Brian slowly awoke, and Neko stirred beside him. They had much needed such a time to relax and recharge. Brian wiped his eyes as sleep still had its hold over him, and Neko stood, yawned, and stretched, and then shivered as the cold seeped in. She sat back down beside Brian, pulling the blankets up to her chin and staring out the window. It was dark out. She wondered what time it was- surely very late at night (or very early in the morning, depending on which way one looked at it). They had fallen asleep in the morning. They had slept soundly for a long while.

"Is it just me, or is it getting colder?" Brian asked. As he spoke, his breath fumed from his lips in a small, white cloud, as if to prove his point.

She hated to admit it, but, "I think you might be right." Outside, the sky was black with no stars visible, no moonlight streaming in; it was almost entirely black, inside and outside of the building, with just a very subtle grey light coming from what lay above the clouds outside. It was just enough visibility for Neko to see a muddled silhouette of Brian's outline, and he could see the gleam in her dark, slanted eyes. Outside the window, there was a strong, piddling noise, repeated small thuds, many at a time. Neko spoke hesitantly, as if her words could bring the worst to life, "That's rain, isn't it?"

"Freezing rain," Brian corrected cheerily, and Neko could only hold back for so long before bopping him upside the back of his stupid, smart-ass head. And he said, "Ow! What was that for?"

"Don't you understand the severity of this?" She hissed, eyes narrowed and brows furrowed, a typical expression of hot anger smeared across her face in the dark.

Brian followed in a mocking manner with an overly high-pitched, squeaky accent and said, chest puffed proudly, "I'm Neko, and I can't make fun of traumatic situations as a coping mechanism because I hate laughter and nothing should ever be happy or fun, ever!" And then when Neko snorted sarcastically in response, he snapped, "Stop that! No laughing!"

More seriously, and with heavy attitude followed by an eyeroll, "You're ridiculous." Brian's outline slumped back to its regular curved form, a sign of a long-time terrible posture holder, and his teeth glimmered nearly as much as his eyes did in the darkness, exposed as he smiled wholeheartedly.

His voice back to his normal, floaty accent, he said, "It was pretty accurate, no? My impression of you?"

She grumbled something incoherently and then said, "Two can play it this way. Kali, you have to do him, now."

"He has to do what?"

And they both seemed to die of laughter, faces flushed, and Neko breathlessly said, "No, no, not that. Not that," and then her face went from creased laughter to creased anger and even concern, back to being tight as it always was, and she said seriously, "...Where is Kali?"

Brian, having been unphased by the rare glimpse into her genuinity, said with heavy concern- or even sorrow- "He's not here. He isn't here? Where is he?"

And she lightly smacked him for a second time in the few short minutes, "I just asked that, you dweeb."

"Well, where is he?"

And she growled dangerously, "How the hell am I supposed to know?"

"You're his-" and he stopped himself, "Friend."

"No, hang on. What were you about to say?"

"Your mom."

She growled again, "You're not funny, Brian. This could be serious." And she stood, ignoring the immediate cold that pierced her. It was even colder at night, and tonight, with the rain and lack of moonlight, was the coldest, darkest night she had ever faced. She could see the outline of the window and the gentle, faded light it brought into the air of the room, but she could barely walk she was so blind, arms extended and hands out to feel her way as she shuffled across the room.

Brian stood up, teeth chattering now, "Maybe he just went to the bathroom. He'll be back soon."

"But how long have we been awake already? He hasn't come back yet."

"You know, maybe he just wanted to-"

She snapped, "It's too cold for something like that right now. This isn't like him. He wouldn't just leave for no reason, especially when he could have gone during the daylight."

Brian hung his head, also hating to admit, "I think you're right. This isn't like him." Then, he faced her, "I'm just trying to think positively. There's explanations for this, for everything, even if they seem unlikely. You should try it."

Neko neared him, placing two firm hands on his shoulders as warning, "I don't think positively because every time I do, I'm wrong!" And then she used force to shove him, to which he clattered to the floor like a box of tools, and he sat on their makeshift bed staring up at the shadow she casted, which seemed to blend in with the black everything else the longer he stared. There came to be a point when human eyes can only adjust so much to the dark, and once Neko entered the hallway outside, she could not longer tell whether her eyes were open or closed.

She was frightened, and Brian was, too.

Brian stood, using the wall to help him, and then followed her out obediently, door clicking shut behind him, saying, "Where are you even going to look? ...We can't look! I can't look at all!"

"Brian," she said carefully, as if talking too fast would make him not understand, "There are a few flashlights in the bags Kali and I got from the store." He nodded, although she did not see it, and turned to walk back into the classroom. She heard the doorknob jingle, and Brian nervously, coarsely laugh. "Brian," Neko said, an edge to her tone.

"Ah, ha ha... So, could I borrow a bobby thing. Pin thing. Thing you use to uh, unlock locks."

