4 An Angel in the Snow

Larifa

Hunched up against the wall, was a person, a boy, a man? Buried in layers of thick snow, with his head flopped over to the side, Larifa confirmed that there was indeed someone at the very least.

She didn't know what to do. First came the shock of a frozen corpse laid out right in front of her. What should she do? She had never seen something like this before, and her feet felt stuck to the ground below her, preventing her from moving, like the ice had suddenly formed beneath her boots. Then came the sudden realisation that she had to do something, anything.

Dropping her groceries at her feet, Larifa ran towards the man, almost slipping in the process. Falling to her knees in the snow, Larifa lunged forward for the man's neck to feel for a pulse, but dammit, her fingers were too cold to feel anything, and the body before her was even colder. Instead, she frantically started to dig the stranger out of the snow, scraping the white ice away from his legs. After a few minutes, the man gave out a painful, unprecedented groan, and Larifa's heart lurched with hope. She went to grab the man's face with her hands, hoping to find his eyes open and awake, trying to find further signs of life. Just as she was about to yell for help, she tilted his face towards her, and Larifa stopped in her tracks.

The man was...beautiful. His skin was so pale from the cold, and his cheeks and eyelashes were dusted with tiny snowflakes, which made him glisten in the distant orange light. His raven hair curled towards his eyes that were still closed, the tips of his bangs frosted from the snow. With perked, blue lips slightly parted, Larifa could make out the faint but apparent mist leaving his mouth, and that gave her enough hope that this person could be saved.

Reaching into her pocket, she fished out her phone, and with shaky fingers she dialled the emergency number, hoping and praying that the blizzard would simmer down enough for her call to patch through. Of course, because fate had funny ways of showing affection, it didn't.

One step at a time, Tuff.

Larifa grabbed the man by his shoulders and heaved him out of the snow, only to discover the horror that this man was only wearing a thin black shirt and jeans. Without any hesitation, she slipped off Micah's coat to wrap it around the stranger, before lifting the man up again by his arms and dragging him behind her. He was taller than her, although not by much, however he was a lot heavier than Larifa imagined. In her first couple of steps, she stumbled. First thing's first was to get this poor man out of the snow, and close to something warm.

To get a better grip, Larifa thrusted the man's body upwards until his arms dangled lifelessly at either side of her face, with his face settled in the crook of her neck. She shivered at the cold, thankful for the gentle sensation of his minute breaths which tickled the back of her ear, before trudging her way through the street. With a stranger on her back, and beneath the occasional sporadic streetlight, Larifa left the bag of groceries in the snow behind them.

"You're gonna be okay," Larifa whispered to the stranger.

***

"MIKE! OPEN THE DOOR! IT'S URGENT!"

In the seconds that it took for her friend to make his way over to the front door, unlock it, and then open it, Larifa swore she saw a lifetime pass by her eyes. Before Micah could even take a step to the side, Larifa pushed her way past him before her fingers could slip any further. With zero regards for decorum, she kicked Micah's coffee table to the side to make way for the sofa, before finally dropping the stranger into its cushions.

"What in the-"

When Larifa turned around, she found Micah stood in the doorway with his fingers threaded through his hair, his brows furrowed with a confusion-filled, wide-eyed stare. Shaking her head, she paced quickly past her gobsmacked friend to head for his bedroom, only to be faced with a battlefield of dirty laundry, and an odour which she really, really did not want to pinpoint. Larifa rarely got angry, or even irritated, because she found herself to be too laidback by nature, but this occasion called for her annoyance at her dump of a best friend.

"MIKE! Where the hell am I supposed to find any spare blankets around here?!" she yelled, as she made her way through each disgusting puddle of clothes, and past every towering pile of dirty dishes.

"I don't have any! I live alone, why would I have spare ANYTHINGS?!" he yelled from the living room.

"For the love of-!"

There was no use in wasting anymore time. If Micah's car could take them far enough to make it even a couple of blocks away from the hospital, then that man stood a chance. Sprinting out of the bedroom, and back into the living room, Larifa once again barged past Micah and went straight towards the stranger, who to her dismay, hadn't moved an inch since she'd left.

Micah had his hands held out in front of him, a gesture of panic and uncertainty. "Tuff, who is he?! Where...why-?!"

"I don't know! I found him slumped up outside of the grocery store in nothing but a shirt and pants, okay? I couldn't just leave him!" she almost yelled. "That's all there is to it! So just, help me get him to your car. We have to drive him to the hospital if we can!"

"O-Okay, just let me grab my coat!"

