Closer Than Your Shadow

To Each Her Own

December 9th 9:57 p.m.
Gotham
My apartment

It'd been raining for a few hours now, and it was supposed to last all the way through the night. At least that's what my phone said.

I watched the flooded alleyway for any signs of Jacob.

He called an hour ago and said he was coming to pick me up. Something to do with the coke and my 50k for the robbery. The past few nights I'd been in the cove looking for Lenny. I planned on going today but the rain started, and I didn't want to chance it. Maybe it'd drive him out of wherever he was hiding, but I'd have to wait until Jacob brought me back home.

It didn't feel like he was missing. It didn't feel like it was even a fucking possibility, because it was him. It was Lenny. He knew everything. He could survive anything that the world threw at him.

Binx's bark shook me from my trance, and I turned around to see him clawing at the door. Then someone's fist slammed against the wood.

"Come on Claire!" Jacob shouted.

"I'm coming!" I yelled back while I grabbed my purse. He was messing with his shirt collar while he sulked. His eyes were droopy, and I knew just from his facial expressions he was high. On what, I had no idea.

The thing about Jacob was he used to like snorting coke. Enough for him to get hooked for a little, but once he got with Natasha, there was little to no reason to be numb. He just started to drink a lot.

He wasn't a big smoker, and he didn't smell like weed, so his red and glossy eyes made me question what pushed him to start using again. I followed him down the stairwell to the parking lot, but he turned towards the main lobby. "Where are you going?"

"To the convenience store down the street. We have to go pick something up." He opened the door, and the rain sloshed down on top of him, but he continued with his hood up.

I grumbled as I stepped out into the storm. Gotham's rain in the fall was usually more than likely freezing and accompanied by lightning and monstrous thunder. Two of the things that terrified me most. The two things that seemed to follow me wherever I went.

I didn't talk about the crash. I tended not to think about it either.

It only came up in my dreams. That's the only place I couldn't escape them.

I covered my eyes from the rain. We stayed quiet and let the storm cover the silence for us. I tugged my purse into my jacket. Something jabbed into my ribcage, and I cursed. I felt the outline of something hard and metal. I just couldn't remember what it was. I zipped my jacket and jogged a little to keep up with Jacob.

The lights from the stores flickered blue, red and every other color you could imagine. There wasn't anyone on the street and it was understandable, if I had a choice, I wouldn't be out here either.

"This way." Jacob took a sharp right down an alleyway, and I stopped. He stomped through puddles and my gut said don't follow him.

Turn around.

I closed the distance between us. I finally caught up to him and garbage was scattered across the asphalt. Through my rain-soaked lashes I could make out the group of boys coming towards us. They had their hoods up and one of them kicked a garbage can towards us.

They all had the same build, no one seemed particularly big. They couldn't have been older than 18. They were just kids.

Jacob sighed and pressed on, ignoring their presence all together. I decided that was the best course of action too.