217 Babel Street | Apartment 4
Alicia crept towards the front door. She took one last look at her mother, who was fast asleep in front of the television, an empty bottle of vodka by her side. Even the screaming of the contestants on No Exit could not wake her. The young girl nodded: her mother drunk, her father out with his friends or his latest floozy. Now was the time. She hugged her furry backpack closer around herself and then opened the door carefully, hardly daring to breathe. Alicia stepped outside.
The corridor stretched away into the distance. She walked past apartments 2 and 3, towards the stairs. Nobody heard her. No doors opened. Nobody cared, not really. The only person who ever talked to her was the caretaker, Vivienne. She told horrible stories about the people who lived on the floors above, stories that made Alicia shiver with delight.
Finally, she came to the stairwell. This was the first floor. She looked down, towards the ground floor. The front door to the building was down there; the doorway. Escape. But the young girl turned round. She looked upwards. It was the caretaker who had told her about the penthouse flat on the top floor, and the Very Important Person who lived there, in the dark, surrounded by treasure. Now she would find out for herself. Alicia started to climb the stairs towards the second floor.
She was one week away from her eighth birthday.