Evelynn was quick to make the monster who had grabbed her writhe with regret. Her hand erupted with blinding light and she promptly placed it in front of the monster’s face. It fell to the ground, clutching its eyes as she drew her machete. She wasn’t an executioner, but she gave the feral thing a swift end.

More growls and roars erupted atop the roof. Evelynn wasn’t afforded the time to look back and check on Jake’s condition. Three more of what the hooded woman had called remnants were already charging her way.

She clenched her fist, imagining herself holding back a great energy. Light began to seep out from between her fingers and as the monsters arrived three paces short of her, she opened her palm. A radiance exploded from her hand like the light from a flashbang and the remnants fell over themselves.

She stepped out of the way as one came charging forward in blinded agony and tripped off the roof. As for the two that remained, she killed the one that fell rolling on the ground first then kicked the last one over the roof’s edge when it got near.

“Ha!” Evelynn heard Jake shout and a thump against the back of the stairwell’s entrance. She rushed back to check on him and found him standing over two remnants whose heads he’d cracked against the backwall.

Jake picked up his combat knife before looking over her way. “You need help?” he asked.

“I’d prefer it,” she replied as they walked back around the barricaded entrance to the roof.

“There’s more coming,” the hooded woman announced, perched atop the entryway.

From the entrance opposite from them seven more remnants stormed onto the roof. There had only been six in the group that had gotten them to flee Mr. Singleton’s apartment. Without a doubt, there was a certain nervousness that came with seven monstrous men charging across the roof at them, but at this point, they were as prepared as they could be.

Evelynn tried focusing the light of her palm to blind the monsters from afar, but it appeared the distance was too great. She dropped her hand and focused her energy somewhere else. Her eyes began to glow as she locked gazes with one of the approaching monsters. Twin beams shot from her eyes as the monsters crossed the halfway point of the roof, burning and blinding their target. The monster fell to the ground gripping its face in agony as it almost brought the monster behind it down with it.

Jake had his combat knife floating above his hand in preparation. That was one down, but there were still six to go.

Force Application

He flicked his free hand, applying force as one of the remnants brought its foot down. It tripped over itself and came crashing to the ground. As the rest came forward, he thrust his other hand out. His knife shot forward like an arrow and planted itself in one of the monster's skulls.

The two remnants at the front of the pack came at them screaming. Evelynn gave them each a handful of light. As they both stumbled forward, Jake took one with an empowered strike of his axe while Evelynn crippled the other with her machete.

Another remnant came for Evelynn with a bit more sense, charging forward with its arms covering its eyes. Smarter than those before it, but still only so intelligent. Like a matador with their cape, Evelynn guided the monster past her with the light from her hand. It ran against the short wall at the edge of the roof and she quickly struck it from behind.

As she attacked the beast, another came for her. Jake stepped in before it could get close. He tripped it up with his force application and it fell face first into an empowered punch from his brass knuckles. It hit the ground and didn’t get back up.

As Evelynn finished off the remnant she had treated like a bull, the remnant that Jake tripped over with his powers finally recovered. Before it could even reach him, Evelynn turned back with her eyes already fully aglow. She fired her twin lasers from them and the monster went falling to the ground in pain. Their enemies defeated, the duo finished off the monsters that were disabled, but still alive.

[Favor Bestowed]

It was a fitting reward.

[Favor Threshold Pierced]

You have pierced the 4th Threshold of Favor.

2 Attributions have been made available to you.

[Dimensional Manipulation] has increased.

[Force Application] has increased.

Both of them took heavy breaths upon finishing the deed. Jake was tired, but it wasn’t so much in a physical sense. He felt an emptiness in him now after the repeated use of his power. Comparing how he felt when he had just awakened to now, this was the difference between being submerged in a pool and stepping out of one. Yes, there was still some water, but most of what he’d had had been drained from him.

He looked back at the entrance they had come through. The sound of the monsters beating against the doors rang out and the metal cane he’d sealed the door with was now heavily bent. It wouldn’t hold the swarm of remnants back for much longer.

The hooded woman descended from where she was perched on the entryway. “Dedicate an attribution to Energy while you still can,” she said.

Jake looked to Evelynn and found her already swiping at the air in front of her. “What can I put my attribute points into?” he asked his wristband.

[Available Attributes]

Strength, Agility, Vitality, Energy

You currently have 3 Attributions available to you.

For the time being, the names were enough explanation of what each would do for him. “Give an attribution to Energy,” he said, keeping the other two for later. Immediately, he felt his emptiness fade away.

[Attribute Enhanced]

Energy [0] improved to Energy [1]

The hooded woman grabbed onto Jake’s wristband while the notification had him distracted.

