Law breaking.

After I’d finished last night, I went to sleep. There’s a noise that the study door makes, like a snarl as it scrapes the floor of the hall. That’s the noise that woke me up at four.

I went downstairs. Halfway down, the lights were switched off again. I should have turned back then but I kept going. I thought it must be Angela, couldn’t think who else would go in there. I don’t remember being hit.

I woke up in hospital. Norman drove me, Angela stayed. They kept me through the night, to keep an eye on me. It’s a horrible place, behind all the people who make a living there, there’s the structure of it – like a vision of the future from the sixties, in concrete and uniforms.

When they found me last night, the back door was open. Everyone thinks it was locked, but no one can remember checking. A couple of the blank white books are missing from the study, and the tree root. Nothing else has been touched that I can tell, but we need to check the inventory. I feel too sick to do that today. I feel fine, and at the same time I feel exhausted.

It’s not just Angela that’s taking magic seriously. While I was in the hospital, I started to believe it myself.