1. Full Story

He had never quite gotten used to those blaring alarms. It was the same, shrill ringing that greeted him every evening, and though they certainly served their purpose, they always sounded off in a way he could not explain. Aside from discomfort, his morning was as monotonous as it had ever been. He stretched the sore day away from his muscles, sat up onto the edge of his bed and as usual, and waited for the alarms to quiet themselves, taking the moment to collect himself. 

“Evening, Seth!” A grinning face came down to meet him from the bunk above. 

“Evening, Stella,” Seth responded with a smile of his own. 

“Ready for another night?” She latched herself onto her bed and gently swung down onto his. 

“As ready as always.”

He reached for the shoes that sat next to his mattress, only to find them missing. Puzzled, he turned around to face Stella. “You haven’t seen my shoes, have you?”

“Hm? Oh, I didn’t take them.”

“Why would you say it like–” but before he could finish his sentence, the back of his head was playfully met with a sole. 

“Looking rather glum today, friend,” a voice came from behind him which he spun back around to face. 

“Evening to you too, Levi. Amber.” He chuckled and yanked his shoes out from the hands of their thieves. “Just a bad day is all.”

“Well don’t be dozing off,” Amber laughed with him. “Never know what might happen out there.” 

“You know, I think I can hazard a guess,” Seth responded sarcastically. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.” 

The alarms interrupted whatever conversation they were trying to have with another round of dissonant blaring.

“ALL PERSONNEL TO THEIR STATIONS, ALL PERSONNEL TO THEIR STATIONS.”

“That’s our cue,” Levi told the group. “Stay safe out there.” 

Seth lifted himself off from his bed. Though groggy and disoriented, he hobbled himself to his platform, the rocky floor pushing into his soles with each step. As with everything else, the platform was just as it had always been. A wall of crag rock standing tall in front of five circles etched into the ground. Next to each one, laid an almost beak-shaped aviation helmet with a clear faceguard and a mechanical flight suit equipped with a glider. 

He approached the platform, and greeted his patrol mates as they arrived with him. He didn’t know most of them as well as he perhaps should have, but they certainly weren't unfamiliar. Aside from one. And as expected, she was already there, standing in one of the circles with her gear fully equipped. 

She was a spot of void in the knowledge of everyone there. “Sky Arrow” was all she was known as, her real name long forgotten, and she was much too menacing for anyone to muster up the courage to ask. Seth wasn’t even sure how well he could picture her face. She always seemed to be there standing in her circle with her helmet on before he got there, and she always seemed to be gone well before the rest of them got back. 

He took his spot in the circle next to her and gave her a small smile and nod. If she had seen it, she did not acknowledge it with a response. No matter to him, though. He respected her space, a feeling which she reciprocated. 

He gathered his equipment. The flight suit fit snuggly onto him, regardless of how it was always a bit of a hassle trying to put on, with the glider in the way. The helmet he had thought to be a bit over-the-top, but it had its charms, and certainly served its purpose. Finally, he grabbed his shortsword. A few safe practice swings showed it still was as sharp as ever, like it was brand new–which, he thought, wouldn’t be far from the truth. 

Yet again, the alarms snapped him back into attention.

“TAKEOFF IMMINENT, TAKEOFF IMMINENT.”

The wall in front of them started to tremble, lifting dust and small stones as it slowly rose up. A cool breeze swept in through the gap forming between the bottom of the wall and the ground. The group stood there until eventually, the wall reached the top of its ascent with a deep bang of a mechanism.

The now open wall revealed they stood at a cave at the top of a high mountain cliff face, giving them a near complete view of a dark night sky, littered with clusters of stars that seemed to parallel the bustling city below it, full of shining lights. Not a single cloud was to be seen. Had he not seen it every single night before then, Seth would be awestruck. 

But that wasn’t what he was here to do, and neither was it for his patrol group. Together, they ran towards the edge of the cliff, and with practiced technique, all jumped off it. Further and further they dived, until outstretching their gliders and flying all the way back up into becoming just specks in the moonlight. 

As much of a drag he thought his every night was, Seth had to admit that he enjoyed this part of it. There was, ironically, a feeling of freedom that came with gliding across the skies and cutting against the wind that came at him. But anything becomes tiring after doing it every day for as long as you can remember. So he just flew, and flew further. Watching for something, anything. 

