Tony opened the hospital room door and held it so the others could walk through it. Lucy was last, and then Tony joined her as they made their way down the hallway, which was surprisingly empty.
"The last time I saw you, you seemed different," Tony said carefully as they walked, looking at Lucy sideways.
"At the moment I am different," Lucy replied with a shrug, and then added truthfully, "I think it's the drugs."
Tony nodded thoughtfully and then said, "What exactly are they doing for you?"
"I think they numbed me, or something," she replied, not meeting his eyes.
"That helps you somehow?" he asked. "With your powers?"
Lucy shrugged and didn't meet his eyes for a minute. When she finally did, he was looking at her with a great deal of interest.
"All I know is that normally I couldn't look you in the eyes right now without bad things happening. The drugs are giving me some distance, like a buffer, or something. I don't really know."
Tony looked at Lucy for a long moment and then shrugged and said with a smile, "ok," leaving it at that for the moment.
They made it to the stairwell and began to descend to the bottom floor.
"How did the shadow hunter cross one of the bridges without anyone alerting us?" Daisy asked suddenly, as though the thought had just occurred to her.
"I've been wondering about that too, Daze," Tony replied.
"What bridges?" Lucy said, shifting under the heavy coat to get her arm more comfortable as she looked to Tony, then to Daisy.
"What bridges?" Bali said incredulously. "Do you even live in this city?"
"I don't know," Lucy replied honestly, her cheeks turning pink at the admission.
"Bali, we really have to work on your bedside manner," Daisy said, giving Lucy a long-suffering look and then rolling her eyes dramatically.
"How can she not know about the bridges? Or if she lives in this city? I'm just saying," Bali protested defensively.
"We can sort out who knows what and why when we are all safe," Tony interrupted, and then looking at Lucy he added, "The bridges Daisy was referring to are the west gate bridge to south gate, north gate bridge to east gate. They divide the city into four distinct precincts. The shadows and their hunters practically own the west side, and up until recently they didn't cross to the south unless they had a really good reason to. We always have someone watching the bridges; the whole team gets an alert when someone, or something suspicious, crosses."
"Oh," was all Lucy could think of to say in response. How was none of this familiar to her? Wasn't she from this city? And how had she never heard of shadows or hunters before?
"Does everyone know about shadow hunters? And shadows?" she asked, as they went through the stairwell door and out through an emergency exit that led to the parking lot.
"Not exactly," Daisy replied. "Most people think that west gate is just really impoverished and crime is rampant. Most people don't look too closely at the things happening in the shadows at night, and it doesn't help that the local police spend more resources on covering up what's happening than they do on stopping it."
"So they don't help you guys fight the shadows?" Lucy asked.
"Some do," Daisy replied. "But the powers that be are more concerned with PR than they are about safety. They are as likely to lock one of us up as they are to fight the darkness that is spreading. Never mind the fact that all policemen have been issued special flashlights with extra bright bulbs and that they refuse to patrol certain parts of the city, especially at night. You would think if they are that scared they'd be willing to admit that there's a problem with this city."
Lucy shivered at the thought of shadows running through part of a city, or possibly from the cold as they had just stepped back out into the blizzard and her exposed legs felt the sting of icy air.
"Has anyone heard from Maver…" Daisy was in the middle of asking when Bali inhaled sharply and pointed across the parking lot.
Lucy looked to where Bali was pointing, and her breath caught in her lungs as she saw that just out of reach of the many lights emanating from the well-lit hospital behind them was a dark figure lurking in the shadows just inside the tree line.
"Is it a shadow?" Lucy asked, her adrenaline pumping.
"Worse," Tony replied.
"A shadow hunter," Daisy joined.
"What a creep!" Bali said, disgust evident in her tone. "What's it doing just standing there?"
"Watching us," Daisy replied. "I think anyways; I don't see any shadows with him."
"That doesn't mean they aren't close by," Tony said with a growl. "We can't wait for Maverick now. We have to get to a safe house. Bowser isn't far from here, and he's well hidden from tracing. If we can lose the hunter we should be safe there."
"Lose him, how exactly?" Bali asked.
"We have to split. Let's get away from the hospital; we can separate at the old church on Donnelly Ave. The shadows won't get too close while we're there."
They all started walking, staying close to the light of the street lights, and Tony and Daisy kept their lights out and at the ready. The shadow hunter followed their movements, turning his body as they passed the tree line where he stood and watched them leave the hospital grounds. He watched but he didn't move from his spot, and Lucy let out a breath of relief hoping it meant he wasn't going to. She couldn't see his face in the darkness, but she could feel his menace even from where they were.
"Why can't we drive?" she asked through gritted teeth. The snow was so deep it was filling her once-warm boots and making her feet and bare legs go numb.
