Cut and run

Jessica wasted no time, and turned around and began to run hard enough to make her feet sore on the pavement and make her breath come heavy. At the bridge she risked a look over her shoulder and didn't see the beasts following her. And only then she risked slowing down, coming to the elevator that'd bring her to the balcony. In any other place, in any other time, she'd appreciate the beauty of the dusk, turning the sky a range of colors like a oil in puddle, but vivid like a painting. But instead it only added to the strangeness of the night, making it all the more alien.

Normally she'd rely on a strapping co-traveler to yank the lever to call the elevator, but today is it was only her breathless panicked strength to pull at the lever to call the elevator. It took her a moment to pull the release lever, but she managed to get it operating. As the machinery hummed to life she began to catch her breath. In the distance she could hear the loud barks of crows and cawing of hounds.

For a moment, lost in her reverie she stared toward the moon as the elevator descended.

What if this world is merely a veil to another. A dreamer's dream. A god's fancy. What if the veil was so thin that one could ju...

With a loud clank the elevator reached her floor, breaking Jessica of her unbidden thoughts.

"Just get home." Jessica said aloud, initially to no one in particular, but she suddenly noticed an strangely large crow about 15 feet from her splayed across the ground. Staring tensely at the crow Jessica hurried into the elevator, compressing the center button with a small hop, inciting the return trip.

Am I even going to return home safe tonight? Are all my customers going to die to beasts? Are my customers becoming beasts? Drunk on blood instead of liquor? Or prey to those who have?

The elevator smoothly clicked into the position on the upper floor.

Jessica could see the empty expanse of gray of the overlook through the grate of the elevator as it mechanically pulled up, removing what little protection it afforded her against the strange world.