After aimlessly flying for an amount of time unbeknownst to him, he was snapped out of his disillusionment by a sharp flash of light right at the corner of his vision. He veered himself around and sped towards the origin of the light. Once he had finally arrived, it was too late. Any sign of what had happened was already long gone. 

“PATROL FINISHED, RETURN TO BASE. PATROL FINISHED, RETURN TO BASE.”

Through crackly speakers in his helmet he heard the alarms calling them back. And though with a heavy sigh, he did as he was told. 

Landing back at the platform he saw that the “Sky Arrow” was, as expected, already there before him. She had her hand clutching her chest, slightly leaning against the wall.

“You all right?” he asked her, an eyebrow raised.

She nodded and waved him off with her hand. It didn’t take a genius to figure out she was just waving him off, he thought, but he knew when to back away, which he did promptly. 

***

“Did you hear? The ‘Sky Arrow’ just got her ninth kill!” Stella splurted while wolfing down the sandwich in front of her. 

He never understood how she could enjoy it to that extent. Every night, it was the same, rather dubious sandwich. A little-bit-too-old bread filled with some strange gray matter he didn’t quite know what was. It tasted just about how it looked: sad. It was surprisingly filling, though, and they certainly weren’t offered anything else, so he began to eat it as he had every night prior. 

“That puts her at what, just one off?” Levi calculated. 

Seth grunted affirmatively. “I saw it. Or at least, I think I saw her do it. Same as always.”

“What are you all talking about?” Amber looked at the rest of the group, head tilted. 

“Haven’t you heard?” Levi said. “About the etchings?” 

“You’ll have to dial it back a bit. Etchings?”

“Yikes. How long have you been here?” Levi pulled out a smooth stone tablet from his pocket, no larger than his hand. “You know your stone? They say that for every one of the creatures you kill, you get one etching on the face of it.”

Amber pulled out her own stone from her pocket, just as smooth as Levi’s. “One of the creatures? You really believe in those?” 

“Not at all. But apparently, the ‘Sky Arrow’ has nine etchings on hers. They say that once you get ten etchings on your stone, you can fit it in there.” He pointed to a large, intricately carved and detailed door, sitting right at the edge of the rugged, rocky, large and cavernous dining room they sat in. It felt starkly out of place, but right on it was a slot, perfectly sized to their stones. 

“And?” 

“And then they open. You climb up some stairs, and then right at the top, you’ll get granted a single wish, whatever you desire.”

“That’s a bit ridiculous.” 

“Hey, I didn’t come up with it. That’s just what they say.” 

“Anyways, I’m surprised you haven’t heard that before. It’s been a thing for like…” Seth started a thought, but seemed to trail off in his memory. 

“...for?” Amber raised an eyebrow at him. 

“Sorry, my memory’s failing me,” Seth shook his head as if trying to get something off it. “I don’t know. For forever.” 

“Now that you mention it, I can’t recall either,” Levi said. “It really does feel like forever ago.”

“Neither,” Stella asserted. 

“I think you’ve all lost it,” Amber stated as she turned to Seth. “As for you, isn’t she in your patrol group?” 

“Yeah, why?” Seth replied. 

“Well, if I had this legendary ‘Sky Arrow’ that close to me every night, it seems only obvious to try and get to know her more,” Amber suggested. 

“I’ve tried. She is rather dismissive.”

“Try harder, then. The creatures, the stones, the wish. Don’t you want to know more about it? If the rumours are true, she seems to be the only one who knows what she’s doing.”

Stella and Levi both nodded their agreement.

Seth let out a heavy sigh. “...I’ll try my best tomorrow.” 

***

“TAKEOFF IMMINENT, TAKEOFF IMMINENT.”

Seth and his patrol group stood there ready in front of the slowly rising wall. 

Seth looked next to him. “Hi. ‘Sky Arrow’. That’s what you’re called, right?” he tried to force out over the blaring of the alarms and the grinding of the cliff face. 

She looked back at him. Though he couldn’t see her face well through the helmet, he could certainly see her eyes staring into his. They looked strangely softer than he would have expected. 

“Right. Well, is it alright if I fly with you tonight, then, stranger?”

She stood looking at him for a second before turning back towards the cliff. 

Seth happily took this as a sign of approval. The wall stopped rising, and together, the patrol group jumped off the edge yet again. 

