Twin infernos raged in my eyes for a half-second. I was certain that a deity of illumination existed in this place, and he, she, or they, hated me.

There was only one good thing as I kept my eyes tightly shut as that initial flash sent me to the floor. My own scream had stopped as the pain did, the ones coming from up above had not. Whoever had followed me was down for a moment. And anyone coming after.

I kept my eyes shut for now because even with them closed, I could still tell that the building opposite from me just kept on blasting the surface of the building I was on with light. The light was clearly coming from there, shining like a crazy diamond- Oh god I was going to have someone look at my brain and see if it could remove this stupid thing where it was sliding in random factoids! I had more important things to worry about right now, like the fact that in my fall down the fire escape, I had dropped the suitcase.

To my dismay, I realized that wasn’t the only thing missing as I gripped the railing with both hands. Each of them protested as fresh pain lanced up my arms, especially the one still containing some buckshot in it. The pistol was gone. I must have it sometime when I went crashing down the stairs. I looked down and cracked my eyes open, doing my best to not look at the other building.

It worked. Not well, the oppressive glare was still making itself known on the edges of my vision. And I couldn’t spot the pistol on the fire escape floor around me. Between losing it and the suitcase, I was down to a knife. A very small knife. Never mind charging acid and shotgun wielding ant-people would be suicide.

The light suddenly went out. I stumbled briefly but got my hand on the railing. Pain, again, and my grip was slick. Blood poured down. I’d need to get that bandaged. If I ever got a moment. First, put more distance between me and my pursuers.

Of course, that’s when I heard a noise right next to me.

Spots were still in my eyes from that brief brush with the latest in my eye-related trauma. Still I had enough of my vision back to see what had made the noise. It was the window next to me being opened. Someone stuck their head and a shoulder out to look at me. I wished I could say they were human, but they definitely were not.

He, and I was pretty sure they were a he, was massive, or at least his head was, easily a foot wide. Thick, bony horns curled out of the sides of his head. Tusks easily half a foot long poked out of the sides of his mouth. Creases and scars wrinkled the thick leathery skin.Of his face at least, because his skin was covered by what else, a suit. Ogre, my mind thought, and I forced that thought down. I shouldn’t just assume everything is mapped onto things from the earth.

I had no idea what expressions looked like on their face, but if I had to guess I would go with untroubled.

“Hello.” He rumbled, tone thick and gravelly.

“Hi?” I replied sheepishly, trying to inch towards the steps down. Up above, I could still hear the insects keening, but it didn’t sound like it did before. More angry and hostile if I had to guess, and suddenly the bark of the shotgun sounded again and I winced.

“Fools,” The ogr-stop calling him that!- said, looking scornfully upwards. “Already squabbling about who gets the prize without it even being in hand.”

“Rent’s that high, huh?” I asked.

“As if you didn’t know.” He said, returning his gaze to me.

“Well, I don’t. Long story, but you could consider me..uh, newly reborn I guess?” I said in a tone that was a lot less confident than I wanted it to be.

“Newly reborn? Yeah, you aren’t that. You wouldn’t have kept the marks otherwise-” The what? “You look different, but nothing a good Sculptor couldn’t have done in a private session. Unless you meant spiritually, in which case you and I both know you aren’t that type. Cut the act.” He said, and he actually looked offended.

This sounded personal. “Do you know me?” I asked.

“For three months, all of them hell. This is a rather amusing cap to it all.”

“I don’t remember any of it,” I confessed.

“Sure. Do you honestly expect me to believe any of your lies?”

This entire time I could hear sounds from above: the shotgun, other guns, what sounded like hacking, and other noises I couldn’t even describe. They were suddenly very distant sounding compared to the level-toned individual in front of me, so very close and with very pointy teeth that I could now notice since he had started talking.

“I’m not. I swear. I’m just trying to get downstairs and avoid the mob out for me for reasons I’m not sure of.” I said as earnestly as I could. It…didn’t sound very earnest. Was I one of those people who sounded like they were always lying? “In that, I don’t know why they are after me so badly, not that I don’t know why I’m trying to get downstairs.”

“Whatever you want to say to dodge the noose of the Night Manager. You really pissed her off, didn’t you?” He said.

“I smashed a lightbulb and apparently am late on rent,” I replied defensively.

He nodded gravely. “Destruction of property and freeloading. Serious crimes around these parts.”

He had to be joking. Or fucking with me. But he seemed dead serious. And given what was happening this very second I couldn’t completely discount it.

