The dream location is an octagonal room with no windows or doors. The floor is made of bones and the ceiling is made of eyes. The walls are made of fur. I am covered in fur instead of clothes, like an oversized Ewok. I search everywhere for doors. Under the bones I find bugs and under the bugs, slime. Gagging, I explore the walls. There has to be a way out. If I can’t find one, I’ll make one.

I’m recording the session. Evidence. Roman can go over it after I’m dead. Because I’m so dead, now that I don’t have anyone to protect me. No O, no Muz. I don’t even have Shandy. There’s only me, and I’ve fallen asleep on the kitchen floor of a psycho killer. He’s obviously taken the earring out of my hand and slipped it back in again.

Right. Well, I’m not dead yet, so better use my skills and do what I can to save myself from the inside.

Once I get going, it’s not so bad. I turn the fur on my body into a fighter pilot suit and transform the walls to glass. I call my dream Thor-hammer and it appears in my hands. Here in my dreams, anyway, I’m not always a victim.

I’m in a tower. I can see the luminous Dream City spread out below me with its lacework of canals, the Dream City’s veins that writhe in their age and darkness. I see the bridges and streets that I have walked in sleep, the cranes, the scaffolds. Everything under construction. Anything is possible here.

I feel stronger now. It could be worse. For example, even though he covered it up, I’m pretty sure Martin Elstree was surprised to find me in his flat and I’m betting he hasn’t had time to make plans to kill me in real life. I doubt he has the stomach for it in real life, and he wouldn’t know how to dispose of my body without getting caught. I’m betting on him coming after me in the Dream City instead, try to make me kill myself. But I’ve got a head start on him, because he has to go to sleep first. Nobody can fall asleep as fast as I can. I should be able to spot him when he’s just arriving in my dream, before he gets his bearings. And then I can attack.

Because wow, the more I think about the way I’ve been treated, the more furious I get.