Riley's POV

It's a long climb up. Our fingers and toes went numb from the cold awhile ago, from kicking the snow off the ladders and stairs of every level. The fire escape is aged with rust, feeling like it might give out from under our feet at any moment. I never cared before whenever I climbed up, but with Jamie up here with me I'm trying not be paralyzed with an all of sudden fear of heights. To be extra careful, we take quiet precise steps, trying to make sure the fire escape doesn't rattle with our weight.

One loud step and it'll echo through the entire warehouse, and Nate will know we're here before we climb all the way up.

"Do you think anyone will see us up here?" Jamie asks in hushed voice, while peering over the metal railing. The tip of her nose and her freckled cheeks have gone red from the freezing cold. The harsh December winds blasts at us, sending Jamie's red hair everywhere. The strong freezing breeze gives me a strong urge to pull a warm cap over those fiery locks, pull her inside someplace safe and warm, and hold her as tight as possible against me.

"If they can, no one ever phones a compliment or whatever." I explain, clutching the railing as I trudge up the metal steps.

"So, every time you left late at night, you were here?" Jamie inquires, following behind me. My shoulders rise to my shoulders in a sharp wince.

"Yeah..." I sorely admit, risking a glance at her over my shoulder.

"I use to stay up late, wondering if you were in trouble. I couldn't call you and just had to wait till you showed up in the morning after staying out all night, while you were just on the other side town." Jamie thoughtfully says, looking out over the town with a tired expression. Stopping dead in my tracks, I twist around to face her so fast Jamie jumps at my sudden movements.

With just a few inches between us, our foggy breathes puff in each other's faces as we hold off reaching out to touch each other. Jamie's green eyes hold my brown ones, staring up at me like she's looking at me for the last time. I feel the exact expression on face aimed down at her.

"Remember how you said you would do you and I all over again? Everything all over again?"

"I remember you saying how you wish we never meet." Jamie states, taking a step back with a bruised expression.

"I take that back." I state firmly, "I take it back. And if you and I come out of this in one piece, I'm going to do right by you, Jamie." I'll get her a new apartment, first and last deposit on me. I'll buy her furniture and curtains, and pay every electric bill too. I'll put her through culinary school. I'll do whatever to make her happy.

Staring up at me, Jamie searches my face. I can tell she doesn't believe me.

"Lets end this." She declares, moving past me.

Jamie's POV

I have never been so afraid in my entire life.

The metal door is gaping open, with light flooding out, and reaching over the threshold with a haunting glow. Still ankle deep in snow, I stay out in the dark and cold, ignoring how my socks are socked through and how numb my toes are. Despite finally reaching the top, I feel like I've never sunken so low in my entire life. But I'm going to straighten up, and when I do, I'll bring Robin and Riley with me.

"Jamie," Riley quietly murmurs my name, the hush tone so small the frigid wind almost blasted it away. For a moment, I expect Riley to beg me one last time to make a run for it. Instead, he laces his cold fingers through my one good hand, and clutches my hand like a lifeline.

"We just gotta make it to the third floor." Riley gives my hand a squeeze that doesn't let up. I grip back just as tight.

"In a minute." I keep us out here for another long moment. Taking in the harshness of the winter air, the sound of city like screeching of brakes or cats fighting, and the feel of Riley next to me.

"Ready?" Riley asks under his breath.

"No." I breathe.

"Me neither." With a gentle tug, Riley leads me towards the door. "But I doubt we ever will be."

The factory was bigger than my expectations. It somehow looks bigger inside than it does outside. The first floor is just a gigantic square room with a gaping break in the middle of the room, boarded by railing and stairs. The once white walls are now yellowing. The florissant lights hanging above us give off a yellow hue that gives me a headache, while the cement floors are coated in a thin layer of sawdust.

"You think anyone heard us coming up?" I whisper, feeling a panicked sweat start to prick at the back of my freckled neck.

"If they did," Riley starts, eyeing the room with an anxious look. "We'd be face to face with the barrel of a gun by now."

"Are those stairs the only way up and down?" My voice coming out choked and hollow. Those stacks are literally the center of entire factory. We'd be too exposed.

"There's an old freight elevator." Whispering, Riley points off to the opposite side of the room to what I originally thought was a massive hole in the wall. "Loud as fuck. It's a dead giveaway."

"Or?" I suggest, that nervous sweat getting worse with every passing second.

"The fire exits." With only the letter E still glowing, an out of order exit sign hovers above a green emergency door with FIRE EXIT ONLY pained in white all the way down to our left. "Problem is, when anyone opens that door a fire alarm goes off through the whole building."

"That means no one uses those stairs." I clarify, taking small steps over.

"Jamie," Riley whispers after me, double checking the room that we're alone. "Did you hear what I said about the alarm. The whole neighborhood will hear, so Nate will definitely hear us!"

"When was the building boarded up?" I whisper over to him.

"I don't know, the eighties?"

"In a building this old with no one properly using it—" like a landlord or union workers. "I doubt codes are up to date. Meaning," Inch by inch, I gently press the door open.

"The alarms don't work anymore."

Making out through all the swelling and bruises and the broken nose, I can see the gobsmacked expression on Riley's broken face. He gapes unmovingly for a moment too long. My heart stops at the sound of voices coming towards us from the floor below.

"Riley—" He takes off. I can't tell whether those loud thumps are the sound of his feet hitting the floor or my heart hammering. Caught up in the panic, Riley doesn't actually come to a full stop till he crashes into the brick wall of the stairway. I spot the top of someone's head by the stairs just as I manage to shut with precise caution and gentleness so it wouldn't slam shut.

"How," Straightening up, Riley struggles to make sense through uneven pants. "Did you know about the alarm not working?"

"You know the emergency exit in the back of our building?" Ear pressed to the door, I try to explain while intensely listening for approaching footsteps on the other side.

"Yeah?"

"It doesn't work. Our landlord Mr. Miller told me it had faulty wiring, and never got it fixed. It's hasn't worked since 1994."

"We do laundry in the basement of that building!" Riley sounds offended. More like we use to do laundry in our old building. We don't live there anymore... the past few days since Nate's destroyed our place, then us living out a car has felt like years rather than three days. My body feels as grimy as that dusty floor, and I feel just as cold as this abandoned warehouse.

I swallow the growing lump in my throat, while blinking back tears in my green eyes that unwilling sprung at the mention of our apartment. I hope Killer is okay with Robin's friend. He's better off with Benji that a block radius of Nate.

"I think the coast is clear. It doesn't sound like we gave ourselves away." I take a deep breath. The voices fade away as if they're leaving the building. Exchanging a nod, we start our way down once Riley catches his breath. Dimmer than the rest of the warehouse, we can barely see where we're going in the emergency stairwell with the hollow glow of lights that haven't burned out yet. I'd use the railing for support, but I don't want to risk what looks like mold oozing out between the bricks of wall that somehow is coated on every square surface. Instead, I grab hold of Riley for support. Trying to steady my shaking hands, I grab a fistful of his black sweater, then lean into him a bit.

"We can fall down like this." Regardless, he loops his arm around my waist and pulls me into his side. For the briefest of moments, I feel a bit safer.