyone else around." I answered.

I didn't like my chances with whatever might inhabit that floor. If wherever we were was a reverse of the building then number 9 could be nasty, so I started cautiously, pressing the -2 button.

Mechanics whirred and the large metal doors clapped shut. I wished that I had been behind the real lift's doors, before it disappeared from sight. The lift that we stood in was as identical to the original as possible, even the shiver it sent up my spine just being inside it felt the same.

I was grateful when it stopped and the doors opened to reveal a relatively normal looking corridor, reminiscent of the ones above in the upper building.

I would've believed that I'd imagined the lift falling and was arriving home if it weren't for the large black -2 painted next to the metal doors, the lack of any windows and an obnoxious, artificial light that I was sure would give me a migraine if I stood there for too long.

I don't know what I hoped would be behind the red, wooden door that lead to a vast stretch of flats. I didn't suppose that finding Derek in something that the fake lift had indicated was as large as the building would be that simple but perhaps it would provide some answers.

Albert himself was a possibility. I couldn't predict his moves, but I had a strong feeling he wouldn't be able to contain his intellectual gloating at the failure of my plan for long.

"I don't like it here." The small voice broke my stream of thoughts.

"Me neither Ellie, hopefully someone will be home and know how we can get back upstairs." I feebly attempted to smile at my tiny companion, but she was a child, not an idiot. She saw straight through me.

"I don't think we should go through that door." Ellie gestured to the red wooden door, separating us from the windowless flats. She planted her feet firmly to the spot and refused to move any further.

"Do you have any better ideas?" I asked, genuinely hopeful.

"I just have a really bad feeling."

Her words didn't fill me with a sense of comfort or optimism but I saw little choice. I reached for the handle and pulled at the door. It creaked loudly as it opened, releasing a strong, musky smell, like something that had been shut away for a long time.

I took a tentative step inside alone, leaving Ellie just behind in the corridor, and shouted hello; hoping that if anyone was in there that visitors were usually scarce and they may come out. Unlike my previous plans this worked flawlessly and within minutes each of the doors were slowly opening.

I counted around ten doors in total as human arms and fingers started to emerge from behind them. The flats were filled with - and I use this term loosely - people.

They weren't typical, none of them were dressed and they had fleshy limbs and appendages sticking out of all the wrong places. There were elongated necks, multiple arms and spines bent completely backwards, it shocked me that any of them could walk at all.

Each one of them looked like a unique result of intense torture. Torture that should've killed them long before they reached the stage they were at. Remembering where I was, I realised that they probably were killed long ago, or they never lived to begin with.

One in particular caught my eye. It had a neck at least three feet long and I couldn't distinguish it's gender at all. It's back was bent in a way that a child might to do the crab and it was balanced on all fours. Instead of two arms and two legs all four limbs were left arms, all facing the same direction.

It's neck lulled backwards, swinging from side to side a little and struggling to support itself. I inhaled sharply as it's head lifted slightly into a steadier position and it locked eyes with me.

It screamed.

The scream that came from that... thing... was the single most distressing sound I've ever had to listen to. It penetrated my soul and I felt every inch of pain and suffering that laced it. My stomach churned and the shrill pitch burrowed into my brain.

It left me completely immobile as every other person-like creature in the room lifted its head, wherever it balanced, and screamed in unison with the first. Holding my hands to my ears I started to feel a warm liquid trickling from them but I couldn't take my only protection away to see what it was.

I can't even begin to describe the pain that I felt. There are no words for a misery that deep. I don't know how, but I could feel years upon years of torment and unimaginable pain that they'd gone through. The screaming became so overwhelming and all consuming that I started to feel myself getting dizzy.

There was a violent tug at my shirt, forcing me backwards before an almighty hiss, vicious enough to cut through the screams and silence them, echoing through the corridor.

It took seconds for each and every one of the mangled people to shrivel back into their flats, winding limbs clambering in all directions. Leaving Ellie stood there, horn tips gleaming in the artificial light.

"What were they Kat?" I barely heard the muffled sounds she was making that had replaced the heart wrenching screams.

I finally pulled my hands away from my ears to see them covered in blood. Ellie noticed and wrapped her arms around me, nicking me accidentally in the side with a claw. It hurt but I didn't want to make a fuss, in that moment I knew no pain could measure up to what I'd felt during my short time amongst the mangled people.

"I don't know... how did you do that?" I could still barely hear the sounds of my own voice, it was like I was wearing a hat pulled over my ears, despite nothing of the sort and my hair being shoved into a bun on top of my head.

"I didn't do anything, I thought they were going to eat us both!" She replied, hyped on the adrenaline.

"But they all ran away.."

"I guess I'm just extra scary!" She answered, a pride in her voice that only a child could produce. I just looked down at her and ruffled the blonde hair between her horns. She was frightening looking, sure, but she had nothing on those things, or even the creatures in the lift.

I couldn't understand why such ferocious monsters were so scared of a little girl. Why would they run instantly? It made me uneasy, but I loved the twins, no matter how unusual they were. I just wished that I could be more of a protector for her than it being the other way round.

We stumbled into the corridor and I was again confronted by the metal doors of the fake lift. To the other side of them there was an entrance, presumably to a stairwell if the under tower we were trapped in continued to be a mirror of home. After spending what felt like hours in a lift, the idea of stairs comforted me and I ushered Ellie towards the entrance.

There were no stairs going upwards, back to floor -1. They only went downwards, the odd artificial light not quite covering the bottom of the set we were at the top of. My ears rung with the sound of the mangled people's screams.

"Do you think they skip too?" Ellie asked me, looking into the abyss with her own, impossibly deep black voids.

"Let's find out." I answered, gripping her hand again as we started to walk towards the darkness.

We reached floor -3 quickly, in one average flight. I considered exploring the corridor of flats that existed on that floor too, but Ellie planted herself firmly to the ground again and insisted we didn't. I wasn't about to argue with her, sound still hadn't returned to normal and I'd learned from my mistake. I couldn't bare to face anything like the previous floor again.

We climbed down another flight of stairs. The ones we had just descended were still there, leading back up, when we reached the bottom, giving me some comfort that as long as we could reach the lift on floor -2 we should at least be able to get back to the cold, dim but empty basement.

This time, the stairs did skip, giving some sort of semblance of home. The big, black -5 sign was jarring, but missing a floor had allowed me to tell myself that these stairs were just an extension of the proper ones.

More jarring, was the woman. She looked right at us, at my demon sidekick than had terrified everything else... and she didn't run. In fact, she didn't move at all, it's as if she were looking straight through us. Ellie didn't panic either, she didn't tell me to get away or hiss at the woman. She just stared back.

Her hair was a mousy brown and her features beautiful, yet average. There was nothing particularly distinct about her, except for how much she reminded me of someone else.

She was a perfect mirror of her counterpart, she had the same vacant yet sad expression that the man on floor 5 always had. I wondered for a moment what her name might be.

"She misses him." Ellie said.

I looked down at her in confusion.

"How do you know that?" I asked, not bothering to question who she meant.

"I don't know, I just do." She shrugged nonchalantly.

I sat on the step next to the standing woman and despaired. This whole place was like a sick joke. There was no sign of Albert, Derek or any way out of the labyrinth we we trapped in so far, and I couldn't comprehend just how much of an imbecile I'd been.

Between the thoughts of never getting out, how I'd endangered the entire block, how hungry the kittens would get, Jamie and those awful screams my head felt ready to explode. The incessant ringing was only getting worse.

The woman next to me didn't move a muscle, just stood staring into the open space in front of her. I looked at Ellie, knowing that she was special, and didn't doubt what she had told me. I could feel for myself that the woman missed the man. I understood how she felt, to lose her love to the building, my heart truly bled for her.

"We need to keep going. There has to be someone here that can talk to us. We need to get you back home to your mum and brother." I spoke, attempting to stay focused.

I smiled another forced, optimistic smile at Ellie and gestured for her to follow me further down the spiralling, artificially lit stairs. I wasn't sure what I hoped to find, or even where I was aiming, perhaps floor -9 was my best bet at any sort of answers.

I didn't get a chance to test that theory. Once we reached the bottom of the flight we were once again faced with the big, black -5. The woman was stood in the same position, facing forwards.

"Come on." I grabbed Ellie and tried to repeat the action. The stairs had always skipped. It wasn't anything unusual. It wasn't until it was.

By the sixth time we had attempted the stairs Ellie was looking tired and scared. Despite her voids for eyes the rest of her face displayed fear like any normal child.

"Kat.."

"It's ok. We just need to keep trying." I tried to convince myself as much as her.

"No... She doesn't want to be alone. That's why we can't leave." She let go of my hand and extended a long clawed finger in the direction of the woman.

She hadn't moved from her spot and there wasn't a noticeable chance in facial expression or demeanour, however, something about her felt entirely off. Hostile, even.

I understood grief, and doing everything possible to keep people close that you should let go. I wish that were what I thought the woman's intentions were, I really do. Instead it felt more literal than that, more like she just really couldn't bare to be alone again, at any cost.

"Just keep going."

We ran down the stairs again. Then up them, and down again. Three more times and the terror started to build, each time we arrived in front of the -5 the woman seemed more sinister, more malignant. She wasn't looking through us anymore. She was looking straight at us.

"My legs hurt Kat." Ellie whined. Mine did too.

"Do you think... you could scare her?" I felt sick even suggesting it but Ellie had the best chances of getting us away from the stairwell.

Ellie shook on the spot but nodded and took a few steps towards her, she got close to the woman's face and hissed, claws out. The woman didn't move, she didn't blink or flinch at all, she just stayed in her spot. Nothing at first, until she started to move. All that changed was her face, as the corners of her lips curled into a hollow smile.

The comfort I had felt from the familiarity of the woman and the floor number was dead in the water the moment she smiled. Ellie had retreated in an instant, tugging at my shirt again and shuffling closer. I think the fact that she did nothing else at all made it even more disconcerting.

The woman had the upper hand, and she wasn't going to let us go.

"Please." I begged. "If there's anything we can do to help you please tell us." I fought my fear, doing everything I could to be kind. If she had ever been a person she might somehow pity our plight. "I say hello to your man. I don't know his name and he's quiet like you... I think he misses you too. I know he does. I lost someone I love just like you did. I know how you feel."

A singular tear rolled down her cheek but the smile stayed in place. My chest thumped as my heart pounded against my rib cage... maybe I was getting through to her?

Her eyes were haunting and hypnotic as they made contact with mine. It was like her brain was scrambled and she couldn't put the pieces back together. Her eyes were more expressive than I had ever seen before on any person, filled with confusion and sadness.

After a few moments of intimate communication with our eyes the woman moved more than I had ever seen her or the man move. She cocked her neck to the side and tilted her head in Ellie's direction, a few seconds after her neck had turned her eyes followed and she looked intensely at the child, smile plastered on her face and the evaporating trail of the tear still visible in the gleaming light.

Ellie started to cry, terrified, she tried to take a step behind me to use me as some sort of shield. No matter how many monsters she fought she was still a scared kid.

The woman took a laboured step towards her.

It took her a long time to put one foot in front of the other. Standing in one position for so long must do a real number on the muscles, even for those of a supernatural persuasion. Nonetheless, her step was an immediate threat, I could feel that her intentions were malevolent. The sadness in her eyes had developed into a disdain and that single step was a declaration of war.

Me and Ellie started to back away slowly, readying ourselves to break into a sprint down the stairs. I was prepared to run them in an endless loop forever if it meant keeping that little girl away from the woman.

Before we could even reach the first step, there was a voice. A male voice.

