the ladders on the outside of apartment block are called fire escapes, which makes sence to call stories reality escapes. the ladders are to escape from the fires and the stories are to escape from reality. pretty straight forward...

The lights went out and the world around Asnick subsided to shadows, the edges only faintly outlined by the slither of moon hanging in the sky. A curse creapt out of asnick's lips as she relised that the spare batteries she had so carefully stored in her coat pocket were gone. Feeling around inside the pocket to make sure she hadn't just imagined their absence she discovered a piece of paper. Asnick didn't remember putting anything of this sort into her pockets and so took it out and tried to examine it. Which was utterly useless because of the lack of light, the piece of paper may have been blank for all she knew. She turned around and started off cautiously into the dark, back the way she came. Hitting the odd tree and stubbling on the occasional ground living object, asnisk noticed the glow of a street light up ahead through the trees. Ignoring the path that eventually would end at the same destination, she bush bashed through the low pines and surrounding shrubbery. Finally reaching the road she felt quite strange, like she wasn't meant to be there, as if she was breaking the law just by standing where she was. Hoping for some sign to hint where she was, she scanned the road, only to see nothing of any assistance. She even examined the street light, trying to distinguish the suburb name on a lost cat notice, but it was weather worn and didn't help at all. The only bit of information that she got from the faded notices on the street light post, was that there was, or once was a circus touring somewhere around, Ms Hifen or Hilfen or Hilten was selling a trampoline and that of a missing black cat by the name of Jeeves. Sighing, Asnick suddenly remembered the mysterious piece of paper. Taking it out she noticed that it was infact black, with red writing that was only visible if you held it in the light a certain way. The text was strangely perfect, as if someone had written it out many times and knew exactly what they were saying before they wrote it onto this sinister piece of paper. She began to read...

um.. sorry i gotta get off the comp, but tune in next time when i write something else. woo hoo, holiday fun is only the begining...