The door opens an inch, then pauses. She fancies she can hear breathing coming though the gap, from whoever is in the corridor beyond. Realises she’s listening to herself, short and shallow, all through the nose now, lips pressed tightly together. The world speeds up again before she can tell herself to move. Shapes barrelling towards her. She whirls and runs, feeling herself falling before the weight bearing down on her registers. A tangle of arms wrap around her legs. She pushes herself up on her palms, kicking out. Feels her slipper connect and something, someone, grunts in pain. Looks back and sees a man, face hidden behind a balaclava, scrabbling at her legs, pulling himself towards her.

Natasha doesn’t see the blow until it’s too late. The punch catches her on the cheek and her vision explodes into a thousand fireflies as her head collides with the wall. A coppery taste fills her mouth. Pressure on the back of her neck pushes her face into the carpet, nose grinding into the floor, mouth full of shagpile. Hands grab her wrists, yanking them behind her, and something is being wrapped around them. She is flipped over onto her back. Her eyes are watering from the impact against the wall, and she tries to blink away the blurriness. To decide if she’s seeing double, or if there are in fact two masked men looking down at her.

She hears them talking despite the ringing in her ears. Two voices, two men. One of them speaks low, grumbling, complaining about her teeth splitting his knuckle. It comes from the bigger of the two men. She doesn’t mean to speak out loud, just in her head, but she hears her own voice betray her.

‘Why?’ It doesn’t even sound like her voice, thick and slurred.

His head whips down to look at her. He stares at her for an eternity, but doesn’t respond. She doesn’t need him to. Knows she’s in more trouble than she can handle, no matter what their reasons. He reaches under her armpits and drags her up into a sitting position, back to the wall. He mutters something to the shorter man, and disappears off towards her bathroom. The short man looks like he’s leering at her through the mask, coming in close, into her personal space. She can’t see the face, but the look in his eyes gives her goosebumps.