‘It’s way too dangerous for any of us to try it,’ said DogNut. ‘So don’t worry about it.’

‘What about up?’ said Felix, who had come out on to the balcony to see what was happening. ‘Is there a way up on to the roof maybe?’

But that looked hopeless as well.

‘So what do we do now?’ said Felix, looking accusingly at DogNut. ‘You got us up here.’

‘Shut up and let me think,’ said DogNut, and Felix muttered something under his breath.

‘What did you say?’ DogNut glared at Felix, who rubbed his face nervously.

‘I said thinking’s not your strong point,’ said Felix. ‘I should have stayed at the palace. At least David knew what he was doing.’

‘Ignore him,’ said Courtney, putting a hand on DogNut’s back. ‘He’s just scared like the rest of us.’

Olivia was ignoring the argument. She had sat down with her back to the balcony wall. She was ignoring everything. Hoping it would all go away. She closed her eyes and covered her ears with her hands. She wasn’t here. She was back at home in her room, before any of this had happened, with Paul and her dad and his new girlfriend. And her new stepsister. Kira. She always forgot about Kira. She hadn’t been around that long. She was all right, but not like a proper sister.

That was better. Take yourself back. She could picture her old room. She imagined she was sitting on her bed and slowly her things came into place around her. Her pink CD machine that also played tapes and woke her up in the mornings with the radio. Her posters. Her old dressing-up box. Her clothes all neat in the cupboard that Dad had built for her. And Dad was there too, reading her a bedtime story. That was nice. He didn’t do it much, but she loved it when he did. She could see him there now. His hair all messy as usual. The smell of him. A warm smell. She tried to listen to the words. Her favourite Cathy Cassidy book. Dizzy. She smiled. She was sure she could hear his voice in her head. So familiar. She was hardly aware of footsteps around her, hardly felt it as someone jostled her, and she went deeper into her memories, humming quietly to block out the sounds.

So she didn’t hear Felix yelling that the sicko had arrived at the top of the stairs. Didn’t see the others run back into the bedroom. Didn’t see the door bulging as the man leant his enormous weight against it.

Didn’t hear the panic in their voices.

‘He’s gonna get in.’

‘We’re trapped here now.’

‘What do we do?’

‘All right.’ DogNut got their attention by clapping his hands. He had put his sword back in its scabbard. It would only get in the way. He was grinning.

‘It’s like this, OK? Listen to me. It’s easy. We fox him like we did downstairs. We let him come in, yeah? Right into the room. Make sure he gets away from the door.’

‘I get you!’ said Marco. ‘We can do it. We just have to get past him and we’ll be down the stairs before he can even squeeze his great fat arse back out through the door.’

‘OK,’ said Courtney, who was grinning too. ‘OK.’

She had found a golf club among the rubbish in the room, and felt more confident with a weapon back in her hands.

The door stopped bulging for a moment, there was a moment’s silence followed by an almighty thump as the sicko threw himself against the woodwork with more speed. The frame cracked. The panels split.

‘Wait for it,’ said DogNut. ‘Wait for it.’

‘I’m gonna whack his lardy butt,’ said Felix.

‘Like that’ll make any difference, you nunce,’ Marco scoffed. ‘He don’t feel nothing.’

‘I’m gonna whack him anyway, show him who’s the big man.’

‘Oh, he’s the big man, all right, Felix,’ said Marco, and the two of them giggled nervously.

‘Don’t bother trying to fight him,’ said DogNut angrily. ‘Just don’t waste your time. All we got to do is get round him, that’s it.’

Before he could say anything else the door gave way and burst inwards as if there had been an explosion outside. And there was the sicko, forcing himself into the opening.

‘Stuff …’ he said. ‘More stuff …’

He could hardly fit through the door. He had to stretch his arms out in front of him and roll his shoulders. Finally, with a wriggle and a shrug, he was in the room.

True to his word Felix lunged at him with his sword, but the point just sank into the side of his belly and lodged there so deeply that Felix couldn’t pull it out. As he tugged at it, the man moved towards him with sudden speed, almost dancing on his toes, and one meaty hand reached out for Felix. He got him by the wrist and Felix screamed.

Courtney brought her golf club down with all her might on the sicko’s wrist. There was a hefty slap and the man must have relaxed his grip a little because the next moment Felix was free. He saw that Courtney, Finn and DogNut were already out of the room and he threw himself into the narrowing gap between the man and the wall, swearing with the effort. He felt the heat coming off the solid bulk of flesh, and an unholy stink of mould and sweat and shit. If the man’s body hadn’t been slicked with grease, Felix doubted he would have been able to get past. As it was, he was nearly trapped as the man tried to squash him against the wall with his belly, but Marco took hold of his friend and pulled him clear.

‘Don’t try and give the man a hug, you stupid pumplex! I know you want to kiss him all over, but you gonna catch something.’

‘Shut up, Marco!’

The next moment the two of them tumbled out on to the landing, crashing into the banisters. They could hear the others clattering down the stairs below.

Felix sometimes had dreams where he was running down an endless twisting staircase as someone chased him. In his dreams he’d learnt to swing on the banisters at the corners like a monkey so that he would sort of fly from one handhold to another as he whizzed down. If he remembered to do it, the nightmare was turned into something fun and exhilarating. He tried to do the same now, but it was hard in the darkness and he kept falling and rolling down the steps. He was too pumped up to feel anything, though, and was laughing all the way, so relieved was he to have got away from the sicko. He fell past Courtney, caught up with Finn, overtook him, overtook DogNut, and now he was in the lead.

He was first to the front door, half running, half stumbling along the hallway. He kicked the bust of Shakespeare out of the way and wrenched the door open, not caring what might be waiting for them outside.

Mercifully, the street was clear. Felix staggered into the middle of the road and fell to the ground, laughing and sobbing with relief. One by one the others emerged. Courtney was last out and she stopped just long enough to pull down some of the stacks of newspapers and magazines so that they blocked the doorway.

‘That’ll hold the fat bastard up!’ she yelled triumphantly as she ran out and they all hugged each other and exchanged high-fives. It quickly hit them, though, that they weren’t out of danger yet. All their noise had attracted a band of sickos who were approaching along the road.

‘Looks like we gotta keep on running,’ said DogNut, and they sprinted away in the opposite direction. It was only when they turned the corner at the end of the street that DogNut stopped and swore. Thrashing his sides with his balled fists.

‘What is it?’ said Courtney, looking around for a fresh threat.

‘Olivia,’ said DogNut bitterly. ‘Where’s Olivia?’

20

Olivia was on the balcony. Tears running down her face. They’d left her. She couldn’t believe they’d done it. They’d all run off without her. And now he was coming. The man. She’d slid the glass door shut and was standing watching as he trundled across the room towards the balcony.

She was shaking her head from side to side, unable to take her eyes off the huge wobbling bulk of the man.