In The Shadows

Chapter Sixteen: Strangers in The Dark

They returned to the storage unit after getting boba and Elowen stayed with Henry until the sun started to set, the high windows turned to gold by the rays. It would be dark before she got back to her apartment and likely snowing, according to the forecast. Though it wouldn't be considered late for hours, she wanted to get home. Walking home in the dark without a cellphone didn't look inviting in the least. Her new device was in the mail but hadn't yet arrived.

Henry decided to leave along with her when she announced she needed to go. "I'm getting a headache from so much concentration and I'm craving pizza," he declared, almost sheepish, as he locked the storage unit with the key Julian had given him.

At the mention of food, Elowen's stomach growled. Appetite had abandoned her that morning so she'd only eaten a packet of Pop-Tarts. It was catching up to her now in the form of a painful ache.

"Does food taste different now?" she asked. Julian's busyness kept her from asking him questions that served no importance and Henry got the cast-offs that still lingered when she woke up in the mornings. It was too bad she had yet to get a new phone to make asking easier and instant through text messages.

Henry wiggled the door and, satisfied that no one was getting in, fell into step alongside her. "The good taste great and the bad tastes horrible. And chemicals are much easier to detect: they leave an aftertaste that wasn't there before, at least not so blatantly. Kind of makes you want to go homegrown or vegan or something."

Elowen's nose scrunched. "What tastes best now then?"

"Pizza," he answered without hesitation. "Definitely pizza."

A group of high schoolers stretched across the sidewalk ahead, heads bent over their phone screens. Elowen moved closer to Henry to allow them room to pass and their elbows brushed. "And coffee? Does it taste better?"

"I hate coffee," he said. Elowen gasped, eyes gone wide. "Alas, it helps with . . . cravings so I drink it often now. It's still disgustingly bitter."

"The bitterness is the best part." Elowen clicked her tongue and avoided a crack in the sidewalk out of childish habit. "My dad gave me coffee when I was still drinking out of a bottle though, so I might be a little desensitized."

Henry let out a bark of sarcastic laughter. "It is highly possible," he agreed.

They walked in silence side by side, elbow to elbow for a while. The subway station was a few blocks away from Julian's storage unit and Elowen assumed Henry was going to the same place until he started to detour. She stopped on the corner of the block with the others waiting to cross the street. He stopped too, eyebrows raised.

"Would you like some pizza?" he asked, head tilted. He'd left the beanie behind today and his hair fell straight, black as soot. Elowen hadn't thought much on it but now looking at him, there was something distinctly Asian in the curve of his nose bridge and the slant of his eyes, barely overshadowed by a mix of European features. She remembered that his eyes were once brown.

"I should probably get home," she said. The subway was across the street and the sun was almost gone. The back of her neck already prickled from shadows nothing more than a place the light couldn't reach.

Henry caught on. "I'll walk you home, if you want, afterward."

The appeal of both pizza and not walking home alone was enough to convince her and Elowen fell back into step alongside him. The restaurant was around the corner, a quaint place bustling but not overcrowded. Cliché Italian music played through a speaker above the register, a bit static-ridden and comical. The smell of pizza was wonderful. An older man sporting a grey mustache came over to ask what their choices were.