Generation Freaks✔️

Chapter 2.

The chiming of the bells rang through the air, low and melodious. Five chimes, it was curfew time. Paisley rose to her feet, upturning her face towards the orange glow that stood for the night.

Looking up at it, a habitual act all its own, she recalled the stories she'd been told as a Youngling where the Sky had once been so black it twinkled merrily and held a dangling globe in various places. Paisley had never seen such a sky before, she only knew the orange tinted glow that signaled nighttime, but she dreamt of it so often that when she looked up at the night sky, she could almost imagine the twinkling black.

Three chimes echoed in the air, the first official warning of the night.

"Paisley," Paris' hushed whispers broke the girls' trance. "We should go, before those Creeps come out to patrol."

Paisley turned an amber gaze on the stout blonde, meeting a worried sapphire one. Knowing full well that Paris wasn't one to easily spook, Paisley retrieved her knapsack from the wooden bench, slung it over her shoulder, and stepped around the seat they had been at.

Three warnings were all that was given at night before the one's still out, disobeying the rules, would be snatched from existence. Paisley didn't know anyone or had even heard of anyone before who had ever been released from the Night Watchers.

Rumor had it, that Intruders were killed or locked up, the worst was the latter of the two, and the Humans were moved to cities and given such a comfortable new lifestyle, they had no reason to even utter a sound about what happened at night.

But it was all just rumors and rumors had a funky way of always tangling their selves into the depths of webs so sticky, they couldn't be pulled apart to decipher what lay within the strands.

Paisley knew this all too well, but the thought of being caught out after curfew was set was unappealing and made her ill to her stomach. It was just best they head home and avoid trouble, for it was already bad enough an Intruder had been caught just that day, the Guards would be doubling their patrols for a while. It was how it worked, it was how it always worked.

Three more chimes rang in the air, the second warning.

Paisley and Paris exchanged knowing glances and picked up their speed, ducking their heads as they did so. There were still a few people mulling about, scurrying to finish last minute activities before the final warning or even having just dropped all to rush home. They had fiddled too much time away and if they didn't hurry, they would dearly pay the consequences.

One chime.

Paisley's heart stammered and the quick footsteps picked up even more speed, her hair flying behind her as she ran alongside Paris, eyes glued to the end of the dusty dirt road.

Hearts hammering, breathing labored, the two weaved through the other running pedestrians still loitering along the dusty dirt road. Doors flung open, welcoming home family or opening their doors to the occasional stranger, wary of what could happen to anyone in the night.

Paisley could remember as a Youngling she'd been out right before that final time, invoked with fear from the bustling crowd pushing her aside to hurry to safety, but too young to fully understand what was going on. She had been invited to the home of a wise woman, whose wrinkles seemed to forever pull her lips downwards when she wasn't smiling.

She had opened her door to Paisley, who had only known the streets of the day and the basements of abandoned homes, the only places Searchers didn't look through, at night. As a Youngling, the outside world was a frightening place and to have someone so advanced in life, a Wise already, take you in was a blessing itself.