Available Darkness Season 2

leaned against the door, pressing his ear against it.
    “Hello?” he said, tapping the metal.
    Movement ceased.
    “Hello, I know you’re there!” John smacked the heavy iron door. “Hello?”
    The other side stayed silent.
    Though John sensed no one, he was certain he wasn’t alone.

    * * * *

CHAPTER 3 — Abigail

    “Well? Do you like it?” Katya asked as Abigail tore the end from her fried mozzarella, holding it between her teeth before tasting it with the tip of her tongue.
    “Not bad,” Abigail said, surprised by the blend of salty and cheesy, the two flavors coated with the perfect amount of fried crunchiness.
    “I can’t believe you’ve never had these before,” Katya said. “They’re even better dipped in marinara.”
    Abigail looked down at the green shallow bowl with red sauce and dipped the cheese stick in, timidly at first to just get a bit of sauce, then put it in her mouth. It was maybe the best thing she’d ever had, at least besides McDonald’s fries dipped in a milkshake.
    “Wow! That is good!” Abigail said as the waiter, a tall young man with neatly gelled brown hair, set a giant pizza on a stand beside them — easily the biggest pie Abigail had ever seen.
    “It came out earlier than I thought,” he smiled. “Would you like your slices now, or would you rather wait?”
    “We’ll wait until we’re finished with the appetizers, thank you,” Katya said.
    The waiter left their table and Abigail looked around the cozy Italian restaurant, marveling at the wooden trellises and fake vines creeping along the walls and separating each booth. Old, black iron lamp posts stood in each corner. Abigail wondered if they actually worked. The walls were painted with an ornate scene of what Abigail imagined was an Italian countryside, not that she’d ever seen an Italian countryside, pictures of an Italian countryside, or any countryside at all besides what passed outside a window while trapped in the seat of a swiftly moving car. The restaurant, with its delicious scents and lush interior, filled Abigail with a sudden longing for all the places she’d never been, and might never go.
    Katya caught her looking and smiled. “Do you like this place?”
    “I love it!” Abigail said. “Are all restaurants this nice?”
    “You’ve never been to a restaurant before?”
    “Not in a long time, not since I was a kid,” she said, realizing only after she said it that to Katya, she still was a kid. Abigail added, “Not since I was like 5 or 6, maybe, I don’t remember.”
    “Wow,” Katya said, “Did you grow up in a cave?”
    Not a cave, a closet.
    Abigail thought of the closet she’d spent too long imprisoned inside, then of Randy Webster. Again. She hated thinking of the monster. Abigail took another bite of cheese stick, buying her answer several seconds. She swallowed, then said, “My family didn’t have a lot of money,” hating the lie on her tongue.
    Katya smiled. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you feel bad.”
    “It’s OK,” Abigail shrugged, “That was a lifetime ago. Things are better now.”
    Abigail had only met Katya two days before, but already felt more comfortable with her than she’d felt with anyone else in a long time. She had tried not to like her, partly because she didn’t want another disappointment in her life when it was time for Katya to move on, but Abigail couldn’t help it. Katya was pretty, nice, and maybe the happiest person Abigail had ever met.
    Katya, seeming to sense Abigail’s reluctance to discuss her past, changed the subject. “So, what do you want to be when you grow up?”
    “I don’t know,” Abigail said, realizing it had been forever since she considered such things. Now that she would never grow up, dreaming about what might be was pointless. She tried to think of something that wasn’t, and wouldn’t sound like a complete lie, something that shared reality with the things she and Larry did together, approximately twice a month — tracking bad people and killing them.
    “Maybe I’ll be a police officer.”
    “Really?” Katya dipped her cheese stick into the marinara and then sprinkled some pepper on top of it. “A police officer? That’s cool. Why do you want to do that?”
    “To help people. To protect them from the bad guys.”
    “That’s nice,” Katya nodded.
    Abigail asked, “What do you want to be … I mean when you get older?”
    Abigail wondered if maybe she had insulted Katya. What if