[Warning]

Unpermitted Analysis

“There’s a thing called asking before doing, you know?” Jake said, pulled his wrist away.

The hooded woman didn’t say anything. Judging by the creepy smile she had plastered over her face, though, she appeared to be stunned with joy.

“What’s up?” Jake asked.

“That’s a very special affinity you have,” she replied.

“What’s so special about it?”

She put up her hand. “I’ll explain later. Right now you need to prioritize getting out of here alive.”

Jake couldn’t disagree with that. Especially with an even bigger horde of monsters about to break out onto the roof from the sealed stairwell. “How many more monsters are coming from the other entrance?”

The hooded woman looked off into the distance, checking the environment below. Her expression contorted. Something had caught her off guard. “There are no remnants remaining on that side of the building,” she said.

“Not even a few?” Evelynn asked, skeptical.

“They’ve all suffocated,” she replied.

“And that’s not odd?”

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

The banging at the door became more violent as the crimson-eyed monsters spotted them through the cracks between the entry doors.

“Both of you should get going,” the hooded woman said.

She didn’t need to tell them twice. Without any time left to hesitate, they ran across the roof to the other stairwell’s entrance. They found the stairwell pitch black, filled with smoke to the point that they couldn’t even see the fires down below.

“I can see why they suffocated,” Evelynn said, peering down what looked like a giant chimney.

“I can try pushing away some of the smoke with my powers,” Jake suggested. Considering how fast he ran out of energy fighting, however, it probably wouldn’t be enough to get them the whole way through.

“Hold on. Let me try something.”

Evelynn took a deep breath then raised her hand. As both sides of her hand began to glow the surrounding smoke began to recede like shadow fleeing daylight.

“You can do that?” Jake asked, genuinely surprised.

Evelynn shrugged. “Apparently, I can.” She smiled.

If that was the case then these affinity powers had much more flexibility to them than he’d originally thought.

“Stick close to me,” Evelynn said. She grabbed his hand as she entered the stairwell.

“Wait.” Jake took his hand back as they passed the entryway’s double doors.

Force Application.

He clapped his hands together and the doors shut behind them. “Now let’s go.”

With the doors closed the only light they had was Evelynn’s. The smoke avoiding her purifying light formed a large air pocket around them starting at Evelynn’s waist and ending a couple feet above her head. They heard the crackling of the flames burning through the building and the echo of their footsteps, but beyond that there was silence. A silence that Evelynn felt the need to break.

“So, what’s your affinity?” she asked as they descended. Already, Jake could see the heat induced sweat building upon her skin.

“It’s dimensional,” he replied.

“So you can control dimensions?”

“I guess.”

“You guess?” she repeated.

“I never really thought of dimensional powers like that,” Jake said. In his mind, they were supposed to be for things like crossing dimensions and creating storage spaces as big as a small country in your backpack. They weren’t supposed to be for applying force to living things and objects.

Yet, that was exactly what his powers were doing. He was giving the world around him a command and it was following his orders.

“You think the hooded woman said your power is special because it lets you control dimensions?” Evelynn asked.

Jake shrugged. “Probably.”

“That’s a good guess,” the hooded woman said, suddenly appearing from within the black smoke. The pair jumped back from the surprise while she remained completely unphased. “Well done on the roof by the way,” she said.

Everyone’s favorite friendly ghost, Jake thought, sarcastically. “You couldn’t have come through the door with us?” he asked. He had almost put his head out of Evelynn’s bubble and through the smoke thanks to her startling him.

The hooded woman ignored his complaint. “Once you get out of here, I want you to join my side,” she said.

Jake examined her closely as Evelynn and him continued their careful descent. “You’re not even sure that I’m the person that you wanted here in the first place, remember?”

“Oh, I’m sure that you’re not,” she readily admitted. “Not with that affinity at least. It doesn’t fit her.”

So either she didn’t care or his affinity was just that valuable. “I don’t think I’m in the best place for making decisions,” he told her before wiping a blanket of sweat from his forehead. Evelynn’s ability made the air around them breathable, but only in the most basic sense. Her ability did nothing for the insufferable temperature of the stairwell and the lowering levels of oxygen.

“You don’t have to decide now,” she replied. “But,” there was always a but, “if you have any interests in saving this world, this country, this city or even just one person in particular, you should consider it.”

Jake nodded once. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

The hooded woman smiled. “Then I’ll look forward to when we meet again,” she said, disappearing back into the smoke.

“Glad to know she’s just as interested in me,” Evelynn muttered sarcastically.

Evelynn and Jake continued down the stairs until they reached the doorway to the third floor. The layers of smoke were thin enough there that they could see what lay below. Thanks to the hooded woman’s thorough bombing of the second floor there was now a fire pit at the base of the stairwell. As for the rest of the staircase, most of it was collapsed beyond where they stood.

