Ellen was going to add something to emphasize the urgency of the situation when she noticed a lanky man, presumably belonging to Alexa, shuffling through the doorway to join them. He was blinking as though unused to sunlight, and wore a pair of jeans slung low enough to confirm that he wasn’t wearing any boxers underneath them. Big bare feet poked out of the bottom of the jeans. He was shirtless – in fact, it seemed quite likely that he owned the T-shirt slung over Alexa’s top half – and his chest was lightly hairy. He had the sort of abs that suggested gentle – but not myopic – discipline. Indeed, he was – Ellen observed – extraordinarily good looking: big brown eyes, a shadow of stubble, brown, close-cropped dark hair. He squinted, a lithe forearm thrown across his eyes to shield them from the sun.

Noticing that Ellen was distracted, Alexa turned round. ‘Oh, hey –’

Without warning, a gust from the open skylight slammed the door shut.

Ellen jumped, Jack yelped and the stranger turned.

‘Hi,’ he said, turning back to offer a friendly half-wave. ‘I’m Ben.’ His voice was slightly higher than Ellen had expected.

Jack and Ellen looked at Alexa. There were pink spots high on her cheekbones, though she looked quite pleased.

‘Hey,’ Alexa said, stepping towards him. ‘Um, I’ll be back down in a second, I just need Jack’s help with something, so …’ She trailed off.

Ben appraised her, smiling. ‘Yeah, no worries – I just came to see if you have an iPhone charger?’

‘Yes, there’s one plugged in on my side of the bed,’ Alexa said briskly. She was clearly trying to get rid of him.

Ben grinned uncertainly, a little bemused by his reception. ‘OK, cool. I’ll see you in a second, then.’ He turned towards the door.

In the fullness of time, they’d presumably all agree that what happened next wasn’t strictly Ben’s fault. Ultimately, the door handle could have fallen off in anyone’s hand. The door was an unknown quantity: its handle was rarely used. Perhaps, like a faulty escalator or an overburdened heart valve, the door handle was a ticking time bomb, an accident waiting to happen. Indeed, if you were pointing fingers, it was sort of Jack’s fault – he’d opened the skylight, which made the door slam shut with such force. (And, to be fair, it was Alexa who had brought home the ham-fisted Adonis in the first place.)

But it didn’t really matter whose fault it was, because fall off it did, leaving the door firmly closed, with them all locked inside.

And anyway, Elias would make it everyone’s fault when the whole ground floor was underwater and he had to break down a door in order to break all of their necks.

2. Ellen

Ben stared at the handle.

‘Oh my God,’ Alexa uttered slowly. Her voice was high. ‘Have you just locked us in?’