Gray followed Em through the fog of ash. Objects and shadows and bodies loomed out at them, stark against the white veil. Em avoided them all with ease and Gray gave up trying to lead the way.

Crouched as low as she could go, Gray rubbed her hand where the glass had been. Nothing- not even a twinge of pain.

Gray and Em emerged from the wreckage of the bar, scratched and bleeding, but breathing. The roof had collapsed and a mushroom of ash and smoke coiled up against the sky. Officers were blocking off the street and Em ducked low, slipping in between buildings and out of sight. Gray reluctantly followed her.

Her chest ached and Gray tugged down each heaving gasp of air. Em gave a troubled look at her labored breathing, but said nothing.

About a third of the milk had escaped from her toy boat- even though it had turned completely upside down when Em had climbed over an up-turned crate. Gray stole glances of it when she helped Em up a rickety escape ladder strung along the side of an apartment building.

"Where are we going?" she wheezed, clutching the rusted metal rail. She peered over the edge and her breath caught on her teeth. How had they gotten so high so quickly? Gray snapped her gaze back to the ladder.

Em's head tilted back. Gray couldn't see her expression from below, but she guessed it was distant. "Up, of course."

"Look, kid," Gray said, following the little girl up the cracked rungs. "You're going to have to be more straightforward, okay? This is reality."

Em reached the roof- the roof. Why were they so high? Why was a little girl leading the way? -and offered her hand to Gray.

"That really depends on what sort of reality you're living." she told Gray matter-of-factly.

Gray sighed and clambered up next to the little girl. Em stood on the edge of the roof, but Gray could barely look over the side. She tugged Em back from the precarious height, clutching the girl to her side.

Em suddenly stiffened. Gray followed her gaze to a building across the street from them. A hooded figure was perched above it, staring down at the wreckage of the bar. 

Em wasn't breathing as she tugged Gray back, away from the edge.

"What's wrong?" Gray asked, looking in between Em and the figure. "Who is that? Do you know them?"

Em just shook her head, whispering, "How did they find me? How could they find me..."

"Em!" Gray gripped her shoulders, forcing her to focus on her. "Who is that person?"

"They..." Em began, but her eyes drifted over Gray's shoulder. Gray tightened her grip. "They're hunting me. They blew up the bar."

"Then let's get out of here!" Gray barked, pulling Em toward the ladder that would take them back down.

"No, no," Em said, rather calmly, Gray thought, for a sociopath to be hunting her. "This way, over here." She tugged Gray toward the opposite edge of the building.

The edge, the edge of the roof, high up, so, so, high up...

"What?" Gray cried.

"Adults are supposed to be brave," Em chided, then jumped off the building.