Halflight: Dani and Tabs in NYC

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Tabitha and Dani are in the city shopping when something from Tabitha's past comes back to haunt her.




Tabitha walked next to Dani down the streets of the Village.
The goal was new books for the library and a little bit of economic
stimulus for the still-staggering city. "I know I've got a list of
comics for Dori, but I'm pretty sure there's something I'd never think
of that the kids just have to have. Like those sunrise vampire books,"
Tabitha commented wryly. "You have any insight, Madame RA?"


"The sparkly ones?" Dani asked, she had heard about those, vaguely.
"There's a new Harry Potter movie this summer. And..." she thought
hard, "We're sort of in a lull between big things book-wise. The
Gossip Girl books are good, I think?" Or at least the show was.


"Remind me to put out a suggestion box next time I plan a shopping
trip," Tabs muttered. "Teenagers are so weird." She stopped to stare
into a a shop window. "Even the magic users are easier to-" her voice
trailed off as an unwelcomely familiar face appeared reflected over
her shoulder. Her head spun and her fingertips went numb as she
watched him move.

He pushed several coins into the newspaper dispenser chained to a
telephone poll, then opened it up. He didn't take anything out, but
apparently put something in. He gave her a thumbs-up before he
vanished.

Tabitha tripped over her own feet and half fell as she turned and
threw herself at the machine. She pushed herself in front of another
customer with an uncharacteristic growl. "Mine." She fished
frantically in her pocket for change.

Dani had missed hte entire thing while watching a street performer
briefly, but she caught Tabitha as she made an uncharacteristic shove
for a newspaper kiosk. "You okay there?" she asked, confused. "News
ain't changed since the morning. This ain't the internet."

"It's not-" she cut off as she shoved the quarters into the machine
and pulled out the top paper. "It's not like that." Tabitha shuffled
through until she found the roughly folded piece of dirty paper. "It's
worse," she mumbled, reading the nearly illegible script. She stumbled
over to a telephone pole and leaned against it heavily.

"It's from someone I thought was through with me, but I guess he wants
that one more thing."

The way Tabitha was speaking, her body language, the spike in her
fears, it all added up to something Dani didn't like, apart from her
fears. Those were nice, "And you just jump when he tells you?" she
asked. After her marriage and it's ending, she wasn't too keen on not
being equal in a relationship. It was probably why she and Manuel were
friends with benefits on occasion and nothing more, "Do you ask how
high?"

Tabitha folded and unfolded the note, unable to even look at her
friend. She looked around the neighborhood, trying for an idea,
something her brain couldn't quite grasp. "There's a coffee shop over
there. Let's grab a cup and a corner and I'll try to explain."