This won’t help, and I can make it up to them after I get back safe. First I need to know where I am. It’s likely that the Potters have me; Troy probably led them straight to the car, the stupid prick. I try not to worry about where he is right now. I can’t help anyone until I help myself. After that I’ll do whatever I can to help him.

That promise in mind, I slowly sit up. It takes a lot of courage to stretch out that first hand into nothing. By pure luck I hit wall to my left. I remember hitting a wall when that – not now. I can feel a wall, this must be it. Where there is a wall there has to be a door, all I have to do is follow it. The question is: should I stand or crawl? I try to think it out like Tace would – logic and science. In the end I can’t so I do it my way – on my feet. Getting up takes a bit of doing. The first scrape of sound nearly sends me back to the foetal position until I realise I’m the one that made it. I inch upward, wincing at every noise, till I’m upright, swaying slightly.

Teeth gritted, I keep my left hand on the wall and my right stretched out in front of me. The first time I stumble over a rock I nearly curse, but the echoing noises send my heart pounding. Nothing happens so I push on. This time I extend my foot first, searching and finding firm ground before shifting my weight onto it. It slows things down a lot, but it stops a few stumbles over uneven ground and a few more rocks. My confidence grows and that’s when I make the mistake. Trusting it too soon, I think I’ve tested the ground properly. As I shift forwards the ground crumbles. I slide on my heel, trying to take the step back. No such luck.

I plummet through the dark, tumbling down, down, till I hit belly-first. The wind’s knocked out of me. I gasp through it till I can breathe again. I lie face down, cataloguing my bruises and stings, waiting to hear what all that noise would bring.

Nothing.

I count a hundred panting breaths before I finally start to believe I’ve gotten away with it. Sliding my hands under my shoulders I push up into a crouch and wave my hands around me, trying to find the wall, or something that can explain where I’ve fallen.