Mai Mingle had a home, but she couldn't go back to it.
She walked barefoot through the streets of Blackmoor City in the early morning, chilled to the bone. Her toes, in particular, felt like they were just glued on and might fall off at any moment.
At first, she could still feel the layer of grime coating the soles of her feet, and she would vigorously scrape them clean whenever she stepped on something suspiciously sticky. But after walking for a while, Mai Mingle gave up caring. The streets of Blackmoor City were far from clean; worrying about it was like trying to put out a fire by spitting on it. If she kept fussing, she wouldn't make it home by dawn.
Just before she hit the screen, Jonah had grabbed her shoulder one last time. It still ached with a searing pain. Even though that young man's body had been taken over by a bug, his grip was surprisingly strong.
'I'd thought the biggest difficulty in getting home from the Nest would be shaking off Jonah.'