"That's enough now, Angela. I didn't think you were one to make children cry."

I turned to the man now standing next to the woman, who had returned to her spot by the stairs, visibly calmed. He had one hand on her upper arm but he didn't need it there, she wouldn't dare disobey him.

His kindly eyes and smile, that held real warmth, were arranged beneath a familiar flat cap.

"I wish I could say it were nice to see you Kat, but given the circumstances I better not." He continued, speaking directly to me this time.

"Who's he?" Ellie interrupted, tugging the same spot on my shirt, where the material had begun to stretch. I smiled at her for real for the first time since our nightmare began.

"Ellie, this is Derek."

Derek smiled at Ellie; a genuine, warm grin. They had never met before, he only knew about the twins because I had told him about them last time we spoke, he never got a chance to see them before he disappeared. Despite this, he was completely unfazed by her demonic appearance.

I wished more than anything that the circumstances had been better. Their meeting and our reunion would've been wonderful upstairs, but instead we were stuck in the artificially lit stairwell, with the now still again woman for company.

I'd missed him. I hadn't realised how much it was possible to miss a person I barely knew until Derek. He represented everything good about the block to me, he made it feel like home, even in the bright, windowless underground layers.

"Pleased to meet you too, sir." Ellie answered in the poshest accent that she could muster, giggling. She radiated a light, there was an invisible expression of instant trust amongst the black that made up her voids. She liked him.

When this nightmare began, with the prophecy and subsequent death of Esther Beckman, I never would've imagined I'd be witnessing that moment between Ellie and Derek, to see an instant connection. I hoped he would get the chance to see her in the sunlight too, with her brown puppy dog eyes in place of the voids.

The whole scene filled me with my own warmth. Sounds were still muffled after my brutal attack by the mangled people, and I was disappointed that his voice wasn't clear, but the arrival of Derek gave me great hope. Even the presence of the woman, who was still stood by the stairwell, couldn't break that. Besides, we were safe from her now.

He took his kindly eyes away from Ellie to look at me.

"Why are you here? How?" He asked, disbelief in his tone. There was no anger, just disappointment, which was arguably worse. It was the first time I had ever seen Derek not look calm and collected.

"I'm here for you! I couldn't let you rot down here, I got the kittens and the vine.. then Albert came to visit." I blurted out quickly.

Derek smiled a little but it was strained.

"I'm sorry Kat. You shouldn't have come here, how did you do it.... why is this little lady with you?" He replied, confusion building. He tried to hide the concern in his voice for Ellie's sake but it was useless, she'd already seen the danger we were in.

I explained what had happened, right from the very beginning, after he went away and Mr Prentice trampled Prudence.

Ellie stood in a frightened awe as I spoke about my monstrous boyfriend, how I'd bought him back, kept him locked away for months and how he later murdered Mr Meow. Derek looked worried as I described Albert's visit and threats.

I covered everything. From Essie, to the vine, to the window cleaner and his inability to hold it together in lockdown.

I tried to reason why I had thought that my plan with the lift would work, but saying it out loud made me realise how stupid I had been. Ellie continued to listen intently. She looked a little smug when I told him how she had saved me from the creatures and again from the mangled people just a few floors above us.

I could see that my explanation wasn't complete enough, Derek had a million questions still to ask but I didn't give him a chance. After months of dwelling on his disappearance and the events of recent weeks, it was my turn to ask questions.

"Where are we?" I asked, starting as simply as I could manage. Little did I know I had just opened Pandora's box with three words. Derek began to speak.

"I call it the Undertower, or the building below. It's still a part of the building, but most residents never see it - for good reason. The things that live here aren't always as friendly as those upstairs.

"When my father bought the land to build this place he discovered a large underground tunnel system whilst digging the foundations and it inspired him.

"He wanted to be the first architect to extend a skyscraper the same length downwards, and a good deal of the excavation was already in place. He wanted to maximise the earning potential of his space, but he hadn't accounted for the power of this land.

"My father was a competitive, secretive man, so naturally he told no one outside of his workers what he was planning, not even his family. He employed a team of contractors who all signed non disclosure agreements. We're standing in the result."

Derek waved his arms a little, gesticulating about our current setting before he continued.

"When they found him hanging he was in the basement, the grim looking room you will have arrived here in. That room, and everything below it has been untouched since construction. They gave up on expanding that particular floor and when my father died the underground project was abandoned.

"As is the nature of this land, the contractors started to report strange happenings across the entire tower. There were at least 5 unexplained deaths and although it was unreported to the public, those were all amongst men working below.

"Those that worked on this hidden part of the building were especially superstitious and after my fathers death they sealed all entrances to the basement, entombing an entire tower block underneath the city.

"When it came into his possession, Albert tried to convince the builders to unseal it and carry on working. He was just like our dad you see, ambitious and money driven. None of them would agree to it, they claimed it was cursed.

"The upper tower was completed just before my father took his life, so Albert abandoned his negotiations with the contractors within a few weeks and focused on opening the place up. He wasn't going to continue to miss out on any money arguing over these lower floors.

"He said that our fathers death would only explain the grand opening being delayed for so long and he had to move forward. We moved in a week later, the first residents to live here."

He paused for a moment and a sadness clouded his face, his kindly eyes welled up a little as he thought back to life before the building.

"You must be really old if your dad built this place! Even my mum isn't that old!" Ellie interrupted. I laughed, her childish thought process was the only thing that could lighten the mood.

Derek chuckled and the woman next to him remained unmoving.

"I am quite old I suppose. Don't feel it though." He answered, chuckling to himself as he adjusted his flat cap and winked at Ellie.

"Don't look it either..." I chimed in. Derek stopped chuckling and continued, shooting me a look.

"That isn't something I can explain Kat. Albert and I weren't close to our father. We didn't really know anything about this place until he died, the project was mostly completed and we only got to speak to a handful of contractors, who told us wild stories we would never believe to be true at the time. We couldn't have imagined how our lives were going to change.

"The only clue we have to our... extended life... is his note.

" To my boys. If you stay here you will never die.

"That was all he left us. On a crumpled bit of paper that had to be given to us by a builder named Keith. My best guess is that he made some kind of deal with a spirit of the place... I don't know... maybe it was just a special resident I haven't met yet...Maybe the building itself.

"It took us years to realise we weren't ageing normally and by time we noticed, there was no one left to ask.

"We had to navigate every supernatural, unusual and strange occurrence in the place, alone at first. I remember exploring, being in awe of everything I met. Whenever I would cross paths with Albert he didn't look mystified like I was, he was scared.

"My brother and I were never the best of friends and it's my deepest regret that I didn't use that time we were alone here to build a relationship with him. Maybe I could've made a difference."

"A difference to what?" I asked, trying to take in each of his words. "To his son?"

Derek looked at Ellie, letting his eyes linger on the little girl and then back at me. He shook his head.

"Not now. There's far too much to discuss. For now, we need to find a way to get you home."

I considered protesting but I could see the sadness in his eyes and I didn't want to press. He was right, I'd put Ellie at risk for long enough and I needed to get her back to Terri and Eddie safely.

"Have you been here this whole time? If you can't get out then we have no hope." I whispered to Derek as he put an arm around Ellie's shoulders and prepared to move. He sighed a little.

"You met my brother Kat. The consequences of my escape would be huge for the block; he's not appreciative of the way I conduct myself. He prefers to take what the building gives and make it harmful, twist it into something bad... I prefer to live with it. I don't believe anything here is evil... except maybe him."

I tried to let it go, I wanted to keep moving but things weren't adding up.

"But Albert said.... the kittens and the vine. He said they were a cry for help."

"He lied. It's in his interests to keep me away. Yes I helped them live, it gets lonely down here. When he discovered the plant he took it off me immediately.

"Albert bought down one of the cat's to feed to the thing he keeps on floor -10, I stopped him. He let me keep it because I suppose somewhere deep down he pitied me. I nurtured that little cat until out of nowhere the kittens were born. It was amazing, love created new life.

"The cats were great company and I would've freed them if I could, but I never let them out.

"I didn't have a clue how they got out until you mentioned a grate in the wall." He looked me up and down as he spoke, eyeing me unusually. It wasn't an entirely mistrustful look, but suspicious nonetheless.

"So how do we get out?" Ellie asked.

"Well last time your friends garden got me out of here.." he crouched to speak to her on eye level.

"We planted a garden for you! But you never came." She huffed in retort.

"I know. My mean brother told me how beautiful it is, I hope I get to see it one day! He's made it a bit harder this time." He stood up and addressed me again. "I used to go through the basement. There's a stairwell, it's just sealed up, you have to break it. The lift will only bring you down, you can't get home that way."

"So let's go!" I urged, reaching for his hand. Then I saw it. I hadn't noticed, I had had been too focused on his kindly eyes.

Derek was missing all four fingers on his left hand. He looked at the floor as I struggled not to stare.

"What he did to Jamie. If I even just enter the basement, it will happen to me; I tested it. You can see the results." He lifted his stumpy hand. "I don't know how I got that cat to give birth. And I don't know how Albert does anything that he does to the things that live here. I just know that if I step in that basement, I'll die."

He looked devastated. Despite the relief that he hadn't gone straight in and done much worse damage, I knew the loss of his fingers would be major for him. He was, after all, first and foremost a gardener.

"I'll walk you there, Kat. Make sure Albert lets you go. But I can't come with you."

I wanted to scream, loud enough to hurt any ears left on the mangled people upstairs. I wanted to shout and tell him that after all I'd been through, I wasn't going to leave without him. But the horned little girl beside me had thrown a lot of complications out there. Defeated, I nodded.

Derek turned to the still woman.

"I'll be back to visit Angela, I promise. But please let these ladies leave safely." He leaned over and kissed her cheek gently before ushering us towards the stairwell. Another single tear rolled down her face.

We trudged upwards fairly silently. I wondered if all my questions would ever be answered. I knew from before that Derek was mysterious, but after all I'd been through to get to the undertower it didn't seem fair that I would be marched back so unceremoniously.

Derek may have known the way to get home, but no single person has complete control of this land, I was coming to really understand that. The building would always win.

So I shouldn't have been surprised when we arrived at the large, black -7.

"Kat.. they skip. You know that; there's nothing for you in there." Derek put his stumpy hand on my shoulder as I stared at the different yet familiar corridor.

He could see the curiosity filling my eyes as I was confronted with the counterpart of my home. Would it be filled with more mangled people? Or was it a true reversal, a place where me and Jamie lived happily, Mr Prentice didn't have to deal with his affliction and Essie was alive? Or was it home to something entirely different?

Noise suddenly became more than just muffled. My mind was actively blocking it out. The knowledge that Derek was with Ellie took away some of the responsibility that I felt as I edged towards the familiar, yet very different main entrance.

"Kat, please don't." Derek followed me, cautious to keep hold of Ellie. I think had she not been there he probably would have grabbed me, but he didn't want to spook her. I continued forward in a trance like state.

The numbers were blurred and the minus symbol stood out. I stroked the wood and the handle. It didn't feel like home. Not even a little. I was curious about what was inside, but I somehow knew that it wasn't good.

The only seemingly positive thing about the situation was the lack of mangled people on the floor. I didn't know what was behind the doors, but it wasn't them, I had already created enough noise to draw them out if they were there. No, something else was there.

Instead of trying my key, after a sudden epiphany, I turned and ran, straight towards number -51 and pounded on the door.

"ESSIE!" I screamed, realising that if I hadn't died in that lift, then maybe she hadn't either.

I banged hard on the door and could almost smell the familiar cigarette smoke seeping out of the flat.

