As the road about her slowly came back into focus, she could just make out the bike. The wheel was still spinning. It had skidded along the road, the biker thrown off with his head and shoulders at an angle that she knew meant his spine could be compromised. Dazed, she began to move towards him, trying to feel for her phone in her bag at the same time. But there was a woman there already, pulling out her phone, jabbing the numbers to get an ambulance out here as quickly as possible.

Liv stumbled backwards, shocked and confused, her eyes finally picking out the crumpled body of the man who’d stood next to her at the traffic lights. He had saved her twice. It seemed as if, for one eternal second, the whole city fell into bottomless silence. Then there was the most pathetic sound she’d ever heard. It was something between a whimper and a cry of pain. It stirred something up in her from deep within her bones. She’d become a nurse to help people, but this was different; this was like the reverberations of a sounding fork struck many lifetimes ago and coming back now to resonate deep in her heart. But, the practical part of her brain knew, the level of noise and pandemonium around her meant that a sound like that would have to be lost on the night air.

Suddenly, it seemed everything was becoming confused – people crowding around, wanting to help – but much too shocked to realise what needed to be done. She heard it again, a soft sound, a familiar and haunting noise. It felt like an echo, catching her breath, making her heart stop in her chest. Promise. She looked around. Her eyes gliding over empty expressions, up and down the road and then, on the glistening tarmac, she saw him, surrounded by onlookers. He was stupefied into staring and inactivity. The man who’d stood beside her only moments earlier. The man who’d made her heart flip in her chest as if he’d just turned over a switch that had been too long out of use. Liv began to run, pushing past the people standing about. She fell to the ground beside him, started to check for breath, a pulse, anything that was a vital sign of life.