She spent two days lounging in her room before leaving. In those two days, the only visitors she had were room service. Christopher stayed away, and she was grateful. Turning him away the first time had been easy (sort of), but doing it for a second time would require Man of Steel resolve.

While she packed up to leave, she heard tapping. Juniper peeked in the bathroom, certain the water was running. It wasn't the water. The tapping continued from the front door. She concentrated, trying to feel if it was the nervous bell boy from the day before.

Juniper cast her net and came up empty. But the same tapping started up again, louder this time. She put her eye to the peephole and saw the door opposite hers and nothing else.

Despite her mind screaming for her not to, Juniper opened the door. Something was making the noise, and it couldn't be a human being. She felt safe, as her power hadn't failed her before. If she couldn't feel anyone beyond her door, then the hallway was empty, and when she peered around the corner of the door, indeed, no one was there. Juniper took a long look down the hallway, both ways. No one and nothing.

Could Christopher be messing with her somehow? No, she would have felt him even before opening the door. Speaking of, Juniper felt the door had been open for long enough. She started to close it, but it stuck on the last few inches. A few hard yanks, and it still wouldn't close. She checked above her, and nearly lost her shit.

The thing blocking the door was sallow of skin and red of eye. It clung to the ceiling in a very Spidey sort of way, holding the top of the door open with its hands. Seeing such a sight would have been comical under benign circumstances, but the state of the world was anything but benign. The creature smiled at her, and Juniper could feel the creep of familiarity. She remembered the smile, the cruelty and deference attached to it.

It was the boy from a few days before. Only, it wasn't. The thing on the ceiling couldn't be anyone, because it couldn't exist. Juniper pinched herself to see if she was hallucinating, but she only came away with a bright mark on her arm and a demon on her ceiling. Demon-boy stayed on the ceiling, throwing the door open to crawl into the room.

She ran back into her hotel room. After a few dashes, she realized it was the stupidest direction she could have gone. She should have ran out into the hallway and towards the elevator to escape the building entirely. Instead, she had panicked and thought of locking herself into her bedroom. Juniper didn't make it to the small sitting room.

She did another stupid thing by checking behind her. Demon-boy dropped down on all-fours and lunged at her. In a zig to the side, Juniper avoided the impact. The thing ended up slamming into the wall, plaster exploding around it as it created a crater-like hole.

There was enough time for Juniper to execute her initial plan of hiding in her bedroom, but yet again, she didn't get far.

"What the hell is that?"

It was Christopher. He stood at the door, gaping at the demon unfurling itself from the wall.

The question put the focus from Juniper to Christopher. Demon-boy found its footing, and launched itself at a dumb-founded Christopher. Moving through the air, the thing looked graceful, a little less like the monster it was. Then its teeth were snapping and reaching for Christopher's neck, and Demon-boy didn't look graceful at all.

"Get off of me! What is this? Juniper?"

Christopher was yelling for her, fighting to block the creature from ripping out his throat and barely succeeding. He wasn't a fighter, had never been in a fight, and he didn't know how to handle himself. She could tell he had a couple minutes at best.

For a moment, Juniper didn't move. She had a split thought of, he deserves it. The thought filled her with a dark anxiety that nearly doubled her over. It caused a crack somewhere inside, and the break hurt like hell. Though, she had no time to consider what it was or how to fix it, so she shook it off and picked up the coat rack by the door.

Juniper's power had never failed her, and she was hoping it wouldn't fail her now. She amplified her anger, knowing the outward disruption it caused to all living things around her. With it, she had made dogs howl, caused cats to scurry, and wilted a flower. The vibrations from the manifestation of her feelings were tangible, and could literally bring people to their knees. Soon, she would see if it worked on demon-folk too.

It was building, the roar from her power spilling out. Christopher was trying to cover his ears, and she knew it was working, but the creature wasn't scurrying like a cat just yet. It had stopped trying to bite off Christopher's carotid though, and that was a good sign.

What she couldn't see was its eyes rolling to the back of its head. White foam was seeping from its mouth, dropping onto Christopher's neck.

"Ah, man, its seizing." Christopher cried.

Juniper swung the metal coat rack until it hit the monster in the head. She had put a lot of power behind the move, and she managed to knock the creature into the hallway. It landed on its side, twitching and kicking.

