Nighter: A Town In The Middle Of Nowhere - Second Edition

Chapter 5 - Coffee Or The Blood Of Christ

She sat back on the bed and inhaled deeply to relieve her stress, later releasing the built up air inside her lungs in a large gust like all the bad feelings she had were riding the wave of carbon dioxide, exiting her body. This, of course, was ineffective as she flopped her body backwards onto the bed. Just hallucinations, she told herself, just really realistic hallucinations. She might even be still dreaming, but it was a bit to realistic and creative for her to imagine such a story. Another deep sigh. She stood up and looked for her clothes, which she probably just threw on the floor when she was drunk. The floor was a mess, clothes that didn't belong to her were everywhere, almost fully covering the entire floor and making it ten times harder to find her belongings. She treaded a path through the endless pile of shirts and pants to the door, revealing her own clothes buried underneath in the process. She was confused to why they were buried under when she had only been here for one night, but couldn't be bothered fully questioning it since she already had a thousand questions in her head at the moment that were way more important. She undressed from the pyjamas which she presumed she borrowed, since they were too big and totally didn't suit her taste, placed her orange t-shirt over her head, and leaded her feet through the legs of her jeans. She didn't have any spare change of clothes, since she didn't know she was even going to be sleeping in another house other than her own in the first place, so she just had to make do with her dirty undergarments for the day. She didn't know how long she was staying here, or even how she came to an agreement of her staying here. Her memories of the night before were blurry, and all she really remembered was her drinking a shit load of tequila, which would explain the circumstance. There was only one window in the room she stayed in, which was broken and boarded up from the outside, covered by a thin curtain on the inside. The morning breeze sucked the curtains onto the boards through the small gaps, soon to release them again and start the process again. Her room was mildly lit by the glow of the street light through those cracks, which printed a faint yellow overlay of colour on the clothes that covered the floor. She was ready to leave the room, to find out if her memories were wrong, or if she was really living in a dream.

She slowly creaked the door open, then when she was comfortable with the air of the atmosphere outside her room she placed her foot outside, then followed by the rest of her body. The bitter smell of coffee drifted towards her nose. The corridor was long, and was only lit by a singe weak, flickering light in the middle and a small window at the end, letting in the soft glow of the moon and the stars. The doors on either side of her felt like they went on forever as she slowly and cautiously walked past, trying not to disturb any remaining sleepers. Each door had a different coloured sign nailed to the top-middle section, each with different symbols that most likely spelled out the name of whom the room belonged to, or the purpose of the room like the one for the bathroom. She could hear a faint conversation in the distance, and a soft hum of relaxing music behind all of the chatting. The atmosphere was welcoming, but she was still uncomfortable with entering since she still hadn't even fully met these people and would feel like she was intruding. I'm sure they'll understand, they seem kind enough to let me stay here and make me a home for the night, she told herself. She was at the end of the corridor now, next to the entrance leading to the living room and kitchen where she presumed everyone was hanging out. She took in another deep breath and casually walked out into the open area where four of the six were gathered, looking exactly the same as last night. Still weird, experimental splicing, humanoid creature looking things. A ghost, a human jackalope, and two scaly, gray people with deep red eyes and a good sense of fashion in her opinion. But she just had to ignore that for now, even though she might not of shown any emotion towards it on the outside, she was defiantly shocked and scared in her thoughts. Ignoring the more important factor, she came to the sudden realisation that she hadn't recapped on their names since the other night, which might create an awkward situation. Tyler was never any good at remembering names, or so her brain told her. She quickly flicked through her memories from the night before, like an office worker flicking through files in a cluttered filing cabinet, somehow managing to recover some of the information she was looking for in the wreckage of her mind. Hsakia, who was at the time leaning on the kitchen workbench just next to the untouched red package, with a portion of boiling hot coffee in a white mug with a picture of a jackalope on the side, glared joyfully and silently into Tyler's grey-green eyes. He had a small but heartwarming smile on his face, showing his calmness and innocents. His expression told a thousand kind and welcoming words, that could only be spoken through silence. Tyler smiled back, returning the sweet gesture that made her feel comfortable. The three others in the room, Wester, Arcana, and Nadess, were all standing around the kitchen side of the workbench, also with hot mugs of coffee in their hands, having a long but casual conversation about something Tyler (and Hsakia to the looks of it) didn't truly care about too much, therefore making her hope she didn't have to join in. She continued to walk towards them, regardless of whether she wanted to or not, because all she really wanted at the moment was answers for her extensive list of questions and a coffee.