Fifteen minutes later found them firmly closing the front door of their humble home. The lights were still burning bright in every room. Hakyeon emptied their various flashlights, lamps, candles, and a small gas-powered lantern onto the coffee table in the living room. "Once we get set up, one of us can read the new book and the other can research on the laptop," Hakyeon decided. Taekwoon, who had disappeared from the room, didn't disagree. He reappeared with a fresh band aid angled across his cheek.

Despite the fear, the pain, and the particular torture of not knowing what was coming next and when it would hit them, Hakyeon could feel something strong in his chest. There was a metal core there, something that wouldn’t allow him to fold or give into the terror that lurked on the edges of his mind. If he gave in, the first thing he would do is cry. Second, he’d become completely useless. Death would arrive shortly thereafter. To keep that terror from drowning him, Hakyeon would research anything, read any rhinestone-covered book, and light up his world through any means possible until his dying breath. He owed it Taekwoon and he owed it to himself.

Hakyeon stood and turned to face Taekwoon. He rested his hands on the man's shoulders and drew a thumb across his jaw. "We're matching miserable idiots," Hakyeon lamented, eyeing Taekwoon’s cut. He tapped his husband on the nose. “So do you want the book or the laptop?” He paused. “The book. That’s what I thought.”

Taekwoon was curled up on the couch with Hakyeon beside him. They were ringed with flickering candles and the gas lantern stood proudly in the center of the coffee table. “It looks like we’re going to have a séance, or something,” Hakyeon commented before booting up the laptop. Taekwoon just opened Everything Dark, accidentally cracking the spine. A rhinestone stuck to the palm of his hand while another dropped onto his pants. He looked Hakyeon, but the man just shrugged.

It didn’t take long for Hakyeon to find something. “There seems to be a supernatural phenomenon called ‘shadow people’ or a ‘shadow person.’ It actually pretty close to what’s been going on with us.” Taekwoon shifted closer to Hakyeon, craning his neck slightly to get a good look at the screen.

“It has the right look, at least. This book, uh, Life After Death, at least gives us a nice place to start. I kinda want make a venn diagram, just so I can sort this all out.”

Taekwoon smiled slightly, thinking of teaching his children the valuable technique of drawing two circles to visually categorize similarities and differences. He wondered how his fellow teachers were doing without him. Blinking himself back to his current issue, Taekwoon carefully read the pages of the Life After Death that had been scanned onto the internet.

“Ours doesn’t flicker in the edge of our vision,” Taekwoon finally spoke up.

“Yeah, I noticed,” Hakyeon’s face dropped slightly, “I read through a couple of websites, including some that featured space ships in the background. There are definitely differences between what these ‘professionals’ say shadow people are and what they can do compared to our active specter.”

Hakyeon lifted his hand and pointed at the screen, underlining the parts he wanted Taekwoon to look over.

“These people give us five basic beliefs: aliens, astral projections, demons, inter-dimensional beings, and finally, time travelers.”

Hakyeon was fidgeting slightly, glancing at the flickering candles. Looking at the uncertainty that was written all over his face, Taekwoon gently grasped Hakyeon’s fingers, careful of his wounds

“This sounds so ridiculous. This is what teenagers look up for fun and laugh at, because it’s so preposterous,” Hakyeon grumbled.

“I know,” Taekwoon huffed.

Hakyeon continued. “When I sifted through things that I found, the only thing that our thing has in common with the so-called ‘shadow person’ is that it’s in human form and its dark. Ours doesn’t do any of the same things.” Hakyeon dragged his fingers across the laptop touch pad, clicking to pull up a different tab. “Our shadow person is so much more active, and it can freely move. It isn’t a shadow in my peripheral vision or on its own; it’s stuck fast to my own shadow. And it doesn’t want to choke me to death. It really has a tendency to slice.”

