Lewis’s fate concerned Danny. He’d probably just disappear with his mother. There was no way the boys could ever continue to see each other – their lives were poles apart, he understood that – but Danny was sad at the thought he’d never see his friend again or know what would happen to him when they were parted.

‘Where will you go when this is all over?’ he asked.

Lewis shrugged. ‘Dunno. It depends on what Mum wants to do and Pete too, of course. If he still wants her around we’ll probably go back to the flat we were in before, but if he doesn’t we’ll just move on somewhere else.’ He seemed resigned to his uncertain destiny and appeared to take life as it came with no expectations of a better future. Danny wished there was something he could do for him.

‘I could give you my address, then if you needed anything and I could help–?’

‘Best not,’ Lewis interrupted. ‘We’ll probably move on when Pete gets tired of Mum. You’ll be back with your parents and how would you explain me turning up on the doorstep?’

He was right – their lives were so different – they could never truly be friends. Danny wished there was something he could do for Lewis but the reality was that they would never meet again.

It was dark as the boys sat silently together on the dirty mattress, each with their own thoughts. The blackness of the outside world held nothing but fear for Danny – every noise made him jump and he expected his captors to appear at any time to drag him off somewhere unknown – maybe even to kill him. His heart beat frantically as he anticipated the worst.

Strangely this room had become a safe place, even though realistically he knew it wasn’t. It was his space and apart from the one time his kidnapper had entered, a place he’d only shared with Lewis. Danny hardly dared hope this would be the last night he would spend in the room which was his prison, yet at the same time, his refuge.

Lewis eventually broke the silence and stood to leave. ‘You’d better get some sleep.’

‘Don’t go yet. I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep.’

‘You will.’ Lewis looked at him. ‘Dream of tomorrow – of your parents and how happy they’ll be to see you again. I’d better go down and see what Mum’s up to. Pete won’t be coming back tonight so don’t worry.’ Lewis smiled as he left.

Danny lay down on the mattress and pulled his coat over him, thinking, as Lewis said he should, of his parents and the chance of seeing them again soon. Although Danny hadn’t expected to sleep he drifted off soon after Lewis left him, a sleep which afforded him the escape reality failed to offer.

20

DAY 4