Forsaken

𝑡𝑤𝜊

Tearing a napkin from the pile on the table, she folded it all up into a crumpled package, the grease already soaking through the paper as she shoved it into her jacket.

In one swift movement she was back at the door, the plate left bare with crumbs and grease and no one any the wiser as she stepped outside with the food warming the lining of her pocket.

She set off down the road, turning the first corner in her path and disappearing from view, her cigarette still smouldering on the paving where she left it.

After a while she pulled the food out, crumbling the napkin into a ball and folding the sausages between the toast. Her body welcomed the food with little complaint. She thought of the bartender's confusion at this very moment, letting herself paint an image of a face in her head.

Muggles made it almost too easy.

As she ate the sky had began to turn a murky brown above her, thickening with moisture and gathering at the call of the wind. The clouds in the distance could quite clearly be seen streaking down to the ground in watery lines.

And sure enough the expected water splattered against her forehead, then again on her lip, dribbling down her chin and to the ground. Before long it was relentlessly cracking down against the fabric of her jacket, the droplets thick and heavy with water as she pulled it over her head.

Breaking into a forced jog she slipped down a small alley in hope of shelter, noticing a square of dry ground where the water framed but didn't fall. Looking up she saw an electrical unit box sticking out from the wall and taking the brunt of the downpour, providing just enough shelter.

The box was slightly too low for her to stand beneath and so she let herself slip down to the ground, leaning against the wall and pulling her knees up to her chest and away from the rain.

Cold but dry, she licked the salty grease off of her fingers, scraping it out from beneath her nails as the taste of tobacco was pulled up from her skin.

She let her head drop back against the wall behind her as some water began to trickle down the bricks and down the back of her neck. The tip of her boots poked out from beneath the unit, the rain splashing back slightly and rolling off the side as it hit the leather.

Maybe she would go back to the hostel for the night, it was a cheap stay, relatively quiet and the owner tended to turn a blind eye to her lack of identification. Not to mention, aside from the damp in the walls, it was dry.

She rolled a stone around beneath her shoe, the gravel slick with the rain and sliding with ease under her control. It scratched against the ground, slipping in and out of the grooves of her rubber sole.

The air was thick with the smell of wet tarmac as she waited for the rain to pass.

◢✥◣

The downpour having eased into a gentle spray, Rowan now found herself retracing her path down the estate, planning to return where she started that morning. However with the roads wet and sky an impenetrable sheet of grey, finding her way back was proving more difficult than she had planned.

She let her fingertips run along the cold metal of two pound coins in her pocket, finding herself absentmindedly flipping them over each other as she walked.

From her other pocket she pulled out a small box and flipped back the lid. Her fingers fumbled to pull a stale cigarette out, half of which were now curling up with water, the rain having rendered them useless.

She slipped the filter between her lips, before pulling her fingers up before the end. Her nails were chewed down to the skin. Snapping them together, they lit up a spark, crisping the end of the cigarette as she inhaled. The papery taste soon dissolved into a sharp, bitter one against her cheeks.