“The connection isn’t there.” Taekwoon added. That was the part that bothered them the most, because these things that are portrayed in the research online didn’t have any records of causing open wounds. The connection between the two men, wherein one suffers an injury in the same spot, seemed unique to them.

“How is the book going?” Hakyeon asked, “This seems like a dead end. We can try some of the things suggested to prevent the shadow, but I don’t have much faith that they’ll work.”

Taekwoon looked at the book once again. He skipped to the back pages because while it wasn’t a textbook, it was likely that a book like this would have an index. The index was short, but helpful. Taekwoon’s eyes skipped across the terms until he found ideas that sounded like they related to their problem.

“Does our shadow have a hat?” Taekwoon questioned. Hakyeon shook his head and said, “No, it doesn’t have a hat. It appears in the form of a child, usually. Why?”

Taekwoon pointed to a section with a bold header that read The Hat Man.

“A theory is that the Hat Man is the devil.” Hakyeon chuckled at the idea. “Well, it’s good we don’t have that one, then. We have it bad enough already.”

Sitting up from the couch where he was cuddled with Hakyeon, Taekwoon started to rattle off some of his findings. Hakyeon was stunned at the amount of words coming from the soft spoken man.

“Ours doesn’t have eyes, a hood, or a hat. It doesn’t try to choke you. That eliminates a lot of what I’ve read so far. It seems this book is dedicated to explaining what the phenomenon is, rather than how to deal with it. What we have seems unprecedented.” Taekwoon pinched all the pages together and let them slide off his thumb, watching the blur of words go by. The air from the rapidly moving pages made the flame of a candle behind them flicker unhappily.

Taekwoon stopped flipping the pages just before the index and other informational pages began. There was a blank page featuring a small line of text, to emphasize it. Taekwoon read it out loud.

“Remember, for every dark, there is a light.”

***

Ravi felt a lot better after sleeping off the side effects of his encounter with the shadow creature. He cracked his eyes open, right eye hardly opening because it was pressed into the pillow. He was still belly down on the bed in his street clothes. He took a small mental evaluation of how he felt, happy to find that the incredible nausea and fatigue were pretty much gone. A glance out the window revealed that the sky had fallen dark. There was even a star or two peeking through the clouds.

He was temporarily confused, unsure of how long he actually managed to sleep. Ravi didn’t actually require much sleep; about three hours maximum each night in order to be ready for the next day. He wasn’t even sure he’d call it sleep. Ravi wasn’t human and while he was sure his body didn’t work quite the same way, he didn’t really know why or how it did what it did, but he did know that he had “slept” for far longer than usual.

Ravi sat up, placing his feet on the floor and rubbed the sleepiness out of his eyes, then dragged his fingers through the curly blond mass on his head. The sigh was cleansing. “I should go check on Ken.”

As he made his way down to the café, he started considering finally telling Ken what was going on. He knew Ken had seen him in the alley the other day and was surprised the excitable young man decided against grilling him about it. Ken had proven himself, time and time again, to be a really good friend who was loyal to a fault. It was just a couple of years that Ken began working at the café, and despite the clumsiness that only seemed to get worse and the occasional whining, Ken was honest and respectful. Ravi figured now was probably the best time for Ken to know, and really, the cat was already out of the bag.

Ravi slipped into to cafe through the hidden back door, making sure to muffle his steps. Yes, Ken was a great employee, but Ravi would never pass up on a chance to surprise him or check on what he was doing. Concealed behind a compact set of supply shelves, the cafe owner silently listened as Ken concisely and politely took an order. When Ken was turned away, Ravi tip-toed around the shelf, pulled out the milk for the next order, and started measuring it out. A yelp and some concerning rattling announced that Ken had turned around to find Ravi helping him as if he'd been there all day.

"Ravi!" Ken hissed, hands occupied with chocolate syrup, "What are you doing?"

Ravi was looking down at his mug, careful to get the exact measurement. "Making coffee."

He could hear the eye roll. 

