Ratface had a moment to plan, follow the girls up the hatch or make her own way out. A part of her wanted to scream at the woman to open the latch and grab her, to take the risk and fight against the people that had captured them while they were trapped on a roof. It wouldn’t help though. She’d gotten a look at them and none of them looked up to fighting. All she was doing was looking for a herd to hide in.

  That decided her in the end. She wasn’t a sheep or a cow, she was a rat.

  She did what many rats had done before her and scurried away from the loud noise. In terms of options available to her there weren’t a lot. She made a snap decision and went for the door furthest away from the stairs. Her thought process wasn’t really more than, ‘sound of footsteps bad’, but given her lack of information that was good enough. The best room would be the furthest away anyway, right?

  She ran to the door handle and pulled. It twisted thank goodness and she opened the door and ran in. She saw the people from the kitchen run up the stairs and point her out. She slammed the door and looked for something heavy to put in the way. There was a chair which she jammed under the doorhandle then looked around some more. Aha there was a desk she could chuck in front as well. She shoved the desk over. It screeched as she pushed it into place and a few papers fell along the floor. They looked important and she went to look at them before a thud at the door brought her back to where she was. The thudding grew louder as people pushed against the door but with the jammed chair and desk they were struggling. Still, it was only a matter of time before they realised, they could just break the door instead.

  A look around the room confirmed her theory that the furthest room was the fanciest. The desk sort of gave it away but the more she looked the more she realised this must have been the office when this place was still open. It was spacious but not too spacious. It did have a window, but it was a tiny thing, she wouldn’t be able to fit out of it. She looked around hoping for a secret hatch again but couldn’t come up with anything. This run-down place didn’t even have the decency to have a way out for her. She stomped on the floor, and it actually splintered. Ratface paused. Surely not, right? She gave the floor another experimental stomp. It was weak, she just had to find the weakest spot. The first thing she did was scoop up all the papers that were there and put them away for later. They’d be a little crinkled, but it’d have to do. She looked around the room for something heavy to slam into the floor. It’d have to be really heavy to do the job. Instead, she found a lamp with oil and a wick to light it with. She poured the oil under the desk and grabbed some of the less important looking papers, then she lit the oil.

  It lit up quickly and she dance back as it singed her fingers. A merry little fire began to burn where the desk was. Ratface smiled in satisfaction for a second until it began to spread. Right, she’d known that would happen, that’s why she’d started at the desk, hopefully its weight would break the floor under it faster.

  There was a crack from the door and Ratface looked up. Someone had finally thought to start using something sharp. She winced as she saw it was an axe. Another terrible idea struck Ratface, and she climbed onto the desk. She got her hands ready, there wouldn’t be much of an opportunity, but her plan was to steal the axe when they’d made a big enough hole. She pulled out her crossbow and aimed for where their heart would be. After a moments hesitation she aimed lower at foot height. It was partly that her conversation with Abigail still weighed on her, and part that if she killed them, they might lock onto the axe. Her mother had told her about something like that where a goblin had been stabbed but had held an adventurer in place even after they died. Might as well give them incentive to let go of the axe.

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  They slammed the axe in once more and Ratface fired. Her bolt shot through the door and hit into the axe wielders foot. They yelped and jumped back, letting go of the axe. Ratface darted in and yanked the axe out and pulled it through. One of the men grabbed onto her as she did so and slammed her into the door. She wriggled to get free, but they held her strong so in the end she pulled out her knife and stabbed their arm. They didn’t let go but they did flinch and that gave her enough time to get free.

  Through all this, her fire had been spreading. It was licking the sides of the desk and she could feel the heat of it on her legs. The floor underneath her was already groaning with the effort. She pulled back the axe and slammed it into the floor underneath her, eventually she managed to hit something important and with one final groan of despair the floor broke underneath her, sending her and the desk plummeting through.

  They slammed into the floor below, the force of it slammed Ratface into the desk and she bounced off and onto the floor. She lay there for a moment groaning, nothing like falling down a floor for everything to hurt. She looked around her and found some more of the kidnappers looking at her in surprise. They were still getting ready to react and Ratface looked for a way out, the doors were covered but no one was guarding the window. She had to move.

  She grit her teeth and pushed herself up. Ratface ran towards the window and dove through with a crash. Her armour protected her from the worst of it, but it still hurt, and she pushed herself back up, she wasn’t out of danger yet.

  She looked up, worrying she’d have to tell the woman to run. Apparently, they hadn’t just wait for her there and Ratface could see they’d gotten over to the other roof, now Ratface just had to keep all the attention on her.

  Not that difficult, she’d made quite the commotion escaping, the kidnappers were all running towards her. The few guards that were still outside were closest and Ratface drew hew sword and sliced out at them before they could get too close. They darted back which gave her enough room to sprint away.

  She could feel people hot on her heels, but she was an expert at running so she pumped her legs even faster, if she could just make it to somewhere public, she’d be okay.

  She sprinted into the alley and wove through the twists in the street trying to find a way out. The kidnappers kept cutting her off. Her heart was hammering as she felt more and more routes were cut off.

  She turned one more corner and the area was completely blocked off by men with spears. Ratface glanced behind her, the other kidnappers were too close for her to try another way.

  “Halt, you’re under arrest!” called the people in front of her. Wait, not kidnappers, guards. She dropped her sword and knife and kicked them over to the guards then put her hands up. The kidnappers rounded the corner and grabbed onto her with a nasty grin, a nasty grin that immediately slipped off their face when they saw the guards.

  The guards ran forward and took them all. They were rough and it hurt but through it all Ratface babbled about the kidnapped people and where they were. The guards sent off most of their squad to go get the woman once they’d secured the group of them and Ratface let out a relieved sigh. The people were safe at least.

  Now she just had to do something about her own predicament.