with empty coffee cups and other rubbish. She stopped, dried her eyes on the sleeve of her blouse, and then lifted her head to look at me. Her face was a picture of frozen fear and pain. She turned back to face the door, lifted her hand to open it, and then stopped, letting her hand fall away again.
'I can't...' she began. 'She's...'
'She's what?'
Clare shook her head and sniffed back more tears.
'Nothing.'
She took a deep breath and pushed the door open. She moved to one side and gestured for me to go through.
'It'll be okay,' I whispered as I passed her. She didn't believe me but she managed half a smile.
I peered cautiously around the door into the little square bedroom. I couldn't see Penny at first. It was difficult to make out much. The light was low and the room looked as if it had been hit by a tornado.
'Is she okay?' Clare asked, trying to lean over my shoulder to see inside.
'Don't know,' I replied. 'I can't see her. Maybe she's...'
In one unexpected movement Penny appeared from behind the door and stopped in front of me, staring at me with dark eyes full of anger and inexplicable hate. Her sudden appearance and malevolence caught me off guard and I jumped back, almost tripping over Clare behind me. And then she moved. With the speed of a wild animal and the strength of someone ten times her size the little girl shoulder-charged me and sent me flying back out onto the landing. It took all my strength just to keep hold of her. As I dragged her back towards her room she spat and hissed and bit me. I threw her down onto her bed and then ran back and slammed the door behind me, feeling her slam into the other side just moments later. She was thumping on the wood, trying to get out. And she screamed. A fucking awful wail of a scream which paled into insignificance alongside the desperate cries of her heartbroken mother standing next to me.
'What's happened to her?' she demanded. 'Why is she doing this?'
I didn't answer. I couldn't answer. I locked the door, leant against the wall and slid down to the ground.
The thumping and banging continued for another twenty minutes. When it finally stopped I crept back into the bedroom and found the little girl curled up in a ball underneath her bed, shaking. Stronger than a shiver but nowhere near as violent as a full-blown fit or convulsion, she was trembling from head to toe. She was breathing and her vital signs were okay but apart than that she didn't move or respond to me in any way. I didn't know what to do other than just leave her there until we'd managed to fetch a doctor to her. I stood up and ushered Clare out of the room and then turned back to look at Penny once more. She was bruised, bloodied and exhausted. Her normally sparkling eyes were dull and clouded. She was just an empty shell. There didn't seem to be anything left of the beautiful little creature that I'd taken out for a birthday treat just a couple of days ago.
Clare and I quietly made our way back down to the living room where we spoke in hushed whispers.
'Is she going to be all right?' she asked.
'Don't know,' I replied honestly, shrugging my shoulders. 'Impossible for me to say. We need to get someone out to see her but...'
'What's caused this?' she demanded, cutting across me.
'I don't know. Look, Clare, have you been out today?'
'No, I've been here with Penny all day, you know that. Why?'
I paused for a moment. After the trauma she was already having to deal with, could my friend cope with any more news?
'Because she's not the only one who's like this.'
'What do you mean?'
'I told you last night that Joe Porter had been acting weird...'
'But he's a sixty year-old man and Penny's just a child for God's sake...'
'Yes, but that's not all. Did I tell you about Siobhan?'
'No,' she mumbled, shaking her head.
'She's hardly spoken to me since you and I went out together at the weekend.'
'Why not?'
'Christ knows. She's screamed at me, shouted at me, ignored me and virtually accused me of having an affair with you just because we went out together on Penny's birthday.'
'What?'
The disbelief on Clare's face was clear to see.
'I've just come from her house. I left her sitting on the sofa like she was in