Not for the first time, she marvelled at Melissa’s change of circumstances: from the hallowed halls of Beaconsfield and a vista of opportunity before her, to an area of the city in which hope was in as short supply as beauty was. Rumour had it that the council planned to raze this entire block, probably to make way for another multiplex. The house Melissa had directed Nicky to had apparently once been a squat before all the residents had left, fearful the building was about to come down on their heads. Melissa had only gone back there in desperation, she’d told Nicky over the phone, and she didn’t plan on being there for long. She was afraid to stay in one place, but at the same time she was running out of places to go. Hence why in the end she’d called Nicky. She’d heard through one of the companions at Shining Light that Nicky had come looking for her, and word was that Nicky was somebody she could trust.

‘Melissa?’

Ridiculously, Nicky felt an urge to knock on the front door, in spite of the fact it was half boarded over and scrawled on with graffiti. She pressed her nose to one of the windows alongside it, but those on the ground floor had been covered with metal shutters, and the perforations were too small to see through. She turned to the door again, and realised the padlock that had been sealing it shut had been prised apart. When she gave the door a tentative push, it creaked open on rusty hinges.

‘Melissa? Are you there? It’s me, Nicky.’

The residents may have left some time previously, but the smell of human occupancy remained. The plumbing in the building had clearly given out years ago, and the floor in the hallway was strewn with rubbish. The stink wasn’t quite as pungent as the stench they’d encountered at Lance Wheeler’s flat, but even so it was an uncomfortable reminder of what they’d found there. Nicky couldn’t help but worry that she was already too late.

‘Melissa?’ she called again, and waited for some indication that she’d been heard. But the silence remained as thick as the fetid air.

She stepped into the hallway, and right away there was a groaning sound behind her. She spun, just in time to see the front door swing shut.

‘Shit.’