charm(less)

decem

—— d e c e m ——

"SO THIS IS where we are. Rockaway Beach," Park said, spreading the foldable map of New York out across the small cafe table. He tapped the yellow strip that marked the sand. "And this," he traced a finger along the map in an Eastward direction, "is where we need to get. Long Island South." He tapped the jutting formation of land.

"If you wanted to know the geography of New York, you could've just asked me," Korey pointed out. "We didn't exactly need to scam that poor woman into giving us the map for free."

After Park had shadowtravelled them back to the Rockaway pier, and Korey was sure his sandwich wasn't about to come back up from what he'd decided was his least favourite form of transport, they walked along the stores until they found one that sold a map of New York. It hadn't been difficult — there were tourist and souvenir places every other building and most of them sold maps of some sort. However, they still didn't have any money, so Park convinced Korey to spin his far-from-home-and-separated-from-family sob story to get them a free map. Actually, convinced was too nice of a word. Forced was more accurate.

Korey hadn't seen Snowy since they'd shadowtravelled back and was worried they might have lost her, but Park told him he was being an idiot, in his usual blunt manner. "She managed to find us all the way out here," he had said. "It's fairly obvious that she isn't any normal bird. She's probably around here somewhere, finding more mice to kill and waiting for a monster to attack before showing herself."

Korey didn't exactly have much choice but to reluctantly agree with him. Besides, he was just pleased Park had gone from referring to Snowy as it to her. That was questionable progress if there ever was any.

"Forgive me if I trust this map's judgement better than yours," Park said, not even looking up from where he was studying the map. "And we didn't scam anyone. She gave the map willingly, didn't she?"

"Yeah, because we lied! That's the exact definition of a scam. Lying to get what you want."

Park rolled his eyes. "Chill out. It's not that big of a deal."

Korey shook his head in disbelief but Park wasn't paying him any attention. Since the battle with the sarpei, he seemed run down as if he was coming down from an illness and still hadn't fully recovered, even after how long he'd been unconscious for. He was far too pale even in the spill of sunshine and while others roaming the beach were sweating in shorts, Park seemed cold even wearing Korey's hoodie as an extra layer. Shadowtravelling again had clearly been a bad idea but when Korey brought it up, Park just snapped at him, same as when he tried to ask if he was feeling alright.

He hadn't wanted to risk having his head bitten off again by suggesting a rest when Park was so clearly exhausted but it hadn't mattered. They'd stopped at a passing cafe to check the map anyway.

"This isn't giving me any indication of distance or time," Park muttered.

"It'd take just over an hour by car to get to Long Island from here," Korey told him. "She said Long Island South, right? Maybe an hour and a half."

"But we don't have a car."

"You're not wrong."

"How long would it take to walk?" Park wondered, almost to himself.

"To walk?" Korey shook his head incredulously. "That's a whole day worth of walking, maybe two. And that's assuming there aren't anymore monster attacks along the way."