"Kat stop!" Derek screamed. Out of the corner of my eye I could see him covering Ellie's voids in grim anticipation. Then the door squeaked open.

There she was. Essie hadn't died at all. Her fate had been so much worse.

My friend was stood at the door, face twisted into a horrifying expression, her mouth lulled open much wider than should be possible with a functioning jaw. More alarmingly, her eyes had been entirely removed, leaving red, bloodied, gaping wounds central to her face.

Tufts of hair had been yanked from her scalp, leaving raw skin in its place. The dress thats neatness I had previously marvelled at was torn and distressed around the edges, barely covering her swollen, deformed limbs, bones jutting out of open wounds in all directions. The air filled with the scent of old ash and necrotic skin.

She collapsed to the ground, unable to stand any longer on her broken legs, mouth still hanging open. Guilt washed hard over me.

"How could you leave her like this?!" I turned to Derek and screamed, but his face was as horrified as mine.

"I didn't know Kat, honestly I didn't. I didn't even know she was dead until I found you! Please, we have to keep going, don't let her see this." He kept his hand over the gaping black voids that were so much more alive and comforting than Essie's hollowed sockets.

There was real shock in his eyes, I believed him, but I was angry.

"She wanted me to help you! And this is what she got?!" I couldn't get past my rage, Essie had been left to suffer for so long already and who knew how long Albert intended her to stay like that. She laid there, writhing and I was both desperate to help her and furious.

Derek didn't get a chance to protest. Instead our argument was interrupted by a slow and mocking clap.

I turned to see the door of flat -42 flung wide open, Albert in the doorway, with a smug grin on his face.

"You're so predictable Kat. I knew you'd find yourself here, on this particular floor. Apologies for my tardiness to this reunion, I've been cleaning up a rather large mess you left while travelling here."

My skin crawled as Albert spoke, he filled me with the opposite of the warmth Derek did. The world became cold and hopeless.

"Is everyone ok up there!?" I asked, desperately hoping that my stunt with the lift hadn't hurt anyone.

"All but one." Albert replied, smiling wryly. "Aren't you going to thank me? Yet another disaster cleaned up by yours truly. It could've been a lot worse." My heart sank as I went through a Rolodex of residents in my mind. It was like I was being told off. I was about to ask who got hurt, but I couldn't find the words in time before the brothers eurrupted into a bitter row.

"Let them go home Albert; they've learned their lesson, they won't look for me again." Derek interjected firmly.

"Are you some kind of idiot." Albert retorted, rolling his eyes. "All the chaos this girl has caused and you think I'm going to just let her head back up there to cause more... when she bought such a beautiful gift." He took a few steps towards Ellie, gazing in wonder, and Derek stepped in front of her.

"You aren't coming anywhere near her." He hissed at his brother through gritted teeth.

"What is she?" He stopped moving and directed his question at me.

"I'm a girl and my name is Ellie." She shouted from behind Derek defiantly, poking her horns out to the side. She was audibly annoyed at being referred to as a what.

"I'm sorry! It's great to meet you Ellie." He edged a little closer again and got down to void level, just like Derek had not long ago. There was no instant connection this time though, just a twisted fascination in his eyes. He spoke as if she wasn't even there. "Exquisite. She's natural."

"Of course she is." Derek responded, stepping back as he continued to guard the little girl. "Nothing you mess with works out very well, does it?"

"That depends on your definition. Your successes all panned out pretty poorly don't you think, little brother?" He snapped back.

"What are you talking about?" I blurted, confused. I had no idea what they meant by natural or what they were arguing over. In fact; I had personally always found Ellie's demonic appearance quite unnatural myself.

Albert scoffed maniacally as Derek looked at the floor. The sibling dynamic was so visible, you could see Derek being put into a place of little brother, trying to hide behind the peak of his flat cap. Regardless he valiantly continued to shield Ellie. Finally, Albert stood up and addressed me directly again.

"He hasn't told you anything has he? About this place, about how it throws out creations you could barely imagine." He looked around him as he referred to the building below that we had been trapped in and continued.

"You have no idea of the power this land has. The power it gives to people who stay. Ever wonder how Prudence Hemmings managed to throw a fully grown man off a balcony and chase you up all those stairs - at her age? Or why Mr Prentice becomes that other thing? Or why me and my lovely brother here aren't long dead?

"They're just all too stupid to notice. They have no idea what's right beneath them. They won't ever realise the potential."

My mind reeled at his words, maybe the building really could change its inhabitants. To be honest I spent more time than I'd like to admit wondering how I hadn't found it easier to escape Prue, I was permanently scarred from the altercation after all. Despite my contempt for Albert, I recognised that what he was saying made sense.

I noted the residents he mentioned. All of them had spent decades in the building. It wasn't a far stretch at all to believe that it could've irreparably altered them somehow. There were others that I could think of, however, that had been there just as long and seemed as normal as you or me, all the questions hurt my mind.

I heard a yelp and some pained moans and turned to flat -51, where Essie was frantically trying to wrench herself up off the floor. Every time she got close another bone would crack and her jaw would edge slightly lower. Blood oozed from the wounds.

"Just let them go. This is pointless." Derek tried to interrupt, to keep things moving. I wouldn't let him. Looking at my friend being tortured by her own body had only made me angry again.

"No! What do you mean she's natural?" I shouted at him, curiosity about their conversation getting the better of me. Derek spoke as Albert smugly grinned in the background.

"Kat... we can do things. It doesn't just end with an extended life, we can manipulate some of the people and things that pass through here. That's why I was able to give Prudence the way to get Lyla back. It's why those things listen to me."

Derek pointed at Albert before continuing.

"He gave that cult the ability to burn the whole floor with their minds... and I gave the residents that died new life as the cats. Since he left to stay down here he's been messing around with anyone and anything he can get his hands on. I've tried to stop it over the years, but... I don't always manage.

"Those people you dealt with on the floor below the basement... they were all his failed experiments. Those poor people were once residents upstairs that ended up here by mistake. Fifty years worth."

Albert couldn't let him continue. He was bursting with the need to gloat.

"I wouldn't say they failed! They're all beautifully grim. I thought you were a fan of giving things new life, little brother."

There was little to no feeling in his voice. His sharp tone and dusty suit made him almost like a caricatured amalgamation of every Disney villain recorded.

Except in Disney films the villain didn't win, and looking at Essie, writhing in pain on the floor of not her doorway; Albert had won already.

Derek stayed silent, I could see he felt guilty for even being associated. He just looked at me in desperation.

I tried to fathom what they were saying.

"So... Jamie was unnatural?" I asked timidly, taking in the inference that his monster form had been nothing more than a byproduct of Derek's power. Just another twisted experiment, like the mangled people whose screams rang in my ears. I wondered if he had felt pain like they did.

Albert erupted into laughter and once again clapped mockingly.

"There's that intelligence I liked about you when we first met! It's in there girl! Now you get it, can you explain to me where your little friend came from?" His words were patronising, but he couldn't hide his curiosity.

He took another few steps towards Ellie as Derek stood bravely in front of her. "It's not often I find one I'm unaware of. I don't know how I've missed her. Especially when she was able to do so much damage to my other creations. You should've seen what she did to one of the pair that inhabit the lift. I have to have her."

Ellie reached a clawed hand forward and pushed Derek aside with such force that he was taken off his feet. She hissed, just as she had with the rat creatures and the mangled people. Albert winced, but stayed stoic as his face filled with joy.

"You're mean!" She shouted at him. My heart melted a little that she thought that those two words were fitting for the situation, if only things were as simple as they are in the mind of a seven year old.

Derek stumbled to his feet and watched closely, in awe of Ellie's blind courage.

Albert once again dropped to his knees to face her. She stood defiantly, her voids fixed on his cold eyes. He started to reach his hand out towards her. She growled softly in response.

"NO!" I screamed. Visions of her disintegrating in front of my eyes filled my mind. I couldn't let him touch her. I started to run towards them but Derek grabbed me and held me in place as he whispered in my muffled ear.

"He won't hurt her, but he will hurt you." I looked at his stumped hand and listened, despite my discomfort. I thought back to the article about Albert's son's death and for the first time, I wasn't sure I trusted Derek. How could I know for sure that he wouldn't hurt her? I was ready to jump forward and throw Ellie out of the way at any point.

Albert stopped just millimetres short of Ellie's face, his fingers hovering in front of the deep black voids. His eyes were filled with wonder, the expression on his face was how I must have looked the first time I saw her too.

"It isn't just you is it Ellie?" He mused. A smile erupting across his face. "There's two of you."

I should've been alarmed, worried that he had realised she was a twin. I should've pondered how he knew, but at this stage semantics were pointless. Instead, his lack of knowledge about Eddie's existence filled me with relief that he hadn't been harmed upstairs. If he had, Albert wouldn't have been so fascinated by his sister.

"Eddie wouldn't like you either." She said bluntly, breaking the magic in his eyes.

Before I could make a single move Derek had leapt across the room and got between them again.

"Let them go." Derek said calmly, one more time. "They don't belong down here."

"I'm finding it hard to believe that she didn't come from down here. And I promised that one.." Albert tilted his head in my direction, "a fate just like hers." He pointed at Essie, who had bloodied red tears running down her face as she squirmed on the floor. I watched the jagged edge of her snapped thigh bone scrape against the carpet, pulling it further out of her skin and I cringed hard.

Derek didn't respond to his brother, instead he grabbed Ellie's clawed hand and walked her towards Essie's flat.

"What are you doing?!" Albert cried out in a condescending fashion, scrambling up from his knees and following. I couldn't bare to see him get closer.

An anger bubbled inside me and the entire floor went dead silent. All noise was replaced by a deep mental echoing of the screams of the mangled people. I thought of all the suffering the landlord had caused and watched as he edged towards that pure, innocent, demonic little girl. And I saw red.

I sprinted at him and threw myself forwards tackling him to the floor from behind. Raising a clenched fist I punched him hard in the face. I had never hit anyone like that before, I'd never felt the red mist that those who get angry describe, until that moment.

I wasn't sure what I thought my interference would do, I knew that I wasn't going to be able to kill him, and that I probably wouldn't be able to do any damage at all, but Ellie had saved me so many times already that night that I couldn't let him get to her.

Albert's cold, dead looking eyes bore into my soul and he let out a joyless giggle as he wrestled me to the ground so that he had the upper hand. He hovered his hand over my face just like he had Jamie, pinning me down with the other.

I wondered if it was the last thing his son had seen before he died; Jamie, Essie before the torture, all of them. Had this been it? Could the last real memory they had be those cold eyes.

I prepared to die. Since moving into the tower block it was something that I'd done more than most, but this time felt permanent. Everything but Albert went black. I squeezed my eyes shut tightly and tried to think of the things I wanted to remember, the people upstairs that had become family to me.

Death never came, instead I felt a crushing and release as someone grabbed Albert from above me and threw him against the wall.

I sat up panting, in shock that I was alive. I was disoriented and my ears continued to ring. I opened my eyes. The artificial light started to penetrate the black and all I could see was Derek's tweed flat cap, on the floor beside me. My heart stopped.

The next sound I heard was familiar, but somehow bigger than ever before. I blinked a few times to see Ellie, claws raised menacingly in the air, roaring at Albert, who had been grabbed by his brother and had in turn overpowered him.

She was much taller and wider than usual, a gigantic figure towering above all of us, and her human features that came through the demonic ones were greatly reduced. If I didn't love her so dearly I would be tempted to describe her as terrifying and monstrous.

Albert took his attention away from Derek, a smug and slimy smile forming ear to ear as he marvelled at the giant girl. He moved towards her in a trance like state.