“I can try to soften our fall with my powers,” Jake suggested. He’d still be lowering them straight into what might as well be an oven, but at least their legs wouldn’t be broken.

Evelynn smirked. “Why do that when we have a ladder?” It only took Jake a second to realize what she meant.

They entered the third floor heading back to Apartment 305. Except for a remnant’s corpse in front of 305, the hallway appeared to be vacant. It must have been one of the suffocation victims the hooded woman had been talking about.

Inside the apartment, they found more. Spanning from the door, there was a trail of corpses leading down the apartment’s hall towards the master bedroom. Evelynn readied a laser as they walked through the residence. The trail led them straight to the window they had left the ladder hanging from.

Outside the window, just as they approached, a remnant pulled its head up above the ledge. Jake slammed his brass knuckles into its face and it went falling down the side of the building. They looked out the window and saw that the front of the property was infested with remnants.

Force Application.

Jake rolled his hands over one another and the ladder began to recede. It didn’t matter what powers they had obtained since arriving there, they weren’t getting out through the frontside of the building.

“Let’s try the backside,” he said.

The duo unhooked the ladder and carried it across the hall to an apartment facing the opposite side of the building. Most of the remnants had left their doors unlocked after running out to evacuate or to kill Evelynn so there was no need to break in.

The roars of the remnants still present in the building echoed down the third floor’s corridor. Jake and Evelynn locked the front door of Apartment 306 behind them in case any managed to reach them then rushed over to the nearest window facing the parking lot. Looking down, they found a much better situation for them on this side of the building. There were still plenty of monsters below, but most of them chose to stand outside the gated parking lot.

Jake snapped his fingers twice, once to unlock the window with his powers and a second time to send it flying open. With the ladder secured to the window ledge, they threw it down the side of the building.

“That one,” Evelynn said, pointing down at the nearest monster. It was loading its car with precious belongings. Jake nodded before beginning his descent. Once he was about halfway down, Evelynn pointed her light down at the monster. As it looked up and growled, Jake used his powers to fling his knife and struck it straight in the head. He snatched the car keys and his knife from its body upon reaching the ground then jumped in the driver’s seat.

Evelynn climbed down and jumped straight into the passenger’s side as Jake pulled out of the parking spot. The monsters outside who had seen what they'd done began to swarm into the parking lot. Jake didn’t hesitate. He stepped on the gas.

The monsters were strong and foolishly brave, but they were no match for speeding a car. He plowed through them without a care and swerved as he exited the gate. There were cars stopped in the middle of the road, but he weaved past them as he rocketed towards the intersection. All they had to do was cross the street and they were out of there. He didn’t want to spend another second in this place.

“Slow down!” Evelynn shouted as he sped through a red light. Her words became warped. The sound in ears, the road in front of him, the wheel in his hands—everything was twisting and distorted before his eyes.

He hammered the breaks. The car's tires shrieked as they skidded across the road. Space tore open before them revealing a bright light beyond. The duo crossed the boundary between dimensions in less than half a second.

The wheels of their sedan crashed down at the edge of a room and swerved. Jake wrestled the steering wheel in his hands, avoiding a column as he continued pressing down against the break. Five feet short of a row of windows along the wall, he managed to stop the vehicle.

Daylight hammered them through the glass, a stark contrast to the veil of night they had just escaped from. Jake’s sunglasses adjusted their tint to soften the transition for his eyes.

Evelynn sank into her chair. She let loose a sigh of relief having avoided her supposed death sentence. Jake, on the other hand, did not find himself so quick to relax. He noticed the flashing red and blue emergency lights bleeding through the window, the sound of a not so distant emergency siren’s approach, and the roar of pressurized water. With a heavy breath, he parked the car then stepped out to get a better idea of what was going on.

He looked around. From what he could tell, they were in a large, emptied, and aged room that had either belonged to some sort of factory or a warehouse.

Looking out one of the windows along the wall, he immediately recognized the building across the street. It was the apartment building they had entered earlier that morning. Mr. Singleton’s apartment building, the same building reflected in the nightmare world they had just escaped. Jake hadn’t expected it to be this close, but like the hooded woman had told them, they had come out of an alternate exit.

He found a firetruck and ambulance waiting in the street below. Looking at the building across from him it was easy for him to see why. There was a raging inferno consuming one of the apartments so viciously that its entire outer wall was ablaze. The chances of it engulfing the whole building were worrisome.

As for the apartment that had been set on fire, it was just as familiar to Jake as the rest of the building had become. In their absence from this dimension, someone had set Mr. Singleton’s apartment on fire.