We raced down the hallway, the police still yelling at us to Halt! I saw a door that said Nur für Personal which sounded like somewhere we weren’t supposed to go. It was locked. I kicked it and the lock gave way with the sound of splintering wood. Some sort of office area: everyone looked up in shock as we burst in. We ran straight through and into another hallway, with staff schedules pinned to the wall: we were definitely where the public wasn’t supposed to be. Behind us, I could hear the police sprinting through the office. We burst through another door—

A castle thundered across my view, painted stonework a foot from my face. I skidded to a stop and then had to pull Erin tight up against me as a house swept by right where she’d been standing. We were backstage, and they were moving the scenery. We ran again, towards a dark, quiet area. I was panting, now, and Erin was really struggling in her heels.

We ran into the dark and then I suddenly slowed: I’d thought this part of backstage was empty but suddenly I realized there were people there, ballerinas waiting silently in the darkness. A few of them hissed at us in German, furious.

Then music started to play and light broke across my feet, gradually rising up my legs. I looked to the left and saw a huge velvet curtain rising. We were on the stage!

We ran on, clearing the stage just as the curtain finished coming up. We burst through a curtain, then another one—

Women sitting at mirrors, others being helped into costumes, some of them half-dressed. They shrieked and tried to cover themselves as they saw me. We kept running, our lungs burning, now. Behind us, confused laughter from the audience: the police must be running across the stage.

We burst out into another hallway and there, at the end, was what I’d been looking for: an unguarded fire exit. We crashed through it, stumbled out into the darkness and pouring rain. An alleyway. Perfect. Now we just needed to—

There was the metal click of a gun being cocked. I looked round to see a cop, his gun up and ready to fire.

He was pointing it right at Erin.

My heart froze in a split second, like someone had just switched my veins to pumping ice water. “No no no!” I threw my hands in the air and Erin did the same.

The cop looked barely old enough to shave. His hands were trembling, the muzzle of the gun dancing around Erin’s chest. His radio was squawking a non-stop barrage of orders. He was overloaded, panicked. He was going to fire.

I imagined the bullet punching into Erin’s body, the bloodstain spreading across the blue dress. I’d never known fear like it. “No!” I jumped in front of her. “No!”