⭒ favor for a stranger ⭒

the arrival

The headlights paving the highway were blinking as Albert drove down the dark road, but it didn't phase him. He had on his favorite song, a hit by the weekend. As he horribly sang the lyrics, his usual deep voice sounding cracky and out of tune, he pulled into the small parking lot. His cars expensive engine roared at he hit the gas at the turn. He pulled the keys out as soon as he stopped, not taking the normal procedure of stopping a car. His music stopped, and he began simply humming it in his head instead. He got out of the car, walking through the cold parking lot towards the laundromat. He opened his phone as he pushed his hang against the door to open it, the time reading 12:07AM. He was out this late with cure boredom, and also the need to get his clothes out of the machine he'd left them in many hours ago. His footsteps were loud inside the building compared to the sound of the nighttime city life outside. As Albert reached his washing machine, and removing the clothes from it, he noticed that he did hear some noise still. It was a sound of, faint shuffling. He set his phone down, looking around. There was a pocket knife in his front pocket, which his free hand hovered over. Suddenly, he heard a buzz, looking up to see if it was his phone. However, it wasn't. He turned around, pocket knife now completely out. It was a washing machine, which was on now. He laughed it off, and began talking to himself. "Heh, freaking out over a broken washing machine while you're in the front of a laundromat. Classic." He laughed at his own stupidity. But the voice behind him didn't. It growled. He jumped around, a small shout
following. He didn't try to hurt the cause of the voice, or even run from
it, He just, observed it, with a little nausea. "Hey.." Albert said, in total disbelief. "Uh, are you okay? Do, do you need help?" His voice sounded weak, and afraid. He expected the thing to launch at him, kill him, but it didn't. It was an entirely black body, which resembled a human, with the face of a porcelain doll. It reached towards the newspaper in its hand, which Albert didn't even notice til then, and pointed towards an article. It was an advertisement for animal meat, not even a certain brand for it. Without hesitation, and only just wanting to help this thing, Albert exited the laundromat. The night sky gave presence to a new life now, a stranger one. He climbed back into the car, and this time he didn't put the radio back on. he didn't even remember to get his phone out of the laundromat. Albert looked out on the highway, now anxiously driving, his eyes tracing the road for an open supermarket. At last, he found one. It was a very small, run down store, but it looked like the store on the newspaper, which was even better than a supermarket locally. With fear and suspicion, Albert turned into the parking lot of the store.