We're trying to lose it, but it's proving useless. Panic and adrenaline have overridden my drunkness, and anything left over is just making me unsteady on my feet. I've been scratched by this point, and there's a constant stream of rocks being thrown at us. Jamie's rambling on about something as we run, so I tell him to shut up because he's going to make himself out of breath.

After a while of aimlessly sprinting around the local area, I begin to notice streetlights flickering, and after another five minutes, I begin realising that they flicker every time there's a turning. It's far too controlled, and definitely too clever of a move for a poltergeist. It's Annabel. It has to be.

"Turn the direction of the street light that flickers!" I call back to Jamie, who's increasingly lagging behind.

"What? I don't--what do you mean?" he shouts back.

"Just follow me!"

My legs are beginning to ache, and my throat stings. The streetlight to my left flickers. We turn left. My ankle hurts from where the chair leg hit it earlier, but I grit my teeth and ignore it as best I can. Something smacks into my arm. A stone, I think. Another light flickers, and we turn left again.

I don't recognise this part of town, and the streets are empty. Where the hell is Annabel trying to take us? We take the next right. Jamie swears. I glance backwards to see him almost trip, but he just about saves himself. I think something hit him. We turn left again, then right, then another right. Something scratches my arm again. This is useless. This isn't working.

I turn to Jamie, and I don't think he's going to be able to run for much longer. There must be something we can do, somewhere we can go. A streetlight on the left flickers, just as I spot a concrete bus shelter to the right. An idea hits me. I run towards the shelter as the streetlight to the left flickers again.

All sides bar the front of the shelter are covered, but there's a concrete panel extending from the roof of the shelter to the ground in the middle of it, so Jamie and I stand in line with the panel, ensuring that no part of our bodies poke out.

"What is going on?" Jamie practically screams, despite there being barely any sound around us.

"Bad stuff," I manage to say through gasping breaths. "Mind you, I don't think I've ever sobered up so quickly in my life."

"Now's not the time to try and be funny!" he snaps back.

I slowly poke my head around the concrete panel, but there's nothing to see. The road is empty, and it's too dark to make out much anyway. The streetlight I ignored is flashing manically now. I'm about to move further out when I spot something heading straight towards me, so I quickly step back behind the safety of the concrete. There's a smash. I think it was a glass bottle. I have an idea, but I need Annabel to execute it.

I need to speak to her. Out loud.

I turn my eyes to Jamie, who's still trying to get his breath back. I can't do it in front of him. How the hell is this going to work? Now we're under shelter, we're at an advantage. We need the poltergeist to try and attack us. Their power is formulated entirely by energy, and the more they use up, the weaker they become. Or at least according to Ava's book.

There's no way we can taunt it safely though, it's too risky. Annabel, on the other hand... I really need to speak to her. I have to speak to her. I glance at Jamie again. I don't have a choice, do I? I shut my eyes and take a deep breath. I'm going to regret this.

"Annabel, I've got an idea!" I call out.

"What? What are you--" Jamie.

"We need to drain its energy! Distract it, taunt it, throw things at it so it has to fight back! Make it--"

"Felix? What--Who are you--"

"Make it throw big things at us that'll take a lot of energy, and just tell me which way to dodge if you have to! No idea how, but--but we'll figure it out."

It's silent for a minute after that. Jamie's too busy gawking at me to say anything, and I begin wondering if Annabel is even here. Maybe the streetlights weren't her. Maybe the poltergeist was leading us on a wild goose chase.

Just as I'm about to lose all hope, something smashes into the concrete panel we're hidden behind. Then something else, then another, then another. There's banging and smashing and swishing sounds, and while they do eventually turn less extreme, it's too slow.

"This isn't working," I mutter under my breath.

"What?" Jamie, who's regained the majority of his energy, asks.

I peek out from behind the concrete again, and the first thing I see is the streetlight flickering even more frenzied than before. Maybe Annabel was onto something. I glance down to see a spilled bin on the floor, but the moment I look back up, something hits me just under my left eyebrow.

"Shit!" I yelp, immediately sheltering myself back behind the concrete.

I lift my hand to my eye, only to feel something sharp snag my skin. When I bring my hand back down, it's covered in blood.

"Oh god, is there glass in your eye?" Jamie shouts more loudly than necessary, which doesn't exactly calm the situation.

"No, it's--it's just my eyebrow, it's fine, I'm fine." I lift my hand back to my wound to try and keep the blood off my face. "Is the streetlight still flashing?"

