ameliorate
She pulled the hood over her head as small raindrops began to fall from the sky. It was early may, she was walking down a dark alley, late for her daytime job, and each time the droplets hit her skins she felt a shiver go up and down her back. She stopped short in her tracks when a man who aproached her from the side of a nearby building. He was covered with shadows from nearly head to toe, his cape swishing behind him.