I managed to kneel up and spent the next few minutes desperately trying to untie my hands. It was hopeless. My struggles seemed to be making the rope even tighter.

I felt strange too: light-headed and dry-mouthed. When I looked up at the stars they seemed to be very bright and each star had a twin. If I concentrated hard, I could make the double stars become single again, but as soon as I relaxed, they drifted apart. My throat was burning and my heart pounding three or four times faster than its normal pace.

I kept thinking about what Bony Lizzie had said. Dead Billy would be coming to find his bones. Bones that were lying in the mud less than two paces from where I was kneeling. If my hands had been free, I’d have hurled them from the pit.

Suddenly I saw a slight movement to my left. Had I been standing, it would’ve been just about level with my head. I looked up and watched as a long, plump, white, maggoty head emerged from the side of the pit. It was far, far bigger than any worm I’d ever seen before. Its blind, bloated head moved in a slow circle as it wriggled out the rest of its body. What could this be? Was it poisonous? Could it bite?

And then it came to me. It was a coffin worm! It must be something that had been living in Billy Bradley’s coffin, growing fat and sleek. Something white that had never seen the light of day!

I shuddered as the coffin worm wriggled out of the dark earth and plopped into the mud at my feet. I lost sight of it then as it quickly burrowed beneath the surface.

Being so big, the white worm had dislodged quite a bit of soil from the side of the pit, leaving behind a hole like a narrow tunnel. I watched it, horrified but fascinated, because there was something else moving inside it. Something disturbing the earth, which was cascading from the hole to form a growing mound of soil.

Not knowing what it was made it worse. I had to see what was inside so I struggled to get to my feet. I staggered, feeling light-headed again, the stars starting to spin. I almost fell but I managed to take a step, lurching forward so that I was close to the narrow tunnel, now just about level with my head.

When I looked inside, I wished I hadn’t.

I saw bones. Human bones. Bones that were joined together. Bones that were moving. Two hands without thumbs. One of them without fingers. Bones squelching in the mud, dragging themselves towards me through the soft earth. A grinning skull with gaping teeth.

It was Dead Billy, but instead of eyes, his black sockets stared back at me, cavernous and empty. When a white, fleshless hand emerged into the moonlight and jerked towards my face, I stepped backwards, nearly falling, sobbing with fear.

At that moment, just when I thought I might go out of my mind with terror, the air suddenly became much colder and I sensed something to my right. Someone else had joined me in the pit. Someone who was standing where it was impossible to stand. Half his body was on view; the rest was embedded in the wall of earth.

It was a boy not much older than me. I could only see his left-hand side because the rest of him was somewhere behind, still in the soil. Just as easily as stepping through a door, he swung his right shoulder towards me and the rest of him entered the pit. He smiled at me. A warm, friendly smile.

‘The difference between waking and dreaming,’ he said. ‘That’s one of the hardest lessons to learn. Learn it now, Tom. Learn it now before it’s too late…’

For the first time I noticed his boots. They looked very expensive and had been crafted from best quality leather. They were just like the Spook’s.

He lifted his hands up then, so that they were at each side of his head, palms facing outwards. The thumbs were missing from each hand. His left hand was also without fingers.

It was the ghost of Billy Bradley.

He crossed his hands over his chest and smiled once more. As Billy faded away he seemed happy and at peace.

I understood exactly what he’d told me. No, I wasn’t asleep, but in a way I’d been dreaming. I’d been dreaming the dark dreams that had come out of the bottle that Lizzie had forced into my mouth.

When I turned back to look at the hole, it had gone. There never had been a skeleton crawling towards me. Neither had there been a coffin worm.

The potion must have been some kind of poison: something that made it difficult to tell the difference between waking and dreaming. That was what Lizzie had given me. It had made my heart beat faster and made it impossible for me to sleep. It had kept my eyes wide open, but it had also made them see things that weren’t really there.

Soon afterwards the stars disappeared and it began to rain heavily. It was a long, uncomfortable, cold night and I kept thinking about what would happen to me before dawn. The nearer it got the worse I felt.

About an hour before sunrise the rain eased to a light drizzle before fading away altogether. Once more I could see the stars, and by now they no longer seemed double. I was soaked and cold but my throat had stopped burning.

When a face appeared overhead looking down into the pit, my heart began to race because I thought it was Lizzie come to collect my bones. But to my relief it was Alice.

‘Lizzie’s sent me to see how you’re getting on,’ she called down softly. ‘Has Billy been yet?’

‘He’s been and gone,’ I told her angrily.

‘I never meant for this to happen, Tom. If only you hadn’t meddled, it would have been all right.’

‘Been all right?’ I said. ‘By now another child would be dead and the Spook too, if you’d had your way. And those cakes had the blood of a baby inside. Do you call that being all right? You come from a family of murderers and you’re a murderer yourself!’

‘Ain’t true. It ain’t true, that!’ Alice protested. ‘There was no baby. All I did was give you the cakes.’

‘Even if that were so,’ I insisted, ‘you knew what they were going to do afterwards. And you would’ve let it happen.’

‘I ain’t that strong, Tom. How could I stop it? How could I stop Lizzie?’

‘I’ve chosen what I want to do,’ I told her. ‘But what will you choose, Alice? Bone magic or blood magic? Which one? Which one will it be?’

‘Ain’t going to do either. I don’t want to be like them. I’ll run away. As soon as I get the chance, I’ll be off.’

‘If you mean that, then help me now. Help me to get out of the pit. We could run away together.’

‘It’s too dangerous now,’ Alice said. ‘I’ll run away later. Maybe weeks from now when they ain’t expecting it.’

‘You mean after I’m dead. When you’ve got more blood on your hands…’

Alice didn’t reply. I heard her begin to cry softly, but just when I thought she was on the verge of changing her mind and helping me, she walked away.

I sat there in the pit, dreading what was going to happen to me, remembering the hanging men and now knowing exactly how they must have felt before they died. I knew that I’d never go home. Never see my family again. I’d just about given up all hope when footsteps approached the pit. I stood up, terrified, but it was Alice again.

‘Oh, Tom, I’m sorry,’ she said. "They’re sharpening their knives…’

The worst moment of all was approaching and I knew that I only had one chance. The only hope I had was Alice.

‘If you’re really sorry, then you’ll help me,’ I said softly.

‘Ain’t nothing I can do,’ she cried. ‘Lizzie could turn on me. She don’t trust me. Thinks I’m soft.’

‘Go and fetch Mr Gregory,’ I said. ‘Bring him here.’

‘Too late for that, ain’t it,’ Alice sobbed, shaking her head. ‘Bones taken in daylight are no use to Lizzie. No use at all. The best time to take bones is just before the sun comes up. So they’ll be coming for you in a few minutes. That’s all the time you’ve got.’

‘Then get me a knife,’ I said.