Clicking off the phone, Alfie looked around before hovering his hand over the car handle, trying to force himself to get out. ‘Come on, come on, you’re no longer a kid.’ He spoke out loud, pushing himself on, trying to ignore the feeling of terror he experienced at the thought of Barry Eton only being a few feet away. Trying to ignore his biggest demon. Then taking a deep breath, Alfie opened the door, closed it silently behind him and headed off towards the warehouse.

As he crept along the side, Alfie couldn’t see or hear anyone. The only sound was his feet crunching on the stony gravel whilst the long grass hid the shattered glass and rusting debris surrounding the derelict warehouses.

He could feel the adrenalin rushing around his body as his heart pounded faster, a thin trickle of sweat running down his back as he tried to steady his breathing.

Creeping along the wall, Alfie suddenly stopped, hearing voices coming from the other side of the crumbling warehouse. He strained to hear what they were saying but the noise of the hailstones hammering down on the discarded, rusty metal sheeting made it impossible to make anything out.

A sound directly behind him made Alfie begin to run, keeping low and next to the wall, hiding as much in the shadows as he could. At a small, metal side door, he paused a moment, then slunk inside unnoticed.

Inside the old warehouse, which seemed to creak with hidden sources of noise, Alfie tried to work out where he needed to be. He walked along the corridors, which were strewn with the remains of pipes and tubing, rubbish and bottles abandoned on the floor.

Cautiously, stepping along, conscious of not wanting to make any noise, Alfie saw a set of stone stairs in the far corner of the darkened warehouse. He headed towards them, walking up to the next floor, following another maze of corridors, looking over his shoulder as he went, stopping at every sound.

A man’s shout from the far side of the warehouse made Alfie stop in front of a door with a large glass partition. Carefully, he peeked in and although he couldn’t see anyone, there were shadows moving on the far side of the empty room.

Certain that was where Barry was, Alfie closed his eyes again, steadying himself as the unwanted images of what had happened came into his mind. He wiped away the sweat that was now running from his forehead, pushing himself into the pitch-black corner.

Hearing the echo of footsteps, Alfie crouched down before slinking away as quickly as he could, desperate not to be spotted … What were they doing here? It didn’t make any sense. The place was abandoned but suddenly his thoughts were interrupted when another noise caught his attention … It was the voice of a child. The cry of a child.