"They're in the classroom."

"Oh, ha ha. Oh."

"You locked us out?"

He tsked, breathing between his teeth, and then said with scepticality, "Uh, maybe?" Neko's fury overcame her all at once in a sudden hot flash. She flipped around, shoving that stupid Brian with force into the door, to which the door rattled violently and he grunted. She pinned him there, and he could just barely make out the creases of the anger and hate in her face as a dimness painted her face from the window in the classroom door.

"You idiot!" She said, raised. Brian felt a shock of fear at first, filling his body with tension, a feeling that was familiar to him in regards to Neko. But, despite his lack of comprehension for deeper meanings, Brian understood her just a little bit better now, and attempted to push his limits- something he seemed to be good at, given how annoying he was.

"What happened when you two went to the store?" He demanded right back, and all of a sudden, they were equals. Suddenly, Brian was not just this little boy that Neko could pin to a wall and scream at, and hit, and step all over.

In fact, she stepped back just an inch, and spoke with disbelief yet newfound respect, "What?"

Brian moved away from the door, nearing her, using her own tactic of intimidation without fully realising it, "What happened? You come back, doused in blood- or something-  what happened? Tell me. Tell me!"

She was trapped. She was used to this feeling, this fear, this anger, but Brian did not know that.

She shoved him once again, in an act of desperation, and shouted, "You don't know what it's like!"

They could not see their target, but they hit the bulls' eye every single time, "I know what its like! I know better than anybody!"

"That's exactly what Kali said."

"What is wrong with you, Neko? What is it? What has got you so messed up that you have to take it out on everyone around you?"

She screamed, tears flowing, "I have never had a family!"

And he shot back, "Neither have I!"

There was no elaboration, but in the dark and the stunned, apologetic silence that followed, the two held a single line of understanding between them. Neko had been raised in a household of drugs, empty alcohol bottles, and incestuous, forced molestations. Brian had been raised with parents that never wanted him, and so they turned to similar ideals and physical violence to keep him out of their minds- and their hearts- for as long as possible. In the dark, the two connected in a way that Kali could never truly understand. They were both unwanted, which was different from him. And yet, despite their similarities, the two had evolved to be entirely different. Brian had chosen to funnel his trauma and ensure nobody else received any from him, meanwhile Neko was angry at the world for her pain, and took it out on everybody she saw.

"Let's go find Kali," Brian said, offering his hand and a truce.

"Okay, let's go find him," and she accepted, reaching into the darkness and taking his cold hand.

They led each other to the stairwell, of which they held tight onto the rail, taking short, shallow steps, hesitating each time so as not to fall. As they walked, the air seemed to grow colder, and colder, and colder, biting into their skin, making their hands and feet numb, and their faces flushed with bitter, stinging red. Their movements shortly became stiff and rather clumsy.

"I hate the cold," Neko said between teeth-chatters.

Making their way down the final few steps with severe caution, Brian nodded, "Oh, me too."

"I hate living in. In Nebraska," She said. Her words were slurred slightly, with pauses between phrases or repeated syllables from her lips refusing to move quite right and her teeth chittering.

Brian was experiencing similar symptoms, and said, "Kali lived. In Florida."

"Oh? I did not know that."

"He just moved here recently. Something about his. His dad's opportunities... Job opportunities."

She nodded, and they walked out into the hall on the ground floor of the highschool, "That makes sense. He should move back."

"We all should. We could all live together, all three of us."

She sighed, "Just the two of us, now. Where is he?"

And Brian hollered, "Kali! You there?"

And Neko followed suit, calling his name down the echoing, barren hallway. It was empty.

She said, "He's not here."

"Thanks, Captain Obvious," which rewarded him a light, almost playful smack across the shoulder, to which he said, "Ow! Hey!" Even though it did not hurt.

"I want to go home," she said, defeated.

"Me, too," he said, sighing. "But is it really any better than this?"

"At least at home it's warm."

Brian considered, "The powerlines are out. Maybe it isn't." And despite their abuse, they still loved their families (if they could be called that), and it was clear the lack of power in Infidelity, NE, had not occurred to them, and suddenly they both were wrecked with worry. No- they did not love their families. That was a lie. Rather, they were afraid of what karma would bring them if they were disloyal to those that had produced them. Like dogs still excited to see a master after being starved. And still, they'd call it love.

Anybody looking from a distance would have called it manipulation. I probably would have called it stockholm syndrome.

Their minds synchronised and their search for Kali widened. They walked down the hall, through the open entrance area that held the glass doors to outside, and then down to the nurse's office. They had assumed he might've ended up at the nurse's office if he was cold and needing more blankets or clothes. It was, of course, empty. They continued walking, searching with voice and hands in the pitch black down corridors and halls and in classrooms and bathrooms. Eventually, they returned to the entrance of the High, trying to put their two collective braincells together long enough to form a single cohesive thought that could somehow help them in their desperate search. It was storming outside, and even more white, clear, and blue ice had accumulated on every surface and atop of the snow. They both turned to look out the tall windows and glass doors of the entrance area, an area that they had passed hundreds of times before. Then, they both sighed, almost in unison.

