Habeel marched toward the balcony like a soldier walking toward certain doom—chin up, shoulders squared, fully prepared for the dramatic final chapter of his existence.
A small hand suddenly grabbed his wrist.
He froze and turned.
Ababeel stood there, eyes wide but unshakably firm. "No," she whispered fiercely, shaking her head so fast her hair practically flapped. "Balcony is as dangerous as the staircase."
Habeel blinked at her. "Right… then what? Teleport?"
"No," she jabbed her finger toward the hallway, "the bathroom exhaust window."
He stared at her as she'd just told him the moon was made of cheese."…The what now?"
She grabbed his sleeve and pulled. "The tiny bathroom window that leads to the alley! We can drop into the side path without being seen."
His eyes almost bulged out. "YOU kept this escape route hidden until NOW?!"
"I was PANICKING, not giving a house tour!"
They sprinted to the bathroom. The window was small. Tragically small. The "this was designed for air, not humans" small. A claustrophobic nightmare of metal edges and peeling paint.
Habeel tied their bedsheet-rope to the bed frame and the exhaust frame. The knots looked desperate but determined.
He pulled on it with all his strength.
"It looks sturdy enough for us, I guess."
Ababeel's eye twitched. "You guess?!"
"We don't have time to run physics simulations!"
He lifted her onto the narrow windowsill. It was a mess—her knee landed in his shoulder, her shoe slapped his cheek, her elbow poked his ribs.
"Sorry," she mumbled.
"You're not," he hissed.
She squeezed herself through the window like a frustrated raccoon escaping a trash can, then dangled outside until her feet found the first knot.
"I'm down!" she whispered. (If whispering was yelling quietly.)
Habeel pinched the bridge of his nose. Why does she think that's quiet…
He tied one backpack, lowered it. She caught and untied it silently—like a trained ninja on a stealth mission.
He stared. I will never underestimate short girls again.
Finally, it was his turn.
He grabbed the rope, muttering his will."If I die, bury me somewhere with good WiFi."
He descended.
Halfway down—
CRAAAACK.
The rope jerked hard.
The bed leg SNAPPED clean off inside the room.
Habeel froze mid-air.
His entire life flashed before his eyes: His birth. His first school fight.His first crush.The sandwich he dropped in third grade. The time he tripped over a cat and apologised to it. Everything.
"Oh great," he thought darkly, "falling from the third floor. Perfect. I'm dead. Absolutely dead. Not even a cool death—just SPLAT."
The rope slipped another inch.
"HABEEL!" Ababeel screamed, throwing her arms up underneath him, even though she weighed approximately the size of a pillow. "DON'T YOU DARE DIE ON ME—!"
"I DON'T HAVE MUCH OF A CHOICE!"
The rope surrendered.
Gravity claimed him.
He plunged straight downward.
And she—idiotically, heroically—stood directly beneath him.
"MOVE!" he shrieked.
"NO!"
"YES—MOVE!"
"I CAN HELP—!"
They collided mid-air like two poorly thrown sacks of potatoes.
The world spun.
Then—
WHOOMPH.
A massive overgrown bush swallowed them whole. Leaves exploded around them like fireworks. The bush shook violently, as if offended to be used as a crash pad.
Silence.
A beat.
Then—
Habeel, muffled by foliage: "I think I ate a leaf…"
Ababeel groaned from somewhere under his left arm."Get. Off."
He rolled to the side dramatically, like he'd been mortally wounded."On the bright side," he wheezed, "we lived."
She sat up slowly, pulling sticks, twigs, and half a shrub from her hair.
"You almost crushed me to death."
"You tried to BREAK my fall!"
"I WAS BEING HEROIC!"
"I WEIGH MORE THAN YOUR FAMILY TREE!"
They both lay back again, panting in the dirt and leaves.
A distant gunshot echoed through the night. Reality slammed back into their chests.
Ababeel shot upright. "We need to move. Now."
Habeel spat out another leaf. "Yeah, before something ELSE falls from the sky."
They scrambled to their feet, grabbed their bags, and slipped into the darkness of the alley—bruised, battered, covered in leaves, and absolutely done with the universe.
But alive. Barely.And ready for whatever madness awaited next.