Her shadow was following her again. Cata gritted her teeth and resolutely ignored it; if the damn thing wanted to speak to her, it could do so without stalking her. She could see it out of the corner of her eye as she walked across the apartment complex to her building and skipped lightly up the stairs to her door. Her key was still under the mat, where it belonged.

The shadow slid into the apartment behind her. Outside, clouds descended upon the complex, and it began to rain. Cata flopped onto her couch and kicked her shoes at the far wall, already black with scuff marks.

"Are you gonna do that every day?" She reached behind her head and clawed open the minifridge, and pulled out a Dr Pepper.

"Do what?"

"Don't play innocent with me, Umbra. People are gonna start to notice when they see my shadow wandering around in the wrong direction. Too many weird things have been going on lately, and if people start to suspect me, it'll be that much harder to get my job done."

Umbra sighed, a bare whisper on the air, and coiled around itself. "But you are one of those strange things. Nocturne is more than an urban legend now; papers have been posting articles. Someone got a picture of us two nights ago."

"All the more reason for you to stay away from me during the day! Creepy guys have been hanging around the office, and I think one of them might know what you are." Cata took a sip of her soda, grateful for freyon and air conditioning and all those other marvels of modern technology.

"What!" Umbra sprang to its feet, sliding closer to the wall to better look down at Cata. "Who? And how can he know anything- you don't even know what I am, and you're my host!"

"Yeah, about that, Umbry- when am I gonna get to know the whole "Origin of Nocturne", huh? I mean, if I'm stuck doing this super-hero thing, I really ought to know who I really am." Cata looked pointedly at the shadow. Umbra flickered and turned its head to the side.

"What you don't know can't hurt you. Tell me about these men, these men who might know what I am..."

"Guy's name is Zyn Margols. He was very interested in my name. Said he was writing an article for the Ledger. He wanted to know everything I knew about the recent attacks. He had weird eyes." Cata closed her own eyes for a moment to remember them better. "Like...well, they looked a lot like Nocturne's. Soulless, if you know what I mean."

Umbra coiled down into a thoughtful position. "Nocturne's eyes aren't soulless. Quite the opposite, in fact. Hmm...Zyn Margols...he doesn't sound familiar. I'll have to keep following you to work so I can get a glimpse of him."

"Oka-"

"Great!" Umbra slid along the wall. "I'll be in the kitchen if you need me!"

"Hey!" Cata shouted after the rapidly retreating shadow. "No you don't! Not fair! You tricked me! Get back here you nebulous, sneaky little booger!" Her Dr Pepper sloshed out of the can and splashed across the couch, joining countless other stains there. "Aww, dammit! Look what you made me do! I'm gonna start making you pay rent now, so you'd better look for jobs asking for 'annoying, slithery, demons from hell', you hear me! Get back here!"

On the floor below, Cata's neighbors banged on the ceiling with a broom.