Dark and Light: The Island

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve

Location: District 19, the Island

After we sat around in the living room for a few hours just talking about random stuff, Silas announced that he was hungry and Can sighed and went into the kitchen to cook us all some food.

"Can makes the best food out of all of us; usually, we just help ourselves and make our own food, but tonight is a special occasion. A new housemate! New meat!" Kes finished by shouting. But that point, most of us were pretty much drunk; Silas was the worst, and Kes was a close second. She was pink and kept bursting into random nursery rhymes. Nate, Can and I had each only had a few shots of whiskey, but Matt was already passed out on the floor.

"Okay, I just have to say welcome," Silas slurred, wrapping an arm around my shoulders and pulling me upright. He was leaning pretty heavily on me, and let me tell you, he was heavy. "Little Laurel... Hey, Little Laurel... Thasagreatname..." With that, he dropped to the sofa and his head fell backwards. He was dead to the world. I stood there, eyebrows raised at the scene in front of me. It sounds like the start of a great joke, doesn't it? Six criminals sitting in a house, three of which are drunk...

I suppose that it was pretty funny to watch everyone else drink themselves into oblivion. I wasn't a big fan of alcohol myself, and Kes was definitely a good example of how wrong drunkenness could go, seeing as she was dancing around the living room shouting at some non- existent fairies. I took one glance at Nate and we both burst out laughing. They were all too hilarious.

Can came back out of the kitchen to see Kes dancing and two of our number slumped on the sofa, snoring.

"Take it that it's just us three eating, then," he said with a sigh, quiet as usual.

"Four," I corrected. "You forgot Kes."

"She won't eat. She'll try and run around outside, which would be really bad, seeing as the curfew starts at ten, and it's nearly one in the morning now. Then we'll lock her in the bedroom, I'll end up sleeping in Matt's room, and she'll keep us up all night screaming to be let out. It's not pretty." Can explained. It was the most I had heard him say all night.

"Alcohol doesn't affect Kes very well at all," Nathaniel explained in a low voice. "She goes back to when she was arrested. It's not nice to watch. That's why we lock her in; she nearly tore Si's face off once when I first got here."

"Ouch," I said, remembering her story. "That doesn’t sound very nice to view. I'm glad we won't have to see that."

"Anyway," Can said, disappearing back into the kitchen. "I'm just making toast. If you guys want anything else, you'll have to come down and make it. It's too late to make a proper meal for us."

A few minutes later, Can came back into the living room holding a platter of toast for us all; on the plate he had the actual toast, and then some butter and a jar of jam that looked home- made. Kes was still running around and singing; it was a little unnerving, to be honest.

Can sighed as he finished his first piece of toast. "These guys drink like pirates, and swear like them too. I'm surprised they're not permanently drunk from how much whiskey they all go through in a week."

Nathaniel chuckled, taking a huge bite out of his toast and chewing it. "Yeah, they can get pretty crazy when they drink. It's not always a pretty sight."

"I can imagine," I said darkly, and then cracked a smile.

"Hang on," Can said, interrupting Nate, who had just opened his mouth to speak. "Why is it so quiet?"

We all looked at each other with ominous expressions on our faces, and then peeked around the sofa. Kes had changed; she was no longer dancing around, she was just curled in a ball. I frowned at her, wondering what was going on. Was this just another side effect of Kestrel being drunk?