For a brief moment, Tanya considered staying put. With one Vitality, anything that impacted Vitality would kill her instantly. Not to mention how exhausting it was having it be so low - like flu and a hangover and a night without sleep all combined. She could board her windows with Maria's ramp in the cupboard. There must be some tools around the flat somewhere to take the board apart. With her Attributes so low, she could rest until she was better ready to deal with it and could help then.

She probably won't be alive by then.

The thought felt like a grater against her stomach. She gripped the table above her head and pulled herself up. The world was swaying.

Congratulations!

You have killed your first monster.

Stat regeneration at 150% for the next hour…

She skipped it before reading the rest. That felt like the only important thing for right now. There were more notifications, but she pushed them away for later.

Her vision righted itself slightly, more like rollercoaster vertigo now than her head being beaten cake mix.

Staggering to the window, she looked down at the street, lugging the window open. The relaxing noise of pattering rain was so strange against the snarls from below.

There were at least a dozen monsters, all the same build. Some of them had longer legs or snouts or bigger bodies, and some had two or three tails instead of one, but they all seemed to be the same subspecies. She barely survived one encounter with them, so the street was a no-go.

Her fingers gripped the edge of the window ledge, black handprints left behind only slightly running into the English drizzle. The sun was rising on the horizon, the sky now a deep blue rather than the black of night, but she couldn't see the sun yet or any streaks of pink or yellow in the clouds.

Leaning forward, she became aware of the brick ledges outside the window. It was an old building and the ledges were a few inches across, enough for a planter box. She'd had one ready in the cupboard with seed and dirt ever since she moved in but never found the time.

Would it take me weight?

She peered round one side, welcoming the cold rain cooling her hot forehead. The ledge linked this building with the building next to it.

You got a death wish, Tanya?

She looked down again, no longer seeing the distance between her and the monsters as calming; it would give her further to fall.

Mumbling carried through the wall. She couldn't hear a single word, but it confirmed that Mrs Eceer was still alive. If Tanya was going to save her, the ledge was her only option.

Planting her foot on the window sill, she tugged herself into crouching, climbing out the window with carefully placed footsteps. She could see her breath in the air out here, and the chill snapped her awake. It was so much louder without the insulation to protect her. Sirens rang in the distance. An argument reached her ears from a few streets away, carried on the wind. Mostly, she could hear growling and the gnashing of teeth below. She braved a look down and immediately regretted it, backing towards the windows until her hands were touching solid brick. Her breath escaped in small gasps as she stared. She couldn't look away now.

Tanya had never struggled with heights before. She was the first member of her family up the treetop experience on a long-ago Spanish holiday. With a harness and ropes all around her, she felt safe. All that lay between her and splatting onto the pavement here was a mob of angry monsters. She could see more running down the street to join them. If the landing didn't kill her, they would.

Her breathing grew faster, it seemed like the adrenaline of a monster jumping at her face calmed her panic more than crossing this ledge because she knew she could go back. Nothing was keeping her out here.

She heard another scream.

'Cept that.

She wished she'd put shoes on first. Her slippers flapped around her feet from the wind. Her hair whipped around her face whenever she stood higher than the safety of her attic window casing. The slippers were ruined anyway—thick with black sludge and slippery. She kicked them off into the dogs below, not looking down to see what became of them.

Her feet were ice blocks as she edged along, one hand on the roof tiles to her side and the other held out for balance.

Slowly. Nothin' up here but me. Don't rush.

Each look down made her vertigo even worse, so she settled on looking where she was going, Mrs Eceer's window. It was easier to think about how thin the walls were when she was complaining about Mrs Eceer's classical music rather than walking the precarious path between their windows.

As she got closer, she had to turn so her toes were overhanging the edge, back scraping along the concrete. The banging and yelling were getting louder. She passed Mrs Eceer's living room window, ducking down to look for a way in. The entire flat was wrecked, a sea of mangy monsters throwing themselves at her bedroom door. Tanya knew it was her bedroom door because this flat was the same as hers, not even a reflection by the look of it. All of the cupboards were off the hinges, the tap sliced clean off and water flooded over the full sink to the floor. There was so much smashed ceramics, little flowers on the corners of each jagged piece. Underneath the monsters was so much of their inky blood. It was just like her shop: the ink over the floor, the shattered lamp…The memories hit her once again and she blinked rapidly to stop the tears forming in her eyes.

