Angels

Josette clutches her bags hard as she hurries after the woman. She is carrying a week's worth of food she can't afford to lose. Even if she could buy more, it is doubtful vendors would allow it: supplies are too scarce now to grant extra rations to anyone.

The figure is not to be found in the alleyway, nor any other alcoves nearby. She might have vanished-- or perhaps Josette imagined her. There was something indelibly familiar in her black eyes, though Josette cannot place the face near any she has known.

Josette's breath frosts before her from her exertion and billows around her face like smoke as she searches. With a final puff of disappointment, she lets one bag drop to the sidewalk. Her cans make a dull thud against the concrete.

She hears a snuffle and realizes she is standing over someone huddled against the side of the building. She steps backward, eyes widening, as a mass of canvas and denim rearranges itself. In the shadows she can barely see a face, but eyes as pale and shining as stars gaze back at her. "Looking for someone?"

For a moment, she doesn't answer, scarcely knowing what to say. At any case, this man was not what she had expected to find.

He pats the ground next to him. "Take a load off." He eyes Josette's groceries with obvious hunger.