The flat was horrible with Rade and Dai in it. Sannah wished with all her might for that lonely, dark time when she'd been alone. She could hear them all the time, laughing and talking through the curtain when she was trying to sleep.

The words were too low to catch, but she couldn't help but think it was about her. Paranoid, she tried to tell herself, turning over to the back of the sofa, but she couldn't sleep. She felt on show, like someone was always watching her.

The morning took forever to arrive, and came too soon. Rade was the first to surface, moving through the living room without saying anything to Sannah and cutting out of the door, probably to go to the bathroom.

Sannah had slept in her clothes. She didn't feel comfortable getting undressed with them around. She quickly got off the sofa and laid out the purple sheet while Rade was gone. She switched on the lamp and put the kettle on, sitting at the little table.

Rade came back, her makeup fresh and moist, and Sannah passed her a tea. She was only wearing a thin vest and high-cut pants.

"Cheers babe," Rade said, taking her tea to the sofa and spreading her bare legs over the seat.

She took a screen from God-knows where and started looking at it, ignoring Sannah, who sat looking at her tea. Being ignored was preferable to interacting, she decided.

"Oh my skitting dag!" Rade suddenly exclaimed. "You will not believe it!"

She addressed the curtain, not Sannah.

"Dai, get out here!"

Dai appeared, wearing nothing but pants. Sannah stared into her cup, mortified by his near-nakedness so close to her. She shifted closer to the wall.

"Rade, zen it, I've only just woken up," he yawned. "Pack my pipe, will you?"

He sat on the sofa next to her, one leg up, a hand on the inside of Rade's thigh. She leaned over to grab his pipe from the floor, cackling.

"You won't believe who just emessaged me," she said, eyebrows arch. "I'm skitting dying. Only the jug-eared screamer herself."

"Lox?" Dai took the pipe from Rade and lit it. "What the dag does she want?"

"Hiya Rade," Rade read from her screen. "I've been trying to get in touch with Saint and can't. I wondered if you guys knew what was going on. Hope you and Dai are zen. Lox."

"Yeah right, like she gives a dag if we're zen or not," Dai snorted. "She just wants to know what Saint is doing."

"So desperate. I'd skitting die. What shall I say?" Rade waved the screen excitedly.

"Just ignore it," Dai said, his eyes closed as he lit the pipe.

"Nah, no way!" Rade said. "I'm gunna answer."

"Hiii yaaa Loxx," she enunciated the words slowly as she typed them, her screen up in the air above her face.

"Zen tooo hear from yaa babee, hope we seeee you sooon... Saint is fineee... you knowww what he's likeee... Sannah is here too. Send."

Rade looked directly at Sannah, smirking. Her screen buzzed almost immediately.

"What'd she say?" Dai said through a cloud of smoke.

"Wait, wait."

Rade extended her finger, grinning, before starting to type and enunciate again.

"Yeahhh... That'd be cruuude... We're aaaall here... See you later baaabe."

She put down the phone, sticking the tip of her tongue between her teeth at Dai.

"Saint!" Rade shouted. "You better get up, Lox is coming round!"

"You're a skitting nyaff." Saint peeled back the curtain almost immediately. He was fully dressed and holding his screen, suggesting he'd been awake for a while. "I'm going out."

"Aw, but Sainty, she wants to see you!"

Rade smirked at him. Saint didn't look at her, heading for the door.

Lox is coming here? Skit. "Wait!" Sannah couldn't help herself, jumping up as Saint's hand took the latch. "Please... Can I come?"

"What, don't you want to stay here and see your little friend?" Rade said in mock-surprise.

"Please?" Sannah ignored her, looking directly at Saint.

He looked unhappy, like the last thing he wanted was to take Sannah with him. Right now, Sannah didn't care. She couldn't be here when Lox was here, not with Dai and Rade.

"Come on, stay," Dai said to Sannah. "I wanna see me a catfight."

Rade snorted, taking the pipe from Dai.

Saint opened the door and turned to Sannah, and said, "Come on then," his voice dark. "Hurry up."

***

Sannah's heart sank when she saw where they were going. "Can I just wait here? Outside?" she said, before Saint pressed the buzzer.

"No. Raph doesn't like people hanging round outside. You have to come in. Just stay with me, okay?"

He sounded angry, like he didn't want her there, and Sannah wished she had stayed at home with Dai and Rade, faced Lox. Maybe that would have been better than this.

"Okay." Her voice was uncertain.

He pressed the intercom. "Saint."

They were buzzed in. That same long corridor again, just as dark, even though it was daytime. This time, her eyes were glued to a space in the right hand wall where she knew another door was, a door she couldn't see. A door that led to hell, full of cages.

Saint hesitated at the end if the corridor before going in to the smoky room. The smell of chang was strong, almost overpowering.

"Just stay with me, okay?" he repeated. "If we get split up, I'll meet you out here. In the corridor."

She nodded, her heart thumping in her mouth.

They went into the room. There were only five or six people this time, but it was just as dark and smoky. Daytime means nothing to these guys, Sannah thought.

They passed straight through, Sannah practically walking on Saint's heels she kept so close. Saint knocked on the same door as last time. It opened a crack, closed, then opened fully. Saint went in and Sannah followed him. The door closed immediately behind them.

They were in another dark room, smaller than the last one. The walls were bare, unpainted, and the only furniture was a table in the centre of the room. A man sat at the table, facing them. Sannah recognised him immediately as the guy with the onyx teeth, Saint's boss.

