Seraphine took a deep breath. She had prepared for this. ‘Claudia and I had gone inside and the caretaker followed us. It turns out he’s been having it off with Claud for months. Not that she wanted to. He’s been raping her. So he saw us go into the hall and decided he could have a go on both of us. Claudia tried to stop him, but he came at me, trying to feel me up. He had me backed into a corner and I didn’t know what to do. So …’

Seraphine paused: she needed to phrase it right.

‘I had a pencil in my pocket and I hit him with it. I thought it might scratch him, hurt him, give us the chance to run. But it went straight in his neck, like schloop, and then there was a lot of blood. It was everywhere, and he was slipping and he fell and then he didn’t stand up again. And that was that.’

Dr Bloom opened her notebook and wrote three or four words. ‘Thank you. That’s very helpful. And when the caretaker had you cornered’ – she was still making notes – ‘before you used the pencil. What were you thinking?’

‘I didn’t want that creep to rape me.’

Dr Bloom looked up. ‘And how did you feel?’

‘Absolutely terrified.’

Dr Bloom nodded. ‘I’m sure you did. And in that moment, what did you see?’

‘See?’

‘Did you become alert to everything going on in the room or were you focused on one specific detail?’

Seraphine remembered staring at the beating pulse in Dreary Darren’s neck. ‘I don’t think … I don’t remember.’

‘Did you shout or scream?’

‘No.’

‘Did Claudia?’

Seraphine shook her head.

‘Why not?’

‘He’d locked the doors. There was no point.’

‘So you had no escape and no potential help coming?’

Seraphine nodded.

‘He had you cornered and had made his intentions clear?’

‘Yes.’

‘And you felt absolutely terrified?’

‘Yes.’ Seraphine suppressed a smile. This was going well.

Dr Bloom paused and took a deep breath. ‘What do you mean by terrified? Can you describe to me what that felt like?’

‘Urm …’

Dr Bloom didn’t fill the silence.

‘How many sessions will we have?’ asked Seraphine.

‘As many as we need.’

‘Typically?’

The doctor smiled. ‘Do you consider this experience typical, Seraphine?’

Shit. I really need to watch what I say. ‘Sorry. No. I just thought there’d be a number.’

‘I’ll know better when we’ve met a few times.’ Dr Bloom closed her notebook. ‘It might be useful for both of us if you kept a diary and wrote down your thoughts on this experience and our sessions. Just what you remember, any details that come back to you, and how you’re feeling and adjusting.’

Dr Bloom lifted an identical notebook from the desk behind her and handed it to Seraphine. ‘Maybe you could use this.’