Ellie opened her mouth as she stood above Albert with her claws, revealing long sharpened teeth with prominent fangs in the front. Somehow her voids for eyes seemed infinitely deeper.

Then she bit him.

Her sharp fangs pierced Albert's skull, sending blood and brain matter spattering across the corridor and all over me, Essie and Derek.

She didn't stop there, ravenously she laid into him with her teeth, pinning him hoisted up to the wall with foot long claws, by his limbs. She had as good as crucified him and was consuming parts.

Bone and organ littered the floor and walls and what was left of limbs twitched as she severed nerves. I watched in horror and awe. A symphony of screaming, growling and crunching breaking through my muffled hearing.

When he stopped moving and what remained slid down the wall, leaving a trail of blood, Ellie's size reduced as well almost instantaneously. Neither me nor Derek had any words as the now little again demonic girl stood beside a corpse of her making.

She ran towards Derek with her arms outstretched, bloodied mouth, and embraced him. He held her tightly, his kindly eyes filled with the shock of what he'd just witnessed. After a minute or so she broke from Derek and turned to me and helped me up before doing the same.

It felt good. To know that she was safe.

She stopped hugging and stood facing us both before speaking, voids facing the ground.

"He was going to hurt us all."

Derek and I stared at Ellie in silence. It wasn't a stare of horror, more of sheer disbelief. I couldn't be more grateful that she had saved our lives.

What remained of Albert on the floor wasn't a source of alarm. Despite his extended life, she had ripped him into enough pieces that if he had survived, he couldn't speak and must have been in unbelievable pain. Just like the residents he tortured for years.

It would've been a cruel irony and I almost half hoped he hadn't truly died, as sick as that may sound.

"Are you ok?" I asked Ellie. She had shrunken and morphed back into a smaller demonic child, something that I felt a need to protect, despite the fact she didn't need anyone to do so.

"I'm fine." She answered, head still hung as if she were ashamed. There was a pause for a moment.

"Thank you, sweetheart. We'd all be dead without you." Derek chipped in, his normal, calm and positive tone restored. Ellie lifted her head and smiled as he recognised her for the hero she was. It wasn't that I didn't feel the same, it's just that the shock was overwhelming. "We need to help another friend now honey, do you want to grab Kat and come with me?"

Ellie wrapped her clawed hand in mine as I clutched Derek's blood soaked tweed cap with the other. She looked at me with love, just like she had at the beginning of this nightmare. The cold atmosphere of the floors below that we stood in had been reduced to a pile on the ground, just like Albert.

We walked towards flat -51. Every step felt wobbly, like those few steps after a really spinny ride at the fair. I struggled to put one foot in front of the other.

Derek dropped to where Essie lay squirming and put a gentle hand over her chest, carefully avoiding the splintered rib bones that stuck out.

"I'm so sorry." He said to her as he shut his eyes, leant down and kissed her bloodied forehead.

The shards of bone that decorated her entire body started to move and rearrange. She squealed in pain as her skin started to cauterise over the newly repositioned bone and innards. Her twisted limbs started to resemble something human again. I felt tears rolling down my face.

Once she was as close to her usual herself as she was going to get Derek took a step back as she opened her eyes, that had returned to the hollowed sockets and looked directly at me.

Essie was blind, she had always been blind, but she knew that I was there. We held her gently as the three of us helped her to her sofa, an exact replica of the one upstairs, placing each bruised limb into position as carefully as we could.

The bruises shone purple and green underneath the harsh artificial lighting, reminding me that we weren't really home.

"Kat..." she struggled to speak. Her jaw hadn't quite relocated the whole way. I knew what she wanted though.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out a slightly bloody cigarette. Essie reached out with broken fingers and held it to her lips as best she could as I put down the flat cap and lit it for her.

"Come on sweetheart, we're gonna stand in the other room." Derek said to Ellie as he ushered her into the hallway and away from the smoke, leaving me alone with Ms Beckman.

"I'm sorry Essie." I started, she tried to reply but she could barely make a sound. "You were right though, he did need help. Now no one in the block is going to go through what you have anymore... I'm sorry I couldn't save you."

Essie puffed on the cigarette with great difficulty, she could barely close her lips around it but she persisted, with a glint in her eye that indicated this was the first pleasure she'd enjoyed in quite some time. She grunted a strained no at me.

"Ellie did it. I can finally take her home now. I just wish that we could take you and Derek with us." I lit my own cigarette and took a long draw from it.

"You.... ca.... can. No...not .... me. Go home. GO HOME." She managed. Every word leaving a trail of pain in her face. I cringed, despite her better appearance she wasn't fixed. She was in as much pain as she had been before. I smiled at her, just to try and make her feel a little normal.

"Speaking in fucking riddles again, Essie?" I responded, trying to muster a laugh through the tears that continued to fill my eyes.

She looked directly at me again and I knew that she had been serious. We finished our smoke in silence as I wept and she wheezed.

"Derek!" I shouted after a few more minutes with her, encouraging him back into the flat. Him and Ellie appeared within seconds.

He took one look at me, nodded with tears in his eyes too and he knew what to do. I got up from the sofa and pulled Ellie in for a hug, careful to avoid her horns, making sure that she faced me.

Then I watched over her shoulder as he delicately closed Essie's eyelids and the wheezing stopped. I held in a sob and clutched my young friend as tightly as I could.

Derek walked towards us and put his arms around the both of us for a moment in silent mourning before stepping back.

Ellie looked up at me, a knowing in her voids, and she spoke.

"I want to go home now, Kat."

Her words broke what was left of my resolve. The sobbing began and Derek put his hand on my shoulder. He started to walk us out of the hallway and as we reached the mess on the floor that had once been Albert, outside the door of flat -42, I came to a sudden stop.

"No further. We need to go in there." I said, directing them into the open door of my anti flat. Derek tried to speak and protest but I stopped him the moment he opened his mouth. "Please. Just trust me."

I wasn't angry, or frantic like before and I think that he knew I wasn't trying to lead us into more trouble. I recognised that I'd probably done enough of that to last a lifetime.

Essie hadn't lead me astray before, her advice had been sound, I'd taken a few detours but I got to the right place eventually. If I were to respect her death then I had to follow the last bit of advice she gave out.

The flat was familiar. My sofa, fold out table and kitchen were all there, identical to the ones I'd spent so much time at. The flat was windowless, the sole indication in my confusion that I wasn't truly home, I pulled back the curtains of the balcony doors to reveal thick concrete behind them.

It was sad really, but I almost longed to see the window cleaner, tapping on the glass and begging to be let in. I would trade his persistent harassment for my current predicament in a heartbeat.

I felt my face sink, whatever Essie had wanted me to see here wasn't as clear as I'd hoped. I should have anticipated that it wouldn't be easy. Derek and Ellie stood in silence as I inspected every inch of the place, even down to an equally smashed copy of the prison I had kept Jamie in.

Frustrated, I eventually looped back into the living room, prepared to walk out the front door and follow Derek to the basement entrance, where he would leave us again. The prospect of going through all that for him to remain trapped in these layers was more disheartening than anything I'd felt before.

Then I saw the light.

It wasn't a eureka moment. Or some sort of religious epiphany; it was an actual physical light. It wasn't artificial like the one that had plagued our stay in the under tower. It was real, and it was coming from the sun.

"How..." Derek uttered in wonder as his eyes fixed on the grate that had appeared at the top of the concrete, behind the sliding balcony doors. The sun flooding in lit up his whole face and electrified his kind eyes.

The opening looked just the same as it had the night I found the kittens, but from the other side it's appearance was all the more poignant. Who would've thought that metal bars could signify such freedom.

When it first appeared I had never imagined that something other than a basement could exist beneath the block.

"Thank you Essie." I looked up at the ceiling and imagined her smile as it had been before Albert had got to her. She knew she couldn't be saved, but she made sure Derek didn't have to stay. And I knew that in her death she wouldn't have to suffer again.

The grate was just large enough for a person to fit through with enough of a squeeze and I could almost make out the shrubbery me and the twins had planted.

"See! You're coming too!" I grinned at Derek with the first bit of true joy I'd felt in quite some time. He didn't protest this time, or argue at all. He smiled back and just said two simple words.

"Thank you."

I pulled open the sliding door and Ellie, who had been stood to the side, climbed the curtain with her claws as quickly as possible. I was amazed and grateful that she didn't pull them down. I watched in awe as she wrenched the bars away from the concrete and uninterrupted sunlight poured into the lower flat.

The sunlight bathed us all and Ellie dropped to the ground the same time as her claws and horns began to retract. I couldn't pinpoint the exact moment the voids disappeared but they did.

There she was, mess of blonde hair on her head and brown puppy dog eyes looking at us as she hit the ground with a thud. A little girl you wouldn't suspect more than a tantrum of replaced the ferocious beast that had protected me through this hellish landscape.

The front door that lead to the hallway where Albert's remains laid had suddenly been replaced by a thick blank wall, just as the lift that bought us here had been. All that remained was the flat, the three of us and the open grate.

I pulled one of the chairs from the fold out table below it and turned to Derek.

"You first, so you can pull us out."

He was busy staring at the newly transformed girl. There was a guilt in his eyes, and he looked at Ellie more strangely than he had when she was demonic, regardless, the connection was still there.

I handed him the flat cap, still soaked in blood and he placed it onto his head with a genuine smile. He looked himself again with it in place as he took a step onto the chair. Before climbing out he turned to us and winked.

He wriggled through the grate with some difficulty, and reached his hands back through, I watched Ellie's tiny clawless hand clutch his fingerless one as he hoisted her through the gap.

Left alone in the flat I took another look at my surroundings, and took a moment to consider all the pain beneath the block. I imagined a life where Ellie hadn't come with me and I was trapped for good, or dead at the hands of the rat creatures.

As I burst through the small gap, pulled by both Derek and Ellie, the bright sun and sensation of the shrubs in my hair as I crawled through them felt like a rebirth.

The garden was stunning. Dewdrops littered the green foliage and the rising, orange sun lit them up like fireflies. I had never been more appreciative of it. Looking back at the outer edge of the building the grate was gone, along with any indication that it had been there at all.

I wondered why it had appeared in my flat down there. Why I had been the person to find it both times; and I remembered what Albert had said about the building altering those who stay. I pondered he was right, and if it was possible that it had altered me already.

As we sat in the fresh morning air I knew that none of it really mattered. Standing outside of a grim city tower block was cathartic; grey concrete had never looked so inviting.

We were home.

The scenes of carnage and destruction that I had imagined would greet us when we entered the building were nowhere to be seen. Albert had certainly cleaned up. There was no kitten leg, or creatures, or even evidence of a kerfuffle. It made me all the more nervous; I had no idea who had been hurt.

The slow trudge to Ellie's floor was painful, my limbs all ached and the ringing in my ears continued. Still, I was just so glad to be getting her home, I couldn't wait to see Terri's face when we returned her daughter safely, Ellie may have looked a mess, but she was alive and well, which was the best I could ask for given the circumstances.

I wish I could say that Terri greeted us with joy. I really do wish I could.

Instead her face was sullen and the dark circles that sat like tattoos looked deeper than before, the skin around her eyes was puffed up and swollen with tears. When she spotted Ellie she fell to her knees with relief. I hoped her face would brighten, but it didn't.

"Where is he?" She sobbed, grabbing hold of Ellie and clutching her as tightly as she could. "Where's my son?"

My heart dropped to my stomach. I'd made a sea of bad decisions in my time, but this... if this was what Albert had meant... was the worst consequence I could've imagined.

