When I burst into my house and slammed the door firmly shut behind me, I felt slightly better.

After taking my rain-soaked clothes off, I collapsed into my armchair, staring at the blank TV screen.

I checked my wristwatch:

17:34

I had some time before Ellis came home from her shift at the hospital.

So I spent the time contemplating what had happened in the town centre.

Although this was difficult, since I didn’t actually know what had happened.

It was really just a moment of Twilight Zone strangeness.

Perhaps I was beginning to lose my mind. (Although Ellis would’ve cheekily added “Beginning to?” and then flashed that lovely, infectious grin at me.)

Soon enough, an hour had slipped by and I could hear her car pulling into the driveway.

But then, the near-silence after her engine had shut off was replaced by a mute, ambient noise that drowned out everything else.

And in this almost-silence my ears inhabited, I could hear her voice say:

“Please let him be out, please let him be out…”