#anywhere

"Maybe try drawing it without looking? That can get stuff out of your head."

"How do I draw the seeking dark?" He shakes his head, and shivers slightly.

"Hold on." She considers. "You don't try to draw it, you let your hand go and feel it. See what happens."

"I read about it in a book. Your brain can get in the way of making stuff." The scooter kicks up into gear with a wheeze.

He climbs up behind her- hopefully she forgives if his grip is a little tighter on her sides then earlier.

The scooter putters towards Arty's house.

“Is there somewhere else we can go? I don’t think- I share a bed chamber with Gareth. I don’t want to be alone, but… neither with him right now?”

"...the castle?"

He hesitates, then shakes his head. “I just need to think.”

"Well, maybe not home yet? I have an idea."

She changes direction, going to a less-nice part of town.

"Yeah? Cool." Going along with it without questioning.

An apartment complex - a collection of four squareish buildings with a 70s aesthetic. She parks the scooter in a carport, next to a beat up sedan.

"What's here?" He looks around.

"So, if you go to the roof, you can see the stars pretty good - not too much light pollution. And nobody bothers you up there."

He nods. "Do you have some paper? I can try that drawing thing. I don't think I can draw, though..."

"I got some up there." She draws him around back - up a fire escape!

His eyes light up. "A secret stairway." Approving.

"Right? They were supposed to fix it so you can't get up, but they haven't gotten round to it."

"Even if they did, I bet you could fix it back..."

Grin! "Maybe!"

The roof has some mysterious pieces of equipment and various pipes and chimneys.

"What is all this?" Peering around.

The sun is starting to set - earlier every evening now, but still plenty of light in the sky.

"AC Units, ventilation, shit from the laundry room, chimney from the furnace..."

The roof has a waist-high wall around the edge, and there's a utility door which presumably leads inside. Katrina doesn't go there. Instead, she heads to a spot blocked from line-of-sight to said door. Behind a condenser, near the southwest corner.

He is peering into a laundry stack, and gets a whiff of lint - a sneeze, and then following her. The Nevers, meanwhile, squeal with tinkling glee as they ride the warm breeze up from the dryer vents.

There, someone has gathered some carpet scraps and tarps and discarded rugs to make a little 'nest.'

"So, it's not dark yet, but it's close. Stars will be out soon enough." She retrieves a rusty olive-green metal box from its hiding place under a duct. Opening it, she retrieves a sketchbook and pencil.

He stands for a while, gazing out at the view... then goes to join her. "This is... nice." He says, almost surprised.

"The apartment gets kinda claustrophobic, sometimes. So, here. Just... stick the pencil in your hand, have the paper under, and don't look at what you are drawing."

"Might be scribbles, but it might be scribbles with feeling?"

"Oh. Uh.... sure." He takes the pen, and paper, and then swaps it to his other hand... thinking, maybe thinking about it too hard.

"Don't think, just do. Feel it."

He closes his eyes, and inhales, then exhales, and it starts to move. Tentatively at first, and then broader, using the side of the graphite to color in dark swaths, making the picture more out of what is untouched paper than what he has drawn. Darkness, shrouding, shadows, dropping down The sky is a darker shade of darkness, and pinpoints of white - stars? At first left open, and then too, one after another, blacked out. A curled form with the just the faintest outline - a beast - winged, a dragon, but laying still - dead, or sleeping, as the dark draws in closer. His hand tightens and the pencil snaps...

Eyes flashing open again. "I'm sorry..." dropping the pieces.

"It's okay. Happens."

"C'mon, lay back and watch the stars come out. Just chill."

He works on steadying his somewhat ragged breath. "It was like a dream, but waking. Not... not like the dreams we are." Stumbling a bit, until he just goes quiet, and leans back against the carpeted lumps.

Out here the stars start appearing early, even before the Sun fully sets, and this seems to calm him more. "That's Polaris... the North star..."

"Yeah? What's that one in the W?" She asks questions about the stars, letting Arthur tell her the answers.

"Cassiopeaia... it's home to the heart nebula, and the soul nebula..."

"The white rose cluster..." And a soft laugh. "And the Pacman Nebula."

"You're joking... no way!"

"No, really! If we had a telescope, I could show you..."

Her clever ploy works, and Arty has calmed down. However the drawing remains, an omen of something dark falling... or rising.

(scene)