I tried to find words but I couldn't, I'd never seen a person look quite so broken. The pain in the screams of the mangled people wasn't a patch on Terri's sobbing.

"Is... that his blood?" She asked, gesturing to our clothes and hair whilst struggling to speak.

I had been complacent, if the creatures had overpowered Eddie, if they had won, then maybe there wasn't enough of him left for Albert to see that he was like his sister. I shouldn't have written off the possibility like I had.

Derek stepped forwards and put his hands on Terri's shoulders. She winced and I remembered the lockdown situation, the only grounding in reality that I'd felt since returning to the upper layers of the block. She looked him in the eyes.

"I don't know if you remember me Terri, you were very small the last time we met, but I remember your parents." His kindly eyes had locked with hers as she melted and collapsed into him, wailing and gasping for air.

Together we walked her to the sofa, not unlike how we had Essie not long before. I'd never known Terri's flat to be so quiet; Eddie was always playing. He was always so loud. And he always came home.

Ellie was the absconder. It's why I'd found it easy to convince myself that Eddie was playing in his room, disrupting Terri's sleep like normal as we navigated the layers below. In all honestly, I think I was just trying to convince myself that I couldn't possibly be responsible for the death of a child.

Logically, I always knew that with his sister gone for that long he'd go looking. I just hoped.. I really hoped we would get home in time. That he could hold his own. I don't know. Anything but this. I had buried my worries.

Terri couldn't breathe properly through thick, heavy sobs. The noise muffled my already fucked up ears. Derek sat with his arms around her while Ellie nuzzled into his other side and I sat opposite, blood soaked, devastated and alone.

knock... knock... knock

The tapping on the door bought all conversation, sobbing and brooding to a stop. Terri sprinted to the door, hope in her eyes, and as it opened she wailed in joy.

"Get off me, mum! Where's Ellie!"

The familiar voice of the young boy jolted me back into the room and I turned to see Eddie, accompanied by none other than Mr Prentice. Eddie spotted his sister on the sofa and ran towards the three of us.

"Woah, where did all the blood come from? Cool!" He shouted. There were a few cuts and bruises covering his limbs but he seemed mostly unharmed. His excitement was enough to tell me that he was ok. Derek stared at him in disbelief, not unlike how he had Ellie upon their first meeting.

I turned and walked towards the door; to where Terri and Mr Prentice were speaking. Mr Prentice wobbled slightly as he kept himself propped up with his cane.

"What happened?" I asked.

"I'm not sure. I heard a lot of banging and decided I should go and check what was going on. I found him at the bottom, by that ghastly lift.

"I didn't recognise the man in the suit, I couldn't get close enough, but I don't understand how anyone could stand over an injured child and not help. He ran into the lift when I got closer and you know how I like to avoid that place.

"I'm not sure why folk run from me sometimes, but it was probably for the best, I'm not sure what I'd have done."

I imagined Mr Prentice, in his animal form running towards Albert. Imagining that the landlord had run scared from the beast warmed my heart.

"Anyway, I'm rather tired. So if you don't...." Mr P stopped as he caught a glimpse of the inside of the flat behind us. His eyes widened. "Is that... DEREK!"

Derek came up behind us and reached out a bloodied hand to shake Mr Prentice's. The elderly man looked unsteady on his cane, as if he had seen a ghost.

"It's been years!" He stuttered, beaming, firmly gripping Derek's intact hand. "We shall have to have a drink together, my friend!"

"We will." Derek smiled. "I'm back now. There'll be plenty of time to catch up."

Terri clutched the twins tightly as the two men revelled in their meeting. I couldn't help but smile quietly to myself and think of Essie. The kids were safe, Derek was back and Albert couldn't continue to terrorise the block. And yet again, Mr prentice had proved himself the real MVP.

We left Terri and the kids to have some family time, Ellie hugged Derek so tightly as we left I thought she might crush him.

We walked back to the seventh floor where mine and Mr P's flats were. It should've been a victory walk but I couldn't shake the feeling that everything wasn't entirely over.

My feeling was confirmed once the door to flat 48 closed behind Mr Prentice and Derek looked at me gravely.

"There's a few more things you need to know Kat, can you get cleaned up and meet me in the garden?"

Home didn't feel as empty as it once had. Even without Jamie or Mr Meow I felt more hope than I had in months. I greeted Wrinkles and Tetley, fed them and sat down to smoke at my fold out table.

Natural sun poured in through the windows but my home would never look quite the same after my time in the undertower.

I turned on the shower and must have stood underneath the water, watching Albert's blood run down the sink, for at least half an hour. Overwhelmed doesn't cover it. Shut down would be more accurate.

I dithered while getting ready, exhausted and starting to feel the lack of sleep once again. My eyes were heavy. Sitting down on the bed was fatal.

I woke up a few hours later, worried that I'd left Derek waiting.

I rushed out of the flat and down the stairs to the garden. They were extra kind and only made me take one flight going straight from my floor to the main entrance. I couldn't have been more grateful, I was so exhausted.

Outside on the bench, there he was. I don't know how or where he got clean but the flat cap was as fresh as ever. I suppose after all the unbelievable things I'd learned I shouldn't have even spared it a thought, but it was magic nonetheless.

"I'm sorry! I fell asleep!" I shouted before he had a chance to turn his head and notice me.

"It's fine Kat. I had a few things to do anyway." He spoke with a smile. The kind that you can hear just in a persons tone and as I approached him and the garden I realised why.

I felt a lump form in my throat and tears well in my eyes as I noticed the tiny bundle in his lap. It was bald, wrinkly and had exactly three legs.

Mr Meow.

"There was nothing I could do about his foot - I think the others ate that - but I thought this little guy deserved another shot at life." Derek grinned from ear to ear as I stared in disbelief at the tiny cat in front of me. Disregarding their burning properties entirely I scooped him up and held him close, only putting him down as he singed my face a little.

Thoughts started to whir in my mind but before they could ever fully develop Derek turned to me gravely and squashed them.

"I know what you're thinking, but there was nothing I could do for Jamie... after what Albert did..."

"Don't apologise." I cut him off. "What I did was selfish. Albert was right, Jamie died a long time ago. Sometimes I wonder if - even if I could have him back - maybe I'm a different person now to the one he knew."

Derek didn't respond, he just watched while I played with Mr Meow, tickling his belly as he rolled around purring on my lap.

"I know you must still have a lot of questions and if I'm honest, I'm not sure any of them have answers that will satisfy. I'm no oracle; I still have questions myself, but I want to tell you what I know."

I looked at him in confusion. Almost all loose ends had already been tied and anything else seemed almost arbitrary, but Derek did everything with purpose. So I stayed quiet and I listened.

"Albert and I were never close. I told you downstairs that not trying harder was my biggest regret. I've come to realise that was a lie, and it's time I faced the true regret that haunts me."

I tried to imagine what he could be talking about but I couldn't, I nodded and listened instead.

"When we moved in... after our father died... we continued to lead very separate lives. I worked on the garden and I embraced the strange things that happened around me.

"I don't know why I found it so easy to accept. I've seen hundreds come through this block and almost all of them have been horrified at first, but I wasn't.

"When we first got here there were only a handful of occurrences that showed themselves. The boy that lives in the mirror and the postman, along with others, came with the building.

"The longer we stayed the more we discovered. I saw it as magic, a whole new world that most people never get to see. Albert didn't see it that way. He became paranoid, always looking over his shoulder thinking that things were out to get him."

Derek took a moment to look at the grass, a sadness on his face and I grabbed his fingerless hand to comfort him.

"What happened to him?" I asked.

"He wasn't always the man you met. He was always a cold, ruthless bastard but I would've never considered him evil. This place... the place that you and I call home... it started to drive him into darker and darker places.

"He didn't move his family in with him, he wanted to keep them separate from his business and although I was intent on staying here Albert never expected to be here longer than a few months. They would come and visit and his wife, Darla, started to express concerns to me.

"She would come by my flat after visiting him, leaving their son with him to spend some time together while she claimed she was shopping in the city. She said he seemed frightened and angry. She was worried that he was losing his mind."

Tears started to roll from his kindly eyes. Derek had always seemed so wholly good, such a wonderful person that it was hard to consider him mourning someone like Albert. But no one chooses the family they're born into. And I don't believe that anyone is entirely good or bad; having feelings for an awful person couldn't take away from his spirit.

"What did you do?"

"This is exactly it, Kat. I didn't do anything. I dismissed Darla entirely and I was wrapped up in my own world of discovery. I wrote him off under the assumption he wouldn't have listened to me anyway.

"Albert got worse, Darla got more worried and eventually he stopped answering the door. Mental health services were terrible in those days, there wasn't a great deal we could do. Albert controlled his money and Darla couldn't get her hands on it to pay for care.

"If I hadn't ignored it then maybe..."

"His son would be alive?" I interrupted.

"I wish it were that simple." He answered and paused for a moment.

We sat in silence just holding hands for a few minutes until he spoke again.

"I need to show you, it's the only way you'll understand." He gestured to Mr Meow. "Let's take him home."

We took the stairs, skipping a few floors as we went, before reaching the door to my flat. The real one, without the minus symbol in front. It was the first time that Derek had been inside since I had moved in and it felt good to be in a room with him while not in a state of imminent crisis.

The kittens were pleased to be reunited and were quickly cuddled in a heap on the sofa. Mr Meow's return bought me more joy than I thought possible.

I retrieved the chair that I'd used to prop up Jamie's prison and made tea before we sat together at the fold out table.

"What do you need to show me?" I asked. He didn't answer me directly and instead continued to talk about his family.

"His name was Jonathan, my nephew. I may not have been best of friends with my brother but I loved that boy more than life itself. He enjoyed the garden and getting dirty. He wasn't like Albert, or our father, he was a worker like me."

I smiled. It was nice to imagine someone taking after Derek.

"He sounds wonderful."

"He was. He was only nineteen years old when he died. No life at all, especially when you consider how many years me and his father have lived for. He had just started his own business, had a fiancé and even in the worst of times he didn't give up on his dad.

"It broke his heart when my brother stopped answering the door... So he got creative and resorted to desperate measures to try and reach Albert."

I started to piece things together in my head, a pit forming in my stomach as I stopped him to ask the one question that was on my mind.

"What was his business?"

Derek looked at me, shame in his eyes. He knew that he would have to say it out loud and confirm what I already knew.

"He was a window cleaner."

I didn't say a word. I wasn't sure how to respond. I racked my brain trying to comprehend what I was hearing. The knocking on the balcony doors from behind the curtain started. The familiar groaning and whining sounds soon followed.

Derek could sense my discomfort and broke the silence.

"When Jonathan climbed the tower to try and see his dad he scared him. Albert wasn't in a good way, he was edgy and defensive. I don't know what happened for sure but that knock from the outside must have really triggered something.

"He went outside and he stabbed him. Multiple times with a kitchen knife. But you know that bit. It's what happened next that wasn't reported."

My mouth hung open.

"Albert came to me. He told me exactly what he'd done. We fought. I could've killed him myself but when I looked at him I could see that he wasn't right. It was in his eyes, Kat, he wasn't my brother anymore.

"I tried to reason with him and get him to hand himself in but he refused and got aggressive with me, saying that I just wanted to get my hands on the block. I left him in my flat to calm down so I could go to Jonathan."

The window cleaner continued to scratch on the balcony door, his whines accompanying Derek's tale.

"He was out there on the balcony. He was dead. One look at him and I knew no ambulance could help him anymore. I sat with him for an eternity, trying to work out what to do.

