Once, in Beijing, a young girl in a red gown huddled in a doorway. It was not that she was frightened - no, fear was something she found rather useless - but because she knew with an unshakeable certainty that if she wandered onto the street, she would be eaten by a vampire.

The house beyond the doorway was no better, on account of there being a ghost lurking inside, the type that would drip ectoplasm on her most horribly before devouring her soul.

This girl, then, was at an impasse. She could neither proceed nor retreat. Go out, the vampire would be able to reach out for her well-scrubbed neck. Go in, the ghost would eat her soul. She considered her dilemma and came to a conclusion: she would either have to go up or down. She had no tools for digging, which is why she decided on 'up'.

Now, climbing would be a difficult proposition, but given the alternatives, she was sure she could manage it. Besides, she was the type always clambering up trees when she found them, which was part of the reason she was in this fix in the first place. Elbows and knees on either side of the frame, she inched herself up and up and up.

She only got up so far, but it was the effort that counted.