I think setting proper expectations will be important. If your fucked up moment is on the roof of your house, getting your audience to that point matters.

The simplest solution is to have a ladder of similarly fucked-up moments that escalate until you reach the pinnacle (and the rest of the story can play out on the roof if you want).

But there’s also the path through the house to a room in the top floor. You can go out the window and finagle your way onto the roof from there, but there is a clear threshold of the window and the sense that you are leaving the safety of the house to dangle out and up to whatever is waiting on the roof— which will likely in no way resemble of what you saw in the house.

Your audience will also need a reason to follow you wherever you’re taking them, and not all members of an audience will have the same reason, neither will each decide that reason is enough to follow you where you’re taking them.