It was a few moments before I noticed the girl at the other end of the otherwise deserted platform. I was listening to my iPod, and being that I was in the Underground I was listening to it at quite a volume, so I had not realised that there was anyone else on the platform.

There was nothing really striking about her, but the way she was behaving was unusual; she appeared to be looking for something, or perhaps someone. She was standing in the middle of the platform, between the wall and the edge, looking frantically this way and that and then calling out something – I could not hear what because ‘Discipline’ by Nine Inch Nails was still pumping into my ears at an ill-advised volume.

I gently pulled my headphones away from my ears and listened again as the increasingly frantic young woman shouted;

“Hector! Hector!”

I started to walk towards her to see if I could help – I know people do not talk to each other on the Underground, but she was obviously upset. She saw me, pointed;

“No! Go away! Bad!”