FIVE YEARS, TEN MONTHS AGO

Shaun may have been one of the oldest but he struggled to keep up with the other three boys. They laughed and whooped as they raced across the patch of wasteland, cluttered with rocks, scrap metal and open patches of grass. Before he left, Shaun’s dad had told him that this area used to be home to a few factories but they were now long gone. Scott led the way. He was the youngest but also the fastest, hurdling a displaced paving slab and willing the rest of them on.

Jon was next in line, the oldest of the four but also the quietest. He was the only one not cheering as they raced. He carefully watched his own footing, not wanting to fall and be laughed at by the others. Jamo followed, energetic and excited, aping Scott’s calls and over-exaggerating the jumps. Shaun was at the back, out-of-breath but desperate not to show it. He copied the shouts too, not wanting to be left out.

He had struggled to make friends, especially after his dad left. The other kids took the mickey at school and, even though Scott did the same, he didn’t mind Shaun hanging around with them. Shaun did his best to fit in, doing their dares and stealing chocolate bars from the local shop plus knocking on those old people’s front doors before legging it. There was even a trick they pulled where Scott lay flat on top of some guy’s porch and knocked on the door from above. The chap kept storming out the front but couldn’t see anyone and was fuming. Shaun felt a little bad watching from the trees nearby but at least his friends weren’t laughing at him.

The four of them were bonded not by age but by boredom. It didn’t matter what year you were in at school when it came to booting a football around.

In every way imaginable, Scott should have been the kid who followed the others. Outwardly he was quieter, while he was certainly smaller. Most people who saw their group probably thought that but Jon, Jamo and Shaun knew different; Scott was the cool kid. He was the one with the sharp comebacks and the one who bunked off when it was sunny. He fought their battles for them as he was the one older kids thought they could pick on first but would end up paying a price for doing so. He was vicious and scary but reassuring at the same time, the type of kid you would rather be friends with than an enemy of.

The group tore across the concrete land, watching as the older kid they were chasing ran into an abandoned building which Shaun guessed was once part of the factory. Scott had stopped running and the other three had now caught him. The building was made of huge grey bricks, while a lot of the plaster that would have once covered it lay in dusty piles around the floor. Moss had begun to cover the lower part of it, the sun bouncing from the white concrete floor, making them squint as they stared ahead. The space the other kid had run through had no actual door, the rotting wooden frame having splintered at the top.

‘We’ve got him now,’ Scott said. ‘The door at the back is blocked off.’

Shaun looked nervously at Jon next to him, neither of them wanting to say anything.

‘Niiiiiiiiigelllllllll,’ Jamo called loudly. Scott laughed as Shaun and Jon joined in half-heartedly.

Scott walked towards the entrance with the three of them behind him. Jamo was still calling Nigel’s name loudly. Inside the building, the light levels dropped significantly and Shaun found himself blinking to readjust. Outside it was bright and sunny but the only light inside came through the partially destroyed roof. Patches of the floor were illuminated, piles of rubble flanking the walls. At first Shaun couldn’t see anyone else in the room. He wondered if there was a second way out, or if they had somehow been mistaken when they thought they saw the older kid run into this building?

He hoped there was another exit but then saw a silhouette of a figure towards the back of the room crouching behind some of the rubble. He thought he heard a faint whimpering but no one else reacted. Jamo was still taunting. ‘Niiiiiiiiigelllllllll.’

Shaun wondered if he was the only person who had seen the shadow at the end. He said nothing as the four of them scanned their surroundings. Scott’s screwed-up face snarled as he looked from corner to corner, his features only half-visible because of the light from the doorway.

‘Anyone see him?’

Shaun said nothing and Scott signalled for he and Jon to head towards the far end, the darker part where Shaun had seen the shape. ‘You two look down there, me and Jamo will check around here and make sure he doesn’t get back out the door,’ Scott said.

The room was large but seemed so much smaller because of the rubble and wreckage. You could just about make out twisted pieces of metal and plastic that would have been tables at some point. Where there were holes in the roof, there were also patches of damp visible on the floor below. Shaun could hear the two boys behind them overturning pieces of junk and looking under things. He heard Scott cursing and making threats. Jamo was still calling but the word was getting longer and longer.

‘Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigellllllllllllllllllllllllllll.’

Shaun found it intimidating and it wasn’t even his name being called. He felt his heart pounding and looked at the shape of Jon next to him. He couldn’t make out his friend’s features but could almost feel the fear there too.

‘You go that way,’ Shaun said, pointing towards the back left of the building. ‘I’ll go over there.’

He was sending Jon away from the silhouette towards the other corner. Shaun continued to walk towards where he had seen the shadow. He kicked a few random pieces of concrete to keep up the illusion he was looking and saw another small flash of movement. Nigel was less than ten feet from him. His eyes flicked towards the older boy and he could see the faint outline of a figure behind a mangled table. He thought he saw the person shiver but said nothing. They either hadn’t seen or hadn’t acknowledged him.

‘See anything, Jon?’ he called.

‘No.’

Shaun could still hear the calls echoing around the room.

‘Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigellllllllllllllllllllllllllll.’

He could definitely hear a slight sobbing coming from the person hiding by the table. Shaun realised he had been holding his breath and stopped to risk another look. This time the faint stream of light coming through the roof caught the two of them. Shaun looked at Nigel and the panic-stricken elder boy stared directly back.

Shaun tried to motion him to stay calm, to stay hidden where he was because he wasn’t going to say anything but Nigel’s eyes darted from side to side and he leapt up from his position. The thin boy’s frame charged into Shaun, the pair of them stumbling backwards into a smashed-up cabinet. Shaun stayed still as Nigel clambered to his feet. The noise had alerted the others but, as Shaun peered across, he could see Jon rooted to the spot.

‘Get him then,’ Scott yelled from the other end but Jon didn’t move and Shaun was on the floor. Nigel ran towards the door. Jamo had been taken by surprise and was still engulfed in darkness. Shaun could hear him struggling with something in the distance but couldn’t see him. Scott was clambering over some old wreckage but Nigel was sprinting, head down in a straight line. Through the flashes of light that partially illuminated the room, Shaun saw Nigel’s frame bolting. He was going to make it outside surely?

Suddenly Shaun heard the crunch, everyone must have done. Scott had cut across from his position and rugby-tackled Nigel to the ground feet from the door. The sickening sound of a bone snapping was instantly drowned out by Nigel’s scream of pain. Shaun pulled himself to his feet and made his way towards the front of the building. He felt Jon close by as Jamo’s laughing drowned out Nigel’s agony.