Bali snorted at the question and looked sideways at Tony before saying, "You really aren't from here, are you? There haven't been cabs or Ubers in this city for ten years. They were both too easy of a target for the shadows. All a shadow hunter had to do was call a cab or an Uber and give them an address where they knew no one else would be. Then bye-bye cabby."
Lucy did not respond but pulled Bali's pink hat lower on her head to protect her face from the biting wind and ice and to give her a little distance from the chilling information she was learning. Her arm was beginning to throb now, and so was her head. She thought about trying to swallow the Vicodin without any water, but the idea made her want to gag. Instead she decided to focus on keeping up pace with the others, who were moving so quickly it was all she could do to not fall behind. They made several turns down other empty streets, always keeping close to the lights and out of the shadows. Lucy couldn't help looking behind them several times to make sure no shadows or shadow hunters were following them. Even though none were, she felt sure they weren't far away, and a deep throb in her head was joined by nervous butterflies in her stomach.
"Oh!" Lucy cried out as she tripped suddenly, her shaking and numb legs betraying her in the deep snow. She sprawled out in the snow, barely able to catch herself with her one good arm and bare knees. Tony stopped first and ran back to where she was, grabbing her arm quickly and lifting her to her feet.
"Are you ok?" he asked her as he brushed snow off of her legs and jacket.
"Yeah," she said weakly.
"Are you sure?" Daisy asked as she joined them. "You look really pale, and a little blue."
"I'm cold, I'm really hungry, and I need to take some Vicodin," she burst out through chattering teeth, the pain of her injuries seeping back into her body and the anxiety she felt at the thought of her powers waking up again made her feel too out of control to pretend nothing was wrong.
"Oh! I've brought coffee and donuts!" Daisy said. "I completely forgot!" She dug into her bag and pulled out a thermos and a soggy bag of donuts that had clearly been sat on at some point and handed them to Lucy, who took them one-handed. She set them down and used her good arm to dig the pills out of her cast; then Tony knelt down beside her without being asked and unscrewed the thermos, pouring a generous amount into the thermos lid and handing it to her.
"Thanks," she said, and then she quickly popped the pills in her mouth and took a big swig of coffee, burning her throat and tongue.
"Whoa! Slow down, that coffee's got to be hot!" Daisy said.
"It is," Lucy replied between coughs, but she didn't care. The coffee tasted hot and delicious, and she quickly opened the soggy bag of donuts and pulled out something smooshed with brown frosting and bits of bacon on top. She practically inhaled it, eating the whole thing in two bites and followed it with another chug of scalding hot coffee. Nothing had ever tasted so good to her in her life. Or maybe something had and she just couldn't remember, but at that moment it didn't matter. Her body responded immediately to the sugar and the caffeine, giving her a warm and buzzing feeling in her stomach.
"Yikes," Bali said disdainfully. "Did you even taste it? You ate it so fast."
"She probably hasn't eaten in a long time; look how skinny she is," Daisy said, and then realizing what she said might be considered rude she added, "No offense."
"None taken," Lucy replied through a mouthful of powdered donut, which she also ate in two bites and followed with the rest of the coffee.
"When was the last time you ate?" Tony asked her, looking concerned.
"I don't know," Lucy replied with a shrug. "Feels like days, maybe more."
"You don't remember eating?" Bali asked, incredulous.
"No, I remember having tea the other day, but I have no recent memory of food." She replied as she handed the bag and thermos back to Daisy with a powdered-sugar smile that she wiped with the back of her sleeve before she remembered it wasn't her jacket.
"Sorry," she said to Tony sheepishly.
Bali looked horrified, Daisy laughed, and Tony just smiled and said, "Don't worry about it."
"We should get moving. Do you think you can keep going?" he asked her.
Lucy nodded, and they continued their light jog down the street, turning right, then left, then left again and right again until they came upon a small brick building with a stone archway leading to an enclosed outdoor garden. Without stopping, Tony led them into the garden, which was not well lit and was full of dark shadows that made Lucy shiver.
"The shadows won't come in here? Even though there are no lights?" Lucy asked, looking around at the eerie shapes of statues and water fountains which seemed to fill all the empty spaces between the vegetation.
"No, they won't. They will come close to churches but they won't step foot on the property," Tony replied.
"Demons that have faith?" Daisy said with a shrug as though this were a totally acceptable paradox.
Lucy didn't push the subject; she didn't much care what the reasons were at that moment. She was just glad they were safe.
"Are you sure we need to split up?" Daisy asked Tony a little anxiously.
"I know it's not ideal, Daze, but we are definitely being followed. I'm not sure what the shadows are waiting for, but I have a feeling they won't just let us get where we are going without a fight, and we have to get to Bowser without leading them there," he said.
