17 - ‘Come gentle night…’

“This should be safe enough,” Trevor said as he and Kemp climbed the fire escape to the roof of the building. “I doubt anyone will see us up here.”

Kemp had gotten off work an hour earlier. After four days on the job he had settled in to it. It hadn’t taken him long to figure out how to politely avoid the come-ons from customers who didn’t understand that the people working at the club were not up for grabs. Even if Sinclair hadn’t made it well known to his employees that this was not their personal meat market, most of the men who worked for him wouldn’t have used it as that anyway. And Kemp was no exception. He liked the job and the people and, quite honestly, was not looking to hook up with anyone at this point.

“So why up here, other than the visibility issue?”

Trevor smile was cheerfully malicious as he pointed to the wide gap between two of the roofs ahead of them. “We know you’ve got the speed and the strength, that’s inherent within our kind. Now we’re going to test if you have the guts to use them in an emergency situation. You told me about how you fled from those killers by taking to the rooftops. What if they’d cornered you and your only escape had been to leap from one building to the next.”

“I’d be dead,” Kemp admitted.

“Exactly. But now that shouldn’t be the case.” Trevor crossed the roofs to stand at the edge of the last one on their side of the alley.

Kemp trailed after him, stopping by Trevor's side to look down at the alley several stories below them and then at the distance between where they were and the roof across from them. “And you think I can get from here to there by jumping?”

“I can. You should be able to.” Trevor moved back a few yards, paused and then sped to the edge again, leaping forward into space. Seconds later he was on the roof on the opposite side of the alley beckoning for Kemp to join him.

“Screw this,” Kemp muttered, wondering who was crazier, Trevor for expecting him to do this or himself for even considering that he’d try it. He walked slowly back to where Trevor had started his run, took a deep breath, and raced forward. The moment he got to the edge of the roof he panicked, slamming to a stop. Looking across he saw Trevor shaking his head, an amused smile on his lips.

Kemp flipped him off and went back to the starting point. Gathering all of his new resources into him he concentrated on where he wanted to land. Moments later he was pushing off the edge of the roof, sailing across the wide gap. A gasp left his mouth as he teetered for what seemed like forever on the edge of the far roof before hurling himself forward onto his hands and knees.

“Now that wasn’t so hard was it?”

The glare Kemp shot Trevor said it all as he scrambled to his feet.