"Do you really think you should be up?" Ken demanded. Ravi was saved from answering for a moment when the first drink was done. He handed his half-finished coffee to Ken, who was returning to the machine he needed. The barista instinctively took the mug, too used to working in tandem with his boss. He scowled as a rumpled Ravi skirted around him and disappeared into the cafe proper. Seeing the terrible condition the man had been in when he got to the alley, there was no way he should be up and making caffeinated beverages. Not to mention they needed to have a serious conversation about how that whole situation happened in the first place.

Ken closed the café by himself. The work didn’t even bother him. He swept, scrubbed the machines and tabletops, and stocked the supply shelves almost absent-mindedly while thinking about Ravi. The man hadn’t showed his face since disappearing over an hour ago.

Just as Ken was reaching to shut the lights off, he caught a glimpse of Ravi’s light hair from the corner of his eye. His hand stopped in midair, the fingers curling into a loose fist.

“Turn them off, please.” The words floated across the dim room, uncharacteristically soft. With a dull click, the room fell into darkness. Since the café was underground, there were no windows for moonlight to peek into, and the door was solid wood. Ken couldn’t see his own hand in front of his face, let alone make it to the table Ravi had claimed in one piece.

Ken was about to say something, mutter some inane question or ask Ravi what exactly he thought he was doing, but a rustle and a faint glow shut him up before he even began. For a second Ken thought Ravi had a flashlight, but the pure quality of the light forced his thoughts down a different path until the image from his night as a sneaky spy clicked into place. This was it. The things that Ravi had been hiding from him for so long were finally coming to light, no pun intended.

Light bloomed into the darkness, tracing white lines along Ravi’s face. Ken stepped forward, fascinated and only slightly frightened. He knew that Ravi wouldn’t hurt him. Just like before, the light was a few inches above Ravi’s hand, wobbling slightly. Ken brushed by two small tables, making his way toward his boss.

Ken finally reached Ravi. Curiously, the light was only a soft glow. In the alley, it had been bright enough to make his eyes water from quite a distance. Ravi glanced up at Ken for a second, his expression soft, but tinged with a happy spark that Ken had never seen before. His mouth dropped open of its own volition from a sort of stunned shock, but Ravi had already turned away.

Ravi’s hand slowly drifted toward his chest, palm steady and fingers sure. Almost without realizing it, Ken’s fingers slid onto Ravi’s shoulder until his palm was curved around the gentle slope. The light touched Ravi’s chest and the glow brightened again before it sank into him. Ravi’s chin rose until he was looking straight up at the ceiling, through it to some beyond that Ken couldn’t even imagine. His eyes glowed hot white and Ken’s palm grew warm, then unbearably hot.

When the light faded, Ravi’s body cooled rapidly. He sighed and a wisp of pure white smoke curled from his lips and quickly faded into the returning darkness.

Ken reached back, hand fumbling for a chair. He yanked it out, hardly noticing the ugly screech of legs across the floor. Though the café had returned to its previous darkness, Ken still had imprints of the light smarting across his vision, giving life to shapes that didn’t exist. He collapsed into the chair and folded in half, elbows resting on his knees and head clutched in his hands. It really wasn’t a good time to have the freak out, but then again, Ken never was lucky.

He totally wasn’t hyperventilating. Nope, not one bit. There was no way the encroaching darkness was from lack of oxygen and would probably end with his sprawled ungracefully on the floor. You’ve seen weirder Ken, the barista thought, Yeah, totally. Ummm… when? his inner voice replied. Great. Now he was arguing with himself. His mind had finally snapped. Oh, he was too young to go. He’d had so much potential. He could have been a pop star!

He was startled out of his inner dialogue when something touched his shoulder.

Ken’s head jerked up to find Ravi looking at him concernedly. A small flashlight was balanced on its end in the middle of the table, spilling just enough light into the darkened room. Ravi’s chair had migrated around the table so their knees were almost touching. “Are you okay?” he asked, pulling Ken’s hands away from his face.