"So what's the plan?" Bali asked.
"They are following Lucy more than they are following the rest of us," Tony replied. "If we can disguise one of you as her and get them to follow the wrong person, I can get Lucy to the safe house and you two can follow."
"I clearly can't pass for Lucy," Daisy said. "I'm way too short."
"Whoa, wait a minute, I'm not dressing like this freak, just to get followed by shadows!" Bali cried, her arms up in front of her as if she were worried they would tackle her right then to switch clothes with Lucy.
"Bali, we don't have time for this!" Tony said rather severely. "You are closer in height, you have a similar build, you aren't injured and run fast; it has to be you."
"You should go with her though, Tony. It's more believable if you are with her, and I'll take Lucy to Bowser," Daisy said.
Tony didn't like the idea of leaving Lucy, but when he compared the three women's heights it was clear that Daisy could not pass for Lucy. He nodded his agreement and told Bali and Lucy to switch jackets.
"If I die tonight, Tony, I swear I'm coming back as a stray cat to pee on all your shoes!!" Bali said in a huff, getting a gruff laugh from Tony, as she angrily ripped off her puffy pink jacket and threw it not so gently at Lucy's face. Lucy caught it just before it hit her, and then she unzipped Tony's large jacket and handed it to Bali along with the pink hat before putting on the jacket and letting Daisy zip her up.
"Here, you should wear my hat, and both of you should tuck your hair underneath," Daisy said, handing her hat to Lucy and helping her tuck her hair up under it.
Lucy and Bali stood looking at each other for a moment in silence; then suddenly Lucy blushed as she looked down at her naked legs and back up at Bali.
"No!" Bali said immediately, backing away as if they were about to forcibly take her pants off and put them on Lucy.
"You have to put on the hospital gown and give Lucy your shirt and then take off your pants, or this won't work, Bali," Daisy said, sounding genuinely sympathetic to Bali's plight.
"You had better be worth it, freak!" Bali said to Lucy, looking none too convinced, as she turned to Tony and Daisy and added, "You both owe me big for this! Now turn around, both of you!"
Daisy and Tony turned, and Bali and Lucy begrudgingly tore off their clothes once again. This time Lucy took off her hospital gown as quickly as she could and switched it for Bali's black Ramones t-shirt. It was too big, which made Lucy feel gaunt and underweight, but when she put the jeans on she felt significantly warmer and more like a person. They finished quickly, Lucy now wearing jeans, a shirt and a pink jacket and black beanie with her dark hair tucked up underneath. Bali stood in the deep snow with her tanned and trim, bare legs exposed and Lucy's nightgown poking out from the bottom of Tony's oversized jacket. Her hair was tucked up under her pink hat, and she looked at Lucy like she wanted to murder her right there.
"Alright, we're done," Lucy ventured when it was clear Bali wasn't going to speak.
"Well, I think you two could be twins," Daisy said, barely suppressing a smile.
"It will have to do," Tony added, looking them over once. "We will just have to move quickly so no one can look too closely."
"What if they've hired a witch, Tony?" Daisy asked suddenly, as though the thought had just occurred to her for the first time.
"We can't worry about that now. We just have to get to Bowser. Daze, you and Lucy go out first; go north towards the bridge. You know where Bowser is. Stay out of the shadows, keep your augmentor out, and if anything goes wrong run. We will go east as if we are making a break for the subway and then we will circle back around and meet you there."
"Ok, have you heard back from Maverick?" Daisy asked.
"No, but I sent him a message letting him know we were using plan B. He'll know where to find us."
Daisy nodded, and then the four of them stood for a moment just looking at one another. No one wanted to move from the relative safety of the church garden.
"Let's do this," Daisy spoke first with forced enthusiasm, as she smiled at Lucy and then led the way to the stone archway of the garden. As she passed Tony he grabbed Lucy's arm, looked her dead in the eye and said, "If anything shows up, don't tackle it this time; just run."
Lucy nodded, ignoring a strange feeling in her stomach at his touch and trying not to fight the instinct to look anywhere but in his eyes.
"Promise," he said, not letting her arm go.
"I promise," she said quietly.
"You ready, girl?" Daisy asked. Tony let go of her arm, and she followed Daisy.
"Ready as I'll ever be," she replied.
"Hah! That's a good one."
Together they left the archway and walked back onto the streets of the snowy city. The dull light of the hushed world began to alter slightly as the sun began to rise somewhere behind the thick wall of clouds and ice. It would be a slow sunrise today, as the thick blizzard would filter the light and keep the world in a half-day, half-night haze until the storm broke at least.
"Do shadows come out during the day?" she asked Daisy as they walked down the street, staying in the light of the street lamps.
