Fast though, too. And quiet. Before anyone turns. Before any of the girls notice me or think to ask—however innocently—“what?” Or “why?” Or “where are you going?” While the sound of stomping feet in the stairway is still deafening. While no one will be able to hear my feet headed the opposite way. My breath comes hard as I sprint up the steps, two at a time, not looking back. And then I hear the Wolf’s voice echo up.

“You got them in the back there?” he calls to his partner.

I freeze, heart thumping.

“I think he had to go check for missing people,” one of the girls mercifully shouts back. I brace for commotion, for the Wolf to investigate. For something that leads him right to me, one flight up, heaving. But it never comes.

“Okay, come on! Keep moving!” is all he says. “Keep together and in line.”

And so I race on, farther up. As I duck around the wall to the floor above, I am still waiting for the guard below to call after me. For one of the other girls to notice me missing and to say something, even just offhand. But no one does. It’s only me and the stairs and my breath—up and up and up.

But the doors on the floor above are locked. And I begin to doubt this plan of mine. If I can’t get out of the stairway and into one of the upper floors, they will find me eventually. And I’m pretty sure there will be very bad consequences, especially if it’s the Wolf that lays his hands on me first.

Which means that this has to work. This way up has to be a way out.

I run up three more floors, past three more locked doors. But at least there are no voices coming after me, no thick smoke gathered up there at the ceiling. Nothing to stop me from continuing until finally I reach the very last door. The top of the stairs, the door to the roof. I hold my breath as I push on the metal bar. Dread it being locked, too, like all the others.

But then, there is the door, giving way. And with a gasp I am there. I am outside in the sun and the fresh air. I am free.

Or I feel that way for a second. Because being trapped six floors up even outside on a roof isn’t exactly the same thing as being in the clear.