Pamela crawled into bed, disturbing Tessa only briefly. Her friend made a few sleep noises and was soon silent once more. Pamela got comfortable, the hiss of the rain causing her to begin that delicious, tired fall into blessed sleep.
But for some reason sleep eluded her. She felt as though she had forgotten something. But what? 'To close the window, silly,' she told herself, too comfortable to get out of bed and do anything about it. Once again she tried to plunge herself into a deep, untroubled sleep.
She succeeded this time, but it wasn't the sort of sleep she was expecting. It felt as though she had wakened during a dream to a room that felt the same as the one she was already in. There was something unmistakable and familiar about the dream, but it had never before been like this- never so real, so immediate.
And then, she remembered. It was the dream she used to have before she had ever come to Yorkshire, the dream in which-
She awoke with a start, even as a brilliant flash of lightning illuminated the terrifying figure standing silhouetted in the doorway of the balcony, illuminated through the curtains like a magic-lantern show. She gave an incoherent cry of terror, pulling Tessa with her, away from the menace of the man she had mistakenly assumed in her dream was Theo.
Muzzy-headed with sleep, Tessa began to come to life in her arms. And as another brilliant flash illuminated the black shadow that stepped through the curtain, the two girls screamed and shrank away from the demon in man's form named Albert Askrigg.