Max found himself stumbling every few steps; on what, he dared not guess. The smell was of mould, damp earth. It clogged his nose and made his eyes feel heavy. The scrape of their feet caused a sea of dust to rise around their ankles. Every now and then there was a downpour of debris as showers of plaster fell from the floors above, thankfully nowhere near them. He stopped pushing the bike to rub his fingers together; they were rough, powdery, and he could taste a crackle of grit between his teeth. In front of him, the dust fog settled. He could just make out Noel’s shadow. He angled his handlebars in that direction and only knew he’d reached him when he bumped the back of his legs.

‘Oi,’ Noel said, softer than usual.

‘Sorry,’ Max whispered, following his lead.

‘It’s sleeping,’ Noel said. Max was just about to ask what, but he stepped out from behind Noel and saw.

Beyond the boys there was a small pile of rubble as high as Max’s waist. On, or spread across the crumbled plaster, it was difficult to tell, was nothing. Or rather it was something, as far as Max could see, although exactly what he didn’t know: a black patch, dark ooze where there should have been sand-like plaster. There was an absence of light on the ground before them, a hole-like rip in the earth that led into … An abyss. It was empty space, the substance he’d stared up at night after night. It was the vision before his eyes when his lids were closed. The deepest part of the night when he lay in bed, roused from dreams. To see it where it shouldn’t be made Max dizzy with uncertainty and he stepped back with a yelp of surprise. He stumbled on an unseen brick, which shot from beneath his foot and made him fall, the bike clattering to the dust in a racket of gears and wheels.

He blanked out for a moment, trying to collect himself. Through holes in the glass roof, the far-away blue sky spun in slow motion. A wisp of cloud travelled on the wind. Noel whispered ‘Shit’, and Max only just heard him, thinking he might be in trouble, so he tried to get up; only when he’d pulled himself into a sitting position, he froze. Everything left him. Body heat, voice, his breath.