407 overlooked this alley, but there was no fire escape leading down from it. Instead it had a tiny balcony.
Oliver quickly assessed the situation. The closest fire escape led to the room next to it, but since it was an anteroom to Vera’s office, he could not enter that room to get into Ursula’s room from the inside. He had to get to Ursula’s balcony.
The fire escape only reached to the second floor where a quick release lever allowed anybody escaping from the building to bring the remainder of the ladder down to the ground. But from his position in the alley he couldn’t reach up high enough to grab onto any part of the fire escape. Testing how high he could jump, Oliver took a few steps back, then ran and leapt upwards, stretching his arms, but his fingers didn’t quite reach the metal fire escape. He tried again for good measure, but his second try didn’t prove any more fruitful than his first. He was out of shape. Maybe if he ran from farther back and got up to a higher speed, he could reach the ladder.
His eyes roamed the alley. A large dumpster stood less than twelve feet from the fire escape. He walked to it and inspected it. There were no rollers underneath it, and while he could have moved the heavy thing with his vampire strength to shift it closer to the fire escape, the noise of the metal scratching against the concrete underneath would wake the entire neighborhood.
Oliver climbed the dumpster, pushing the lid closed with his foot, then stepped onto it. He was almost eyelevel with the ladder now. He assessed the distance quickly and decided it was worth a try. Taking one step back, he lunged forward, jumping toward the fire escape, his arms reaching upward and forward. His fingers connected with the metal platform, instantly tightening around a rod as his body continued to swing.
“Gotcha!” he murmured under his breath and swung his legs up. Helped by his strong stomach muscles, he was able to lift himself onto the platform and stand up.
He looked up and took the two flights of the metal ladder up to the fourth floor, then stopped there. He pressed himself against the wall, making sure that he couldn’t be seen from the window of Vera’s anteroom. As he looked across to the small balcony in front of room 407, he realized that he had underestimated its distance to the platform he now stood on. There was no way he could jump from his current position and land on the balcony.
Looking for another solution, he glanced up. If he could get to the roof, he could jump straight down to the balcony. He focused his eyes and noticed several short metal rods sticking out from the wall, where at some point another ladder leading to the roof must have been affixed. For some reason it had been removed, but some of the metal rods that were anchored in the brick facade—and were no longer than three inches—had been left.
Oliver ducked to pass by the window and get to the other side of it, then lifted himself up onto the railing that surrounded the fire escape. From there, he stepped onto the first rod, gripping a higher one with his hand. Like a cat burglar, he worked his way up, careful not to lose his grip and fall and draw attention to himself.
Within seconds, he reached the roof and pulled himself onto it. Trying not to make too much noise, he treaded lightly and walked over to where the window to Ursula’s room was. He looked down. He was right above the slim balcony.
Oliver jumped, bending his knees all the way into a crouch to absorb the shock and sound as he landed squarely in the middle of the balcony. He quickly tossed a look toward the fire escape, but nobody had seen or heard him. The curtains were drawn in Ursula’s room, and the windows were closed. However, Oliver knew from experience, that the building was old and that many of the windows didn’t lock, since the old sash windows had warped over the years.
Praying that this was the case with this window, he gripped the frame and pushed upwards. It moved. As fast as he could, he lifted it and squeezed inside, knowing that Ursula would have already heard the noise. He couldn’t allow her to scream.
Frantically he parted the curtains. The light in the room