The table was littered with piles of money and the baggies of brown powder that Sannah knew from her time with Saint and Dai was chang. A pair of intricate gold scales sat on the left. To the right of Saint's boss was a tall man with black hair pulled back in a low ponytail. He stood, while the former was seated, making his looming height seem even bigger.

"What the skit is that?" The standing man looked at Sannah, spitting the words. Fear doused her like a hosepipe of cold water. "Who let one of Andrey's pieces in here?"

"She's not one of Andrey's pieces. She's with me." Saint's voice was firm, and there was a clear note of antagonism in it.

Sannah moved closer to Saint, trying to shrink behind his shoulder. The standing man and Saint's boss in the chair were both staring at her. There were three other men in the rooms, leaning against the side walls, and they were staring too. Sannah noticed one of them was Exotic.

"I don't dagging care if she's with you. Get her out of here," the ponytail man said to Saint.

"I don't take orders from you." Saint's voice was low.

A muscle in Ponytail's neck twinged and he stepped out from behind the table. "Mouth me, you little crank, I'll skitting cut you." The man was moving towards them at startling speed in the small room.

Sannah gasped and shrunk back toward the door, her movement involuntary. Before she had time to blink, Saint had moved forward and the men met each other with force. They twisted until Ponytail was pinned against the wall, one of Saint's forearms across his neck.

"I don't take orders from you," Saint spat, his face right up to the taller man's. They stood like statues for a moment, every eye in the room on them.

"Well, he told you that, didn't he, Mas? Stand off, you lost that one." The man sitting at the table spoke low, but everyone listened.

Saint's arms relaxed, and Ponytail stepped back to the table, the side of his hand to his mouth, his eyes never leaving Saint.

"Get that Exotic bitch out of here," the guy at the table addressed Saint now. "Don't bring your pieces in here. You know that."

Saint gave Sannah a small nod, and she opened the door and slipped out, her heart beating so hard it hurt her ribs. She tried to steady her breathing and headed straight towards the door at the other side of the smoky room, not looking at any of its occupants.

The corridor was almost pitch black. Sannah pushed her back against the wall, trying to make herself disappear. Please come out soon. Please come out soon, she prayed, her eyes fixed upward in the gloom. She didn't want to look where the invisible door was, but she couldn't help it. Her eyes sought it out in the darkness.

I'm going to leave, Sannah thought. I can wait for Saint at the end of the street. Just not here. She moved up the corridor, fumbling for the door, trying to find the bolt.

"You could try putting the light on."

The voice behind her made Sannah's stomach drop. A dim light flickered on, and Sannah turned. The Devil. Just a man, she told herself. Zen it. He's just an old man.

"Well, hello again. Fancy seeing you here."

He smiled at her, rubbing his hands on the front of his silky dressing gown. His legs were naked this time, grey and bony.

"Come back to see my friends have you? Well, I've got another little friend I'm sure you'd like to meet. Come over here."

He beckoned her towards his door. Sannah didn't want to go, but couldn't find it in herself to disobey. I'll go toward him, she thought, but not into that room. I'll stay in the corridor. Saint told me to stay in the corridor.

She moved a few faltering steps toward the old man. He gestured into the room. "Say hello to my new friend. I don't know her name. She doesn't speak Albian."

Sannah stood stock-still in the corridor and turned to look into the doorway of the room she'd visited before, in her nightmare. It was lit normally now, and looked smaller, though the walls were still black and she could see the bottoms of cages poking out from beneath their black sheets. The carpet looked filthy, as did the big double bed in the centre.

Sitting on the bed, with her back towards them, was a girl. She was small, wearing a peachy coloured polyester slip, and she was Exotic. Her skin was darker than Sannah's, her hair cut short and close to her scalp.

She turned towards them, her head dipped, and Sannah stepped back. There was something terrifying in her eyes, something Sannah didn't want to see.

"I've got to go," Sannah said raspily, moving blindly towards the door, her fingers were clumsy on the latch, her eyes blinking hastily into the sunshine.

She stumbled away from the square and ducked around a corner, wrapping her arms around herself and trembling, trying to calm her breath.

It felt like aeons before Saint finally appeared.

"I was looking for you," his voice was impenetrable. "Andrey told me you left."

Sannah moved away from the wall and they started walking.

"The dressing gown man? He's Andrey?" Sannah's voice was shaking but she was relieved to be moving, putting distance between herself and there.

Saint nodded.

"He had a girl in his room. She looked... really young." It was all Sannah could say, but she meant so much more.

"He's a skitting freak."

"I'm sorry I got you in trouble with your boss," Sannah said.

She was sorry. After all he'd done for her. She felt like she was going to cry.

Saint shrugged. "I knew I shouldn't have taken you in. Though Mas has been on my back for ages, so he had it skitting coming."

"He seemed really... Is he going to try and get you back?" Sannah's voice began collapsing in on itself. "I don't want to put you in danger for helping me." She started to cry.

Saint stopped. He looked really uncomfortable. "Look, it's zen. Just relax, will you? If not that, he'd find some other reason. I told you, he's always on my back." He started walking again. "Besides, it might be a good thing, him pushing me to it there. Raph respects that kinda dag. He seemed pretty pleased with me after. So it's zen."

Sannah nodded, trying to get her emotions under control. Nothing, nothing at all seemed within her grasp right now.

"Aw, skitting crank." Saint stopped short, his voice tired and heavy with disappointment.

Sannah's heart sank. What was wrong? They were almost at the flat, and she just wanted to get inside, bolt the door on the world, recover from everything.

Her eyes flickered to his closed face, and she said, "What?"

Saint didn't move, his eyes set on the end of the street.

"It's skitting Lox."