A woman was snoring softly on the sofa – her face turned inwards so only her back was visible. She was a similar build to her son, taller but not by much, with dirty blonde hair tied up in some kind of knot and looking as if it hadn’t been washed or even brushed for days.

Lewis made his way through the living room to the kitchen where a small table with four rickety chairs were perched opposite an old cracked sink and a tiny grubby-looking fridge hummed in the corner.

‘Bread or cereal?’ Lewis asked. Danny wanted to say both but settled on the bread, unsure if there would be fresh milk for the cereal. A couple of thick slices were soon pushed in front of him as he took a seat at the table, there was no butter or marmalade.

‘Shouldn’t you wake your mother?’ Danny asked.

‘Nah, she’s stoned, probably sleep for most of the day.’ Lewis spoke as if this was a regular occurrence.

‘What’s she stoned with?’

‘Booze mainly, but she snorts stuff as well.’ Again this was spoken as if it was the usual order of things.

Danny knew if he was going to act it should be sooner rather than later so when Lewis sat down opposite him, he decided to make his move. Lifting and pushing the table with one motion, Danny knocked both the boy and the table to the floor. He sprinted back through to the hall and rattled the front door handle.

As expected, it was locked, so quickly he spun round to run in the opposite direction where he’d seen the light, hoping there’d be another door. There was – a more flimsy one than the front door, with a pane of frosted glass in the top half. Unsurprisingly this was also locked so Danny frantically looked around for something to smash the glass. There was nothing, and Lewis was standing a few feet away from him, laughing.

‘I knew you’d try, but it’s no good. There’s wire mesh on all the windows, including that door. So even if you smashed the glass you’d never get through the wire and the house would be even bloody colder.’

To his shame, Danny started to cry. Not huge sobs but silent tears rolling down his cheeks. Lewis sighed and turned to go back to the kitchen.

‘Might as well have some breakfast or it’ll be a long day.’