The cold was shocking. After the warmth of the cafe, the wall of frozen air hit Leigh like a slap to the face, one that shivered past her layers and into her bones. Wrapping her arms around herself in an attempt to trap some of her body heat at least somewhere in the general vicinity of her body, Leigh glanced both ways and tried to remember where she was going.
Turning left, she felt her shoes crunch and scurried along the sidewalk in the encroaching dark, barely held back by the streetlights. The neon of the Graveyard Circle soon faded behind her. The world was a blanket of greys then, punctuated by the occasional flare of light from shops or headlights. Byt every shadow held glimpses of dark eyed little boys, of guns glinting in the moonlight, of lights that never quite made it past her peripheral vision. She walked home quickly. Fingers cold, Leigh fumbled her way into unlocking the door to her apartment, immediately going to the radiator and switching it to high. That poor radiator had certainly gotten a workout since she arrived.
Finally able and willing to remove her outer layers and focus on something other than not getting mugged by devil children, Leigh settled into her seat by the window and sighed. She couldn’t tell if her ragged nerves were due to the cafe, to Helois, or the story he had told. But she knew that despite her misgivings, something about it excited her. Why did Helois seem so involved? Why didn’t he have iron doorknobs? There was more to this. More to Helois. And damn, if those two didn’t make a good cake and hot chocolate. She knew she'd be back. Sighing again, she checked the time on her phone. Another two texts. She swiped them away. Opening her laptop, she started on her work for the night before she could slip into her warm, comfy bed.