“Since when did you double as a glow stick?” Ken blurted out. His hands snapped back to his mouth and his eyes shot wide with barely contained horror. He did not mean to say that. He so did not mean to say that.

Surprisingly, Ravi just leaned back and laughed. “You’re great, Ken, you know that?” he chuckled, still trying to catch his breath.

Ken’s hands fell back into his lap and he stared at his boss. “I need a drink,” he lamented.

Ravi was on his feet in an instant, almost scaring Ken, and disappeared behind the dark counter. It seemed like he could see just fine in the dark, because he didn’t trip over a single chair or bang his hip into the edge of a table. A short minute later, he returned with a burgundy ceramic mug cradled in his hands.

“Here.” Ravi set it gently in front of Ken, careful not to spill any of the drink over the sides. He plopped back into his chair.

Ken tentatively reached forward and clasped the mug. The warmth of the ceramic reminded him of the near-scalding heat of Ravi’s shoulder just minutes before. He took a sip, delighted to find rich hot chocolate. “How did you make this so fast?” he asked, whipped cream from his lip. “Is that magic too?”

Ravi grinned fondly, but shook his head. “We had some hot water left over…and I just used a pack of instant hot chocolate mix.”

Ken almost dropped the mug. “Sacrilege! A coffee shop using instant powder? Did that light fry your brain?” He scoffed in disgust, but took another hearty swig of his drink. “Where do you even keep those? I’ve never seen a box of hot cocoa mix lying around on the supply shelves, you heathen.”

The café owner was still grinning. “I’ll never tell.”

“And you did it in the dark,” Ken muttered resentfully, sipping again.

Ravi didn’t reply.

“When I said ‘drink,’ I meant alcohol,” Ken mumbled.

Ravi just looked at him.

The only sound was Ken’s slurping, which eventually tapered off as he finished his hot chocolate. It had been the perfect temperature and incredibly rich despite consisting only of hot water and fake chocolate powder. That was magic and no one could tell him otherwise.

“So…” Ravi started. He scratched the back of his neck, suddenly nervous. Ken would go as far to say that he looked embarrassed. He gestured for him to go on. “I’m not exactly human?” Ravi offered. It sounded like a question.

“Okaaaay,” Ken said slowly. He paused. “Are you an alien?”

Ken’s face was getting disturbingly close to Ravi’s. Ravi pushed it away. “What is that look? I’m not an alien! You’re freaking me out.”

Ken let his plop back into his chair. He was leaning across the table at an awkward angle. “Woah, woah, woah, there, boss. You’re the one getting freaked out?” Ken exclaimed, “You just told me that you’re not even human!”

Ravi set his elbows on the table and his chin on top of his clasped hands. Ken grew uncomfortable as a sly grin spread across Ravi’s lips. He opened his mouth and said, “Well, you already kind of knew that, didn’t you.” It wasn’t a question.

Ken was stunned. He had known in the back of his head that Ravi noticed him the night in the alley, but he was finally being called out on it.

Seeing that he was getting no intelligent response from his employee Ravi continued, “Don’t think that I didn’t notice you when you were going all double-oh-seven on me, buddy. You’re not exactly a trained spy.”

“B-but,” Ken started, “You were facing the away from me the entire time! How could you have seen me?”

“Other than my awesome supernatural sensing abilities that come with being ‘a human glow stick’ as you call it, which made me aware of you the entire time, I merely glanced your direction and saw your head poking out from behind the building. You weren’t exactly hiding well,” Ravi almost scolded him, “Near the end of the whole thing, you were so stunned that you didn’t get out of the way fast enough.”

Ken ran his hand through his slightly frazzled hair. “Do have any intention whatsoever of eating me?” he choked out.

Ravi’s eyes went wide, then narrowed and he pressed his lips into a tight line. “That’s exactly it, Ken. I have been feeding you nice sugary hot chocolate so I can get you all fat and eat you.” Ravi’s eyes glittered eerily in the half-light. “And now that you’ve figured out my nefarious plan, I’ll have to kill you.” Ravi leaned backwards in his chair, shadows growing on his face due to the cold glow of the flashlight.

