it was raining outside.
the sky was nothing but a solid wall of mottled gray and the rain was relentless. it was as if the tenants in the apartment above the city had run a bath and forgotten to turn the water off, and now everyone had to suffer with it.
she sat by the window and watched the world through the droplets on the glass.
she didn't know where he was. where he'd gone to. they had checked in, she had gotten her room, and he had disappeared.
frankly, she didn't care.
maybe she would go for a walk. a walk sounded good...she smiled. it would be good indeed.
she fished a heavy coat from her luggage, found an umbrella and left.
---
the city looked so much different from the street level, so much different than it did at night. all of the faults were evident. none of the pretty lights that made the nightlife shimmered or glittered. it was just filthy, grey, drab.
but it made her happy.
she smiled at everyone she passed on the sidewalk, content in her coat, underneath her black umbrella.
there was a boy - or was he a man? she couldn't figure out his age - sitting on the sidewalk, his back against the wall of a building. his clothes were torn in several places, and he looked haggard. he was soaked to the bone for he made no attempt to find shelter from the rain.
she paused. and she wondered. and she smiled.
she walked over to him and kneeled down next to him, holding the umbrella over both of them.
"hey there," she said.
he looked over at her and blinked. he shifted a little bit.
"who are you?" he asked. his voice was weak.
"i'm no one," she replied quietly. "what about you?"
"i'm no one, too," he said.
"want to walk with me? if you're lonely, you can talk to me." she smiled reassuringly.
he paused and looked at her warily.
"are you going to take me somewhere and kill me and leave my body in an alleyway dumpster?"
she laughed softly, a sweet laugh that made the boy smile.
"no," she said, and she stood and helped him stand, too. "i promise."
they walked together for a long time, down and around many blocks, across numerous intersections, two total strangers conversing as if they had known each other for many years.
"sometimes i've got a place to go to," he said, "and sometimes i don't. lot of bad stuff in my life. lot of bad, bad things."
"like what?" she inquired.
he seemed uncomfortable, but pressed on - likely he would never see this girl again, so why keep something from her?
"sometimes i take weird drugs," he said, "to remind me of what it feels like to live. i think i might be addicted. i'm scared of them sometimes. they do strange things to me. weirdness in my brain. you don't know what it's like to listen to your fears."
"you'd be surprised," she said softly. "i think i might know it better than you think. i have a lot of strange in my life, too."
"like what?"
"come with me." she pulled him into an alley and passed him the umbrella to hold.
"you're gonna kill me now, aren't you?" he asked, as casually as one would ask for the time.
"no, you silly boy. i just want to show you something special." she smiled warmly at him and held a hand up in front of him. within a moment of a little orange flame was flickering in her palm.
he let out a little cry and jumped back, exposing her to the rain. the flame extinguished and she stood there, laughing as the rain soaked her, not caring one bit about how wet she would be.
she stepped forward and gave the boy a short hug before taking her umbrella back.
"there," she said, "now you've seen something you might not ever see again."
"how did you," he began. he stuttered and stumbled and tried to come up with a word to describe it.
"don't worry about it. just remember it. and remember me, okay?"
he nodded.
"i will! oh, i will. if you remember me, too."
"i will, i promise." she grinned. "let's get you to some place to get out of the rain, and we'll part on good terms. i'll buy you something to eat, if you want!"
"you're the nicest person i ever met," he said, and he meant it.
---
she stood in the hotel hallway, dripping onto the carpet; she reached up to push wet hair away from her eyes.
she heard a door open nearby.
"you're wet," he said.
"and you're an asshole," she said. she swiped the card through the reader on her door. it trilled a few beeps and revolved in its fixture to reveal a small screen. she pressed her finger against it for a few moments and the lock on the door snapped back. she turned the knob.
"I swear to God," he was moving towards her, "what did I tell you about talking to me like that, pet?"
"shove it. i'm going to take a shower. deal with me later. i don't care right now."
the door slammed in his face.
he stood there, staring at the door, and licked his lips.
no matter. he shouldn't let her get under his skin. she'd pay the price later. no matter.
inside, medli stripped off the coat, flung it over the back of a chair, where it made a happy schlop noise. she glanced back at the door, the smiles from earlier gone, and half-expected him to break it down and beat the life out of her. she was pleased that nothing of the sort happened.
she moved across the room to look out the window she had been at earlier, looked out across the city, traced the path she had walked with the boy. she hoped she had done something good.
she had enjoyed her time with him, the boy who was no one.
she liked having someone to be no one with.
her forehead rested against the glass and her breath made little clouds of fog upon it.
she would remember him.