“It can’t be that bad,” I said, only for that statement to be punctuated by the sound of shattering glass and another shotgun blast echoing across the open air. My ears ached, but it was still less damaging to my hearing than being in the room itself.

“It looks pretty bad from here.” He said, and I caught a look in his eye that my instincts screamed at me to start running from.

“So, it’s been fun, but I really should get going,” I said while beginning to back away.

“You know, I figured, ‘why even bother trying this when it means having to get through a crop of others to have a shot at catching one of the more dangerous new residents?’ but here you are, right in front of me. And personally, I’ve always wanted your head, you little witch.” He said, backing up from the window, standing up all the way, and giving me a look at a chest the approximate size of an ancient oak tree.

Okay, I didn’t know if he was going to burst through the wall or not, but I ran to the stairs. But he didn’t burst through. Instead, the window suddenly shot up, traveling through the brickwork as bricks shifted and moved to carry it past. They left a perfect hole for the ogre to rush forward, all nine feet of him.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

I was partway down the stairs, but it didn’t matter as two arms clamped around my chest. My arms pressed into my sides as he lifted me up into the air.

He grinned as he lifted me up, but all I could think about was the fact that the entire fire escape was moving. Whatever had shaken the building before had already made them shift out a little. Now it was sliding. Crumbly mortar gave way, revealing rust-eaten metal beneath.

“We’re both going to die! We need to get off here right now!” I yelled at him, trying to force my way out. To little avail, he had a grip like iron. It shifted, surprisingly, but nowhere near enough for me to wriggle out. His grip tightened around me. My elbow popped and my scream almost overpowered the sound of the shotgun above.

As he squeezed the air out of my lungs, he spared a dismissive glance at the crumbling stone and rusted steel .

“Eh, we’ll survive.” He said with that same casualness as before, “Well, I will. You might not, but even if you come back changed, I still get the free rent. So either way, I win.”

Everything was insane. Everything, and what was he even talking about? It was hard to think as he continued to squeeze. My midsection and arms felt so much pain, on top of previous wounds. It felt like everything there was being moved up and down from it. There was a snap now, and the only reason I didn’t scream was that I had no air to. I couldn’t breathe.

I was fading, already my vision was growing dim even as I could still hear the protesting metal shriek in the background as the fire escape continued trying to rip itself free. A sudden roar of anger joined that protesting shriek in assaulting my ears. The grip loosened which actually did very little for the pain in my midsection. It still felt like I was being ripped in half.

I took a deep breath. My vision was coming back quickly. A glob of thick, familiar-looking green liquid hissed on his shoulder. It ate through the coat quickly and started working on the flesh underneath. On the escape above us, a lone ant-person was at the top of the stairs I had tumbled down.

Another glob of acidic spit fired out, and the ogre barely moved his head enough to the side to avoid it. I saw my last opportunity and as hard as I could, kicked upwards with my right foot. To my shock, his head snapped back as the point of my shoe connected with his chin. The end of my foot screamed in pain. He stumbled backward. I probably broke all of my toes, but his grip loosened, and I dropped.

Pain shot up through both my legs. One of them was already injured and the other had just broken the toes, so not a shock. As I landed down, the squeal and shrieking of the metal finally stopped as the fire escape came completely off the wall. I didn’t even think for the next few seconds as I ran forward, ignoring the extra pain going through my legs.

The ogre roared, and the ant-person said something in their chattering tongue, but I paid no mind to either. It was the last few steps that were the hardest. The fire escape was clean out of the wall now with a last shriek of protest. One of my shoes slipped, but I reached out and grabbed the edge of the fire escape floor. Something large grabbed my foot and in response I lashed out with the other, earning a deep, pained scream in response as I pulled my foot out of their grasp. My arms burned as I dragged myself up the swiftly tilting floor.

Support beams bent and twisted as I hauled myself over what had once been the side of the fire escape. No railing to try and get past this side. Small favors. From here, the angle probably looked steeper than it was, but that had to easily be forty-five degrees at least. I got my legs over when it jolted under me once again, shaking as something hit it.

Looking down, I saw the ogre falling down into the darkness below. He must have slid after I kicked him. Then rammed into the guardrail and flipped right over, and I felt a twinge of guilt as he fell further out of sight into the darkness. Yes, he had tried to kill me and had seemed strangely confident he wouldn’t die, but I wouldn’t wish a fall like that on anyone. The ant was also gone, but I completely missed wherever it had gone.

