Dougie shivers on the doorstep for a second before Harry answers the door, grinning at him.

"You're late, mate! We said four o'clock, not just whenever you fancy coming home!"

"Sorry Harry, but I forgot and then I got lost again! You know what it's like living in a new area; takes a few weeks to adjust..."

Dougie follows Harry through to their music room, where Tom and Danny are already sitting with guitars across their laps, Tom with his tongue between his teeth, scribbling in his song book.

"You really need to remember our song writing appointments Dougie, or I will have to lock the door and take your keys to stop you from going out," Tom says, without looking up.

Dougie grins sheepishly before taking his bass out and plugging it into the amp in the corner.

From then onwards, the next few hours pass as normal in the bandhouse. Danny strums riffs which Dougie layers over, while Tom sucks his pen and writes the lyrics in a battered book. Harry taps some rhythms out on his knees with the others, in between getting beers and making suggestions.

After finishing their second set of lyrics, Tom sets his notebook down onto the table.

"Right guys, that's good enough for today. I suggest we have a lad's night in, with Disney!" All the others groaned, while Tom beamed at them expectantly.

An evening of excessive drinking followed, with jokes and gossip spilling forth, until they noticed that they had run out of beer. Because he was feeling more sober than the others, Dougie offered to go to the off-licence down the road, and pick up some more, while the others agreed and settled to watch the lion king while he was out, to keep Tom pacified.

Walking back, his breath turning to mist in the dark night air, Dougie hunched over with his hands deep in his pockets, a bag of beer bottles dangling from his wrist clinking merrily by his side. As he passed an alleyway off the main street though, he thought he heard someone shuffling around in it. He hesitated, before setting down his bag and calling out, "Is anyone there? Are you hurt?"

There was no answer, but he thought he saw something shifting in the shadows, just behind those bins. Creeping forward, he came to the spot, and found that it was a homeless man, curled up and fast asleep. Dougie smiled, and decided to leave the man a beer for when he woke up. Turning to get one though, he came face to face with someone much taller than he was, with a piece of metal piping in his hands.

"I've been waiting for you Dougie," he grinned, before smashing his hand downwards over Dougie's head. All was darkness.