"I should've called the police, but I couldn't bring myself to shop my own brother. There was no hope for Jonathan but I thought I could help Albert. I was wrong. When I returned to my flat he was gone.

"I begged the building to help me. I would've done anything to bring Jonathan back, but wishes work in mysterious ways here and once the body was found Albert was already missing and my nephew had become the monster that lives on the balconies to this day."

I stopped him. I tried to process what he was telling me.

"But he wasn't found for days, why didn't you call the police? Why did you tell the residents not to let him in?" I asked, confused.

"Love works in mysterious ways Kat. I hope that you of all people can understand that. I was never fond of my brother, but I did love him and without any way of saving his son I wanted to give him a head start."

"And the residents?" I asked again, remembering the strict rule that Prudence had left stating I shouldn't let him in under any circumstances.

"That's where things get complicated. I didn't realise at the time, but what he became was the buildings way of giving him back to me. He is what he is because of me. When you see, you'll understand."

He grabbed my hand and walked me to the balcony doors, letting go and pulling back the curtain to reveal the friendly looking man I'd always seen outside my window, collapsed against it, scratching on the glass.

Upon second inspection, I could see the family resemblance, but it wasn't one that I'd ever considered possible before.

Prudence had told me about her experience with him, with Derek showing her what he truly looked like. I still hadn't expected quite what I saw when Derek rested his hand on my shoulder and told me to look.

The window cleaner was gaunt, with bones protruding beneath his tight, thin greyed flesh, raw skin and wounds that were in varied stages of healing. He looked truly horrifying, but what alarmed me the most were his impossibly deep, black voids for eyes. They were all too familiar.

I turned to stare at Derek, unsure of quite what to say as a million realisations crossed my mind. He started to speak again.

"I didn't want the residents to hurt him Kat. When he gets inside this form is revealed and so many tried to hurt him at first. I found myself constantly telling people to ignore the friendly window cleaner in the hope that he would be safe from their fear of the unknown.

"I'd seen Albert's reaction to anything remotely different and I couldn't bare Jonathan to face the same from the entire block. It was safer to leave him out here.

"After all, only someone who sees the good in everyone would let him in and accept him, and those people are one in a million." Derek half smiled, knowingly.

"Terri." I gulped, finally realising who the twin's father was.

"I didn't know about them. Albert had me trapped below by the time Terri was in school, but the second I saw Ellie, with you in that stairwell, I knew that she was family.

"When I realised that Jonathan's new form was a direct result of my actions I started to come to terms with the power this place had given me. I embraced it and I used it.

"I used it to hide Jonathan from his father, who I discovered had fled to the sealed floors not long after the murder. He never knew what became of his son. That shielding must have transferred when the twins were born, it was why he didn't know they existed.

"Once Albert had discovered his power, along with all his issues and the isolation he drove himself into, it just twisted him up, into the man you knew him as. He made it his mission to know all of the special residents, but he never saw Jonathan again."

"Why are you telling me this?" I asked, emotion making it a little hard to speak. I wondered if Terri had continued a relationship with the window cleaner, and why she had kept so quiet about the twins' dad.

I processed the fact that Ellie had not only saved my life, but in doing so she had killed her own grandfather.

I couldn't judge Terri, or Derek for their actions. He was right, love works in mysterious ways. Just as it had when I made my choice regarding Jamie, and when I subsequently accepted that he was gone.

"I'm showing you because I think you'll understand. And because I don't want you to spend your life riddled with guilt for Jamie. We all make mistakes. Mine was a big one, but out of it came two of the purest creatures to walk this Earth, and for that I'm grateful."

He smiled again as he thought of Ellie and Eddie. Then he looked me dead in the eyes and spoke again.

"It's time I corrected my wrongdoings."

Solemnly, he walked towards the doors and slid them open, coming face to face with the monstrous shell of a man holding a squeegee. The window cleaner took a step inside, struggling to move on his bone thin legs and stopped, millimetres from Derek's face.

I couldn't help it, despite what I knew he scared me. The twins had balance, even in their demonic form there was a visible person there. Their father didn't resemble a person at all, the visceral reaction he ignited in me further proved Derek's point. People will generally attack what they fear. Had I been alone and let him in, I'd have almost certainly done the same.

I watched with baited breath as Derek wrapped his arms around the bag of bones in a warm embrace. I watched as he let out a gentle sob and the window cleaner began to disintegrate into dust before my eyes.

"No!" I shouted, hoping there was some other way, a happier solution, knowing full well that there wasn't. There was a heavy quiet in the room for a few moments.

"It was no life Kat. I was cruel to let it continue as long as I did." Derek responded, turning to me.

Although similar to the way that I had watched my love disappear on our bedroom floor, Derek's action wasn't filled with malice. It was done for the sake of mercy.

Derek came towards me and hugged me. I felt emotionally and physically battered, fragile and my ears continued to ring but regardless, with him free and with me, I felt safe. Life in the block could finally begin, with no more dark secrets hanging over me. Amongst all the death and chaos, there was joy to be found.

"It's over now. A new chapter." He whispered into my ear as I sobbed tears of relief into his shoulder and the three cats played at our feet.

Days passed and normality started to resume. I broke lockdown in order to give Terri some rest and spend some time with the twins. It was the least of all my sins throughout this time.

It took a lot of explaining and apologising, but she eventually came round and forgave me for endangering her kids. It sounds simple when put like that and I'm sure parents reading this would deem me unforgivable. But their kids aren't Ellie and Eddie. And there aren't many folk out there as forgiving and loyal as Terri.

I haven't broached the subject of their paternity to her. I'm not sure I ever will but I hope that one day she'll feel comfortable enough to volunteer the information herself.

I continue to pick items up for Mr Prentice and take money to Carmilla at the gnome. I'm looking forward to a drink there when this is all over, although I'm sure Mr P will drink me under the table.

The kittens are happy and growing every day. Truth be told, I think Mr Meow looks badass with his missing leg, especially knowing the heroism it symbolises.

Things had started to look so positive that I almost forgot where I lived.

I had been in such a daze of relief that I hadn't noticed that the stairs had skipped floor 5 from the moment we returned from the undertower.

I probably would have gone longer in blissful ignorance if I hadn't have found myself on that floor earlier today.

The black sign was much the same as the one on the floors below that had sported a minus symbol before it. Thankfully, however, the artificial light that plagued those floors was nowhere to be seen and sunlight poured in.

I smiled when I first saw the sign. Prepared myself to greet the man with a new name. But he wasn't there.

His absence was a reminder that no matter how many tribulations I may have conquered, living here there would always be another just around the corner.

Instead of the man without a name, in his place was the woman. Angela.

I stared at the patch of damp in the corner of my rented office. It was easier to focus on than the grieving mother in the seat just opposite.

"You were supposed to bring her home."

I blinked back a tear and inhaled deeply. I knew what I was about to say might seem cruel, heartless in fact, but it was quite the opposite.

"Mrs Fortmason, I never promise to bring a missing person home, in fact it's very rare that that's a possibility at all. I promise to find out what happened to them. Your daughter was killed."

She stared back at me, eyes filled with anger and sadness. No one wants to be told their loved one is dead.

I'm not made of stone; I knew it wasn't a satisfying answer. Nonetheless it was the truth, accepting it was going to save her from a lifetime of extra pain, although I'm sure the truth would provide that anyway.

"I want details. How am I supposed to just take your word for it?" There was an arrogance in her tone I didn't like.

I cringed, remembering the murky waters that Chloe Fortmason had plunged into and the creatures that were there to greet her. How she risked everything for a midnight swim.

I wanted to spare her mother the nightmares she would suffer after learning about the fate her child had met.

"You came to me because I investigate cases like your daughter's... cases that involve elements that aren't human. I'm telling you, Chloe is dead. You don't need to know any more than that."

"I paid a lot of money Amelia. I want details or I'll hire someone else." She brushed her hair out of her eyes and sniffled defiantly, as if it were some kind of threat.

I rolled my eyes. It was tiresome. I understood how devastating it was to lose a loved one, trust me, I really did. But Mrs Fortmason's entitled attitude was beginning to piss me off.

"There is no one else, you know that. You don't need to hire someone else because the job is done." I opened my desk drawer and pulled out the charm bracelet that Chloe was wearing when she disappeared.

It was rusted a little from years in the ocean but it was unmistakably hers. It was a piece of proof that I'd hoped I could hand over without explanation as to where it came from.

I watched Mrs Fortmason's expression change as she realised what it was and exactly what it meant.

"Where did you get that? Please Amelia. I know some people wouldn't want to know... but I do. I have to know."

She took the bracelet and sobbed. I pushed the box of tissues between us a little closer to her and sighed. I felt sorry for her but I got the distinct feeling that nothing I said was going to satisfy.

It never did in my line of work.

"Chloe was killed by sirens. She never left the beach that night. Your daughter was drunk and she jumped into the water after all her friends had gone to sleep. Fully clothed in the pitch dark.

"I don't know why she did that. But I know I got incredibly wet getting that back for you and my life was in real danger. Sirens are nasty creatures, as your daughter came to realise when she swam into their territory." I cleared my throat, holding back the urge to elaborate further.

Be nice, Amelia, be nice.

"How do you know she didn't drop it in there? She could still be out there somewhere..." she responded, disregarding everything I was telling her.

I started to tune her out, feeling the annoyance building inside me. I tried desperately to search for a pleasant way to frame her daughters death but it didn't exist and I was feeling particularly irritated.

Her words of doubt buzzed like a fly that just wouldn't leave.

"They gave me the bracelet back still attached to your daughter's bony, rotted hand and then used it to pull me in. It was remarkably well preserved for how long she'd been in the water.

"They'd repurposed her skull into an accessory, similar to a handbag, being used to hold all the shiny things they'd collected from their victims.

"Apparently Chloe wasn't the only human stupid enough to end up in their home. It was decorated with bones, way more more than make up just one small girl.

"That's a lot for someone to see while holding their breath isn't it? If I hadn't stabbed the siren dragging me I'd have died down there. Is that enough detail?

"You paid me a lot of money. I did my job. I told you when you hired me that justice is not my department. You wanted answers and I got them. Accept it and parent your other children." I hissed.

"That's not..."

"I kept Chloe's hand. Do you want it?"

That last part was a bluff and for a moment I wondered if I'd taken things too far, but it was effective.

Speechless, the mother shook her head and stumbled to her feet, backing towards the door.

I know I sounded cold. I felt it as Mrs Fortmason got up and left my office in hysterics. Not half as cold as I'd felt in the water after being dragged in by a vicious sea monster, mind you.

I sounded like a stone cold bitch, but I was honestly trying to be kind.

I'd visited the grieving mothers home when I first took the case. It was littered with back-page newspaper clippings that archived the meagre local media attention the case received, and photographs of her missing daughter.

The house was a dusty, macabre monument to Chloe.

It irked me. I know it shouldn't, I know most people fall into the same pit of despair that Mrs Fortmason did when faced with a missing child. A piece of them just gone with no explanation, their whole world.

But Chloe wasn't her whole world. Mrs Fortmason had three other children, children she'd neglected and ignored in her decade long search.

Her husband moved out of their home with the kids six years after Chloe disappeared, citing her relentless obsession costing them their family life.

His wife was so busy searching for a ghost that she'd forgotten about the living.

I could relate but I couldn't sympathise. It sounds hypocritical to condemn an obsession that I personally share, but I didn't leave anyone behind in my pursuit.

It was fucking sad. All of my cases were. Every lost person is a tragedy.

I thought about the sirens; their long, slender, scaled bodies topped with the head and shoulders of beautiful women, clawed arms extending from the water, accompanied by an otherworldly song. It was a sight that most wouldn't consider possible.