"They do, but it's not very common. Usually only really strong ones or really stealthy ones will try it. They have to travel in the dark, so they either cover up completely, drawing attention to themselves, or they travel underground."
"What happens if they are exposed to sunlight?" she asked.
"When light touches a shadow, it's no longer a shadow; it's just light," she said in a reasonable tone as though this was simply logic.
"But they traveled through the hospital just fine," Lucy replied.
"True," Daisy consented as she led them down a new street, looking intently into the dark corners as she did. "But not all light is created equal. Man-made lights might weaken shadows, but it literally and figuratively pales in comparison to sunlight."
"What about your flashlight thingies?" Lucy asked, waving her good hand towards the wand-like device Daisy held.
"Flashlight thingies?" Daisy laughed. "If you mean the augmentor, then the simple answer would be that we don't know. There's a kind of rock inside them at the end that reflects the light. If you have natural power, then you can channel that power through the augmentor and it creates a light almost identical to sunlight."
Lucy nodded, as if this made perfect sense, even though inwardly she thought it sounded completely made up. They walked in silence for several minutes, Daisy holding her wand at the ready, waving it towards the shadows that hugged the tall buildings that they passed. The sun was rising more quickly, making the world look greyer and less nighttime twinkly—the tell-tale pause between night and day when everything seemed to still like a deep breath being held right before the light and life of day burst forth.
"We are close; Bowser should be just around the next corner to the left there," she said, pointing to a tall brick building up ahead. "I think we might be in the clear."
Lucy sighed inwardly, feeling a sense of relief wash over her. It had been the longest night of her life. Or had it? She wasn't sure, but it had to be in the top three, and what she did know was that sleep and food couldn't be far away now and she was ready for them both.
"Come on, let's run the rest of the way," Daisy said, almost sounding cheerful. Lucy nodded, and together they jogged toward the brick building and turned left down a deserted alleyway that ran beside it. Only it wasn't deserted.
A dark hand shot out of thin air and wrapped itself around Daisy's throat, lifting her high into the air, making her drop the augmentor in the snow. The alleyway was full of shadows, as if they had known where Daisy had been leading them all along. They slithered, slunk, and wormed their way through the dark, just out of reach of the rising daylight that couldn't penetrate the tall walls around them. Lucy looked around, her heart pounding, trying to see if a hunter was with them. No hunters were in the alley that she could see, but the shadows were so thick that it was possible he was hiding behind them.
Daisy kicked her feet and made noises like she was choking. The shadow that held her gurgled a loathsome sound as though it were delighted in her efforts to fight back. The other shadows that slinked around made laughing noises that sounded like a pack of hyenas with a touch of emphysema. The air smelled acrid, and somehow it felt colder than the street they had just left, and the little hairs on the back of Lucy's arms stood straight up.
The shadows were circling around her, trying to close her into the alley and away from the light of the street behind her. Tony's voice echoed in her head: "If anything shows up, don't tackle it this time." She could still feel his warm hand on her arm, and she looked back towards the light of the street as if he might show up just in time. She thought about running towards that light, but then she looked back at Daisy, who now hung limply in the shadow's pitch-black arm, and she knew she couldn't leave someone to die at the hands of evil.
Lucy threw herself into the snow at the shadows' feet as if she were about to beg for mercy. Letting her one good hand slip into the deep snow around her, she looked up with tears in her eyes at the monster that held Daisy, her head throbbing and the deep black of the shadow was so dark she almost couldn't look at it.
"No reason not to join now; we've already won!" the thing said in a gurgling voice as though it were half drowning in water. The darkness around Lucy was closing in as the shadows around her advanced in a perfect circle, blocking out the light so that she could barely see in front of her face. Her breath came in ragged puffs of icy cold air, and her tears were freezing to her cheeks. She felt a chill in her bones that reminded her of death, as though she had tasted death before. It felt familiar, like an old friend who had stabbed her in the back long ago.
"No!" she growled into the pitch black around her.
The shadows moved then, grabbing her shoulder and pushing her forward into the snow so that her face and head were buried in it, just as her hand slid forward and touched something metal in the snow. Her trembling hand clasped around the augmenter, and with all the strength she had within her she pulled her body out of the snow, pushing off the shadow that held her and pointed the augmenter at the shadow.
Without warning a light so bright and hot burst from her it was as though the sun itself was inside of her. It came in rolling waves of heat that burst, unbidden, down her arm and into the augmenter, shining out the other side with uncontrolled power—a light that shot like arrows in every direction at once until the force of it blew Lucy backwards through the air, out of the alleyway and into the street where she landed hard on her back, hitting her head and making her lose consciousness before the steam of the melted snow around her even began to dissipate into the morning light.