Just before Ken could make a mad sprint for the door, he heard something loud and harsh come from the far side of the table. It took him a second to realize that it was actually uproarious laughter.

“Oh my God, you should have seen your face!” Through his laughter, Ravi managed to get out, “You were like,” and then he did a bad imitation of Ken with his eyes as wide open as he physically could. “You are the greatest, Ken. That was priceless.” Ravi chuckled, trying to calm down a bit.

Ken just sat there, slightly miffed he had been fooled and thoroughly laughed at. He wanted the conversation to continue, but every time he wanted to say something, Ravi would start chuckling again.

“I’m sorry, it’s just that every time I think about it, it makes me laugh. It was perfect.” Ravi brought his hands to his face, gently pushing his cheeks down as if it could make him stop grinning. “My cheeks hurt from smiling too much.”

Ken’s eyes narrowed as he said, “I’m sorry for your pain,” in a flat, unenthusiastic voice.

“But really, Ken. Eat you? Who do you think I am? Have you seen any evidence of me eating people back here or in my apartment?”  

As Ken thought back, he couldn’t think of anything that set off red flags that said, ‘murderer’.

“You’re safe, Ken. I’m not going to harm you or anyone else,” Ravi promised.

“Since I’m not in any mortal danger, then, can you explain what the whole light show was all about?”

“Alright.” Ravi put his hand to his chest, “I am not human, which we’ve already established.” Ken nodded, keeping his eyes on Ravi’s face. “The truth is, I don’t really have a name for what I am. I’ve never met anyone else that’s the same as me. All I really know is that I’ve been here for a very, very long time, and I don’t get sick, older, or die.” Ravi removed his hand from his chest and cupped it in front of him.

“That orb that you saw be absorb,” he continued, “is actually something else entirely.”

Ken was hanging on his every word with wide eyes. “They’re not some kind of supernatural power ups, right?”

Ravi actively stopped himself from rolling his eyes. It would be rude, and really, just about anything would be believable at this point. “We’re not in a video game. It’s not like picking them up makes me run twice as fast for thirty seconds or something like that. Think reasonably, please.” Ravi flicked Ken’s hand lightly as punishment for interrupting his explanation. “As I was saying, they are something else entirely. I don’t really have a name for them, but they come from people.”

“Like pieces of their broken heart, or something equally cheesy?” Ken suggested.

Ravi tipped his head back, thoughtful. “Kind of, but not really. It’s more like a change has happened in person, and that change has caused something to be left behind.”

“So these are pieces of people? You’re telling me you’re on human litter control?”

Ravi didn’t look impressed. “I guess you could say that, though I wouldn’t. These aren’t like big chunks of people’s personalities floating around. It’s just change, and that happens to everybody.”

Ken thought back to his past. “So, when I decided that being silly and fun was what I wanted to do as a child, I left something of me behind?”

“Yeah, pretty much, if that’s something you can actively decide,” Ravi nodded with his hands on the table, “a small part of you, whether it be your passiveness or your shyness was left behind. So it was left floating in the form of a white orb like the one you saw earlier.”

“Okay, this is nice, but what do you do to these things?”

“I don’t really like leaving them just hanging around, and I get a real boost from taking one of these orbs in. Also, if the orb left behind is negative, I kind of purify it.”

Ken gave Ravi a look.

“A boost, you say?”

Ravi nodded.

“So it’s like taking a hit of ?”

Ravi froze, then started shaking his head. “I honestly have no idea where your mind goes,” he said wondrously.

“So what does it feel like, then? What’s this boost?” Ken demanded. The only experience he had with “taking things in” was eating, and while that was nice, it probably wasn’t the same as absorbing somebody’s awkward teenage years.