What child obsessed with fairytale books would've thought mermaids would be so dangerous? What self respecting adult would believe in monsters at all?

What are monsters? Creatures that are commonly written off as stories, conjured by the minds of overly imaginative children or the mentally ill. Maybe you think I'm mentally ill too. I certainly wish I were young enough to be an overly imaginative child.

I wish I imagined Chloe's rotten hand.

I didn't believe in monsters either. Not at first anyway. Nor do most of my clients when we initially meet.

I stumbled on the dark underworld that harbours them while searching for my own lost loved one, the only person I'd not been able to find.

My childhood sweetheart, Valerie, who disappeared when we were sixteen years old.

After years of immersing myself in the world of unsolved disappearances, unsuccessfully looking for answers on her, I started to investigate other cases. I earned a reputation in the online amateur detective circles as someone who was determined and relentless.

I started accepting payment for my services, like some sort of unregistered PI.

I still remember the first, a young teenaged boy named Kai who had disappeared at a party, featuring underaged drinking and popular kids who he didn't fit in with. I'd thought it was so obvious.

Bullying, a prank gone wrong, a coverup... solved.

I hadn't expected that he'd been willingly bitten by a vampire that night. Who would? That he'd thrown his whole life away to fit in with the other little monsters.

My investigation lead me to a rural house that Kai had been spotted going in and out of a few years after he disappeared. When I arrived I was greeted by a girl no older than twenty or so, Kai and a few other kids in a room in the background.

They were huddled around a corpse, suckling on puncture points all over it, draining every sip of blood they could. It was grotesque. Vile.

It took me some time to believe it, I thought the fangs may have been filed down or capped but it was impossible. Kai hadn't aged a day, despite disappearing more than twenty years prior.

The kids came towards me, bloodlust in their eyes. I was lost, terrified and thought I was about to die. Until I shouted the name of Kai's brother, who had hired me.

The fanged boy shed real tears as he remembered the life he left behind. He provided me with his T-shirt and asked that I told his brother that he died. He couldn't go back and he wanted people to stop searching.

I respected his wishes.

After that it was as if I'd turned over a rock that had been pressed against the ground, hiding all the creepy crawlies for an eternity.

I saw monsters everywhere. Every case lead me to something new. Sometimes a recognisable creature; something that lived in the nightmares of the collective humankind. Other times the monsters were different, creatures that not even your wildest nightmare could create.

I'd come a long way since Kai. By time I was faced with those sirens and that hand, I knew exactly what to expect.

It had been fifteen years since Valerie disappeared. Chloe's case marked the three hundredth missing person that I'd successfully found and even more monster encounters that I'd survived, alone.

It should've been a victory but it wasn't.

I was battered. My body was covered in bruises and scars from my battle with the sirens. I was tired, weak and had cases piling up. Things were starting to get on top of me; that was probably why I'd bitten so hard at Mrs Fortmason.

I needed someone who would help pull me out of the water next time. I couldn't continue as a one woman band. I needed an assistant and I'd been scouting mystery forums for some time.

Defeated and exhausted, I locked up the office and headed to a nearby bar that I frequented. Everyone needs a way to unwind and that was mine; every bad day, every battle wound and every kid ripped apart by the monster that really did live in their closet lead me there.

It wasn't the alcohol or the music that enticed me. It was the prospect of yet another pretty girl as lonely as I was. Desperate to forget their troubles for one night. Women were my poison.

And tonight's poison was beautiful.

She was on her own and I thought I'd struck gold. Her eyes lingered on mine from across the bar as she adjusted her figure hugging black dress. She was sophisticated looking, with long, dark blonde hair that cascaded down her back and wicked green eyes that mesmerised me even from a distance.

When she approached I felt my heart racing. I tried to mentally prepare a smooth opening line but I didn't need to.

"Olive. Would you like a drink?"

Her voice was smooth and I tried to conceal my goofy grin. I'd picked up plenty of women in plenty of bars but something about her was throwing me off kilter. It was as if the rest of the room behind her had disappeared from focus.

I pushed my pint glass to the side, pretending it belonged the the man next to me and racking my brains for a classier drink that I'd be able to stomach.

"Am..Amelia." I answered, unable to take my eyes away from her. "Double vodka and coke please."

Olive nodded towards the blurred out bar and smiled sweetly as the landlady asked for her order. I felt slightly dizzy, drunk even, but I'd barely sipped the drink I started with.

"We'll take two beers." She told the barkeep, in that smooth voice.

I started to protest but she held a slender finger to her lips. Her nails were manicured perfectly into long, black, pointed claws. I realised that I was struggling to breathe, like she'd knocked all the air from me.

Something was seriously wrong.

"There's no need Amelia. No point hiding who you are with me, I already know exactly who you are." Her tone was seductive but dangerous, not dissimilar to the sirens song.

"What do you want?" I stuttered, trying to turn my head but I couldn't. It was like she had me cable tied with her eyes alone.

"This is more about what you want, Amelia. You want me... that's for sure. But I'm sure you'd drop me in a pit of lava if it meant you could have Valerie." She chuckled, plump lips framing her perfect smile.

I went from dizzy to sick. I could feel the excitement spreading across every inch of my face, I couldn't conceal it. Fifteen years without a single lead and now this. It confirmed the suspicion I'd harboured for years.

Valerie was taken.

"Where is she?" I spat, still unable to prize my neck from its position.

"That's the issue, Amelia. You need to stop looking. You're getting noticed by allllll the wrong people and trust me, you don't want to go down this road any further."

The excitement dropped. Unable to move I started to panic on the spot. The people that worked in industries adjacent to mine weren't renowned for their friendliness.

I was frightened, genuinely frightened.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Olive. And I'm trying to help you. You can take it or leave it but if you continue down this path you will regret it. Stop looking for Valerie. She's gone."

I swallowed a lump in my throat. Olive was stunning, a beautiful monster. I wondered what she was, who she was. I tried to speak but I couldn't, my mouth wouldn't move no matter how hard I tried. I realised I had no power at all.

"She was right though, you are really very pretty."

Olive leaned in, her perfumed, spiced scent filling my nostrils and the very ends of her hair resting in my lap. She placed a black clawed hand on my cheek and blinked her piercing green eyes. Her lips touched mine and I felt my heart stop for a moment.

It was more than just an attraction. Olive was a real enchantress.

Leaving me static in my chair she pulled away and got up slowly, landing gracefully on her black heeled shoes. I stayed there, still, until she stepped out of the bar door and the hold was broken. I shook my head and took a few laboured breaths.

"Wow, I'm surprised you let that one get away." The landlady joked, now back in focus, as she noted my dumbstruck expression.

I laughed it off and left the bar, searching for Olive along the street but she was long gone.

At home, I tried to piece together what she'd said. "She was right though..." did that mean Valerie? Did that mean that she was alive... that she sent Olive. I replayed the warning in my mind, knowing it only served to stoke my curiosity.

I also thought about how much the lack of control scared me.

Just like it had in the murky waters, retrieving Chloe Fortmasons bracelet. Just like it had in Kai's vampire commune, trying to avoid being eaten. I couldn't keep doing this alone.

I needed someone.

Sweating, I dialled the number of a boy I'd been corresponding with online. An online sleuth meticulous in his research. I'd spoken to him about how I'd considered an assistant before and he seemed keen.

I'd put off hiring, struggling to work out a way of breaking the human perception that monsters aren't real in an interview. It was still a risk, he still might laugh his way out of the office, but I couldn't waste anymore time.

If there was even a slim chance Valerie was alive then suddenly my survival mattered more than it ever had before.

"Hello."

"Daniel, it's Amelia. The job is yours if you want it."

"Daniel, can you run through the case for me one more time please?"

I looked across the desk at my new assistant. He was exhausted, I could tell. His brain was frazzled from repeating every tiny detail so many times.

He took a sip of water and prepared to do it again, just once more.

"The target is Liam, he was twenty three years old at the time of his disappearance six years ago. He lived with his parents, Brenda and Steve and was a single father to Macy, four years old at the time. He was a responsible young guy and an outdoorsy person who often took his daughter to the local woods."

"Good." I replied. "What happened to him on March 6th?"

"He'd spent a day in the woods whilst Macy was having a rare overnight visit with her mother. He didn't get to hike alone often and took whatever opportunities he could.

"He returned to the home that evening, agitated. His parents said he wouldn't calm down and kept repeating that something was following him. His behaviour was erratic and paranoid."

Daniel took another sip of his water and rifled through the mounds of paperwork on the desk to jog his memory of the timeline before continuing. He was doing well, but I enjoyed watching him sweat.

"His parents managed to calm him enough to get him to sit and eat dinner. There was no one surrounding the house or in their garden, despite searching.

"Still unsettled, he told Brenda at 9pm that he was going for a walk to clear his head. She thought it may help and didn't stop him. When Liam didn't return by 11pm Brenda began to panic.

"She tried to call her son but his phone was switched off, which was very unusual. She didn't know what to do. Her and Steve drove around the local area but couldn't find Liam anywhere. He didn't return home and was reported missing the next morning."

"Has there been any evidence since?"

"Nothing. Not a single sighting either, which is odd for a case like this. But there are numerous theories, most relating to a photograph that Liam took and posted online only hours before he returned to the home."

I picked up a photograph that stuck out amongst the local news clippings and documents I'd managed to acquire from police, rescue forces and PI's.

It was one I'd spent hours looking at.

It showed Liam, a handsome young guy beaming at the camera, trees around him and his face reflecting the happiness he felt within nature. I'd started to feel like I knew the missing boys face better than even his mother did, having studied it so intensely.

It would've been fairly innocuous, if it weren't for the shadowed figure just visible in the background.

Humanoid in shape, the figure appeared to be standing behind a tree, watching Liam as he walked through the forest. It's features were clear; eyes, a nose and a smile, all engulfed by darkness. Every time I looked at it I felt a chill of fear and excitement.

The case had gained very little traction; police had mostly written Liam off as a runaway. They kept up a cursory investigation but explained away his erratic behaviour with drugs, despite everyone close to him insisting that it was completely out of character.

Most professionals involved had disregarded the photograph as an optical illusion.

Not all were so eager to declare the mystery solved. Difficult to find Internet forums discussed the photograph regularly, coming up with a colourful array of theories.

Did Liam run away and stage the picture? Was he kidnapped by some sort of Bigfoot? Did he stumble on something he shouldn't have in the woods and paid for it on his later walk?

Some even speculated that his ex, Janie, killed him to gain custody of their daughter. This was a theory that was fiercely denied by both Janie and Liam's family. The couple maintained a good co-parenting relationship and the arrangements for Macy were agreed.

His mother contacted me when police officially closed the case after seven years of following useless leads and tips from conspiracy theorists. Macy had started to ask about her dad, to question what happened. Brenda couldn't bear the not knowing.

"I got your number from a friend at a support group I attend. She said you're the best."

That's all Brenda said to me when she called.

She couldn't pay. Usually my services are very expensive but Liam's case intrigued me, so I took her on pro Bono.

It was Daniels first case, and my first working alongside someone else. It was unusual, to have someone in the office who wasn't crying, or lamenting me for not being able to resurrect the dead.

It was going to take a while to adjust but after the incident in the bar with Olive I was grateful not to be alone. I hoped I'd made the right decision, Daniel's online credentials were shining as he reeled off the case in perfect detail.

If it worked out I would have so much more time to work out who was trying to stop me getting to the truth.

I thought of Valerie. The hour that I waited for her in the park to turn up and how cold the bars were on that swing. We were sixteen, confused and in love, her disappearance broke my heart.