Once they had gotten a calmer glide, Seth flew closer to the “Sky Arrow”. 

“So, what’s your story?” he asked her.

She turned her head towards him. Again she said no words, but merely stared at him. 

“Sorry, stupid question.” He shook his head to himself. “…is it true? That you’ve killed nine of them?”

She gave him only a small nod, and he took this response perhaps too eagerly. “What do they look like? What are they?” 

She just kept her gaze for a while before looking back forward, head lowered as if solemnly. Then she sped off away from him.  

“Wait–Well, drat.”

***

“Well?” Seth’s friends pressured him for a progress report like superior officers.

“Well nothing. The most I got out of her was a nod or two.”

“Well it looks like you’ll have to try again. Got many other plans, do you?” Amber said to him. 

“Yes, ma’am,” Seth sighed, demoralized.

***

Seth steadied his glide and brought himself back up next to the “Sky Arrow” once again. 

“Sorry, for last time,” he apologized to her. 

She looked at him, eyes locked for a minute before she lowered her own. “…no…I’m…sorry.” It was a strained sound that came from her, as if it was difficult, or pained her to put those words out.

“Apologize? For what?”

“…for…running…away…” 

“I overstepped, I’m sorry,” he lowered his head as much as he could while flying. “So, you can talk? Pardon me for saying this but I was beginning to think you were mute.”

She nodded in response. “…it’s…hard…”

“Yeah, uh, don’t strain yourself. Did you get an injury on your throat or something?” 

She averted her gaze back away from him.

“Forget I asked. Don’t need to say anything if you don’t want,” Seth tried his best at reassuring her. “…do you like it, then? Flying here, free in the night sky.”

“Maybe I…I did…once…”

“Not anymore?”

“Not…anymore.”

“I just think there’s a feeling of freedom that comes with it. Maybe doing it day after day every day brings that feeling a little down, though, so I can see where you’re coming from.”

“…yeah…maybe…” she said as if she was convincing herself. 

***

“Do you remember much from before you were here?” Seth asked the “Sky Arrow”.

“This place…it’s all I…remember,” she said.

“Same. Strange, isn’t it?”

She nodded her assent.

“What do you think we’re doing here? What’s our purpose?” 

“I…don’t know.” 

For a while, their helmets cutting through the wind was the only sound between them. 

“Hmm. What’s your favourite animal?” Seth broke the silence.

She turned her head to him, eyes wide in confusion. She chuckled. A small, short chuckle but a bright one. 

He turned to her, his eyes even wider. “You just laughed! It must be snowing.” 

In response to this, she smiled to herself. “I’m sorry…it’s just a…a different…question.”

“Well now I’m curious.”

“I…guess…I like birds,” she decided. 

***

Seth thought his every day was the same. A slog of which he trances himself through. He wakes, he prepares, he patrols, he eats and he sleeps. But ever since he was pushed to talk to the “Sky Arrow”, they have become full of excitement and they pass too fast. Those days turned into weeks, and those weeks into some time he didn’t know. Before he knew it, he couldn’t wait for the next day to come sooner. 

He popped right out of his bed in the morning, even before the alarms came to wake him themselves. Sitting up, he put on his shoes and rubbed whatever weariness he had clear of his eyes. 

Those blaring alarms greeted him again. This time, though, he didn’t mind them. He only sat there with a smile on his face, waiting for his friends to wake up.

A familiar face shot down from the bunk above him.

“Evening, Seth–wow, you’re ready early,” Stella said with furrowed brows.

“Evening, Stella,” Seth ignored her comments. 

“Isn’t it obvious, Stella?” Amber came approaching their bunk. “He’s gotten himself infatuated.”

“That’s not–well actually maybe it’s a little bit true,” Seth tried to deny but decided it was pointless. 

“I don’t even remember when I last asked. Have you found out about anything useful?”

“She’s a person. I can’t just use her like that.”

“Yeah, yeah. Just don’t leave us out of the wishing will,” Levi laughed.

“ALL PERSONNEL TO THEIR STATIONS, ALL PERSONNEL TO THEIR STATIONS.”

“Well guys, gotta go! See you later!” Seth rushed off to his station. 

As usual, the “Sky Arrow” was there before him, and she smiled at him as she saw him coming. He quickly geared himself up, and took his position next to her.

He leaned close to her ear. “Tonight, do you want to sneak off the route?” 

