Night Lights and Dark Places

Chapter Twenty-Five - Reprise

"Like hell anybody's gonna be skulkin' around on Christmas Eve in this neighborhood." She said quite matter-of-factly, gesturing over the railing at the empty street. "But I'll be damned if we're the ones skulkin' around ourselves. We should go someplace."

"To be fair, you're too attractive to skulk."

"You have enough skulk for the two of us, big guy." She paused, laughed to herself, and began the five-story descent with a bit more sway and swagger to her stride than usual. Behind her, the intended audience was focusing intently on his own descent, head down, stooped over, gripping the handrail with both hands.

On the ground floor, she stood and watched him, baffled and amused. "Speaking of skulkery, what the hell was that?"

Embarrassed, now upright and safe on stable ground, he avoided looking at her. "I only ever use them to go up with you every night. Never down."

She walked leisurely through the parking lot, hands stuffed deep into the pockets of her thick peacoat and a mocking grin on her face. "You have an alternative to stairs I don't know about?"

"I do." He huffed, pouting with a boyish indignance that did not suit his steady, stern baritone. "Climbing is faster."

"Wait, so when you leave to go to my bus stop, you climb down the side of my building? I thought you only did that when I was asleep," She said, mouth agape, hands outstretched at her sides. "You mean to tell me you've been doing this in broad-ass daylight for God knows how long?"

"Well, it hasn't been broad daylight in quite a while, has it? It's usually very dark when I leave." He continued past her, arms crossed, and she caught him by the back of his jacket. The glare she received in response was as bone-chilling as it was hilarious; another expression that rarely made any appearances. She was grinning wildly, infectiously. "I've never been seen. It's just easier."

With a mischievous glint in her eye, she released his jacket and pointed up at the stairwell. "I'll forgive you if you show me just how easy it is," she said, eyes narrowing coyly.

He regarded her with a raised brow, face softening. After a few seconds of silence, she groaned dramatically.

"Please?"

He sighed heavily. So easily manipulated. Casually, he shrugged, turned, walked at his normal gait across the parking lot and rounded the structure encompassing the staircase, catching her off guard and sending her sprinting after him. At the base of the building, he squinted up at the rails that ringed each new floor.

"Never thought you'd end up seeing this." He muttered. "Forgive me if it's not particularly impressive."

At that, he crouched as if to pounce, but hesitated, frowned, then unraveled the scarf from around his neck and passed it to her. Startled, she struggled to keep it collected in her arms just as he disappeared from her periphery. In that short moment, he'd already sprung up to the second floor. Hoisting himself up with enough force to launch his body upward, he brought his knees to his chest and perched atop the railing like a cat. He didn't stay there long before leaping up to the third floor, repeating the process. At the fourth floor, his foot slipped from underneath him, the metal slick with ice, and he swung backwards over the rail. From her perspective, it looked like nothing more than an acrobatic flourish as he caught the rail with his knees, hanging from it very briefly before correcting himself and vaulting to the fifth floor. Hopping off the rail and onto the cement, he paused and let out a huge breath, shook the post-slip adrenaline from his arms. The climb back down was less of a "climb" and more of a calculated series of falls, catching himself at each floor before dropping again.

In less than two minutes, he'd gone up and down five flights of stairs. With a dull thump, he landed on all fours beside her and remained there, hunched over to match her height. Despite being eye level, he did not return her bewildered stare, blowing on the raw patches in his palms, skin torn by the frozen metal railing.