Ravi was laughing at him again. “I can see that rapturous food look on your face, Ken. Stop dreaming about my cinnamon rolls. You can’t have them.”

Ken snapped out of his pastry-induced haze. “Answer the question, Ravi.” His fingers absent-mindedly fiddled with his empty coffee mug. “What could that possibly feel like?” He met Ravi’s eyes from underneath his brown fringe.

The older man sighed and slumped against the back of his chair. “It’s hard to describe,” he replied. Ken didn’t expect his boss to appear almost dreamy-eyed when he thought of the feeling. “It’s nice. Like, warm. It feels good for me, though maybe that’s just because I am what I am.” Seeing that Ken wasn’t getting any of that, Ravi tried to make it a bit more relatable. “Ken, put down the cup.”

When Ken didn’t let go of his mug, Ravi reached over, pulled it out of his hands, and leaned back to slide it onto another table. He turned back around. “Now, close your eyes.”

With only a little grumbling, Ken’s eyes slid shut. Ravi took a split second to wonder at the capacity for trust and belief in humans. He’d freely admitted he wasn’t human for the first time in his very long life and Ken, a young human man, was willing to close his eyes after this admission, completely trusting Ravi not to harm him. The man had no idea what Ravi was capable of or his agenda, but was willing to trust Ravi, the single owner and manager of Ravi’s. The world was an amazing place, and Ravi was glad to be right there in that dark, warm shop with Ken, his ridiculous barista.

An eye flicked open. “What are you doing?”

Ravi smiled. “Shut your eyes and listen.”

The eye flicked shut.

“Okay, now imagine you just got home from a terrible day at work. Your boss drove you to near collapse, the customers were mean and picky, you knocked a whole stack of plates off the shelf…”

Ken’s whole face twisted at that last part, but he managed to stay silent.

“You’ve just gotten home. You strip down to your boxers, wiggle into your bed, and wrap yourself in your softest, most cuddly blanket. Your whole body relaxes, you’re off your sore feet, you’re warm. A thrill of happiness flurries in your chest. This is amazing, you think. This has got to be the happiest I’ve ever been. I’m never moving from this spot.”

Ravi’s voice faded into the rafters. Ken’s eyes slid open.

“That’s how it feels,” Ravi said. “Nice, right?”

“So kind of like magical , then?” Ken insisted facetiously.

Ravi rolled his eyes. “Yes, exactly like a hit of magical .”

Ken tapped on the table since Ravi had taken his mug away. He had nervous fingers. “Well, if a nice bit feels that good, then how does a part that you need to purify feel?” He hoped Ravi wouldn’t be upset by his question because he could only imagine that it wasn’t pleasant.

Across the table, Ravi’s face was dappled with shadow. He frowned, but didn’t look angry. “How should I describe it?” he asked himself aloud. “It’s sort of like getting in the shower and turning on the water, but it’s unexpectedly freezing. Sort of a cold shock that slowly warms up.”

Ken was silent.

“I’ve had some tough ones though.” Ravi rubbed his chest as if to work out some kind of pain. “The bad ones are so cold it’s like knives. I guess, as if you’d jumped into a snowbank …”

Ken leaned forward despite himself, concern awakening in the back of his mind. Could Ravi get hurt? That was a stupid question. It was pretty clear he could, if the alley incident was anything to go by. Was an impure orb the reason Ravi had collapsed on the concrete, incredibly sick and barely able to move? The novelty and wonder of Ravi’s secret was quickly wearing off. This could be dangerous. This could be deadly. How could they have Ravi’s without Ravi? Where would that leave Ken?

A touch to Ken’s hand jerked him from his quickly spiraling thoughts.

“Are you okay?” Ravi asked gently.

Ken blinked. “You’ll be careful, won’t you?” he blurted out. His mouth was out of control tonight.

“I always try to be careful,” Ravi assured his employee and friend, “I’ve only ever run into a few negative spheres, and they haven’t been that strong.”

