When she began to scream, it was as if the entire house was echoing her pain. The noise bounced off the walls around her and the fractured ceiling above. She tried to roll over and ended up flopping back onto her belly, kicking her feet into the floor. Her right arm floated horribly, uselessly, above her head, her fingers frantically grabbing thin air.

‘Elspeth,’ Xavier shouted. ‘Listen to me. You’ve dislocated your shoulder. You’re going to have to get it back in.’

She was crying, helpless with the pain.

‘Meggy, you’re going to have to get down there. I’m too heavy for you to lower me, but I should be able to get you down. I need you to fetch all the bedding.’

Meggy was sprinting to help before he’d finished speaking. She dumped a pile of sheets and pillows in Xavier’s lap.

‘Come on, then,’ she said.

Xavier shoved three pillows through the hole and onto the floor below to give Meggy a chance at a softer landing, then tied a blanket and a sheet together, one end around her waist.

‘Same as with Elspeth, only she had three sheets. You’ll have to drop the last bit. It’s important to remember to keep your ankles and knees soft, drop to your side, let yourself collapse and roll. Don’t try to fight it. Say it back to me.’

‘I’m not a baby,’ she groaned.

‘Say it back,’ he insisted.

‘Land soft, let myself roll, knees and ankles, blah-blah-blah.’

‘That’ll have to do. When you’re down, I’ll talk you through how to help Elspeth. Did he give you any medicine for emergencies, paracetamol maybe?’

‘Don’t think so. Elspeth didn’t say.’ She looked over the edge of the hole to where Elspeth was now lying on her back and groaning, eyes still shut.

‘Okay. That’ll be the priority when we get downstairs. I’m going to tie the other end onto my waist, and I’ll hang on to the chair. When you’re as low as I can get you, I’ll warn you and you’ll have to brace to drop. Got it?’

‘Hurry up, then,’ she said.

‘Just hold on to the sheet above your head, so if the knot slips—’

‘Ugh,’ Meggy sighed, putting her feet into the cavity and taking a firm hold of the bedding rope before pushing away from the edge.

Xavier gripped the chair with one arm and held tight to the knot around his waist with his free hand, wishing harder than he ever had before that his legs still worked, unable to brace and hold the girl’s weight with his whole body. More importantly, unable to fight their captor.