“What?” she responded, his statement shocking, launching her into a small coughing fit. 

“You all right? Don’t go dying on me just yet.”

“...yeah, sorry,” she said while clearing her throat.

“It’s nothing serious. Just sometimes, I used to leave my route and just take my mind off of…well everything. There’s a spot I know.”

“But what about…the patrol?” 

“Oh come on. It’s been ages since we’ve seen anything, and it will be ages before we do. One night won’t hurt.” 

“...alright,” she conceded. 

“TAKEOFF IMMINENT, TAKEOFF IMMINENT.”

The wall rose above their heads, opening the air to them again. 

Together, they jumped off the edge. They dived, they climbed, they glided, only this time, Seth began to speed himself up ahead of her, and gestured for her to follow him. She looked around, and when she was sure there was no one watching, she complied. 

***

“What is this place?” the “Sky Arrow” looked quizzically at her partner-in-crime.

“My hideout,” Seth told her. 

It certainly wasn’t the most secluded hideout one could imagine. It stood out as the top of a skyscraper, although one long since forgotten about. It reached high into the clouds, higher than they could fly safely with their own gear, and it towered above the forest around them, like they were watching over the entire world beneath them.

“It’s beautiful…” She approached the edge of a railing and leaned over it. 

He followed suit next to her. “You wouldn’t think it, but I’ve never seen anyone else here. Just me. And I guess now you.”

The pair of them merely stood there, staring out into that deep, starry night sky for what seemed like hours. 

“I never told you…did I?” she said, her mind drifting out of the stars and back to her head. 

“Told me what?”

“What’s wrong with me.”

“Nothing’s wrong with you.”

She turned to him, and gave him a pained smile. “You’re sweet. Something is…though.” 

“And what’s that?”

“The monsters. Do you remember when…you asked me about them? And…I ran off?”

“Yeah. You don’t have to say anything, though.”

“I’ve seen them. They are horrible…an empty void, nothing but…darkness. I can’t explain well, but…they take something from you.”

“Something?”

“Like…your feelings, your hopes, your dreams…your soul.”

“Are you saying that these…monsters eat your soul? Sorry if I’m a little skeptical.”

“I wasn’t always…like this. I was happy, having…fun, talking without it feeling like…stones in my throat.”

“What happened?”

“I started seeing…them…the monsters. I killed them…just like we were trained to do…but each time I fought one…it only…got worse. It got colder…harder to talk…harder to feel. Talking with you…though, it’s…made it a little better.”

“So you really have gotten nine of them?” 

She nods. Reaching into her pocket, she pulls out her stone tablet and shows it to him. As expected, its face was marked by nine etchings, with a perfect space for another. 

“Do you believe in it? The wish stuff, I mean.”

“I…I have to. Otherwise…what am I doing…anything for? They are taking…my soul. I’ve lost most…everything, but I’ve managed to keep…this one wish.” 

“What’s that?

“…I…I want to get out of here. Out of…the patrol. I want to live…like the ones we fly over every day. This…is all I’ve ever known…I want something else.”

“So you’d wish for a new, normal life, away from the patrol?”

“Yeah…sorry, I know it’s…selfish. I can wish for anything…and I’m helping myself.”

“No, no. It’s a normal thing to want.”

She looks into his eyes with a newfound vigour. “This is even…more selfish…but…”

“But?”

“I don’t know how the wishes…work…but if I can…would you like to join me? In…the new life.” 

“You want to include me in your wish?”

“Only…if you want.”

“I would really like that.” 

She smiled. “Thank…you.” 

They both stared back out towards the stars. 

“Hold on. When I saw you, after you got the ninth, you were clutching your chest. Isn’t that a little–” Seth started to form a thought but when he looked back beside him, she was gone. 

He spun his head around in a frenzy, looking for her. Nothing. The only thing he found was her tablet, left dropped on the ground. 

“Where…” before he could finish his question, a sharp flash of light shined in the sky far in front of him. 

She had done it. She had gotten her tenth kill. He looked down at the tablet, and as would be expected, a new etching started to glow and carve itself out from the face. It eventually calmed down, and the tablet was now complete with its ten etchings. 

He turned his head back up to the sky, waiting for a sign of her return, and he caught it. A small speck in the distance, but something was wrong. She wasn’t approaching him. She was falling down from the sky. 

