The day was cold, but the cold wasnâ€™t entirely due to the weather. There was a sense of darkness and uncaring over everything. Forget for a moment that this was a city, and it was rare to find a caring individual; something was still off. For her part, she didnâ€™t really care what was going on in the natural world or the unnatural world either for that matter. She wasnâ€™t just going to let this thing sneak up on her and whack her in the face though. That had happened too often in her past, and no way was she going to let it happen again. That was why sheâ€™d been studying karate a bit more frequently than she had in weeks past.<br/><br/>That was where she was now. It was the time between class ended and work began, and she was in the chill sunshine jumping about like a lunatic. Her foot struck a treeâ€™s trunk, and little pieces of bark rained down to the ground. She twisted and twirled, and more bark fell from the trunk. If anyone was watching her, they might think she was attempting to cut down the tree with her bare hands. A small smirk played across her lips at the thought as she again twisted about and kicked at the tree. As she was twisting, her hair whipped around her face, and a single strand poked her in the eye. Caught off guard, she stumbled, lost her footing, and went down hard on her hands and knees. â€œGreat, my own hair wants to be my enemy,â€â€™ she muttered under her breath.<br/><br/>She rocked back to a squatting position and sat there for a moment, her breath coming in hard gasps after the battle with the tree. After she was breathing more regularly, she realized how much darker it had gotten since she had first began. The shadows were longer, and the park was much quieter. Suddenly, she sprang to her feet and arched her neck to look at the huge town hall clock. Four:fifty-two the clock read. A number of curse words flew from her mouth. She barely had five minutes to get to work. She spun around again to grab her long coat off the ground. As she was snatching it up and taking another glance at the clock, she saw<span style="font-style: italic">something</span>falling out of the sky. She watched its descent for a few seconds before cursing again. â€œI really hope youâ€™re an insane skydiver,â€ she muttered as she took off running.<br/><br/>A few minutes hard running saw her to the front door of the tiny corner grocery store she worked at. â€œYouâ€™re late!â€ called the stockboy as she ran past him. â€œNot yet!â€ she called back. She raced past customers and dashed through the doors to the stockroom. She put her card in and pushed the button with only a minute to spare. â€œIâ€™m good,â€ she panted, sinking to the icy concrete floor. She sucked in deep breaths of stale air before she got shakily up on her feet. Making her way slowly to the lockers, she pulled on her oversized green employee t-shirt and tied the stupid white apron around her waist. She grabbed a couple slightly stale marshmallows out of their bag and stuffed them in her mouth before putting the bag in her apron pocket. A swig of bottled water and another pocket stash saw her ready and walking out of the stockroom. A deep sigh escaped her lungs as she settled on her little stool and flipped her registerâ€™s light on. Now came the real darkness of the world.