The faded blanket pulled tightly around her was coarse despite its dampness, no better than those forming a thin cushion beneath her.

Astrid's ears swiveled wildly, trying to pinpoint the source of the steady trickling and dripping that came from various corners of the space. The faintest whisper of a voice floated from a few feet away, and her sobs turned to whimpers.

"Do you think Lucifer hurt her that bad?" someone whispered.

"I don't know..."

Lucifer? Who are these people?

Clutching her knees tighter, she opened her eyes, blinking twice to make her enhanced eyes adjust and open wider. The midnight hues sliced by moonlight were now swathed in blue; paint-chipped pipes crisscrossed at random to form a misshapen skeleton.

Astrid kept crying so the two wouldn't know she had noticed them, and maybe leave her alone. No... no, that wasn't a good plan, they'd check to see if she was okay. She needed to be strong, needed to think rationally.

Her shoulder joint burned and the pressure around her eyes increased as she sat up, the wooden boxes under her wobbling.

"Where does it hurt?" one of the girls asked.

"My shoulder and...and my nose." Astrid touched the bridge of her nose, drawing back at the added pain.

I was crossing roofs, saw movement, and fell... someone grabbed me, and now I'm in a shelter of some sorts on a roof with two girls. They probably belong to one of the street murders.

There was little distinction between gangs and street murders; the biggest differences (besides the names) came down to the matter of what purpose they served. Street murders wanted stricter laws on the mods and roamed the city performing vigilante works like exposing shady surgeons and their practices. They gradually evolved into various groups mainly made up of the younger generation that brought a form of justice by usually less than legal means. A contemptuous official had called them "ugly crows" because older members lacked an abundance of mods; people then started calling them "a murder of crows", which evolved into "street murders" as more groups popped up in various cities.

"Which street murder are you?" she asked.

"Doesn't matter," the other girl responded, closer now. Ebony hair swept over her left eye and was cut sharply at her jaw. And even though the lower half of her face was obscured by a black mask, she glared a hole straight through Astrid with dark, bottomless eyes.

Astrid was starting to rethink her earlier assumption.

"Why were you looking for us?" she snarled, leaning in.

"I wasn't!" Astrid shot back.

"So you just like playing on rooftops in the middle of a storm?" She leaned in even closer.

I could ask you the same. But there was no point in making her angrier, so Astrid stayed quiet.

"Cass," the other girl warned.

Cass backed off, eyes still glued on Astrid's.

"Listen." The girl crouched down, worn brown jacket swallowing up her slender frame. She could be an angel, with those unnerving, glowing blue eyes and her straight, silvery-white hair flowing past her pale shoulders. "You almost fell to your death, but Lucifer grabbed you just in time. He pulled your shoulder out of joint, and, even though I fixed it, you shouldn't use it for the next couple of days."

Astrid's hand automatically went up to her shoulder.

"It's a small price to pay considering you both could have died," Cass muttered.

"We're going to leave. Don't follow us. Don't try to contact us. Forget this ever happened." She remained in her crouched position for a few moments longer before straightening up. "Go back to where ever you came from."

Cass turned on her heel and stalked away, water spraying up from her scuffed black boots. The other girl glided after, wispy strands of hair floating ghost-like on the breeze. So different from Evelyn's heavy hair...

Astrid's head dropped and she stared at her chipped nails, but all she saw were her parents' frowning faces. The immaculate makeup and skin mods couldn't hide the lines that Astrid knew were on her mother's face, and the unenthusiastic praise and unreadable looks from her father shouted his disappointment. What she'd ever done between the time they were willing to do anything to save her and now was a mystery that kept her awake at night. It chased her down the dark alleys of her mind, threatening to tear her apart. The days it was strongest were the days she took away the music, leaving her bare to the silence of her reality with no shoulder to lean on.

Nowhere to go. I've got nowhere to go.

Her gut twisted and whatever was in her head clawed at her temples to get out. Some sort of pain medication would be amazing right now.

The drizzle outside turned into a downpour again, water dropping on the back of her head from a hole in the roof. Giving her head a little shake, she flung the drops away and the chip started playing music again.

Astrid pushed the blanket all the way off and stood. With trembling fingers, she pulled her hood up. Her legs' delayed response to her command to walk worried her. If another one of her seizures were to strike...

She was all alone this time.

You could always go back for your medicine. They don't even have to know you returned.

But what would be the point? The pills in that bottle could only be stretched out so far.

"I said I wasn't going back," Astrid hissed. "And I meant it."

She stumbled across the uneven floor to a gap in the walls--made of the same dented sheet metal as the roof--and squeezed out. The wind tugged at her hair and nipped at her ears, rain pelting her face. 

The sky was pitch black, moon shrouded once again by the clouds. And on the horizon, so faint it might have been an illusion, was a thin band of grey, a sign of the coming dawn. 

Head down, hands in her pocket, Astrid crossed the entire roof, oblivious to the wet clothes clinging to her cold body. In the center of the city, still several miles off, the skyscrapers were lit up. Their sharp sides gleamed, guarding their surroundings with their all-seeing eyes.

Astrid turned her head. There was another building to the left, close enough for her fingertips to brush if she stretched far enough.

Don't follow us. Don't try to contact us. The girl's words had been calm and even, but the underlying threat was no less terrifying.

"I'm not," Astrid whispered. "I promise."

Praying silently that she wouldn't run into them again, Astrid stepped onto the edge. After a moment's hesitation, she hopped across and continued her journey.