I couldn't be more desperate to follow the lead but I had to be smart. I needed Daniel to acclimate before I trusted him to help me with something so important.

I had to see how he'd cope when faced with a monster.

In Liam's case, everything pointed to him having been taken against his will by the entity in the trees. I'd had the photograph studied by experts in editing, all of them said it was untouched.

That was rare. I'd never before had a piece of evidence so compelling. I ran the risk every time of unearthing another human monster and another human tragedy. Or finding someone like Kai, who didn't want to be found.

Not this time.

"Tomorrow we're travelling to the woods and we're going to retrace Liam's steps. Are you ok with that Daniel?"

He looked nervous. Daniel was young, inexperienced and sceptical of almost everything I'd told him, regardless, he showed promise.

I'd tried to be upfront and whilst I was grateful that he hadn't left immediately exclaiming my insanity, I was concerned that he was woefully underprepared.

I'd met him online two years ago, where he'd obsessively categorised missing persons cases, sparing no detail. His reservations were natural.

It's a hard pill to swallow, finding out that monsters are responsible for a huge number of unresolved disappearances.

Daniel thought that I was making some kind of sick joke, that it was an initiation.

He nodded and we parted ways, him carting a huge folder out of the office to study the case overnight. I'd tasked him with mapping the route and helping us find the spot that Liam took the photo. I wanted to really test him.

I pulled up an hour or so before sunrise outside his small flat, just above a shop.

He'd dressed ridiculously, in a shirt and blazer. I held my tongue, making a conscious effort to come across nicer.

"Morning Amelia!" He beamed, feigning a cool exterior. He couldn't hide the sweat on his brow or the small tremor in his hands. Not from me.

"Are you ready?"

"I am. Last night I did some research into the local area and the woods Liam went missing in. Did you know there are eight people who disappeared in those woods in the last decade alone?"

"I didn't know that. Good work. I think we could be dealing with something very dangerous... I have to ask, Daniel... Why the suit?"

I just couldn't stop myself.

"I'm working. These are my work clothes."

I laughed a little and touched the accelerator with my woodland walking boots, feeling a little smug as Daniel whimpered a meek protest.

"You've not done any field work in your research have you." I smiled to myself, revelling a little in his fear.

"I find my skills are on a computer. I can dig up dirt, hunt anyone down via their digital footprint and put together a comprehensive file. But no... I've never taken it out of my bedroom."

"Do you know why I offered you this job Daniel?"

"Because I'm thorough. I'm useful."

"No. That's not it."

I smiled again as I took a hand off the wheel and reached across him to the glove compartment, pulling out a pack of cigarettes and lighting one as I wound my window down slightly.

Online sleuths were ten a penny but there weren't many with the skills that Daniel had, I'd chosen him for a reason.

"I hired you because I traced you back to the email address I received the anonymous files from. I haven't come across many internet detectives with the balls to hack a secure police system."

Daniel grinned, it was a victory he needed to help subside his nerves.

"Like I said Amelia, my skills are online. I saw some old posts of yours about this case on the forums and I thought I'd give you a hand. We'd been talking for some time and I really wanted this job."

I felt my whole body cringe. I did need a hand. The files he sent we're regarding the case that kept me awake every night for over a decade. The only one I'd been unable to solve.

I didn't want to burst Daniels bubble by telling him I'd already seen those files and that they were of no use to my investigation. It was his drive and ability that I was interested in. I let him have his victory.

"Tell me if I'm overstepping but I didn't realise that you... knew her. " Daniel continued, plugging the silence that had followed his admission.

"You are overstepping." I hissed back. "We aren't discussing Valerie today. Who is the target?"

"The target is Liam-"

"The target is Liam." I asserted with finality, tossing the end of my cigarette out of the window. I wasn't ready to let him in, not yet.

We continued towards a small village silently, an antiquated sign marking our turning off the busy stretch of road and into meandering hills and valleys.

I stopped the car abruptly in a small, deserted car park on the edge of the woods.

"Where did he enter?" I asked.

The woods weren't especially large, not in comparison to the vast national parks of America. For England, however, it was more than just a small smattering of trees. Certainly enough to be classified a forest.

Choosing the correct entrance point was vital to covering similar ground to Liam.

"He lived over that way." Daniel clutched a piece of paper and pointed to his left, dawn just breaking in full over the tree line. "So he will have gone in through something the locals call the cross tree."

He pulled another scrunched piece of paper from his pocket and I despaired a little as I noticed his formal shoes. They looked expensive. He unscrewed a photo of two trees that had intertwined about two metres up, creating a perfect natural archway.

It wasn't hard to find.

There was something about the way the trees danced with each other in the morning light that made it look more eerie than peaceful. Like two lovers in a violent, passionate embrace.

"There's no need for work clothes in this job, you know?" I joked, trying to make conversation and squash the earlier tension as I held my copy of Liam's selfie up to various different trees.

"I'm learning that now. There was no induction pack."

I scoffed. I supposed I wasn't such a traditional employer. When should I have broken it to him that we were extra busy during holidays?

The forest terrain was treacherous. Even through my boots I could feel the protruding tree roots and uneven surfaces. Daniel was struggling, shivering a little under the canopy that blocked out the freshly risen sun. We walked for hours.

I wasn't sure what exactly to look for, I couldn't liken the monster in the photograph to anything else I'd dealt with, leaving us in unfamiliar territory.

Finally, after starting to feel hopeless, I noticed something.

I faced Daniel and held my finger to my lips, stopping him in the clearing we'd reached.

The sounds that accompanied the trees had stopped, there was no birdsong, no tree branches moving in the wind, not even the sound insects rustling in the leaf litter. Instead there was a feint hum, surrounding the area and vibrating from every direction. It was low pitched and hypnotic.

Daniel started to shake as he noticed the low, rhythmic tones. I felt my own heart start to pound a little.

Whatever was near was doing a great job of trying to insight panic. I wondered if that hum was what Liam heard, alone, following him through the trees as he made his way home.

That would fuck with anybody.

"Come on! You didn't hide very well the first time, why are you hiding now? We're here for Liam!" I shouted into the open space.

I was angry. Angry that something would be so blatant and yet so cowardly. It was trying to use us as playthings.

"Who said that was the first time."

The hum came to a grinding halt as the creature spoke and its words echoed directly through me.

"Come out. Face me."

I noticed that Daniel had dropped his map and his whole screwed up pile of printed documents. The internet wasn't going to help him now and he knew it. I was confident I could keep him safe... for the most part.

The leg came first. The burnt looking, shadowed leg that lengthened and contracted as it moved, like a slinky making its way down a steep set of stairs. The body followed. Unlike anything I'd seen before the monster moved like the laws of physics didn't apply.

It wasn't typical of the monsters I was used to facing. Many of them resembled humans, or at least things that humans might recognise. This, however, was something entirely new.

For a moment, I felt exactly what Liam must have felt. The panic, the terror, the desperation to flee and go home. It wasn't a good feeling.

As it stabilised, fully in our view it morphed into the human-like shape I'd grown so familiar with when studying the photograph.

It's extremities resembled the branches and roots of the trees around it. It's eyes formed in the space between the shadows, glowing a yellow that just stood out amongst the winding branches.

And that grotesque, sinister smile.

Not all monsters were so unpalatable, but I could feel the hatred coming from inside this one. Like it's sole purpose was misery.

"What happened to Liam." I quivered desperately.

"Which one was he."

Without the forest to obscure it the monster voice echoed with each word, like a second, and third, and fourth voice all lived inside it. A mocking laugh following every letter.

"The one you couldn't resist so bad that you let him take a picture of you." I held up the photograph, inching slightly closer.

"mmmmmm.... hahahahahah."

I took my eyes off the monster long enough to recover from the profound effect that his evil smile was having on me. I turned to Daniel, scanning his torn and muddied clothing as I noticed a damp, dark patch on his posh suit trousers.

I hadn't intended to scare him so badly. I hadn't expected to be scared so badly myself.

"Is he alive?" I shouted.

"Of course not. He tasted so good. How do you think you taste... Amelia?"

I felt my face sink. I tried to control it but I couldn't.

"How do you know my name?" I demanded, shaken.

"Your reputation precedes you. There are so many out there who would consider me a hero for removing you from this world."

I took a step back, piecing together the parts that didn't make sense. A monster like this wouldn't reveal itself. It just wouldn't.

This was a trap. Just like Olive.

"Who hired you?" I screamed, my hands clammy and sweat forming on my neck. I tried to hold my composure.

"There's plenty of candidates aren't there. Your work, your life, your involvement with that pretty, young girl... What was her name? How did she taste Amelia?"

I swallowed a lump in my throat. The sickening voice spoke with such knowing of my intimate personal tragedies.

He knew way too much. And we'd found him far too easily.

"Who are you working with? How do you have these details?"

I snarled. I wasn't going to get anything from him and I knew it. Distressed, it took me a few moments to notice the creature extending a long, branch-like arm towards my new assistant.

"Daniel move!" I screamed, watching in horror as he leapt backwards, stumbling in his muddied shoes and tripping to the ground.

I ran towards the monster, fumbling in my pocket for the knife I'd used to sever my connection with the sirens. One that had got me out of many scrapes. The creature noticed the small blade in my hand and it's smile extended, past the perimeter of its face.

"They said you had weapons... Your weapons won't be effective against them. You have no idea what's coming."

I plunged the knife, deep into the shadowed mass as it stood and waited, laughing, accepting its fate. It was apparent the entity was nothing more than another message, a living warning on a suicide mission.

That terrified me even more.

As the knife made contact the creature started to disappear, fading into blackened particles. I didn't like to kill anything, that was never my aim, but no one deserved to die like Liam did either.

One by one the particles faded into nothingness, leaving behind a lighter atmosphere. As the last of the creature was obliterated the colours in the forest grew brighter and the sharp tweet of a bird broke the silence.

"What the fuck was that!" Daniel's voice bought clarity to the area as he hoisted himself up from the floor. The creature was gone. I clung hard to my blade.

Clarence, a good contact working closely with monsters, hadn't explained to me how it worked or what it was made of when he'd given it to me. He said it was a secret of the organisation he worked for and if they found out I had one he'd lose his job.

I'd tried to turn him down at first, insisting I'd rather die than kill, but I'll be damned if it hadn't come in good use more than a few times.

"I meant..." Daniel continued, breaking my stream of thought.

"I know what you meant and I told you when I hired you, open mind. You need to adjust to the things you're going to see. Now get us back to the car, please."

We stumbled through the trees and out of the woods. Daniel was embarrassed, he tried to hide the wet patch in his trousers but he knew I'd seen.

"It's ok to be scared you know."

"You weren't. I don't want to be scared anymore Amelia, this was awful... and the most exciting thing I've ever done. I'm ready for our next target."

"Me too... But first we have to inform Brenda that her son won't be coming home and that her granddaughter no longer has a daddy."

I shed a tear for Liam as we loaded the car and got back on the road. I had nothing to give his mother, no evidence of life or death and not a single real answer.

Daniel was wrong too. I was scared.

Monsters and the people that work with them are responsible for so much damage. And I know all about it. There was a chance that these warnings lead to Valerie, and an even bigger chance that I was being trapped.

Whoever was after me already knew the answers to my cases and they'd reached the monster first. They were able to make such a terrifying creature willing to die for their cause.

This wasn't just about stopping me finding Valerie. Someone wanted me dead.

"Amelia, are you really expecting me to believe that this is the office of your most valuable contact? If this a trick, it isn't your best." Daniel wondered.