Still, the empty space at Gray’s side was like a black hole that prevented him from efficiently packing, so he decided to try killing two birds with one stone by finally breaking the uncomfortable silence. He didn’t often resort to using passive-aggressive tactics, but they weren’t beneath him. Shadow wouldn’t know what hit him.
“It’s interesting how you keep saying that helping me is so important to you, but the moment I do something you don’t like, you take away the arm.”
Nothing. Not even a grumble.
Gray rolled his eyes and said the same thing, but way louder this time. Again, his words had no effect on Shadow, who lay still as a corpse.
Gray leaned across the gap between their beds and grabbed Shadow’s arm, intending to shake it, but his head emptied when he sensed the stiffness of the flesh beneath his fingers.
Shadow was unnaturally cool.
Gray pulled on him, and the heavy body fell to its back. Even in the dim light of the bedside lamp, he could instantly see the face had a grayish-blue shade. Shadow made no other movement. His chest was still, with not a breath in sight.
Icy claws sank into Gray’s heart, and he shook Shadow again before frantically pressing his ear to Shadow’s breastbone. Shadow was dead. Or rather, his body was.
“No. Oh God,” Gray whimpered, stepping away from the bed on soft legs. The mannequin made of flesh and bone was lifeless without its puppeteer, but where could he have gone?
Darkness seemed thicker in the corners, and whispered to Gray as he helplessly paced around the small room, looking into every crevice in search for the red glint of eyes. But there was nothing, not even in the bathroom, which should have appealed to Shadow since it was dark and moldy.
The few times Shadow had left his body, it had only been for a couple of minutes, and he’d struggled to wake up after that, regaining consciousness slowly. This? For all Gray knew, he could have lay dead like that for over an hour.
Gray hid his face in his hands and took a deep breath, desperate to calm down and think more clearly.
“Okay, if I was a sulking, cockroach-eating Shadow who wanted to hide, where would I go?”
As silly as that question was, considering the dreary situation Gray was in, it took him right back to the failed attempt at having a warm meal, and to the cockroach speeding along the diner counter as if it were participating in bug Olympics. Without thinking, Gray rushed outside in just the sweatpants he wore to sleep and boots put on bare feet. The cold of the spring night bit into his flesh the moment he left the room, but comfort would be the least of his problems when Shadow’s body started attracting flies.
He blindly ran down the stairs and then through the dark parking lot, toward the lifeless restaurant that no longer served what passed as food. So late at night, all the lamps around the motel were off, leaving him to walk blindly, with only the distant sound of the nearby highway for company. After hurriedly exiting his bright room, the air around him seemed pitch black, and each step he took was like striding into a void. His cool skin prickled with unease, but as seconds passed, he discerned the pale walls of the diner.
The front door was flimsy, but the one in the back—even easier to breach. The place probably didn’t keep money overnight. No alarm blared, and Gray spent unbearable seconds surveying the dark kitchen that somehow smelled even less pleasant than the restaurant.
After searching through the kitchen and the dining area, Gray stood between the tables, slowly realizing Shadow might not have come here after all. But before panic could grab hold of him, a spike in background noise somewhere behind the counter drew his attention to the kitchen again. Holding his breath, Gray went back, acutely aware of even the tiniest sound. And then he heard it more clearly—a crunching, like that of someone eating extra-crispy nachos.
Gray followed it all the way to a narrow door he’d overlooked before. He swallowed and tapped the wall until he found the light switch. A surprisingly bright white light temporarily blinded Gray when he opened the door into a large room filled with food stacked on shelves.
He didn’t spot Shadow at first, but once Gray ventured deeper into the pantry, he noticed the two glinting rubies watching him from behind one of the shelving units. Shadow remained perfectly still, as if he wanted to stay hidden, but Gray didn’t have the time for playing games. He strode toward the pile of darkness couching in the corner and only stopped when he realized he almost stepped into a bunch of damaged cockroach bodies.
Shadow must have been here for a while.