The ogre had made the tilting speed up with his impact as metal continued to shriek and twist. It was nearly level now. I really doubted the rest of this would be another gradual shift. A sudden snap. I balanced carefully on the edge and gauged the distance, four, maybe five feet. I could do this, I told myself as I leaped.

I aimed for the open window that had reformed back into its regular structure after the ogre had passed through. But I was too low. Several feet too low, and instead, my chest rammed into the windowsill. For once again that night, my screams filled the air.

I made a half-hearted effort to scramble for purchase onto the windowsill. But between the fresh injuries and having my breath knocked out of me, it was clear I wasn’t going to hold on. The entire front half of me felt like someone had taken a sledgehammer to it. Crap, I might have even broken another rib. So even as I desperately tried to hold on, I just couldn’t maintain my grip So I went plummeting to the next set of fire escapes.

I fell down onto what was thankfully an intact fire escape. Ten feet was better than a hundred. Not what I was thinking when I plummeted down. My feet exploded with pain as soon as they impacted the floor. I collapsed into a whimpering pile on the floor, the lower half of my legs feeling like they were shattered. They might very well be.

Next to me, another imp shrieked before taking flight. How on earth was I alive? Even if I wasn’t on earth, how was I even still conscious? But I was, and after a few moments, forced myself up just enough to get my feet under me once again. They weren’t shattered, but they definitely felt that way.

A small bit of luck. My gun from before was there as well. It must have fallen down here. And the smaller suitcase from my room was down here as well. Despite the fact that I had left it in the room. I hesitantly grabbed the handle and considered opening it before remembering where I was.

I couldn’t afford distractions. The sound of something shattering came from above. Looking up there was a face staring down at me. It was jaundiced, cuboid, and most importantly, staring right at me with square eyes. Their head twitched, then shifted to the form of a diamond, spikes emerging across the level planes it had formed.

Time to go.

Beside me was an open window, and I forced myself over it into the next room. It was mostly the same as mine, maybe some more furniture, some actual decor instead of bare walls. Oh, and there was someone in the room with me.

So, the resident of the room was relatively normal, by which I meant it was a goat-headed person in a bathrobe. The goat's head was seemingly the only thing strange about him. Watching TV, which he turned off as he looked at me.

I thought I knew pain when I fell down to the Ogre’s fire escape, but I had not yet known pain. It was amazing that I was even conscious or had nothing broken besides the one, two, I couldn’t remember how many ribs. I couldn’t read expressions, but I managed to understand what the goat said in strained English.

“I don’t want any trouble.” He said, a slightly worried tone apparent even through a pretty terrible and unidentifiable accent. Probably the fact that he was trying to speak through a goat’s mouth and not a human's. “Just leave through the door and I never saw you.”

I managed to wheeze out a thank you, and then I was out in the hallway. Deserted, a long red carpet shooting down both directions. Definitely more fancy than the rooms themselves, with nice red carpeting, ornate and detailed lamps along both sides, and engraved doors. Even the one I had come out of which on the other side had definitely been cheap, flimsy wood. Not the strangest thing I had encountered yet in this place.

I limped down the hallway as fast as I could go. Which was a hobble. If anyone wanted to kill me, now would be the time. But as I continued hobbling nothing happened. Must still be on the upper floor. I had fallen down two, so I had bought a little bit of time. More if they were fighting each other.

Still, there were plenty of them coming for me. The large number of open doors indicated that. Varying quality ranging from rotten to pristine, in some cases changing just between two sides of the same door. I didn’t waste time looking in the rooms. Hiding in them was just waiting for someone to come. And who knew how long till they came back down here?

The loudspeaker crackled back on. The Night Manager was back with the same near-dead monotone.

“I would like to make our tenants aware of our opportunities for free rent’s current locations. The Suitcase Killer is on the 143rd floor. Mr. Sun-in-the-eyes is on the eighty-eighth floor. The Seventh Street Slasher is on floor six again, still trying to get on floor seven once again.-”

Yeah, let’s tune the rest of that out. So, I wasn’t the only one stuck in this predicament. I was on a ridiculously high floor, and they could track me. That last bit was kind of a real fucking issue, but I was going to just ignore that for now, since it was hard enough moving at this point.

I took a look back and amazingly, the goat-headed creature hasn’t followed me out of their room, even with the Night Manager’s comments. Probably not a creature, I really, really needed to stop with the assumptions. But yeah, maybe some people weren’t that bad around here. At least not willing to kill me for over a month’s rent? Low bar, but I would take it at least. Now to get out of here

At the end of the hall was an elevator. That would do.