Then she froze. She was looking through a curtain. She could see the curves of the fabric across the window, like looking through a blue tinge.

They can't see me... right?

She stood there, as still as she could manage with chattering teeth and wobbly ankles. Her heart was pounding in her ears, filling her senses just like the monster's heartbeat had. The mass kept writhing to the door, throwing their bodies in disorganised twos or threes. Bam, bambam, thud, skid. Over and over. Not a single head raised to look at her. She let out a breath and stood up straight, continuing the slow inching to the bedroom. The curtain was flying in and out of the window. From this distance, she couldn't tell if it was open or broken.

A smash sounded from behind her, and before she could turn, there wasn't ground under her feet. She grasped at the bricks, desperate to hold on, and then she was falling. In the moment she was airborne she saw the monster, having thrown itself through the bedroom window to get to her. Blood pooled down her leg from its bite, mixed with black.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Tanya had heard people say that you see flashes of your life before you die, but Tanya just stared up at the sky above her. The raindrops fell around her. If she looked up high enough, it felt like they were all coming from the same point, some weird perspective trick. The light caught the drops as they fell—a splashing of orange diluted into the grey sky.

Sun must be risin'.

She landed, smacking her head hard. Everything was black. Her neck throbbed. If she was still alive now, then she was about to die to them. That was far worse. She clamped her eyes shut, not wanting to see the carnage of her death. No pain came, or even the strange pressure of adrenaline muddled pain.

Opening her eyes, she saw the sky again, even brighter than she remembered. She pushed herself up on her elbows, the roof was still ahead of her. Below her was a glassy texture; she looked down to see the same shimmering transparent blue as the doorway.

Mrs Eceer poked her head through the window, "If you're done using up my magic, get over here."

Tanya didn't have the breath to snap back. She wheezed as she got to her feet, wincing at any weight on the bitten leg. It was hard to even see how bad it was through the blood. Looking around, she was relieved the monster didn't follow her. Below her, its mangled body was still on its back. Knowing that she was on a platform wasn't enough to stop the spinning vertigo whilst she limped to the ledge, looking down through something that didn't look like solid ground at all. Lifting herself was a conundrum, pulling and pulling until a nasty whack of her bad leg to the wall pushed her back down again. Jamming her toes into the little rim below her was just enough to avoid hurtling downwards. She kept looking down to check she was still balanced. It was so cold that she couldn't feel her feet anymore. She would have backed onto the magical platform again, but it had already been unsummoned, so she kicked her legs until she was perched on the ledge again. It hurt like a motherfucker, but she managed it.

Mrs Eceer grabbed her arms and pulled Tanya through the window when she got near. She looked down at the blood on Tanya's leg with equal parts disgust and horror. It had left a trail along the window, and some had clumped and formed a drip down the wall. Mrs Eceer's finger twitched by her sleeve where she kept her handkerchief but she instead turned to the door. The sound in here was immense, banging and crashing and snarling.

"I'm not sure how much longer I can hold this," Mrs Eceer admitted. She had to half yell over the noise. This time, when her finger twitched, she pulled the handkerchief out, wiping her damp forehead. In her other hand was a walking stick with congealed black inky blood on it.

"We could go back the way I came," Tanya said. "I could steady ya. With the barriers ya could even make an 'andrail or at least stop yerself fallin'."

"No." Mrs Eceer grabbed a hammer and hammered the nails back into the boards that had been shifting from the weight.

"What?" Tanya said. She was too dumbfounded to be angry. What the fuck was MrsEceer thinking, staying here with those things outside.

"This is my home," Mrs Eceer stated. Tanya perched on the windowsill. If Mrs Eceer wasn't going to listen, then should she just leave? She wasn't going to die here on some suicide mission.

"Home don't mean much if you're dead," Tanya said, the vitriol sharp in her voice.

Mrs Eceer turned to look at her for the first time. Her gold dangling earrings swung from the sharp movement. She held up a finger, shaking it whilst she talked. "I have nothing else, just this flat and this stuff and nowhere else to go!"

