"I'm just a bit tired, and I thought I recognized her from somewhere," she says, sounding like she wants that to be the end of the conversation.

It's never that easy.

"Then you wouldn't have sat down! Come oooon! Tell us!"

"I'm really not feeling too well, okay? Can you just drop it? Please."

She looks a bit pale. Sighing, she puts her head in her hands.

Teasing occurs, but the conversation soon goes off in another direction. Schoolgirls be schoolgirls, and school is school.

Thea doesn't contribute much to the rest of the conversation.

Eventually, the bell goes. She picks up her bag and goes to her afternoon lessons.

Cynthia is the type to wait for the rush to pass out of the cafeteria and sneak out the side afterwards, so there isn't a chance to grab her in the hallway and she doesn't grab attention.

Afternoon classes proceed as classes, and the two don't share any of them. Final bell rings as it usually does.

And so Thea goes home.

She doesn't really do much, up until 10pm. Listens to music and surfs the web, eats dinner. That's about it. She's out of the house by 21:55, waiting for Cynthia.

Out the door at 21:55, Cynthia is just arriving down the street. One hand her phone, the other in pocket. She has her school backpack still on - an unlabeled black pouch basically. She'd barely look up from something on her phone before arriving to the alley they were in last night unless bothered beforehand.

Nope, she's not bothered. Thea's looking around for signs of the impending apocalypse, and when she notices Cynthia, she just stands there, waiting.

She leans against the wall of the alley, pocketing her phone and putting her bag next to her on the ground. Looking around, she spots Thea and waves.

Thea walks over. "Hi."

"Hi. Said I'd be here, I'm here. We can go wherever to talk if you want, but preferably a place we can be out of sight at 12. Doesn't matter much after that, nobody notices the disappearance if they can't see you."

Her face scrunches up. "Well, if you want to still be together at 12. Otherwise I can just leave you in your room then? Should be fine. I can hang around the area."

"I don't know – maybe the park? It's a bit late to go to a café."

"Park works. There are places open this late, learned them from being awake at this hour all the time if you want something. We have time beforehand, and I have an alarm for 11:50 always set."

Thea starts walking. "How long's this been going on for?"

Cynthia shrugs and walks after her. "I've been at this for... Between half a year and a year? Probably closer to half a year. Before me, maybe a year? That's as far as i know going backward. So a year and a half, maybe? Sounds right."

"Oh, okay. I couldn't actually find a heavy stick, and I didn't really want to try breaking one off a tree – was it just for self-defense?"

"Oh, I grabbed something for tha---- AH!" Cynthia turns around and runs back to the alley, returning with her backpack looking embarrassed. "Whoops. Uh, it's more like... Having something you can think of as a weapon? I can explain more during the Hour. Or you can borrow my pocketknife..." Her face asks for a quick change of subject.

"Oh, um, maybe. So that thing last night was a 'boss'? ... What are the regular things like, then?"

"Boss is more of a cover-word for public situations. It's just a different and stronger one. The usual ones are little black blobs that scurry around in their own puddle. Usually have a colorful theatre mask on. That's around half of them I think. The next 30 is probably the glitter-fishbone type. Weird things, a bit more dangerous. Course, those numbers can go up or down. Just what I can think of."

"Oh, okay. It just seems a bit hopeless, all of it, since it just repeats over and over. If it's exactly the same each night, but with extra monsters, why even bother being awake for it? Especially if they don't attack you when you're asleep."

"Stuff changes. The broad stuff stays the same, the little details feel different. Even then, an hour where nobody can do anything except you? It's peaceful, you can snoop around stuff, see a second world. Even then, they USUALLY don't attack if you asleep. I said they coooould."

"... Totally not terrifying or anything. What do they even do? Is it just, like, claws and biting, or do they spit acid or some other creepy video game thing?"

"The blobs have little hand things and usually smack you. The unique ones can usually have something they can hit you with that makes no sense if it wasn't a video game. Libby throws wind around."

"I mean... I like scary films? I know enough to keep myself safe. I want to make sure you can, too. At least that's the main reason."

"Yeah, actually... what is Libby? I'd forgotten about... her."