Belle Dingle (played by Eden Taylor-Draper) only returned to Emmerdale just before Christmas - finally beginning to heal after a harrowing experience with her ex-boyfriend Lachlan (Thomas Atkinson).
Yet just as soon as she arrived back in the Yorkshire Dales after some much-needed time with her mother Lisa Dingle (Jane Cox), strange things started to occur on the ITV soap.
For one thing, Christmas Day should have been a happy affair as the entire Dingle clan celebrated Marlon (Mark Charnock) and his new wife Jessie Grant’s (Sandra Marvin) nuptials.
But when Belle, Lydia (Karen Blick) and Sam Dingle (James Hooton) return home from the festivities, they come back to a ransacked Wishing Well cottage.
The group are confused by the scenes in front of them, but Belle seems even more perturbed by what’s taken place.
Even when the police are called to the cottage, Belle appears to be hiding something, which left viewers wondering if the burglar was actually Lachlan having escaped from prison.
Since that night, the villagers haven’t received any news of the murderer’s escape, so theories now abound over whether Lachlan is working with someone on the outside.
If that’s the case, the former brewery-owner could be hell-bent on tormenting his ex for giving up on him and helping to get him put away for life.
The creepy storyline continues to simmer as Belle received a mystery text during her New