Her face was angry, but her eyes were scared. She turned away, her back hunched, hands cupping her face.

Mum's words played in Tanya's head. One of those memories that you don't see coming, and for a moment, you almost feel like you're there again.

We need somewhere safe that's ours, somewhere to hold on to everything that reminds us of who we are.

A particularly loud thump pulled her out of it. She couldn't imagine losing her flat, but beyond emotion, it was obvious how important this place was. From the tin pyramid she'd seen alone, there must be a few weeks of food in here, and that's not including how useful all of the other tools would be. Not to mention the selfish aspect: if all of these monsters stayed here, it would only be a matter of time before they got into her flat too.

"You got anything sharp?" Tanya asked. "They're much easier to cut than hit."

Mrs Eceer looked back over her shoulder, surprised. She nodded and opened the cupboard, passing Tanya a knife from the knife block in there. The cupboard was a goldmine of utility: duct tape and rope and all sorts of crockery. She could see a mountain of tins disappearing out of view on one side. It was like she'd moved everything she could into this room to use it like a bunker.

Now Tanya looked around more, it did actually look like a very twee bunker. The wooden bed frame had been taken apart, and spare screws sorted into a few different floral egg cups on the side. The boards covered the doorway, each one perfectly aligned with the doorframe. Nails had been hammered through the headboard, placed by the hidden door for anything that got through. Candles dotted the corners, each one on a plate so it wouldn't fall over and set the carpet alight. Tanya stretched her arms and legs with whatever moves she could remember from gym class, trying to avoid pulling more muscles. Her bare feet were throbbing with the cold even with the cosy carpet beneath her. She spied a pair of Mrs Eceer's fluffy leather boots and pulled them on. They were huge on her but she knotted them as tight as she could, grateful for the protection.

Mrs Eceer looked over.

"No shoes," Tanya said.

Mrs Eceer didn't reply. She held a hand up, and a symbol appeared ahead of her, reminiscent of a rune being carved into space. When Tanya moved her head, it vanished, perfectly two-dimensional in a three-dimensional space.

Everything clicked into place. "Wait, the blue sparky barrier stuff's you? You blocked me doorway," Tanya said.

Mrs Eceer grunted with effort as she finished the spell before wiping her hands on her dress. It looked completely out of place in this situation: smooth, silky, and colourful. She turned to Tanya.

"Hm, I didn't know it went that far." Her eyebrows raised, a perfect mirage of control peeling at the edges. Her voice wavered. "Were you stuck?"

Tanya shook her head. "It kept those things out."

They both turned to the door.

"Hm," was all Mrs Eceer replied, but the emotionless mask returned to her face.

Tanya flexed and relaxed her hand over and over around the knife. The tension in the room between them was palpable but it was barely on her mind at all. Random snippets kept hitting her—the feeling of the knife in her back and plunging it into the monster. She rolled her neck, trying to push the thoughts away.

"Have you fought them before?" Mrs Eceer asked. Tanya glanced over, surprised she'd spoken again. Mrs Eceer's eyes didn't leave the door, her entire frame was completely stiff. Sweat beaded on her forehead. Tanya considered asking what her Vitality was but decided against it. It was clear this barrier wouldn't last long.

"I killed one in the stairwell," Tanya replied.

"Hm," Mrs Eceer said again.

There was a pause as they listened to the scratching get louder. Something clattered to the floor. Tanya realised that this must not have been her only wooden barrier, although it sounded like it might be now. Somehow, this was worse than the fighting, the air thick and heavy, every second impossibly long. All they could do was wait.

"Have you?" Tanya asked over the increasing volume of the chaos outside. She didn't know if it had been seconds or minutes.

The calm before the storm.

"Hm?"

"You ever fought one?"

"Yes." Mrs Eceer replied, no emotion on her face. Tanya assumed that was the end of the conversation. "They're easily trapped," Mrs Eceer added.

"And easy to cut," Tanya added. "But with that many…"

"We have the doorway," Mrs Eceer snapped. "We have the doorway, so they can only come through one at a time. And there's two of us."

The words she didn't say hung in the air between them.

There's a lot more of them.

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