Three days passed with no sign of her, but without fail every morning Dad would ask, 'did she come last night?' As if he didn't trust his own mind, and every time I would have to reply, 'Not this time. Maybe tonight'.

On the fourth day, Dad's temperature had spiked-he drifted in and out of consciousness as a cold sweat poured over his frail body. He shakes uncontrollably as if he'd been dipped in icy water, his teeth chattering away in his skull as if they had a pulse, while his skin was like fire-burning hot to the touch.

We had been here before.

I called the doctor and she came out, but as always he refused to go to the hospital.

Even inches away from death he was as stubborn as a mule, approaching death he was the same as he was in life - his way or the highway.

I sit helplessly like I've done so many nights before, silently watching him sleep.

The darkness of night drifting over us with the dreaded silence encompassing everything around us, until peace was broken when I heard the bang at the door again.

I hesitate for a moment, 'Do I want to open the door to her? Deal with her craziness as well as everything else I already have to deal with?'

I wait, hoping she will stop and go away, but she relentlessly carries on, banging harder and harder, the guilt of promising my Dad I'd let her in niggles away at my mind like a maggot wriggling inside a rotten apple.

I go to the front door and see her silhouette there once again, I open the door fully so I can take in every inch of her.

Why was he so desperate to see her?

She stares at me as if she's trying to read me but I give very little away. She steps forward into the light that streams out from the passage and calmly asks, 'I've come to see Lucas, can you please invite me in?'

'Why do you want to see my Father?' I spit out, not ready to let her step over the thresh hold of our home.

'He's my friend, I want to help him'.

I snort. 'Help him? He is beyond help if you were a close friend you'd know that. He's dying. So I'll ask you again, why do you want to see my Father?'

She leans in closer and sniffs the air past me, her head tilted up to the stairs that leads to Dad's bedroom, her eyes become wide and manic, her pupils large like the moon in her tiny round face.

'Please let me in before it's too late, he has a fever. If it's not controlled, he will be gone by the morning'.

'How do you know that?' i spit out.

'That doesn't matter. What matters is you let me in! What do you have to lose Oscar? I wouldn't hurt him; he means as much to me as he does you'.

My heart races in my chest with the mention of my name on her lips, my mind is screaming at me 'Shut the door on her and lock it' yet my heart is saying 'What if this is the last promise you make to your Dad and then you break it?'

I step to the side. 'Please, come in.' With that, a cold chill washes over me as she flies past me with such speed the hairs on my arms stand up. She flies up the stairs without touching a step, not a single creak or crack from beneath her foot can be heard before she is at the top.

I dash behind her, but by the time I'm upstairs, she's standing in the doorway of his bedroom, looking down on him.

'Little Viking, what has happened to you?' She weeps, as a tear rolls down her ivory cheek.

I go to grab her, to stop her from waking him, but she goes through my fingers like smoke and in a blink of an eye she's crouched beside him, her face pressed against his slow heaving chest.

'Little Viking, you need to wake up now, let me help you'.

With that, she bites hard down on her finger and before I could stop her she has opened his mouth and rubbed her blood trickling from her finger onto his gums.

I launched myself at her, desperate to get her away from him but she simply batted me away, as if I was nothing more than a fly, and sent me reeling back and colliding into the wardrobe.

I scream at her to get away from him, but she ignores me. She leans down and whispers in his ear, kisses him on the forehead and then goes to leave. As she gets to the bedroom door, she turns on me. 'His temperature will settle now when he wakes in the morning tell him I will be back that night, I have made arrangements to stay with a friend so I'm close by. You will let me in tomorrow because you will see for yourself I mean him no harm'.

With that, she's gone. I scramble to my feet to race to the front door, to lock it behind her. I'm not sure what good it would do but I feel helpless to do anything else. I collapse to my knees praying that she won't return, but in my heart, I know she will.