𝕳𝖆𝖗𝖛𝖆𝖑𝖊

𝔇𝔢𝔞𝔡 𝔐𝔞𝔫

The next morning found Kayla fast asleep in her work clothes on the couch at home. Gasping as she bolted upright suddenly, she quickly looked around and realized it was day time. Checking her watch, she found that it was half past nine to be specific.
She heard a noise nearby, and turned to see her brother Colin in the kitchen, pouring a bowl of cereal. "Don't mind me," he said, noticing her slightly concerned expression. "And I'm making you one too so just sit tight."
Kayla did so, but as she waited she tried to remember what had happened last night. Something had scared her. Or someone... Little by little it began coming back. The guy with the silver hair. Something with his eyes, and the lights had gone out. But she seemed to have been the only one who experienced it, because the cameras showed nothing odd happening. But then what?
Colin walked up to the couch and held out a bowl to her. "I made it myself," he quipped dryly, before walking off while singing Ave Maria.
"Hey Colin?" Kayla called after him. He stopped and turned around.
"You were probably asleep but...if you can remember hearing something, seeing something, being randomly woken up for some reason last night, can you tell me? And what time was it? Because I'm trying to figure out how I got home and..."
"I did wake up at about nine I think?" Colin said. "Went to take a leak and I remember hearing the front door shut."
"Nine? But my shift ends at ten. And..." Suddenly, Kayla remembered. After seeing the camera footage, she had gotten so uncomfortable that she had just closed up the cafe right then and there, and raced home. Her fear must have exhausted her for her to simply crash on the couch right after getting inside.
"Okay, got it," she told her brother. "Also, where is everyone? It's way past eight and nobody woke me? Doesn't mom always like to talk about how this is a house of early risers?"
Colin shrugged and stuffed a spoonful of cereal into his mouth. "Mom and Aunt Lindsay left this morning to go see that berry farm or whatever. They'd been talking about it all night. Dad's somehow still asleep, but when he wakes up I'll call mom. Because we're all supposed to go out and show Aunt Lindsay how to get to the house she bought here. You coming?"
Kayla thought. "Will Chloe be going?"
"Yeah, she'd have to. It's her new home," Colin replied.
"Then nah," Kayla said. "I'll just go draw Blood Haven some more, until it's time for work."
With that, Kayla got off of the couch and headed upstairs to shower and change. She came back downstairs about half an hour later, jumped in her truck and left, armed with her sketchbook and a full pencil case.
Kayla loved the Blood Haven house. Its architecture spoke to her. She was especially fond of how the structure used its neoclassical style to harness the exciting warmth she had always felt as a child when she stayed the night at a new hotel, while still managing to portray the house as a stately home with character. Kayla's dream was to have a house like this one day.
Across from the road and facing the gate of the Blood Haven house was a small dirt patch, which had been crested when big trucks kept coming and going from the property during construction. They had to open wide to turn into the gate, and had worn down a section of grass alongside the road right across from the house's main entrance. Kayla parked there, got out and sat in the bed of her truck where she began drawing the house for the millionth time.
About two hours later, she was interrupted by a car driving up to where she was.
It was black 1966 Cadillac Fleetwood 75, and Kayla grinned immediately when she saw it. She knew who it was. The car boisterously roared up next to her truck, stopped, and the engine came off. Moments later, a tall, skinny boy got out of the driver's seat. He ran around the car and opened the door for a pretty girl, and together they walked up to the bed of Kayla's pickup.
"Drawing the old Blood Haven house again?" the girl asked.
"She needs the practice, Blake," the tall skinny boy said. "I saw the last drawing and man, those proportions were all wrong."
Kayla laughed. "Shut up, Trevor," she said.
"As you know, he never does," Blake, the girl with Trevor, said. She reached over and flicked his ear.
Trevor had been a friend of Kayla's since a random Friday in third grade, where he had stood guard at the door of the boys' bathroom for her because the ill tempered cleaner was in the bathroom for the girls, and Kayla was too scared to go in and ask to use the only stall in the bathroom, which the cleaner was working in. They struck a chord with each other that day, and Kayla's respect for Trevor only grew from there. Lanky, covered in freckles, and sporting his pale red hair in a sort of mullet, Trevor had odd habits and ways that matched his strange appearance, but rather than feel sorry for himself when people pushed him to the side, he embraced it. His thought process was that being invisible was a superpower, and if people weren't looking you could do whatever you wanted. He had learned to play eight different instruments, was a huge Transformers nerd, spent a whole year trying out the heavy metal aesthetic, and had learned all the hair dye numbers for no good reason. Unlike Kayla, who while low brow was still objectively good looking, he had every right to hide in a corner because he wasn't handsome enough or popular enough. Yet he did not. Kayla loved that.
And then there was Blake. Blake was gorgeous. Every piece of clothing she tried on looked great. Every picture she took was a masterpiece. Also, everywhere she went she caused a bit of trouble. Accusations of relationships and flings with boys she had not even met, who sometimes had girlfriends already. It was odd because legitimately, Blake had only been in one relationship before Trevor. That relationship had taught her that even the cutest boys could be broken narcissists and rampantly insecure. Regarding Trevor though, she had gone to the same high school as him, and became aware of him one day at lunch while asking her friends what color to dye her hair next. Trevor, sitting one table over, had called out the number for a particular shade of blonde as a joke. Slightly stunned and intrigued, Blake started talking to him that day, and by graduation they were together.
"See, if you think about the perspective right, the vanishing point is here," Trevor was telling Kayla, who had learned not to question where he had gotten any sort of knowledge on anything he knew. It was a fact at this point that Trevor just knew things.
"Yes but like, I had to mess with the perspective because if I did it totally accurately, it would look weird," Kayla explained. "Remember, in real life we accept visual oddities, but in a drawing it just looks like a mistake."
Trevor thought for a while. "Gimme a sheet," he said suddenly. "Lemme take a shot at this."
"Trevor, we have to get going," Blake reminded him. "We came out here to get your dad some wood. He's going to be waiting on you."
"Just a minute," Trevor replied casually, already sketching. "Honestly, I forgot that. If I remembered I'd have taken the truck."
"Isn't the truck broken down or something?" Blake asked.
"My backyard is full of scrap. It takes nothing to find a part and fix an engine," Trevor chuckled.
"Your dad owning a junk yard must be so cool," Kayla sighed. "Imagine just strolling outside and boom, there's an old car you can fix up and call your own."
"That's what he did with the Caddy," Blake laughed, pointing to the big black car Trevor had drove up in.
"Isn't it so cool? I got the sweetest ride in the city," Trevor said. "And that's saying a lot, cause I'm competing against retired old guys. And you know how they are with cars."
"Trevor. Your dad. The wood we have to buy at the hardware store," Blake announced. "Come along."
"I don't wanna," Trevor grumbled as his girlfriend dragged him away. He reached out quickly and gave Kayla back the sheet of paper he'd been drawing on. "Save that for me. I wanna finish it," he told her.
Kayla threw him a thumbs up as Blake stuffed him into the Cadillac and then got into the passenger seat. "Bye kiddo!" Blake called. Kayla waved as the car roared away, blasting Linkin Park songs out of nowhere.
Alone once more, Kayla sighed. Maybe I'm missing confidence. Like Trevor has. Maybe that's why none of my exes ever took me seriously, she thought. I just want something cool and fun like he has with Blake. Lucky bastard.
Suddenly, Kayla's watch beeped. It was time for work once again.