Wasting no time, Seth quickly jumped over the railing and off the tower, speeding towards her as fast as he could. Faster than he had ever gone before, faster than he knew was safe. But it was pointless. Her body hit the treeline with a horrific snap.

For a while, he just flew through the air, body immobilized and only being held up by the wind on his glider.

“PATROL FINISHED, RETURN TO BASE. PATROL FINISHED, RETURN TO BASE.”

The sound was more shrill than it had ever been. He felt as if his ears were starting to bleed. Clawing on his face, he tried to remove the helmet, to quiet the sound, but it was stuck fast. Tears began to flow, fogging up his vision, and there he flew simply weeping.

***

Seth had returned back to the base, only he went straight back to his bed. He avoided everyone and everything. He simply laid there. For hours on end. He thinks he might have heard some of his friends trying to talk to him, but he couldn’t be sure. Any sound at all seemed so far. Eventually, he was the only one awake, staring eyes wide at the bunk above him. 

He turned to his side, but something nagged at his hip. He reached down to his pocket and he was greeted with a tablet. Not his, but a completed one. Though he couldn’t recall when he had done it, he had pocketed the “Sky Arrow”’s tablet. 

Suddenly, his path felt clear to him. He softly stepped out of his bed, careful not to wake anyone, and headed towards the dining hall. He made good time and quickly he was standing in front of the mysterious door. 

His whole time there, it had seemed so far away. Bearing over him. But at that point, it felt so small. He held her tablet in front of him, and without hesitation, slotted it in. It fit perfectly, and the door’s hinges started to creak. A sign of how long they’ve been sitting dormant. It took longer than he would have wanted it to, but it managed to open itself all the way. 

Just behind it sat an unglamorous staircase of stone. He looked up at it, and noticed that it reached a place much higher than the interior it lived in. But he didn’t care. He simply took one step after another, and another, and another…

He had no idea how much time had passed, but he continued to push on, until eventually, he caught sight of a bright light right at the end of the staircase. He began to run up the stairs, reaching his hand out as far in front of him as he could, far into the light. 

***

Seth was standing in an open field of grass. There was nothing as far as the eye could see except even more grass, brushing against his shoes. Above him was the same vast, starry night sky he had gotten so used to patrolling every single night. 

“Come. Sit down,” a mysterious voice came from behind him.

He whipped his head around, to see a bench that almost certainly wasn’t there before. He approached it cautiously, and he saw some…thing sitting on it. A void of light, in the shape of a person even in this moonlight. It looked as if the silhouette of a person was sitting on it. 

He took a slightly tensed seat next to it. 

“Relax. I’m not gonna do anything,” it said to him. 

Seth tried his best to do as he was told. “What…are you?” 

“Oh c’mon, is that really what you want to ask?” 

He was bewildered. “...Yes?” 

“Fine, then. I'm the one who put you all here.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’ve gotten this far, and haven’t figured anything out?”

He just stared at it. 

“Wow. Think back, then. Do you remember anything? Anything other than here?”

He realizes that the thing speaks in truth. “No, I guess not.” 

“Do you really think that kind of thing happens naturally? Sure, you might forget things from when you were a kid, but remembering nothing at all?”

“I guess not. Why?”

“Why? Because I needed the patrol here. You all take care of those dangerous creatures. Can’t let those loose in the world.” 

“What are those creatures?”

“They’re just like your ‘Sky Arrow’ friend told you. Steal your sense of self–your soul, so to speak. Quite the bright one, that girl. A shame what happened. She had things figured out, she did. Knew more than she let you know.” 

“You were watching?”

“Does that make you mad? That I put you here, watched it all happen, let her die.” 

“...I guess it should. But for some reason, I’m not.”

“You intrigue me.”

“I’m surprising myself as well.”

“Okay, then, I’ll take a chance here. Would it make you angry if I said I was lying about all of it?”

“All of what?”

“Well, most of what I’ve told you. I did take you from your lives to put you here. But the creatures? They’re just…sacrifices. Each one you kill, takes a part of yourself, and forces it into your tablet.”

“You mean to say that the tablet I put down there, it was…”

“Yep. All of her. Kind of killed herself. Last one’s always the worst. Sometimes they survive, sometimes they don’t.”

He sat there in silent contemplation. 

