Summer was unabashed in her revelry and vindicated in her approach, after her relieved outburst. She stopped and smiled at the bouncing shadow that shared her excitement.
“Ok, let’s get this started!“ she approached the shadow, any of her earlier worries forgotten. They grabbed their hand and pulled her into a rhythmless bouncing spin before, and the challenges of dancing with someone you couldn’t see sunk in.
She tried and failed to find they’re waist and moved them through the opening steps of a half-remembered ballroom dance. Instead, she tripped and landed squarely on her face.
She tried very hard to ignore the twinkle in Mensha’s eye upon standing.
“I think you should do a bit more coordinating.” She glared at him as she stood, yet it didn’t deter his mood.
With a huff, she returned her attention to the dancer that shifted uncomfortably.
“Something slower this time,”
The shade took her hand and Summer made sure to have a firm grip on the shorter woman’s shoulder before they moved.
Summer steeped first pulling the shadow in a slow circular shuffle that hastened with each step, soon becoming a bouncing waltz with each increasingly confident step. The shadowy dress flowed around the dancer like trailing wings as they danced about the bubble of light the pillar provided. Often leaving her fellow dancer invisible and Summer’s steps uncertain.
Summer smiled as she managed to keep pace with their silent steps. Her heart thundered with victory before an ill-timed motion. Sent them scrambling to stay upright.
This time Mensha did laugh, she found the joke far less humorous. Silent Summer steadied from her near fall and again readied herself to fulfill what was quickly becoming a laborious endeavour. She could feel the disappointment in the shade’s lax grip.
She took a deep breath to begin, yet music interrupted her slow steps. She turned to find Mensha smiling, phone in hand. “Weren’t we saving our batteries?” The words as much statement as question.
“Yes, but this feels like an appropriate use.” He is wards mild.
She turned back to the shade the parts she could make out bounced happily in tune with the energetic pop, so out of place in this dark world.
She gave up on her attempts at elegance instead she bounced ad twirled around with the questionably visible woman. It wasn’t what she planned but nothing recent had been, she knew she looked silly, but she couldn’t find it in herself to care, and despite herself, she was having fun.
She followed the dancer out of the pillar’s sanctuary without much worry. The dancer melted into the surroundings despite Summer’s aura of light. She could feel them though she couldn’t see them, her invisible presence happily skipping around her as the surrounding crowd muffled the music to distant thrum.
When their escape swirled to its conclusion, they slipped into the pillar’s light. She looked back at the darkness it wasn’t quite so frightening. Though Mensah’s relieved expression did make her a touch guilty.
He ended the music and took the shades hand after with only a moment’s hesitation. One hand in theirs the other in the middle of her back, Summer waited for him to stumble through the steps of his waltz.
He didn’t, he slipped effortlessly into a measured if graceless rhythm. Every focused step carried them around each other, Mensah disappeared when the dancer passed between them and it looked like the dark was swallowing him when he was nearer.
In a wandering waltz that was intimate for what could be analogized as dancing with a questionably physical woman.
They separated and Mensha managed to bow smugly, she clapped. “How’d you do that.” She asked as he straightened.
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“I let them lead,” he replied in a light tone.
“That’s it.”
“Well, I couldn’t see them but they don’t have that issue, so,”
“You followed along and tried not to fall over your feet.”
“Precisely,” he smiled unashamed.
She looked to his side where she assumed the dancer still stood,
“They’re behind you,”
She whipped around to a wailing silhouette.
“Now then, can you take us to where you saw those people,”
The shadows bounced and Summer smiled in victory.
She turned back to Mensha, “Well, Let’s go!” His slight smile mirrored her broad one.
He nodded and a shadow dragged him backward.
Summer was stunned yet in that brief window it had dragged him half into the shadow.
She leaped and grabbed his leg before it was swallowed.
Grip as strong as her sudden radiance, she heaved and dragged her partner back into the light.
He frantically stabbed at the shadow that clung to him. The pair of them struggled on the ground, a cloak of shadow menaced by a flashing knife.
Summer stomped on a clear spot of darkness. There was no crunch yet she felt bone crumble around her foot.
She raised her foot and a punch to her head sent her to the ground. Darkness covered her vision and blows rained on her. her face, her chest, her stomach.
Her flailing hand found purchase in the shadows, and she swung and kept swinging as she lurched to her feet.
She caught ragged breaths in the moment of calm she had, swaying unsteadily. Mensha stood from a crumpled shadow, dark feet circled her their body hidden by the darkness, and she held a limp shade by its foot.
She swung at the feet and smiled as the shade fell with a satisfying thump. The crumpled shade clawed her feet. Their fingers dug through her thick pants. She kicked and stomped the rabid shadow something gave.
It curled into a dark ball on the floor. She dropped the barely conscious shadow. She looked around.
Mensha – eyes determined, limped towards the curled shadow, the dancer hid behind the pillar and her recently discarded weapon was trying to drag away its unstabbed companion.
She swayed on her feet and hurried to bring her thoughts together, as her partner closed on the last shade still standing.
“Stop, Mensha, it’s not worth it.” He did and his resolute visage broke into one tiredness. He walked to her keeping a cautious if tired gaze on the shades.
The standing shade pulled the other’s arm over its shoulder and glance at her, the pair retreated into the dark. Leaving the sprawled shadow and a spreading pitch pool.
Mensha’s hand found her trembling one, trembling? She looked down to find her shaking fingers wrapped in his. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and willed the panic down.
It didn’t work on the first breath or the second or fourth and it was only by the thirteenth could she find a measure of calm. She opened her eyes, Mensha was scanning the dark, one handheld tightly in hers and the other, gripping his slowly dripping knife.
She looked closer, his right half from his hand to face was splattered in black. Black that dyed his closes flowed down his hand that more closely resembled the shades that anything before dripping off his knife’s blade.
She took another breath to calm the returning panic and looked at her feet, a few splotches stained her pants.
She found herself seated near the pillar and staring out into the dark, the corpse didn’t bother her as much as it did. They sat silent their entwined fingers the only bridge between their thoughts, her gaze wandered to the pool of shadow, and her mind replayed the feeling of flesh and bone giving way. She looked at the blood marring her clothes, the patches of darkness slowly dissolved into the air.
The dancer fidgeted uncomfortably walking near them to be sent running by a glance from Mensha before the cycle repeated itself. It repeated until the shade managed to trip over its own feet.
She laughed, it didn’t lift her sour feelings, but, it pushed them away, till the dread, shame, and revulsion weren’t all she could think about.
“You were right,” she said between laughter and tears she stared up at the artificial stars. Familiar arms wrapped around her. ”I don’t know what I was expecting.” She mumbled, Mensha held her tighter her light faint. “One day Mensha, that was it and now we have this?” She gestured at the gloomy world and looked at her now clean clothes.
“But I refuse to change because the world decided to be cruel and I know you disagree and think it’s silly to feel bad for a bunch of people trying to kill us, but I do.” Her light brightened with every word. “And no matter what things happen in the future I won’t let that change.” She was lighter, and for what felt like the first time in forever, she was without worry.
She could feel light and heat flowing through her without any effort or surging emotion, it simply was.
She looked down at her partner. His eyes tired but calm. “Are you with this silly woman?”
He sighed long and slow, the sound more exasperated than anything else. ”I’ve already answered that,”
She smiled and leaned down, their lips meeting the moment slow and serene even if tomorrow certainly wouldn’t be. A jolt broke the moment and her eyes opened to find the dancer tightly hugging them and shaking with excitement she could feel the joyful squeal trying to make itself known. She laughed, Mensha glared.
“I love you Mensha.”
“I love you too.”