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Nothing spooked me.'

Are you afraid there's something nasty behind you?'

'Only when you're there'

‘So look behind you,' Josh challenged.

Why should I?' Chloe said and thought, why are you so determined to frighten me?

'I don't want to frighten you,' Josh said.

Chloe thought, there it was again. Her thought echoed back to her almost exactly. Was he reading her mind? Or did they think alike? God no, surely not. Surely that wasn't possible. That truly would be terrifying.

Josh looked over his shoulder. 'I can't see why that would terrify you. I can't see anything to be terrified of.'

'No problem then,' Chloe said. 'So stop doing whatever it is you're doing.'

I'm only trying to help.'

Chloe stopped. Look leave me alone, OK. I don't know what you've got in mind but I'm not interested, I'm not interested in your help. I'm not interested in you. I want you to keep away from me, OK?' If it hadn't seemed ridiculous she would have added: And keep out of my head, OK.

'OK.' Josh strode off and caught up with the others.

Chloe continued to walk slowly. She was less comfortable being back there on her own now. She badly wanted to speed up and join the others but she felt she couldn't after what had just happened. Josh would probably think she was chasing after him and that was the last thing she wanted him to think. Except that if he could read her mind he'd know she wasn't.

The others wouldn't though. The others would probably think she was having another funny turn. A funny turn: how embarrassing was that?

Worse still, the thing about looking behind her was back in the front of her mind. She couldn't shake it now. She should look back. She should look behind her if only to give the lie to his stupid accusation. She wasn't afraid to do it. Why should she be afraid, there was nothing there, he said so.

He'd looked and there was nothing behind her.

She glanced back over her left shoulder. There was nothing, as he had said there was. She glanced back over her right shoulder. There was no hooded figure. She stopped and turned round and looked. Nothing was following her. Of course nothing was following her.

When Chloe got to the cemetery entrance the moonlight was fading behind the closing clouds. The others were waiting in the steadily deepening darkness. Josh was ready to close the gates. 'Sorry,' she said. 'I wanted to take a good look back just to be sure.'

'And are you?'Josh murmured.

'Yes.'

'Still worried about the caretaker?' Ralph asked.

'No.’

As Josh pulled the gates together they creaked and the hinges squeaked dryly. 'When he does turn up he could do worse than oil these gates,' he commented, looping the chain round them and securing it in place with the broken padlock.

'Will that fool them?' Tommy asked. Will they think it's locked, and stay put?'

'Will who think it's locked and stay put?' Ralph sounded puzzled.

Tommy said, 'The ghouls and the undead and similar undesirables.'

'Don't you start,' Meg said witheringly. That joke is already thin.'

'Well thin,' Josh said. 'But we don't want any of them following us about do we, Chloe?'

Chloe couldn't think of a good put-down. It was partly because the tone of the comment was so matter-of-fact and yet so intimate. It was as if he thought the two of them shared a secret understanding. He was beginning to feel like some sort of stalker. How long was it going to take him to realise that she didn't like him.

The five of them walked away from the cemetery in a group. With the moonlight gone the narrow country lane was impenetrably black. Without the torch and someone taking the lead it would have been difficult to avoid tripping over the uneven verges and blundering into the hedges.

It was Ralph who was methodically illuminating the edge of the road. As they reached the first bend he said, 'Is everybody OK? Everybody keeping up?'

Halfway round the bend Meg said, What was that?'

Josh said, 'Was it the gates? It sounded like the gates.'

The gates?' Ralph