‘If that’s what you want then that is what you shall have, my sweetheart,’ and with that, he raises the tip of the spear off the ground and thrusts it straight through the top of Emily’s bare foot. She screams in agony and falls to the floor, the spear somehow managing to stay lodged in her foot as she lies on the lawn in agony and confusion. I immediately bend down to comfort her, but as I do so Tommy dives at me and takes me down onto my back. He then straddles my chest and pins my arms to the floor with his knees. I can hear Emily whimpering and breathing heavily over towards the back door. His large medieval face is looming above me, full of pure Yorkshire gristle and hate.

‘Fucking hell, Tommy, what are you doing?’ I plead.

By way of reply he punches me full on the nose.

‘Fuck off,’ he says, and then punches me again and again, each punch accompanied by an increasingly angry ‘Fuck off’. I can feel blood running from my nose and down my cheeks. My lips are being mashed up and I can taste the blood in my mouth. He stops hitting me and grips either side of my mouth with one hand so that my lips pucker up into a figure of eight. I notice that he is now holding a knife in his other hand, the tip of which is only inches from my cheek. I can’t speak. Fear has once again shut me down.

‘Come on, Gary. Let’s have a little sing-song before I finish you off,’ he says. I hear Emily yelp and let out an agonizing scream. ‘Come on, let’s sing together. It’s such a lovely way to say farewell,’ says Tommy as he begins to sing the national anthem:

GOD SAVE OUR GRACIOUS QUEEN

LONG LIVE OUR NOBLE QUEEN

GOD SAVE THE QUEEN

‘COME ON, GARY. SING ALONG. EVERYONE LOVES THIS BIT,’ commands Tommy as he releases the tight grip he has on my mouth and starts to force the tip of his knife into my neck. I stare defiantly into his eyes, silently begging him to just do whatever it is he intends. He raises the volume of his singing:

NA NA NA NA

SEND HER VICTORIOUS!

HAPPY AND GLORIOUS!