As I walk slowly up the dark glass staircase, I take a deep breath, trying to calm the nerves that have had the cheek to make themselves known. I don’t know why I am nervous – it must be because I am so excited to be seeing Sam again; and partly because I’m scared that he won’t want to see me … and partly because I know I could be putting myself in danger. I have no idea what lies at the top of this staircase. This could be where people go for the ‘real’ show. One of those sex parties that you hear about and can scarcely believe actually happen.

But it’s too late now.

As I reach the top of the stairs, it becomes clear that I’m not entering another room. I’m going outside, onto a rooftop garden.

It’s dimly lit, with only fairy-light bulbs pinned around the sides of the walls, and a dark glass floor, like the stairs. The space seems to be empty, and at first I think that there is no one up here at all, and that Sam must’ve gone back down another way, but then I near noises. Soft snuffles and grunts, whispers and moans, and the rhythmic squeak of something moving against leather.

I blink, trying to get my eyes to adjust to the light, and then I see that there are some small glass cabins in the middle of the roof space. The doors are closed, but the glass walls are clearly not soundproof. Maybe that’s meant to add to the experience, knowing that whatever it is you are doing in your cabin, others are doing the same right beside you. Perhaps they can all see out of the glass, but I can’t see in. Part of me wants to run back down the stairs and out of this place – the feeling of it is all wrong, just like that party in Irkutsk. But something is drawing me to investigate further before I go. I have to assume that Sam is inside one of these cabins, and I don’t want to imagine what he is doing, or what is being done to him, but on the other hand, I feel a stirring deep inside, and I realise that the whole thing is turning me on.

I walk slowly past the cabins, trying not to make any sound, not letting my heels clip on the floor. There are more cabins at the back, but there are no doors on this side, so I can only assume that they are all linked, and I try to blink away further visions about what might be going on in there.

Then I see him.