Golden Boy viciously cut down an older father on the edge of the pack, slicing half his face off. The Maidenhead boy had got his lance free and was now charging at the pack himself. They parted, suddenly exposing the young sicko, and it looked like his game was surely up. There wasn’t quite enough space in the arena for the boy’s charge to gain speed, however, and the young sicko just had time to shunt the tip of the boy’s lance down into the ground where it stuck fast. The lance levered the boy up, lifting him out of the saddle and tipping him over to the side. He let go of his weapon and flung his arms round his horse’s neck and somehow managed to cling on.

Both actions had got a massive cheer from the crowd and Ed glanced over at Arno. This was supposed to be the triumph of good over evil, but one of the demons was winning the crowd over.

One of the kids needed to kill him, and kill him quickly.

Ella was trying to push her way to the front of the grandstand, but all the kids were up and out of their seats, blocking the aisles, shoving each other this way and that for a better look, shouting and roaring. Someone barged into her and knocked her to the floor. She was in danger of being stepped on.

She couldn’t see what was going on in the arena. From the reactions of the crowd it sounded like it was going crazy.

‘Let me through,’ she screamed. ‘Let me through!’

They ignored her, or didn’t hear her, didn’t care.

‘Let me through …’

It was hopeless. She’d have to find another way down.

The grown-ups were being thinned out. The shaved-head boy in the white hoodie was expertly riding through them, chopping to left and right. Malik wanted to keep well clear of him. With his white hood hiding his face, he reminded Malik of the guy in Assassin’s Creed. And that’s what he was – an assassin. The Slough girl and the Maidenhead boy had stopped moving, they were too penned in by bodies. The Maidenhead boy didn’t seem to have another weapon now that he’d lost his lance and was kicking the sickos who clawed at him.