"What? I don't know if I should check, what if--"

"Is it?" I roar.

"Yes, I think so, I can sort of see it from here, I mean--"

I take Jamie's arm with my free hand before he can finish his sentence, and pull us both out of the bus shelter. Once I let go of him, Jamie follows me like a lost toddler, and I look up to see the streetlight to our left switching on and off. Annabel better know what the hell she's doing here.

Within seconds, it feels like we're back to square one, except this time, I'm trying to keep blood from running into my eye. The light to our right flickers, so we turn right. Then the one to our left, so we turn left. Then left again, then right, then left, then left. Another stone is thrown at my legs.

I can hear a crowd in the distance, but the blood rushing in my head is too loud for me to be able to make out where it's coming from. Another right. Jamie is shouting something behind me, but I can't understand him. A right again. Another glass bottle is thrown in my direction, but I dodge it. The streetlight to our left flickers, and I slow down for a moment. It's an alleyway. I don't know if this is a good idea.

Without much else to choose from, I risk it.

"Don't go down there!" Jamie cries out, but I ignore him, and he follows me anyway.

It's pitch black now. I can barely see my hand in front of my face. There are no streetlights left, and I get the sinking feeling that Annabel has gotten us lost. The crowds sound louder, but we're so enclosed in this alleyway that it's blocking out too much noise to be able to tell how close they actually are. Jamie's shouting something again.

Then all of a sudden, as if by magic, we emerge into the largest crowd of people I think I've ever seen in my life. We're on the high street. We're in the city centre, slap bang in the middle of the busiest street possible, on the busiest night of the year. This is perfect. Holy shit, no wonder Annabel was leading us here. No way can the poltergeist track us among hundreds of people.

Drunkards scream and sing and stumble around the cobbled street, and every single person has a smile plastered on their face. I laugh. I'm not quite sure why, but I start laughing and I can't stop.

By the time Jamie and I have found our way back to Mosi's pub, I've managed to control the bleeding on my face, and there are people sparsely gathered around the outside of the building. Jamie's not said a word since we left the crowds of the high street, and his face is as pale as a ghost--no pun intended. I can see Annabel again now, but I've barely had time to stop and think, let alone a chance to speak to her.

"Whoa, guys!" I instantly recognise the voice as Ava's, and manage to spot her emerging from one of the groups. "Where have you been? Do you know what happened outside here? One of the chairs has broken, and the--Felix? What happened to your face? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, no, it's fine, I just--"

"Dad!" Ava calls behind her. She takes my arm and yanks me towards the pub. "Dad! We need the first aid kit!"

Once inside, we see Mosi clearing away some glasses behind the bar. He looks up at us with a smile, only for that smile to quickly disappear. Is my eye really that bad? I briefly turn to Jamie for his opinion, but he doesn't even look like he knows where he is.

"What happened?" Mosi questions as he motions for us to sit down at one of the tables.

We do as we're told, and it's only now that we're in the light of the pub that I can see how much dried blood there is on my hand. Bit gross. On the bright side, I'm pretty sure I managed to pick out most of the glass from my eyebrow when we were walking back here.

Mosi places a stool beside me to inspect my wound. Ava has disappeared somewhere behind the bar--to get a first aid kit, I think--and Jamie sits silently on one of the chairs while Annabel watches from the booth next to us.

"Did you get into a fight?" Mosi asks, his deep voice vibrating in my ear.

"Sort of," I reply, being half honest.

"It looks a lot worse than it is, but it will need a few stitches." He looks up, and I follow his gaze to see Ava returning with a small, green bag. "I'll do that for you now. Don't worry, I am trained."

To be frank, he could be one of the drunk partygoers I picked up from the street, and I'd probably still let him do it for me. I'm too tired to care by this point. The quicker this is done, the quicker I can go to bed and pretend that none of this ever happened. Mosi zips open the small bag Ava handed him, and begins to work his magic.

A pint of orange squash, and twenty minutes of me pretending having a sharp thing digging tiny holes into my eyebrow isn't painful for the sake of reputation later, Mosi and Ava disappear behind the bar to finish clearing up.

Jamie's still said nothing, and now it's just the two of us, his silence is making things awkward. Annabel is still in the booth, but she's just as deep in thought as Jamie is. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I actually want the guy to say something. Eventually, he does. And the moment he does, I regret ever wishing it.

He lifts his eyes to my face, and speaks in a deadly flat tone. "I am not leaving here until you tell me what the hell just happened."