Page 164 of The Sleepwalker

Hugo closes his eyes and smiles to himself as he thinks abouthis evening.

Sleep has begun to reel him in with its soft yarn when he is convinced he hears someone in the other room, crushing the lines of pistachio shells underfoot.

He opens his eyes and stares up at the dark ceiling.

The cold glow of the full moon is seeping through the blind, and there is a soft clicking sound from the hallway outside.

Hugo gets up, steps over the boxes of Lego and makes his way over to the door. He slowly opens it and heads out.

Through the window in the door up ahead, he can see – beyond the bathroom and the closed door to the attic – into his parents’ room.

In the gloom beside the bed, there are two small, pale figures – no more than about thirty centimetres tall – dancing on the floor.

They pause, side by side, and start to tremble.

Hugo blinks firmly and tries to make his eyes focus. Hesitantly, he moves forward, towards the pane of glass in the door, and sees that the two figures are actually bare feet.

Someone is lying flat out on the floor.

From the darkness to one side of the feet, a pile of bones and skulls gets up. Blood drips to the floor.

The door to the attic opens, and Hugo sees his mother tiptoe out into the hallway. She must have been hiding on the stairs.

She is wearing her white silk nightie, and she looks terrified.

Hugo reaches out and quietly opens the door in the hall. He tries to whisper to her to come and hide in his room, but he can’t manage a single sound. He doesn’t have a voice.

She doesn’t see him, just hurries down the stairs to the library.

From the bedroom, there is a series of loud bangs and he sees a couple of sopping-wet towels hit the floor.

Hugo follows his mother to the stairs, puts a hand on the darkrailing and shivers as he starts making his way down.

He can hear the dry rattle of loose bones behind him.

The skeleton man has seen him.

Hugo starts running.

He knows that he and his mother need to escape, that they need to get out into the garden, go over to one of the neighbours and call the police.

When he reaches the dark library, he cuts straight across the rug, heading for the hallway.

There are men in the kitchen, mercenaries, shouting at one another and laughing as they pull food out of the pantry and fridge.

His mother creeps over to the front door, pushes her feet into her boots, grabs her coat, opens the door and nips out.

The voices in the kitchen are impatient, accompanied by the sound of bottles from the wine fridge being uncorked and crockery breaking on the floor.

Hugo tiptoes after his mother down the hallway, past green canvas bags full of ammunition and grenades.

The skeleton man is in the library now.

Hugo can hear him dragging a heavy spade behind him as he crosses the rug and the parquet floor.

He reaches the front door just as the skeleton man’s spade thuds over the threshold into the hallway.

Hugo turns the handle, but the door is locked. Starting to panic, he fumbles for the knob, but it isn’t there.