There was a guy we once knew on the scene, appropriately named Dan-E by the crew for his notorious pill-popping habit. Life and soul. Proper party animal. Put any kind of drug in front of him and he'd sniff it, swallow it, smoke it, whatever. I'd never seen anyone consume so much in my life and not drop down dead, and that's coming from someone who never refused much herself either, but Dan-E was a different league of user and I'd always known it for what it was. Even without the rumours, I could always see it. When people looked at Dan-E, he smiled - the biggest, broadest I'm-alright-Jack kinda smile you'd ever seen – but whenever people looked away, it was there, hiding behind the smile. A pressure that threatened to crush him. Like someone was pressing down a heavy weight on top of his shoulders.

Like ghosts were clinging to his back.

I saw it in him, because I saw it in me every day. Felt it. Felt them. Like we were part of some secret bloody club or something. That was until he fell into the abyss and never re-surfaced.

I still saw him now and then, down the high street sometimes, wearing layers of dirt-encrusted clothes to shield him from the cold, fingertips chewed right down to the bone. He lives in that abyss every single day and all that's left of him is a trail of bloodied fingerprints and soundless words coming from constantly-moving lips.

And now, this was it. This was my abyss. The biggest fucking comedown I'd ever had.

Like staring into the deepest chasm and knowing that once down there, I'd never be coming back out again.

I didn't want to be another Dan-E. I didn't want to hold onto the bloodied stumps of his hand and walk the darkness with him.

I didn't want this.

'Go on then,' Ethan said. 'Tell me I'm crazy.'

There was a gleam in his eyes, a light dancing on the surface that looked like he was getting a kind of twisted satisfaction from this.

I kept my hands braced against his chest, one final, useless barrier between me and the madness.

'Actually, I was thinking I must be the crazy one,' I replied. My voice was small, child-like, and I saw flashes of a tiny box-room. Paper peeling from walls where the sporous damp had claimed the plaster underneath. A shade-less bulb hanging from the ceiling, the stark white light flickering.

Flickering.

Ethan's face relaxed, a softness in his gaze that would have bordered on pity if it wasn't for the fact he was still holding me against the car.

'You're not crazy, Casey. You're just doing what the human mind tells you to do. All those things your imagination can conjure up, everything you see at the movies, everything you read in books, all the myths, all the fantasies, but when the shit hits the fan and you're shown something that pushes at the boundaries of logic, when what you think you know is challenged, it's only natural for your mind to fight back. A refusal to accept is what keeps most people sane. A refusal to believe the unbelievable is what stops your brain from flipping the switch and destroying you.'

'So, what's the alternative?' I said. 'Believe you and go mad?'

'No. The alternative is to believe me and stay alive,' he said. 'This isn't about sanity and insanity. Fuck all that. This is about you choosing an alternative reality. This is about you refusing to accept what your mind is telling you. This is about you suspending disbelief long enough to see out another day on this earth.' He paused, biting on his lower lip, his eyes searching mine. 'That is, of course, if you even want to stay alive.'

I flinched. 'What's that supposed to mean?'

'Nothing.' He shrugged. 'I'd just hate to assume, that's all.'

I hated the way he was looking at me. Addi looked at me the same way sometimes and it made me want to run, lash out, curl up, but I couldn't do any of those things. I could only stand there and take it, feeling the burn of his stare like a brand to the skin.

'Of course I want to stay alive.' I pushed harder against his chest, a little shove of scorching indignation that wasn't lost on him, considering the way his mouth curled up in amusement.

'Glad to hear it,' he said. 'Because if that really is the case, you'll have no qualms in coming with me now.'

'What?' I gasped. 'Where?'

'Somewhere I can keep you safe.' He dropped his hands, but didn't move back and I felt more trapped than ever.

'Hold on, isn't that what you just did?'

'No, I brought you somewhere they wouldn't be watching, but it's not safe. Not by a long shot. I need to get you away from here, somewhere they won't find you.'

I heard him. I heard what he was saying, but what I also heard was somewhere no one would find me. Not Davey. Not Addi. No one. Just me and him and this insane, twisted fuckery.

'And where would that be exactly?'

He hesitated, just for a split second, but it was enough for me to know that whatever he was going to say, I wasn't going to like it.

'My place,' he said.

'Your place? You have a what? A house? An apartment?' This was getting beyond insane. Beyond twisted.

He rubbed at the back of his head, a move that made him look almost self-conscious. 'Well, it's no three-storey town house in Notting Hill, but you'll be safe there and that's all that matters.'

I stared at him, aghast. He was serious. He was actually bloody serious.

'Okay, I've changed my mind,' I said. 'You really are the crazy one here. Leaving the hospital with you was one thing. Getting into the car and letting you drive me here was another. Expecting me to go back to your place after what you've just told me is off-the-fucking-scale insane. You realise that, right? Or is this something you do all the time? Rescue women and try and get them to go back with you?'

Ethan took a step back, a look of horror twisting his face. 'What? Is that what you think this is? After everything you've seen? Everything you've experienced? You actually think I'm on some mission to just lure women back to my place?'