While Micah flailed and fumbled through the sleeves of his coat, Larifa took a second to de-jumble her thoughts. Brows furrowed and her eyes centred on the man, Larifa tried to rationalize his situation as to why, and how, he had ended up outside of that store. He couldn't be homeless. Those clothes, although seemingly thin and plain, were too well kept for someone living out on the streets. He had no other belongings on him: no pockets that were big enough for a wallet, or even a smartphone.

Had he been mugged, perhaps? He had that minted, pretty-boy aura going for him. Someone like that wouldn't be stupid enough to be waltzing around in that part of town, but Larifa had been wrong before.

Her thoughts were interrupted when Micah grabbed her by the shoulder, before gesturing to the open door. "Tuff, grab my car keys. I'll carry him to the car, you try to get the engine going."

She nodded, grateful for his quick adaption to this unimaginable scenario, and then ran out into the street towards the murky-green Fiad 500 that was parked at the side of the road. Covered in heaps of snow, Larifa swept the icy substance from the door handle before unlocking the car, sliding into the drivers seat and sticking the key into the cylinder lock. The painful, dying sound of the engine coughing and spluttering was all Larifa could focus on. At some point between her endeavour to start the car, she had heard the backseat door opening, closing, and then felt the car tip once Micah had slipped into the passenger seat.

"Tuff...?"

"I'm trying, hold on!"

"I don't think it'll-"

"No shit Sherlock!" Larifa snapped. "When was the last time you went for a drive?! Or even got out of your flat in the first place?!" Her eyes darted to the rear-view mirror, the dark silhouette of the stranger taunting her from the backseat. Eyes stinging with frustration, Larifa frantically twisted the car keys this way and that, each time the engine getting all the more quiet.

"It's...it's been a while," Micah mumbled, his gaze lowering before turning to face the dark street ahead of them.

Biting back her tongue, Larifa's grip on the car keys softened as she chest deflated in defeat. Now wasn't the time to be passing blame. Especially when neither party could help it. "Can we call for a taxi?"

"Still no service. I don't think any cab companies are willing to send out any cars in this blizzard in the first place." Micah paused, the silence all the more deafening as they both acknowledged the stranger in the backseat. "What now?"

"Just let me think."

"...Alright. Tuff, I'm...I'm sorry."

Raising her head, she felt her brows cascade up in shock, and stupefaction. "Why are you apologizing? This isn't your fault."

"I know. It just felt, appropriate," Micah whispered, his gaze shifting to his left.

Sighing, Larifa slumped back in her seat before pinching the bridge of her nose. "Listen, it's a longshot and probably stupid-" Larifa started.

"Go on?"

"-but my new place is just down the street. A couple blocks from here."

"What?!" Micah gasped, the motion ridiculously overdramatic, and on purpose. "Why the fuck didn't you say anything in the first place?!"

"Because...I just..."

Larifa stumbled over her words. She knew why she hadn't told her best friend about something so important earlier on, but it wasn't something that she wanted to tell him. The reason for moving closer to Micah wasn't to be near, as a loving friend. But actually, because the apartment happened to be between the hospital, and a certain someone who would probably die without her regular check-ups. That someone was sat besides her, and that someone would definitely not appreciate knowing that she had little faith in him.

"I...wanted it to be nice surprise?"

"Well it surprised me! Congrats!"

"It's not like I wanted to-"

"Tuff," Micah interrupted, his expression grave, "surprise or not, it wasn't exactly ideal to keep it from me until now. In case you haven't noticed, we've got some random dude in the backseat, and if he could hear us he probably wouldn't appreciate you not putting his dying needs before your pride!"

"I'm not being prideful! Jesus fucking Christ, just grab him already!" Larifa chowed, before she threw open the car door and slammed it shut. Of all people who she did not want a lecture from, it had to be Micah-freaking-Murphy.

Stomping around to fling open the backseat door, Larifa grabbed the stranger by the folds of Micah's coat to heave him over towards her. She heard Micah's steps make their way around the car before they stopped by her side, and the two of them tugged him out of the car to lean him against the back wheel of the car.

"Wait!" Larifa lunged out towards Micah, as he was leaning down to pick up the stranger, accidentally knocking him into the snow.

Had she just seen...she couldn't have possibly...

Rubbing the top of his head, he puffed out his chest and pouted. "What's the big idea?! Why'd you do that?!"

"...Look."

Her hand was outstretched in front of her, finger pointing past the collar of the coat. Micah stood from the ground, patted down his pants, before kneeling in front of the stranger and eyeing the area to which Larifa had become suddenly so mesmerized by. With shaky fingers, her pulse thumping against her temple, Larifa dared to loop a finger around the coat-collar and tug it back ever so slightly. She heard Micah gasp again, this time a sound which lurched out from his throat with fear, and stupor. And she could understand why.

"He's...a Bionic."