He wore an army uniform that looked almost as old as the half-derelict Victorian station itself, but the jacket was tattered and frayed, and covered with dark stains. Through one gaping hole, Callum could see the wet glisten of torn skin and muscle, and the white gleam of exposed bone. Below his jacket, the soldier’s legs ended in ragged stumps just above the knee.

Callum shuddered. How had he lost them? In one of the wars? Falling under a train? Is that what killed him? Did he die down there on those very tracks?

These dark thoughts always seemed to fill Callum’s mind whenever the spirits were near him, but tonight he would have been gloomy enough without them. He’d missed his train home after an away match and now he was stuck with a long, cold wait. Callum shivered as the wind whistled and moaned around him. He willed the time to go faster.

At last he heard the modern Sprinter train coming down the line, all bright lights and noise. For an instant the ghost’s gaze seemed to meet Callum’s. Then it was gone, like a blown-out candle.

The train was crammed with tired, grumpy people coming home from work. But even though he had to stand wedged between elbows and shopping bags, Callum was glad of the human company. Already his stomach was tightly knotted at the thought of the long, lonely walk down the hill from Marlock station to Gran’s little cottage in Nether Marlock. Callum especially dreaded the stretch of woods by the abandoned stone shell of Nether Marlock church – the dead always seemed to gather there.

When the train reached his stop, Callum forced himself to set off down the hill, through the housing estate at the edge of town. It was getting dark and the wind seemed to whisper an unearthly warning. The streetlights were already on, their acid-yellow glow casting inky shadows up the driveways. There were never any spirits in the tidy front gardens of these houses, though. The estate was too new to have ghosts. Well, except the one house, halfway down, haunted by the little girl who had been run over by a post van – but she could be avoided by staying on the other side of the road.