when: early November, 2019 – before dawn sometime where: Pioneer Square who: @ofhickory
She had slipped out before Sam woke up – had untangled herself with gentle precision, and if she’d smiled as she watched him frown in his sleep at her absence, it was nobody’s business but her own.
Blackrock was silent, save for her boots crunching snow underfoot. Blackrock was cold, her breath shaping itself into white clouds. Blackrock was caught in a blue hour, painted in shades of ice as it dreamt.
In contrast, she was restless. It didn’t matter how many years passed; in fall, something burrowed itself deep inside her chest, and in winter, it began to howl. Come spring, it would claw its way out, and she would chase after it, into the mountains. And so she walked. Studied the houses. Ignored the thing in her chest that only ever thought of summer. Relished the way she had the world to herself, safe and alone.
She could bypass the square, but she didn’t, and there he was. Like clockwork. The only other person alive.
“Hey,” she said.
“You been out here for long?”
