Coronation Street spoilers have revealed a brutal death rocks the cobbles next week, as one character witnesses a murder.
Hope Stape is horrified as her new pet chinchilla Cilla is brutally killed on the ITV soap, in horrifying scenes.
As Hope walks in to find Cilla's cage open, she suddenly finds her beloved pet dead on the floor yards away from her killer.
Cilla is brutally killed, it seems, by Peanut the dog who is owned by Beth and Kirk Sutherland.
Beth and Kirk decide to go on holiday and ask their friend Fiz Brown to look after the pooch while they are away.
She agrees but suggests her young daughter Hope takes on the duty for some money.
Kirk calls at No.9 and offers Hope £5 to look after Peanut for the night, to which she agrees as long as she gets £10 instead - with her unaware of the tragedy on the way.
Peanut growls at Cilla, not happy with being in her presence and it's clear she is in danger.
As Hope and sister Ruby suddenly realise their pet is missing, they search the house for her as her cage door is open.
Horrified, especially with Peanut on the loose, they try to find her only to come across her dead body on the carpet.
Hope lets out a chilling scream as she makes the brutal discovery and realises her pet has been killed.
The apparent killer, Peanut, watches from her basket at the scene of the crime - but will she be rumbled?
There's every chance Peanut hasn't killed Cilla, but given her hatred of her it's also likely to be the case.
It comes as soap boss Iain MacLeod hinted what was ahead for Hope as a result of a twist involving Cilla, with it now thought to be linked to the death.
Iain told The Mirror and other press: "Fiz and Tyrone are trying to put the troubles behind them but there's some difficulty of parenting Hope going forward and Hope's troubled behaviour ends up in a fairly acrimonious feud with one of her adult neighbours that involves a chinchilla.
"That's the sort of tone we've got with that family next year, there's difficult bits and Hope's behaviour will become increasingly difficult but the chinchilla stuff is very funny and light-hearted."
Coronation Street airs Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8pm on ITV1 and ITVX.
