The knocking was louder now, more insistent and accompanied by a friendly voice asking to be let in. I silently push another chair in front of the basement door.

After he put the fresh battery in, the first thing Harry noticed was that the stopwatch was going backwards, counting down from some random number. Disgusted at his foolish purchase he threw it into the bin, not noticing that the numbers counted down faster as he angrily took a drag of his cigarette.

“Help me, Mum. I don’t know where I am but it’s really dark and cold. Can you come get me? I’m scared”. Marsha was so tired, after being rudely awoken at 3am by the phone ringing, that she didn’t realise that the battery had died hours ago and, as she later found out, so had Lily.