'I don't know what this is!' I said, anger flaring. 'I don't have a bloody clue what's happening! I start seeing crazy shit and suddenly you turn up, apparently rescuing me from fuck knows what...'

'Angels... I told you...'

'Stop it! You can't say things like that!' I pushed away from the car and he took another step back and held up his hands as if he should be the one warding me off, and not the other way around. 'You can't start talking shit about Angels and Demons and expect me to just go with you. You can't expect me to believe that you want to save me.'

He frowned. 'Why not?'

'Why not? Why not? Can you even hear yourself? I have no idea who you usually spin this line to, but they've got to be seriously screwed up to believe your story.'

'No, that's not what I meant,' he said, shaking his head. 'You said that I can't expect you to believe I'd want to save you. Why wouldn't I want to save you?'

'Because people don't do that, alright!' My chest was tightening again, not with panic this time – although that was definitely still there – but with a fury that was starting to feel monstrous, like it could grow and grow until it blew what was left of the roof off the building, until it could bring this whole place crashing down around us. 'Because people like me don't get saved! We get left, abandoned, forgotten. Everyone looks the other way. They smile at you and then they look the other way, because they don't give a shit. Because looking away is easier than actually doing something. So, please, don't stand there and tell me that you want to save me.'

Ethan stared at me. That look again. The one I hated. And if I didn't think he'd throw me halfway across the room, I think I would have hit him then. I would have hit him with everything I had.

'I want to save you.'

He said it. Five words. Another lie. I didn't just hate the way he was looking at me, I hated him.

'Fuck you,' I spat.

When I ran for the door this time, he didn't pull me back towards him, instead I heard his footsteps fast behind me, but I was already outside by the time he caught my arm.

It was dark now, the lampposts casting orbs of light onto the pavement below. I looked around, desperately hoping someone would be walking by, hoping someone would see, but the street was empty and devoid of life, except for me and the guy who claimed to be a Demon of all things.

'Casey, please,' he begged, his eyes wide. 'Just come back inside, please.'

'With you?' I said. 'You've got to be bloody joking.'

I tried yanking my arm out of his grasp, but he just held on tighter.

'You don't understand what you're doing,' he said, glancing upwards and frantically trying to pull me back towards the warehouse door. 'It's not safe. We have to get back inside.'

'It's not safe in there with you! Please, Ethan, let me go. I want to go home.'

My feet were moving on the ground involuntarily, grit crunching under my Cons as he began dragging me with him.

'Stop it,' I shrieked. 'Stop it or I'll scream, I swear I will.'

'And I'll stop you and you know I can.' His expression hardened, but I could see the panic there in his eyes. 'I don't want to force you,' he said. 'I don't want to do it again, but I will if I have to. It's not safe out here. We have to get back inside before...'

He stopped, his gaze shifting to something over my shoulder.

'Before what?' I turned my head to look back.

At the end of the street, where the road curved around the side of a MOT garage, the light on the lamppost was flickering.

It blinked. On and off. On and off.

The light flared for a second, so bright that I had to squint and turn my head a little to shield from the glare, and then with a loud pop, the bulb blew. A shower of sparks and glass arched up into the air and stopped. Just stopped. I could see the shards of glass suspended there, moonlight refracting through them, sharp lines of light cutting through the air, surrounded by a Catherine Wheel of sparks. Seconds passed and nothing moved, but a rumble of thunder rolled overhead, the sound increasing in volume.

Ethan hissed out a curse. 'Fuck. Fuck.'

'What is it?' I whispered, hardly daring to speak. 'What's coming?'

Another light blew. And another. And another.

The ground shook beneath us and I stumbled into him. Catching me, he moved in front, pushing me behind him as the lights continued to explode one by one and the thunder raged, like a great storm was coming right at us.

'Is it the thing that was at the hospital?' I grasped at his back, staring at the street beyond, as the glass remained suspended in the air, now an archway of deadly, gleaming splinters.

'No,' he said. 'No, this is something else. Something worse.'

Turning to look back at me, he placed a hand on my shoulder. 'You need to go. Now.'

'What? First you tell me it's not safe out here and you want me to go with you, and now you're telling me to go, without you?'

'Yes, yes I fucking am, okay?' he snapped. 'Trust me on this one, Casey. You don't want to be here when this thing hits. You can't be. Run. Run as fast as you bloody can and don't look back.' He clutched the back of my neck. 'Don't look back, okay?'

He pushed me then, hard, and I stumbled backwards, holding out my arms to steady myself as the ground shook again, a deep rumbling vibration that shattered the windows of the buildings, dislodging tiles and guttering.

There was a crack of sound that exploded in my ears and the glittering archway of glass fell abruptly, sinking fast and hard, like someone had hurled them at the ground.

I locked eyes with Ethan and saw it there, the same darkness I had seen in him that day we'd ran from the beast outside Oscar's club, except I didn't want to run from him now. After everything he'd said, after everything I'd seen. I didn't want to run from him.

He tilted his head, flexing his fists by his side. 'Please, Casey. Fucking run.'

I ran then. I ran as the storm hit, as the thunder raged and as the ground trembled as if something was tearing it into pieces.

I didn't look back. Not even when I heard the screams.