“But something got you earlier,” Ken protested, “As careful as you supposedly are, I found you unconscious in a pukey alleyway!” He reached over and jabbed one of Ravi’s hands.

Ravi grimaced. “Speaking of pukey alleyways, that was actually what I wanted to talk about next. Normally the pieces are pretty easy to purify, granted that it’s uncomfortable and not fun, but they let themselves be taken in by me. They’re not sentient, at least I didn’t think so until that particular incident.”

“What? What happened?” Ken felt like they were finally getting to the really relevant and important information.

Ravi’s face contorted into a deep frown. “You know our Sunday regulars, right?”

Ken nodded. “The super cute couple, right? Taekwoon and Hakyeon?”

“Yeah, them. I walked by them yesterday, and something pretty nasty has attached itself to at least one of them. I don’t know if it’s related to the orbs, because this felt like a bad orb, but it was much more alive. It seemed to live in Hakyeon’s shadow, and it didn’t want to let go.”

“It didn’t want to let go? What does that mean?” If this meant what Ken was beginning to think it meant, both of them were in for a boatload of trouble in short order.

“I could feel it when I tried to pin it down. It was so angry, bitter, and dark, and it didn’t want to let go. It stayed entrenched in Hakyeon’s shadow despite my best efforts, which is when you found me.”

Ken bit his lip, looking slightly uncomfortable. If Ravi had trouble with this thing, then what could he possibly do? Why was it sounding more and more like he and Ravi were going to be doing something about it? This wasn’t good for his heart. “Okay,” he said slowly, “Why am I important here?”

Ravi looked like he was fighting with himself, trying to decide if he would speak. Tormented was not a good look on Ravi and it pained Ken to see it. Finally, one side won and he finally spoke. “I’m going to find them and help them. They don’t really know what they’re dealing with. It’s dangerous, and honestly, they don’t stand a chance.”

Ken stared for a moment, processing that apparently their Sunday regulars were in mortal danger. “We don’t know where they live or anything. It’s not like a café is privy to that kind of information.”

“We?” Ravi commented. His eyebrows climbed toward his hairline.

Ken’s bottom lip quaked. “Uh, yeah, I guess?” he said, sounding incredibly unsure. “If our regulars are in trouble and we have the firepower to help them,” he gestured at Ravi, “then isn’t it sort of our duty to, I don’t know, save their asses?”

Ravi stared at Ken, unnerving the young barista. That’s what Ravi wanted, right? To ask for his help? But the guy was too afraid that Ken would say no. Or maybe he was afraid that Ken would say yes. “This is going to be dangerous, isn’t it?” Ken asked, completely devoid of any earlier humor. “This could be really bad.”

Ravi nodded reluctantly. “This could be really bad. I’m going in here blind, but I can’t just leave them alone. Because of what I am I have a duty to help them. Hell, even if I didn’t, I still would. They’re my regulars. They’re good people.”

Feelings were swirling in Ken’s chest. He was afraid, make no mistake, but he could feel a determination shining through. He may be young and he may be clumsy, but he could do his best to help out his friends in need. “So what’s the plan, boss?”

“I haven’t quite figured that out,” Ravi said. He ran his fingers through his hair again, purposely mussing it. “I wanted to do a quick sweep tonight. I think this creature’s pull is strong enough that I could feel it if was active. I know Taekwoon and Hakyeon live pretty close, even if I don’t know the exact location. They usually walk here. If I don’t feel anything tonight, I’ll see if they come in on Sunday morning and talk to them then. The problem is that I have no idea when this creature will make its final move.”

Ken nodded decisively. “I’m in. And don’t worry, we’ll save Hakyeon and Taekwoon.”

Ravi was surprised by Ken’s confidence, but it made him feel a little better about the daunting task ahead of them. “Well, let’s head out now and see if I can feel anything. The faster we stop this thing, the better off we’ll all be.”

Ken tried to look strong.

“Fighting!”