Erik liked the dark night of New York. It wasn’t too dark with bright street lights sweeping up shadows and leaving behind stretches of street filled with luster.

Talvi’s boots clacked against the sidewalk. There weren’t too many people on the streets allowing them to walk side by side, shoulders almost touching as they walked home.

“I think we should make it a more often thing to hang out with him. Maybe weekly or something.” Talvi and Erik were returning from Oumar’s after a night of eating Chinese takeout and watching Jeopardy reruns. Oumar had won, obviously. And after he’d done an intensely obnoxious victory dance, Talvi and Erik had decided to return home.

“Good idea, though I think we should find something else to do with him other than just eat takeout.” Talvi’s snow-like short hair had been pulled up into a half up-half down situation. As a result, Erik could see their willowy nape, the slight beginning of a black inked tattoo poked out.

“True, maybe like a game night? That sounds fun.”

“We just need to find a time where all our schedules line up. You’re working days now right.” Erik sidestepped behind Talvi for only a moment as a couple passed by them on the other side of the lopsided sidewalk.

“Nina put me on part time.” He moaned, “It’s so stupid, I can work just fine. Its my stupid brain that doesn’t work, not my body.” They turned down another street, nearing the apartment, which made Erik long for the bed once again. As if just thinking about the apartment made him sleepy.

Less people dotted this stretch of road, meaning that Erik didn’t need to sidestep behind Talvi every five seconds to accommodate other pedestrians. Eerily, less street lights worked here. Only about every fifth or sixth one. Erik pressed just a little bit closer to Talvi’s warm frame.

Just as Talvi was about to say something, Erik interrupted him, waving away their words, “Yeah, yeah, I know what you’re going to say. I should take it slow but-”

“Ooof!” Erik said as his frame connected with another man. He staggered backwards, “Sorry!”

Instead of speaking immediately the man pinched and grabbed his arm, pulling Erik close again, “Hand over your wallet.” Erik felt the cold metal of a gun barrel pressed into his lower stomach. It was smaller, just a simple pocket pistol. Though the fact didn’t do anything to assuage Erik’s rising anxiety. A cold sweat rose on his spine.

He gulped down what felt like dinner and squeaked out, “Umm…” He tried not to make eye contact with the robber, instead opting to focus on his wavering breaths and high pulse.

“Are you stupid? Hand it over?” His voice became gruffer as he pressed the barrel harder against Erik’s stomach. Peeling themselves from the dark of the alley across the road, three more men added themselves to the group. Talvi and Erik stood still, not even the wind ruffling their hair.

Exhaling, Erik’s voice wavered as he agreed, “Ok, ok. Let me just grab my wallet.” With shaking and staticky hands, Erik reached into his back pocket and grabbed his wallet. He passed the warm leather wallet over to the man who took it with a snatch.

One of the other men sneered at Talvi, “You too. Hand it over.” Talvi looked much more stable compared to their counterpart. With flaring nostrils and tightly pursed lips, Talvi’s eyes connected with Erik’s. They took a long exhale.

Nodding, Talvi began to move.

The light poles that ran up and down the empty street began to flicker. Erik watched as Talvi’s fingers pinched the edge of their wallet, beginning to slowly draw it out. Erik’s heart boomed with the strength of a thousand drums within his chest. Like it would begin to break at his ribs from the sheer force of his battering-ram like heart.

The flickers became worse, seizure-inducing as the world became black and white from the pure amount of times and the strength in which the lights turned on and off. And like the light had suddenly found its spark, every single one of the lights on the street turned on.

Everyone ducked to the side, wincing at the sheer brightness of the lights. Every portion of the street was illuminated in such detail that even in the dark of night, Erik could now see the cracks and pivots in the pavement across the road.

Standing in the alley across from them, where the other robbers had come out a man now stood. This time, in the overwhelming light, Erik could see him in such detail he knew that he had been correct.

He pointed to the alley, “There he is, again!”

“Again!?”

“What the fuck is that?” The tallest robber squeaked out, his feet beginning to move side to side.

“Fuck this, let’s go!” One gruff man bellowed, the other muggers followed suit. Erik felt the cold press of the gun barrel slip away leaving him with the ability to lean over with a hefty exhale, as though he had not taken a breath in the last five minutes.

Modarr did not move nor speak despite making eye contact with Erik. Modarr’s eyes were slightly squinted, as though he was examining Erik or perhaps trying to say something that Erik did not understand. His pewter wings were slightly bent as they pressed into the alley floor.

Talvi’s hand gripped his shoulder trying to pull him away as the sounds of the robbers footsteps echoed into oblivion the farther away they became, “Erik! Let’s go!”

Feeling Talvi tug on his shoulder, Erik wanted to go, but instead his feet would simply not move, “I can’t!” He gritted out as pain seized his chest. Burning flares now took over where his once battering ram heart had been. Clenching his jaw, Erik’s knuckles went white trying to clutch the incomprehensible pain filtering through his body.

Faraway dips of lightning slammed through the sky. Though no thunder ran before or afterwards. Like a slithering snake, Erik watched it slip through the midnight sky above him. He watched it as his feet became rooted to the earth like an invisible quicksand covered his sneakers.

“Erik?” Talvi’s voice was softer, but with his eyes shut tightly now Erik didn’t know what they were referring to. The world seemed blurry behind his closed eyes, static and shivers slipped up his spine where the cold sweat had been and replaced it with a burning sensation along each bony vertebrae.

The lightning framed itself in the sky, become the center of focus against the doom-black sky. It’s cobalt frame branched down from the sky like outstretched fingers.

Wide eyes and agape jaw, the world around them crackled and sizzled. It slipped into his raised chest, as if the outstretched and slender fingers of the stygian sky sought to reach his stilling heart.

Erik’s eyes returned to look at the world, the mahogany now replaced with a midnight blue almost matching Talvi’s. Though instead of just the iris, the entirety of his eye was now navy. The pure light of the lightning as it rushed into his chest and sent jolts through his limbs almost lit up the shadows on Talvi’s face.

His knees crashed down to the gravel and pavement below. Rocks pressing into the fabric and skin, leaving behind thin indentations. His chest heaved and bellowed, reaching out with heavy gulps despite feeling like he couldn’t obtain even a thin sliver of a cool breeze from above.

Catching his breath Erik’s hand hesitates for only a second before he clutched Talvi’s forearm as a sort of makeshift bar. Hoisting himself up like a wobbling ship, his voice cracked awkwardly as he patted himself down, looking for wounds. “I’m fine, I think?”

The lightning dispersed only a few moments afterwards. Like it had once never even been there. The only trace of its presence was the burnt pavement beneath Erik’s feet and the black tails that echoed outwards. They looked like the tails running over Erik’s chest and back, only this time, mimicking the black hue of the pavement below.

Curling back into the wires within the pole, every single one of the lights smashed Erik and Talvi into overwhelming darkness once again. The sickly smell of singed grass and burning cement lingered in the air.

“What the fuck was that!?” Talvi bellowed.