'What are you doing?'

Billy jumped at the voice of a little girl, about his age. She must have heard him crying and sneaked into the den while he had his head in his hands. The boy wiped his nose on his sleeve and tried to focus on the newcomer.

'Pink,' he said, without really thinking.

'What?'

'Pink. Your voice is pink. It's a safe colour, a girl colour.'

'Well I'm a girl, I'll give you that, clever boy! But pink? Ugh!' The little girl pulled a face, making Billy smile for the first time today. She was wearing dirty dungarees and a shirt that looked much too big for her. She had short, messy brown hair and thick glasses. When she smiled at him, big dimples appeared in her freckled cheeks. The little boy relaxed a little.

'When I hear voices I see colours, yours is pink,' he said simply. 'It isn't horrid pink though,' he added quickly, seeing her scowl, 'It's a nice, soft pink.'

'I want to be blue!'

'You can't! Voices are colours and numbers are shapes. I don't know how it works, but everybody hates it. They say I'm a weirdo.'

'Everybody's a weirdo, that's what my mum says.' the little girl replied. At this, Billy smiled for the first time in a while.

'Mine too,' he said.

'Anyway, I like weirdos,' the girl said gently, taking his hand. 'I think they're much better than normal people.' Billy was a little unsure about this. All his life he had been told that being different was wrong. The girl added, 'Okay, I will be pink, but just for you - don't tell anybody, right?'

'Okay,' he said. He looked at her for a while, then said, 'I didn't hear you come in.'

'You looked ...um ...busy,' she looked shy, suddenly and Billy blushed. 'Anyway, what's the matter?' she added. 'Why are you here?'

'I-' Billy blinked back the fresh wave of tears, 'I ran away, this man... his eye...' He trailed off.

'What man?'

'I don't know - he, he chased me ...I was at the door...but I didn't get...he chased ...I don't know,' he ended weakly, eyes welling up again. He really didn't have a clue what was going on. Maybe the old man had been joking. Maybe he'd imagined it. But the Shadow - it had descended upon him like a big wave, suffocating him, freezing time itself as he had reached out his arm to grab the door handle and he had felt the man step out of the darkness behind him.

'It's okay,' the little girl said, sitting awkwardly next to him and put her arm round his shoulders. 'You are okay now right?' Billy didn't know what to say to this, but it felt nice so he didn't say anything. The threat seemed to shrink away when she touched him.

'What's this?' the little girl asked curiously, snatching up the little box and shaking it. Billy jumped up.

'Give it back!' he cried, trying to grab the box out of her hand. The little girl laughed and danced away, holding it up high. Billy jumped for it, shouting, 'The old man gave it to me!'

'But what is it?'

'I - I don't know!' he felt embarrassed. Angry and ashamed. He would sound stupid and she would laugh. But she had not laughed when he told her about the man. He swallowed and continued, 'It changes, the face it - it moves but it's always sad. Sad or scared.'

'Not always, look - it's smiling now!' she held the box up so he could see and the little boy saw she was right. The little mechanical face was twisted grotesquely into something resembling a smile. Billy was not sure, but he thought he saw one of the little glass eyes blink. He made a lunge for the box and they fought for it, laughing. The worries of the night were forgotten as the two children wrestled, no thought for the noise they were making, or the situation Billy had found himself in. At last he managed to get the upper hand and pushing the girl aside, and sat down to study the box again. The cartoon man grinned back at him. I pray to the Gods you won't need it, but it will protect you when the time comes.

'Tell me what happened,' the little girl said, sitting back down on one of the upturned buckets next to Billy.

Billy told her.

He told her about the strange way the old man had behaved. He talked about his nervous, quiet mother and his fat lazy cat Thomas. He described the Shadow and his games to keep it away, how the quiet man had been part of it, then a hand upon his shoulder and a voice that knew his name, Hello William. He spoke about everything that had been worrying him and how he did not even know if he would ever be able to go home again.

When he had finished, the girl sat silently and his miserable words echoed around the makeshift shelter. Grey words. It was clear she had no answer to his story, there were no magic spells that could fix everything. Billy knew she would have to go home soon, home to a warm, normal life where everything was bright colours and wonderful life-affirming love. He was about to ask her if he could go home with her, when a thought occured to him.

'What's your name?' Billy asked. 'Mine's William - Billy, my mother calls me Billy.' Relief spread across the girl's face. His sorry tale had obviously upset her.

'Alexandra. You can call me Alex.' Billy grinned and the two new friends solemnly shook hands.

After a pause, Alex added quietly, 'The man came to my house, too.'