Thea is talking to me, but her words are washing over me, her voice hollow in my ears. She is holding her hand out, and I realise she wants me to take it. I feel her gentle pull and know I have to get off the bed and stand up, but for a moment my legs feel too weak to support me.

Words are echoing in my head. ‘Come with me,’ Thea seems to be saying, over and over again. I hear the word ‘safe’ and find myself walking towards the door, her arm around my waist.

Slowly, slowly, we make our way along the corridor and down the stairs. I’m not taking much notice of where we’re going, so when she opens a door on the ground floor that I don’t think I’ve been through before, I think we must have become lost in the maze that is her home. Her grip on me has become so familiar that I almost don’t notice she’s there.

There is a wall straight ahead. Thea opens a small cupboard and presses a series of numbers on a keypad. There is a loud clunk. A question slithers through the fog in my head and then away again. The wall seems to open, and I realise it is a door without a handle. I think I hear the sound of other doors closing somewhere.

After a few seconds Thea pushes the door fully open and I see we are at the top of another staircase, which leads steeply down into a gloomy space below. I’m not sure I can manage the stairs – the treads beneath my feet swim in and out of focus – but Thea helps me reach the bottom. The corners of the space we are in hide in deep shadows, and I squint towards a single light bulb, suspended above a small table, creating a puddle of yellow light on its surface. Thea coaxes me past the table and along a narrow corridor. There seem to be a lot of doors, and all I want to do is lie down.

Without knowing entirely how I got here, I find myself in a small room with a bed and not much else.

Thea is speaking, and I try hard to catch her words, but they come and go – closer, then further away. I latch on to one word. Safe. She seems to be repeating it, and it’s all I need to know. Thea says I’m safe, and that must be right.

I tumble onto the bed and curl into a tight ball. Thea may say I’m safe, but I seem to be in some sort of hell and I’ve no idea how I got here.

CHAPTER 33

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