Then, the braincells clicked, and Neko said, "You don't think he would've gone outside, do you?"

"Without telling us? That man is too nervous to get lunch by himself, much less go outside in the dark during an icestorm by himself!"

She countered his actually reasonable point, "It might not have been storming or dark whenever he went outside."

"Still. Does that seem like Kali to you?" But Neko was no longer listening. Instead, she was very slowly walking towards the doors, eyes focused on what was across the road. She was leaning forward as she walked, narrowed eyes completely in focus.

And then, she breathed, shuddering, "It's gone."

"What's gone?" Brian halphazardly pranced towards the windows, and Neko held out a hand, touching the freezing glass. It seemed to burn her, and she flinched and pulled back.

"The car," she breathed sharply, seeming near a panic. "The car is gone."

"There was a car?" He asked in surprise. Neko sighed, turning to look at Brian's bright eyes, surrounded by dark but barely illuminated by the wall of glass and the grey moon above the clouds. She decided, at long last, to trust him.

She started hesitanetly, "When Kali and I went to the store to gather things, we were found by one of my uncles. He drove to the highschool to look for me. He found us, and..." she paused, eyes staring into space as her mind drifted to the event.

Brian's soft voice pulled her back into the present, "And?"

She struggled to say it out loud, "And Kali- Kali grabbed these scissors, you know, for sale with the tags still on and everything. And he... Well, he..."

"He what, Neko? What did he do?"

"My u- uncle was going to hurt us. He was gonna hurt both of us. He hurt me before. And so, Kali jumped him and got him, with the scissors, you know." Her voice was becoming breathy with panic. "And so, and so he fell, right? He fell. He didn't get back up." And suddenly, her glassy eyes began to drip, tears slowly falling down across her tan cheeks.

"It's okay," Brian comforted her, "It was self defense."

"But I was happy," she said. Her voice was cracking, nose running, and she was slowly becoming smaller in stature as her knees gave way beneath her. Brian followed her to the floor, sitting on his knees at eye-level with her. Her voice was blubbery, "I was happy to see him dead. How was I happy that somebody died? How can I be that person?"

"That's normal," Brian assured, "Neko, listen to me." Her wheezing halted and she looked at him with damp eyes and damp cheeks. He spoke softly and with empathy, "That man has hurt you before. He was going to do it again, and he was going to hurt Kali, too. His death was a death, yes, but it was also the solving of a big, bad problem- the evaporation of a villian. It was just karma to him, and it's okay to be happy that you are safer now, and living in a safer world now. Okay? Everyone would be happy about that."

She sobbed, but nodded slowly, and allowed herself to crumble into his arms, to which he held her in place, holding her tightly and resting his head on her shoulder. He would never shush her like a parent or inexperienced Kali might. Instead, he repeated with gentleness, "It's okay to cry. Let it all out." She did so with gratefulness.

It took a long, heavy while before she could breathe again, and then even longer for her puffy eyes to dry and her composure to regain itself. She slowly, shakily stood to her feet, and supportive Brian helped her every inch of the way. Her hand remained firm on his arm and they stood, facing each other with a newfound solid connection. And here, in front of tall windows with a casted, muted glow painting them both in silken light, highlighting their dark eyes and dark skin, Brian could say with warm affirmation, "I'm glad you are my friend."

Being taken aback and not used to Brian's frequent affections, she only could manage a quiet, "Me, too."

They took a few moments to stretch and recollect themselves, and then they ventured outside, pushing open the glass door.

Brain paused, holding it open, watching as the icy rain fell inches from his face, "Are we sure about this? You think he would have gone outside?"

"No," she said, "But if he was in the school, we would have found him. Its dead silent, and we were calling loud. We looked everywhere."

"Do you think something happened to him?" He asked worriedly.

"No," she said with ill-formed confidence.

"If we leave the building, we can't get back in. Nobody is inside to open the door for us."

"So what?" she said, "We're already locked out of our classroom. I'm not doing this alone, so don't even think about asking to stay behind. There's no point in staying. If we need shelter or supplies, we can find it in a store." A pause of silence.

"Neko," Brian said, "I'm scared."

She narrowed her eyes at him, and then said, "Hi scared, I'm dad."

"Oh, ho. Very funny."

"I pulled a you," she said with a wink and a well-earned smirk.

"That's fair. I deserve that." The two walked forward and into the bitterly cold rain, the glass doors shutting and locking behind them. A thin layer of wet ice had formed on the glass of the doors, and now droplets patted against it like tiny little blades. The supercooled raindrops seemed to pierce their clothes and skin like needles. Now, with the doors officially shut behind them, there was no turning back.