Emily was fitting the key into the lock of her apartment on the 7th floor when she heard it. A loud rumbling sound coming from somewhere above. She stopped to look up at the ceiling with her brow furrowed.
The elevator stopped again at her floor and a couple living in her neighbour came out.
"Did you hear that?" Emily asked them, and they told her yes. All three of them were equally worried and wild-eyed, and for a while they all stayed in the corridor in their beach outfits contemplating on what would have caused such a sound.
Some time later another, even louder crash came that made all of them jump. Then frantic footsteps were starting to echo from the staircase, and the elevators were constantly going up and down.
Emily opened the door to the stairs, and managed to see one of the security guards running up.
"Jackson!" Emily called after him. "What's going on?"
"The roof came down!" the man shouted back even though Emily couldn't even see him anymore.
"What?" Emily couldn't understand at first. Then she realized that the poolhouse roof was indeed made of glass, and snow had been piling on top of it for better part of the week.
And then she realized that Vincenzo had still been up there, among many others of their friends. All the nightmarish possibilites of what could have happened struck her mind at once and made her feel sick. Without really thinking, Emily rushed into the staircase as well and started running up towards the roof.
She arrived to the roof completely out of breath, and was first greeted by the cold, especially as she was only wearing a thin summer dress on top of her bikini. Then she saw all the people - the frightened, injured, shivering, shocked people, most of whom she recognized or knew personally. But she didn't see Vincenzo among them, so she pushed through them looking for him.