If

Forsaven

It was a cold, dark evening in the town of Forsaven.

And Sherl had never felt more frustrated.

Tapping at the rough wood of his desk, he watched his coworker's glass eye swirl in lazy circles, head limp and drool dripping from the edge of his mouth as a lazy hand loosely gripped at a can of beer.

Disgusting.

A brief surge of revulsion ran its course through his brain, before coming to rest as blank fascination.

Fascination, of course, as to how someone could be such a slob.

The light smile he wore faded as he shuffled through the files on his desk, eyes narrowing at the poorly-drawn crayon fish scribbled on an envelope.

"Just another red herring.. Dammit." He cursed, now tempted to steal the drink just a foot or so away from his hand.

It was then that his coworker blinked, blearily deciding to come to. Well, shit. There goes that plan.

"Good morning, Sleeping Beauty." snarked Sherl, pushing the half-full beer can away from the other's disoriented grasp.

"G'mornin.. Where was I?" The glass eye did a 360, sending a shiver down Sherl's spine. Creator that was disgusting.

"You were on a trip through space and time, obviously." Sherl's eyes imitated their glass counterpart.

"What's my name?" his coworker asked the clock, still disoriented.

"It's Salan, you slimy three-month expired lactose-free swan puff. Salan." He was aware he was being insulting.

Sherl didn't give two shits about it, or one shit for that matter. They were always a bit more lenient in your last year, anyways.

"Yeah, right. You didn't have to.. Be such a fuckface about it." Salan yawned, a lock of his unnaturally white hair coming loose from its prison of hairspray.

"'Sides, your fortieth is coming up soon.. didya pick up a coffin? Heard there's a sale going on."

Sherl stiffened at his words, sky blue eyes hardening with anger.

"You can shut the hell up." As if Creator had heard his insolence, his chest suddenly began to pulse with pain. "Ow. Fuck."

Salan simply laughed and bit into a goose cracker. "Why's it you never take painkillers?"

"I don't trust those things. They're about as fishy as the case is." Sherl snorted, trying hard to ignore the increasingly painful feeling in his torso. His coworker gave him a grin of pity. "You're fuggin' crazy, Sherl. At least give yourself a break in the few weeks you've got."

Sherl's features contorted into a glare. "Shut the fuck up."

Salan produced a tiny little bottle from his pocket, setting it on the table. "Suit yourself, pal. But if you change your mind, you can have one of mine. They're cherry flavored!" A jaunty, uncomfortably fake and forced-looking smile found its way onto his face.

Resisting the urge to sweep the damn thing straight off the table and crush it into cherry-flavored oblivion, Sherl took a deep breath. Don't snap his head off, don't snap his head off..

Enunciating his every syllable with careful control, he whispered, "Can you stop being a dickhead?"

Yes, he was aware he was still being insulting, even childish. But he was more than a little sensitive about his impending death. Could you really blame him?

Salan looked him in the eyes and burst out into a full laugh, the sunset illuminating his face.

The power chose to go out right then, which was fucking dumb. Could the Power Plant workers be any more lazy? This was the sixth time this week, and it was starting to get ridiculous.

"Oh, dammit." Sherl growled, stalking over to the fuse box and slamming it open with unnecessary force. He blamed the pills, honestly. They were probably rolling around and squawking like imbeciles in a cherry-scented fervor right now over at the Plant.

His stupid-ass coworker simply blinked, being a complete sack of useless.. as per usual.

He quickly restarted the box and sighed in exasperation as the lights flickered back on.

Fucking stupid lousy electricity. Fucking stupid lousy possibly drugged workers.

Sherl turned to peek out the window, just catching the sun as it went dark.

His eyes widened at the sight. Normally sunlight lasted a bit longer here.. Oh well. Can't say he didn't like the night either.

"Hell's bells." he muttered, not being able to help a strange, foreboding feeling of finality even as the twinkling lights of stars came out to play across the newly dark sky.

But it was that day that the sun slipped over the horizon forever in Forsaven, Sillinia.