Day One - Night

     The smell that rolls out hits the pair, boy and toff both, with a force that surpasses the scent of the pub’s stew in all the wrong ways. It's the reek of stale sweat, mildew, and old booze. The boy tries not to breathe, not to retch. He swears he's gonna be sick. He bites the feeling back and bites his tongue for good measure.

     If a whiff is enough to make the boy retch, he doesn't dare look at what's hunched in the doorway. Just a peep will kill him dead of fright, so he bores holes in the shreds of what was once a doormat that are lying at his feet, pretending there is nothing more fascinating than this in the whole, wide world.

     Who’s he kidding? He’s so jumpy he almost leaps over the manor and onto the roof when the thing at the door speaks.

     He didn't think it could speak.