“I know it wasn’t yours, by the way. I’m not here to judge fairness,” it said. “You know, the most tragic thing was, she knew she was weak, that it wouldn’t go well for her. I’m guessing she also knew you would be there to take it.”

Again, he did not say anything, but his knuckles turned and his veins strained as he clenched the wooden bench beneath him.

“That’s the spirit,” it seemed to encourage the rage.

“...why do you need it? Our ‘self’,” he asked.

“Putting those tablets in the door, it heals me. Your dreams, your hopes, your soul, they allow me to keep going, to keep meeting people like you.” 

“We’re your food?”

“Yep. I bring people here, give them a new life. If I stopped bringing people here, then I would die.” 

“How long have you been here? How many people have come up those stairs?”

“More than you could possibly imagine.”

“Don’t you get tired of it?” 

“Sometimes. But then I meet someone like you, and I think to myself: ‘What’s another million years?’” 

“...you said you bring people here. From where?”

“Well, from wherever, really, I don’t judge. Down that city you fly over every day, for example. You came from there.” 

“I…had a life before this place?” 

“Yep. Equipped with the whole shebang: a past, a present and a future.”

He faced down at the grass, a soft look on his face. 

“Well, don’t be too sad. Does it make you want to go back? Experience that life? You could wish for it.”

Seth looked back at the silhouette. “It’s true, then? The wishing thing?”

“Of course. You could wish for all the wealth in the world. You could wish for an immortal life. Or, you could go back to your old life–I’d even start you from the beginning, if you wanted. Anything you want.”

“How was my old life? You can tell me that, can’t you?”

“Of course: your old life, though, it was really nothing special. Average family, average accomplishments, and eventually, an average death. But you were happy.”

“The people here. My friends. Would they be there?”

“They would stay here, eventually to die for me, as infinitely many more will after them.” 

“So I’d never…I’d never meet her.” 

“Never a moment in your life you’d think about her. What’s this obsession with this girl anyways? You know, for all the time you spent together, you never even asked her name. ‘Sky Arrow’ this, ‘Sky Arrow’ that. Isn’t that sad?” 

He presses his fingers to his temple. “…I know…I know…I’ve made mistakes.” 

“You could fix it all like that,” it said as it snapped its almost-fingers. 

“...what would happen if…if I wished you gone?” 

“What do you mean by that?”

“I wished that you disappeared? Died?”

“Well. No one’s told me that one before. Let me think. I suppose if I died, then, myself and everything I’ve ever done would disappear. Everyone, all the people at the patrol, that had ever been in it, will be back to their original lives. No more people taken or dead for my sake.”

“That seems like an obvious choice.” 

“And yet, you’re wavering. Strange, isn’t it.” 

He leaned back on the bench, staring right up into the sky. “Can I just stay here for a while?” 

“Certainly. Don’t rush on a decision. Right now, you have”–it feigns checking a watch on its wrist–”all the time in the world.”

He did take his time, sitting there. He didn’t know how long. The place seemed to mess with his perception of time. But he just sat and stared.

“Alright.” 

“Alright?”

“I’m ready to make my wish. Anything, right?”

“Anything you want.”

He smiled a bit to himself, and leaned closer to the silhouette’s ear. 

“I wish…” 

Though quite faceless, the surprise was somehow written on its face. It sat there, its turn to sit in thought. 

It let out quite a hearty laugh. “See? This is why I’ll never get tired of this. Just for you, I’ll grant that.” It clapped its hands together. 

“Wait, one more thing–please improve that dining hall food.”

It shook its head with a smile. “I’ll have you know, I spent a long while designing those sandwiches. See you in a while, Seth.”

***

Seth had never quite gotten used to those blaring alarms. Only this time he tried to pay them as little heed as he could. He had his mission, after all. He stretched the sore day out of his muscles, and sat up at the edge of his bed. He put on his shoes and started to rush off. 

“Evening, Se–where are you going?!” Stella’s voice came from behind him.

“Evening, Stella! I’ll be back soon!” he shouted back to her, much to her concern. 

He was determined, though, knowing exactly where he was going. Suddenly, he stopped himself in front of another bunk far from his own. On it sat a girl, readying herself for her own night. 

He walked right in front of her. She looked up at him, head tilted.

“Um…hello? Can I help you?” she asked, smiling and confused.

He smiled back at her, and outstretched his hand to her. “Hi. I’m Seth. What’s your name?”