Raise The Roof Novels & Stories

Us plants need sunlight or we wilt and shrivel away. That's why she and Minny found themselves on the roof that afternoon. It was tar paper with white gravel, which could be ruined by walking on it. She would probably have to use most of her hundred thousand to replace the roof. It would be worth the money. She ran the parimeter of it, laughing and waving her arms as if she was demented. Luke cautioned, "Shhh. Don't advertise." Minny prowled, walking the short lip of the roof, peering into the surrounding trees and down to the ground.

He lifts his head as he says, “Can you get onto the hospital maintenance department, Maddox and see if there is any way onto the roof of the A&E without being seen? Look, they have skylights up there. I’m hoping we can break through these when we hit; if we can take them out before they have a chance to retaliate, then we might just do this.” Nodding my head, I stand up, and I say,

There’s giggling as Flora does as she’s told, and Miss Nola swears she’s closed her eyes, even though she hasn’t, and Maisie screeches, sensing the excitement. I take Flora by the shoulders, adjusting her so she’ll be looking at the porch with the black, wrought iron railing, and the red front door. Miss Nola smiles at me, her eyes twinkling, and I take my place beside my mate. “Okay, you can open them.” I watch Flora as she blinks, a smile breaking across her face. “It’s tall!” I grunt. It is. I built the roof with a steep pitch, both to better handle the snow, and to allow for two loft bedrooms in case we end up with a passel of pups.

“No, look. Up there on the roof. It looks like a trap door. One of those false roofs that lead to a small part in the ceiling.” Xandra listened and her eyes went up, then she looked back at me. “I don't see it. What are you talking about?” I opened my mouth to reply when the banging on the door started. There was no more time. I looked around for something high to lift us to climb up. I saw a stool but it was made of metal, and if we moved it the people outside would be alerted.

“—find something to ruin that is not yourself and hand it to me instead.” “And if I want you on my roof and nowhere else?” I asked, hating how my voice turned that into a dare. His mouth warmed my wrist once, a deliberate sin of temperature. “Then we will write a scripture,” he said, “about the holiness of eaves.” The laugh that jumped out of me was too sharp, too loud for the roof. The house scolded—the door tapped, a nail somewhere ticked, a joist sighed. A distant hammer on the next street started its day, and the sound came thin and tinny over the shingles as if the roof were a drum.

They don’t know the fire they lit. And the higher they’ve climbed, the sweeter it’ll be when I drag everything they built straight to the ground. And I will—because somewhere out there, Camryn exists. And I’m going to find her. “Rhea! Grab takeout on your way back! And good luck on your interview—you look gorgeous!” Roofus leans out of his room with a grin. “Tell that to your hookups. I’m not your free breakfast.” “Oh, don’t be like tha—”

“Or the basement. Or the roof.” “Then how?” Adrian asked. Ariella pointed to the side of the building—where a long scaffolding hung, half-complete, wrapped in tarps and metal rods. “The construction lift,” she said. “No one ever guards the things they think are useless.” Lucien smiled faintly—just the ghost of one. “She’s right.” Adrian blinked. “That lift only goes to the tenth floor. The vault is on the twenty-sixth.” Ariella finally turned to him.

Finally, Anya looks straight ahead and pushes her feet outside, her sandals landing on the red stone steel swiftly. The roof is slanted but we remain our body balanced so we won’t slide down and hurt our faces. Good thing this roof doesn’t make loud sounds when we walk on it. I take giant but careful steps, pulling Anya by her wrists so we could move faster. We stop by a short grey wall that our neighbor built so the water from our roof won’t fall straight down to their place when it rains. It is built high past their roof and it’s just at least two feet taller than me, which is low enough for us to climb over. I tried going this route once by using a stool to climb over. and it feels like I

she said in a possessive tone, but still light enough that it sounded like she was teasing. Owen showed Regina around the building, introduced her to the apartment manager, and brought her to the roof deck. The decoration on the roof was a continuation of the square below them, adding to the appeal of the building. Plants and trees were planted everywhere, giving the roof deck a cooler atmosphere even though they were closer to the sun.

Rook called, his head tilted, trying to get a better angle. “No…” Her voice was weaker, fading. “I can’t. It’s…it’s going numb.” Numb. That wasn’t good. Not good at all. “Stay with us, Maddie!” I pleaded, hammering my fist against the unyielding beam. “Hear my voice, okay? Don’t you dare close your eyes!” “It’s getting…hotter,” she whispered, followed by a short, desperate cough. A section of the roof directly above, already sagging, began to creak loudly. The sound was like a death knell, a final warning.