I opened the door and stepped into the darkness. I reached for the light switch and flicked on a single, naked bulb that revealed steps to nothingness.

‘Gaia?’ I hissed. ‘Gaia, are you down there? Come up, please?’

No answer. I turned and glanced behind me, fearful of getting another write-up in Maren’s Book of Wrong.

‘Gaia?’ I called in the direction of her room. If she was there she would answer. But I was met with silence.

I glanced down into the gloom, seeking out the familiar shape of Gaia at the bottom of the stairs, but there was nothing. ‘Gaia?’ I called again, and this time there was a distant whimper, and in an instant I feared she’d tripped and fallen down those horrible concrete steps. The sort that you’d really not want to fall down as you’d be left with a broken rib or two. I quickly took to the steps, but I was only halfway down when the lights suddenly went out. A second later, the door slammed shut. I froze. I was in pitch darkness and barefoot.

‘Gaia, are you down here?’ I said. I tried to listen into the silence, but all I could hear was the rush of blood in my ears.

A moment later, a voice.

NO.

A hoarse voice.

Not Gaia’s voice.

I froze in the dark, every muscle in my body flooded with terror, my eyes searching out any chink of light to reveal who had spoken. As I turned I felt something grab me, a hand clutching the breast pocket on my shirt. I screamed and lurched backwards, stumbling and tripping up the stairs to the door. I reached it and turned the handle but it was shut tight. I pounded my fists against the door. ‘Help!’ I shouted. ‘There’s someone down here!’

After what seemed like an eternity but was probably about three and a half seconds, the door opened. I stumbled and fell on my knees, vomiting all over the feet of the person standing in front of me.

Tom. He stared down at me in disgust.

‘What’s happened?’ a woman’s voice said. I recognized it as belonging to Derry, the woman who’d picked me up at the airport.

I felt like a rag doll as she and Clive lowered me into a chair in the kitchen. I saw Tom check the basement door thoroughly before coming in to join us. His face was flushed. I’d crossed a line. I’d gone into the Verboten Basement and puked all over his designer shoes. I was probably going to be fired. But I was so weak and terrified that I didn’t care.