The thing about Tasks is that it really is the quickest and dirtiest. I mean yes, my entire life is structured around recurring items in the Daily list, but the point of using Tasks is that it is fast to access and easy to use. I can just throw a shitload of keywords into it, drag them into order easily, and check them off as I go. No single other system -- not a notebook or bullet journal, not project management software, not the spreadsheet in which I keep my daily calendar -- is as accessible, fast, or easy as Tasks, which means I’ll actually use it.

Outside of the holding cell the clock ticked away the minutes when the night was supposed to blend into the day. 5:30 happened, then 5:45, then 6. Zee felt dizzy. The skin of her human body itches, wanting to be split open and burned away. She needed to escape this place and get back into the sky, but she couldn't will herself home because she couldn't see her arm. All she could see when she looked up were the white speckled tiles of the police station's ceiling. She heard a door open and then slam shut again. The force of it shook the small room and the cell door rattled. The officer on duty looked up and accepted a cardboard cup from the hand of someone Zee couldn't fully see around the wall. "It's the damnedest thing, Jim," the hidden man said. "What's that?" asked the first officer. He removed the lid from the cup and blew into it. "It's just so dark out, is all. The sun shoulda been risin' almost an hour ago. But nothin." Officer Jim shrugged. "Can't rush time or women, as my father used to say." Zee dug her nails into the skin of her thigh and contemplated never raising again out of spite. The hidden officer laughed. "True enough." Before the two men could say anything else the door opened and then slammed again. "Oh, thank god, there's someone in here. I need help!" It was a familiar voice. It was Talia's voice! Zee stood up in a hurry. She had a surge of vertigo and sat back down on the bench heavily. It groaned and cracked in protest. "Calm down miss, what is it?" "My dog," Talia said, her breath and words coming fast for what Zee hoped was just dramatic effect. "Someone's hit him with their car. He's just lying in the road by the sidewalk out front. He's not dead, but he's too heavy for me to move him on my own. And his fur is black and it's so dark, I-- Can you, I mean, will you? Oh God I'm so sorry." And with that Talia began to sniffle, no doubt laying the tears on thick. Above Zee there was a faint scraping noise. She looked up to see that one of the tiles had been slid aside and Wan was peering down at her. Wan put one finger up to her lips. Zee rolled her eyes. Of course she wasn't going to say anything. She wasn't an idiot. "Calm down, miss," Officer Jim said. "Of course, we'll come right away," the hidden officer said. Officer Jim turned to Zee and jabbed his finger in her direction. It was the first time he'd acknowledged her since he locked her in. "You stay put." "Sure thing, man," Zee drawled, as if she could have walked out at any time and was just doing him a favor. He frowned and followed the other two out, door slamming again behind him. Zee counted to fifteen in her head to give them enough time to make it down the hall and out of the building. Then she looked back up at Wan. "What the fuck are you doing here?" she snapped. "I'm sure as shit not checking for asbestos," Wan said. "Though I might have found some anyway. Let's go." Wan thrust her hand down into the empty air beneath the ceiling tiles and Zee stared at it. She didn't want this help. She would rather let the world sit black for a week than accept help from her actual nemesis. But she missed her home in the sky and she knew there were bigger things at stake than her pride. Wan shook her hand to emphasize that Zee had better get a leg on. Zee sighed in disgust and stood up unsteadily. She carefully climbed up onto the bench, placed one hand to the wall for balance, and reached with the other until Wan caught her wrist and wrapped her fingers around it. Wan's skin was cold. Once Wan had a tight grip on her Zee reached out with her other hand and let Wan take that one as well, then she pushed up with her legs and tugged against Wan's anchoring weight with her arms until enough of her was up through the ceiling that she could finish pulling herself up into the dark. There was just enough space above the ceiling to crouch on her hands and knees. Zee shuffled away from the opening and and Wan slid the title back into place. With the light blocked out it was very dark in the crawl space. The only light was the faint white glow coming from Wan's skin. "This way," Wan whispered. She turned and started to crawl in the opposite direction of the front door. Zee followed her in silence. After about ten minutes of slow progress they made it to an open vent. Wan slid out of it with ease. When Zee stuck her head out she could see that the drop was about fifteen feet. She'd fallen farther in her time of course, but never in a human form. "Here goes nothing," she said, and wriggled until her legs were dangling out of the vent. She pushed herself forward and half slid, half fell down to the pavement of the rear parking lot with all the grace of a tumbling meteor. She landed on her feet, but then lost her balance. Her knees hit the pavement and she winced. Suddenly she was being pulled to her feet and embraced by Mariam, Hannah, and Chris all at once. They fretted over her and pushed her hair out of her face and checked her knees for blood. "I can't believe that worked" Mariam said. "Let's never do this again," Hannah said. Chris coughed out a small, nervous laugh. "Talia's dog deserves an Emmy. I was really worried about him when he just yelped and collapsed on command." "That's some dog," Hannah agreed. The tangle of their bodies was warm and soft, but it couldn't distract Zee from the sight of the deep blackness of the sky above them. It was wrong and she felt the ache of not being in it right through to her bones, which were already beginning to ignite with the anticipation of rising. The heat licked at her from within. Wan stood by herself about ten feet away from the happy reunion. She had her arms crossed and she was also looking at the sky. It was long after she should have set by now and her eyes looked hollow and tired. "They're going to start a search," she said quietly. "We should go before they find us." Zee pulled out of her friend's arms and approached Wan with her hand out. "Thank you. You didn't have to be a part of this." Wan shrugged and didn't accept the shake. "I was a part of the problem. I might as well be a part of the solution. Besides, who will I race if not for you?" "You mean chase," Zee said. She slid her hands into the back pockets of her shorts and smirked. "You're always behind me." "Or am I just so far ahead I'm catching up again?" Wan asked, and with that she melted away. A few droplets of moonlight splashed on to Zee's shoes. She bent down and wiped them away, rubbing the iridescent powder between her fingers until it faded. Her fingers still felt cool where it had been.