Christopher shot up from the ground. His hair was ruffled, and he had blood behind his left ear. Juniper scanned him and couldn't sense pain coming from anywhere else. He was fine.

He pulled her into the room and was about to close the door, but she ripped her arm away, not because she was angry, but because she wanted to end it.

"I can't leave that thing running around in the hotel." Juniper didn't ease down her anger, merely to keep her power at its highest level.

"Why the hell not?" Christopher strained his face, like someone staring against a blazing sun. "That thing you do hurts. I feel it vibrating my damn bones."

Juniper didn't apologize.

She turned to the downed creature. "Thanks to you, I get to use my gun for a second time."

The handgun was easy to pull out of her jacket, and even easier to fire a round into the creature's head. Suddenly, the twitching and kicking stopped.

"You just shot him!"

Christopher's mouth was as open as the gun-shot wound in the creature's skull.

She tried not to think about how much blood spray had hit her in the face. Her thoughts stayed with the gun.

Juniper's gun felt lighter, different. It wasn't just a prop anymore, a toy to scare away Johns and crack heads. It had fulfilled its manufactured purpose of killing. She had killed.

"It wasn't a him."

It was a relief, not just for her, but for Christopher. The roaring had stopped when Juniper had fired the gun, and his face was no longer scrunched up in pain. Prolonging her power took a lot of energy, both mental and physical, and she had never sustained it for so long before.

There were voices from inside the nearby hotel rooms, and from two doors down, shouting.

Juniper went inside the hotel room and closed the door. Christopher drew his brows together.

"Now you're just gonna leave it out there in the hallway?"

Juniper shrugged. "We're in a hotel. Someone will clean it up." She further confused him by stripping out of her blood-stained shirt. "You can stay for an hour, but after that, I need you to leave."

He was trying to be modest by staring at the floor instead of her breasts. "Why an hour?"

"Because they'll be people outside and you don't wanna be out there for awhile."

She slammed her bedroom door.

****

Juniper took a long shower. It lasted forty minutes, a glorious forty minutes of hot water stripping away every dirty thing she had done in the last day. She wished she could clean it all away. After dressing, she came out of the room prepared to run her husband out of the room. If necessary, she would wield the coat rack.

Maybe Christopher had followed her thoughts, because when she came out, he was already gone. She tried to tell herself it was for the best. Hopefully, she wouldn't see him again, but she knew she would.

***

Of course, he came back. She didn't want to let him inside, and she actively blocked Christopher entrance inside of her room. He told her he wanted to talk, to figure out what had happened the day before, to figure out what had gone wrong between them.

She didn't care what had happened the day before, and she told him as much. She didn't care about what had gone wrong between them (lie), and she told him that, too. Christopher stood there, taking her insults quietly.

Finally, Juniper moved to let her husband come inside. When he smiled at her kindness, she felt hope nudge her heart. Damnit, no. She wouldn't be sucked back into a destructive relationship. She would not.

Two hours later, Juniper was doing most of the sucking. Well, not all of it. Christopher was a generous man. When they had finished reconciling, they collapsed in a sweaty heap. Neither of them spoke for several minutes. There was only panting, sweaty silence, and more panting.

"I'm not moving back in." Juniper finally said.

"There's nothing to move back to. I live here now."

"Oh, right. You know what I mean, though. That was great, but I can't forget everything in a couple of hours."

"I know." Christopher paused. "And I know you know this too, but I love you."

'I love you, too' had become one of Juniper's automated responses with Christopher. Her mouth opened to say it, but then closed without a sound. Her lack of response stabbed Christopher's chest. Juniper could feel each prick of pain. It quelled, and she knew Christopher was trying to downplay his internal pain to spare hers.

There was no denying it. Automated response or not, Juniper did still love him. This time when she opened her mouth, she would let him know.

She got as far as saying, "I---," before the lights went out. The room was a black void. Outside, it was just as dark. A sliver of moonlight drew Juniper and Christopher to the window. They could see that it wasn't only their hotel. It wasn't only the whole block, either. It was the whole city. And there would be no more electricity for a long, long time.

****

A/N: Ah, Juniper. She should know that love in an apocalypse never works out...

Dedicated to AminaAdamou, a native New Yorker and a great writer. Check out her fantasy adventure, Dahlia.