Leonardo had found a sink in the building. The plug was still in it and water was filled to the brim. He felt lucky that he could even find any water after the power outage. Using a cloth, he would clean Danie’s wound every hour or so to keep it from getting infected.

  She eventually fell asleep as the long night stretched on, but Leonardo remained awake and vigint. Every time he would feel himself dozing off, a growl or footsteps from outside would break the silence and he’d be wide awake once again.

  Being awake was incredibly boring, and the boredom eventually got to him. He stood up from where he was seated on the ground next to Danie. He quietly made his way over to a window. He pulled the thick curtains back only slightly, just so he could peek outside at the empty city. No monsters were in his range of vision, fortunately. He allowed himself to pull back the curtain more, exposing the dark room to the full moon's bright light.

  Danie shifted around, her clothes scraping on the ground. Leonardo watched her to see if she would wake up. She didn’t. She had shifted so her back was no longer facing him. Rather, her sleeping face was in view, basking in the moonlight. That was the first time he’d seen her face properly. In the alleyway, in that building, it had all been too dark to see each other’s faces. But at that moment, he could see every facial feature of hers. She was very beautiful. His gaze swept over her face. It was a pale colour, only small areas on her cheeks had acne, but it looked like strawberry freckles. It didn’t make her any less beautiful. Her brown bangs covered both her forehead and eyebrows. Her hair itself was also very long and silky, only slightly messy from her previous brawl with the monster. She also looked around his age, which would be perfect, he thought.

  He mentally scolded himself for thinking like that. They were in the middle of something very serious and they had only just met.

  He turned back around to look out of the window and let out a loud yelp as his eyes made contact with another’s. A man was outside, staring at him, his face almost pressed up against the gss.

  Danie stirred, slowly sitting up to see what Leonardo had screamed about. She spotted the man at the window and quickly stood up onto her feet, walking to stand beside Leonardo, who was trying to figure out if the man was a threat or not. The man at the window had been silent for a long time, but he finally spoke.

  “Um, hi. You wouldn’t happen to be able to let me and my fiance in? We are struggling to find a safe pce and… well, more the merrier!” The man smiled, although it seemed pretty forced. Then he was pushed to the side and a woman popped into view.

  “Sorry about him, but we really need a pce to stay. All the other pces we tried were infested with those Luminarys,” the woman expined as her supposed fiance came back into view.

  “Luminarys?” Leonardo asked, confused on what that was.

  “Yeah, Luminarys! Those deadly monsters. Their eyes glow blue after they’ve killed someone. So creepy,” the man shuddered.

  The woman ignored him.

  “Could you let us in? Don’t want a Luminary to spot us and maul us.”

  Leonardo nodded slowly and started to move the heavy objects away from the doors. Danie began to help him but Leonardo gently grabbed her lower arm.

  “Your leg is still healing. You should sit down and rest,” he said.

  “But these are heavy. I should and want to help,” she argued.

  “I put these here, I can move them away again,” he counter argued.

  “But you need to do it quickly, so it’s better if I help.”

  “I’m perfectly capable.”

  “You’re annoyingly stubborn.”

  “So are you sweetheart,” he said mockingly.

  She gred at him and reluctantly slumped back in the chair, sulking. Leonardo smirked to himself and went back to moving the furniture as quickly as he could. As soon as the st heavy object was gone, the man burst in, his fiance walking behind him. He smiled cheerfully. His fiance closed the doors, putting a broomstick she was carrying as a weapon, into the door handles so no one from the outside could open it.

  “Hello new apocalypse friends! My name is Harry and this is my beloved fiance, sweetie pie, Diana!” Harry happily introduced them both while Diana rolled her eyes at the pet name.

  “We aren’t in an apocalypse. For all we know, the rest of the world is fine and it's just our lucky city that got struck with these… ‘Luminarys’,” Leonardo crossed his arms, acting cold. Harry’s overly happy personality annoyed him.

  “Stop being a smartass,” Danie said aloud from where she was sitting.

  “Highlight the smart part. The ass is you,” He grinned at her like he had made the funniest joke on earth, “I saved your life, and insults are what I get in return. That's not nice of you, darling Dani.”

  The nickname slipped out of his mouth before he could stop it and his face went beetroot red. Luckily it was dark. Danie had gone quiet and Harry ughed awkwardly to fill the silence.

  “I’m pretty hungry. Do you guys happen to have any food? Haven’t had any since lunch yesterday,” Harry rubbed his belly before giving it two small pats.

  “Yesterday?” Danie questioned.

  “Yeah. It's almost 5am, near sunrise,” Harry tapped his analog watch.

  Danie went back to being silent so Leonardo answered Harry’s question.

  “No food, unfortunately, but this building has a couple storeys that I haven't searched through yet. But I didn’t want to come across any Luminarys so I blocked off the entrance that leads upstairs,” he expined, turning to look at the stairs that led to an open arch with other heavy furniture he had used to block it when Danie was asleep.

  “Is there water? We need at least that to survive for now. We’ve been running from the Luminarys for so long and my throat is dry,” Diana scanned the rge room, trying to spot some water.

  “Didn’t you use some on my wound Leo? So there must be some around her,” Danie said before Leonardo could say anything so he just nodded and pointed to the other end of the room where the mostly full sink was.

  “There’s two full sinks but since the power is out, we are going to have to savour it as much as possible, alright?” Leonardo said in a serious tone, looking each of them in the eyes, trying to intimidate them into listening to him. They just all nodded with scattered yeah’s and sure’s.

  “Good,” he crossed his arms, not knowing what else to do or say.

  He expected someone to say something. Anything. But nothing.

  “So, um, I think we should take shifts in sleeping. Diana and Harry can go to sleep for a bit. You guys have been up all night. And I'll sleep too. Danie will take the rest of the night’s shift,” he concluded. Danie groaned.

  “Why do I have to?” she compined, letting her arms flop to her sides.

  Leonardo rolled his eyes. A smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth.

  “You had a good sloth’s sleep when we first came in here. I think it's fair. And it's only for about three hours.”

  Danie snarled at him, only further fueling his amusement.

  “Fine,” she stood up from her chair and reluctantly trudge-limped to sit by a spot near the door, where she could see out the window to the lowering moon.

  Leonardo stared at her slumped back as he settled down on the floor, leaning against a wall. He blinked slowly. He was ready to let sleep take over finally.

  “Don’t hesitate to wake me up if your leg hurts or something.”

  Danie scoffed at the attempt at comfort and turned to look at him and say something but he was already passed out, his head leaning in her direction. A small smile formed on her lips. Her eyes traced over his sleeping face, bathed in the moonlight.

  She turned back to the window and looked up at the stars, slowly disappearing as the first rays of sun peeked through the valley.