The Hunger

The Night

I was drunk the night it all happened... 

It started with me and my best friend having a quiet evening, mindlessly chugging away at several drinks mixed from Jägermeister and Coke. We were only 17 but as every teenager learns to know, alcohol isn't hard to come by.

We had the house for ourselves, since my parents were away to visit some relatives. My aunt to be exact, but that's not really relevant. It was the last weekend of our fall break and we had no parties to go to. I would have hosted one myself, but it was just too big a pain in the ass. It wasn't fun cleaning your house of puke and beer cans, all the while being extremely hungover. So, I called my best friend and asked him to hang out. By that, I mean get drunk and do whatever came to our drunken minds. Something that I would learn to regret.

And so it was 1:am. A Saturday evening had already turned into an very early Sunday. The house was empty except for us. It's walls a shelter against responsibility.

By this late hour we were long gone from the early stages of "drunken personalities" after having consumed a good deal of liquor each. We were both lounging on my couch with our feet on the wood coffee table, playing Mario Kart on my TV and pouring our respective drinks of Jägermeister and Coke down our throats. All in all, having a good time. Suddenly my friend, James, paused the game and glanced over at me. His face was slack with tired brown eyes that spoke of how much he had had to drink.

"This will sound kind of strange but; have you ever wanted to be... more?" he said, the left side of his face illuminated by the screen, casting a glow through my otherwise dark bedroom. It was a bedroom I was lucky enough to have. It was large and, as before mentioned, fit a couch, a coffee table, a desk and a wide bed. Not to mention a big flat-screen TV mounted on one wall.

"What do you mean?" I asked in confusion and took chug off of my drink. I wasn't thirsty and I was certainly drunk enough, but I wanted something to keep myself occupied. I had been so into the game that i now felt restless. "More what?"

"I mean, like..." he started, his eyes flickered with uncertainty. He shook his blond hair and decided against sharing whatever it was he was about to say. "Never mind dude. Forget what I said."

"What..." The word came out of my mouth. I caught entirely by surprise at that look of uncertainty. I had known James for a long time and the only time he had ever seemed uncertain was in sixth grade when he had had a particularly heavy crush on Julia Miller. James made no move towards unpausing the game, so I felt he had more to say. I adjusted myself to get a better look at him as he sat there in thought, pondering whatever it was that had he been going to say. "C'mon man. Tell me... What is it?" I said and punched his arm.

"Fine... I mean... like a wizard." He reluctantly said and looked at me with serious eyes. 

"What?!" I snorted a laugh. "Like Harry Potter? You want Hagrid to trudge in here and be like. 'You're a wizard, James!'?" I said in the best impression of Hagrid's accent my drunken brain could muster, and threw my arm to the side, gesturing at the empty door that led into the dark hallway and beyond, emphasizing how ridiculous that would be.

"Come on Mike. You know what I mean. To be something else... Something special."

I slowly stopped laughing and looked at him. What he had said was ridiculous and yet he said it with such dedication and joy and hope. I do remember trying to do magic as a kid myself. A leviosa or the like, but I never really thought it would work. It didn't make the disappointment at failure any better though. "Yeah, I know what you mean." I admitted grudgingly and took another chug from my glass. "But I think everyone has at some point felt that way. I don't think there is anyone who's entirely content with how the world is. Hoping for that letter to arrive won't do you any good. Even if it would be fucking awesome."

"I know. But what if this is all a test? What if everything is just out there, ready for someone to see it? Undiscovered because everyone is just too afraid to take the step; to believe and hope." He looked at me with hopeful eyes. "And only the truly dedicated can discover it."

"How fucking drunk are you?" I asked, slightly taken aback by the earnestness and unashamed childishness that the sentences revealed. I had never before had this sort of passionate conversation before and in all honesty, it kind of freaked me out. I was used to people hiding behind sarcasm and dealing with their problem on their own. Even my parents, who are trying to be the best parents that they can be, sometimes forget themselves and get caught up in their own singular awareness. Dont get me wrong. Theyre not bad parents. They just seem to forget that my opinion, although sometimes childish, has thoughts and feelings behind it. To have them just brush it off can be infuriating. "There really are people out there that do believe. Have you seen the video of that chick who's dedicated her entire life to live like one of the ninja turtles?" I laughed. "Eats only pizza and wears turtle heads and shit."

We both laughed. "I am dwunk..." James frowned. "Drunk... As fuck, but that's beside the point." He said with a self-mocking smile and stood up. He swayed for a while, trying to catch his balance.

"Sit down or you're going to brake something." I said with a laugh. "You've had enough alcohol for tonight. Time to go to bed man."

"No, Let's go out and search." He said and nodded once in satisfaction when the swaying came to an end.

"I am not going out!" I said incredulously. I was rapidly getting tired of this conversation. I didn't want to go out. It would be a waste of time and I could distantly, through the numb blanket that alcohol had put over me, feel the bone deep exhaustion of staying awake for too long. My feet started to ache just from the thought of walking.

"Why not? At night is when the magic happens." He said and steadied himself he swayed once again. "Something is out there. I can feel it." He squinted out through the window behind my desk. I looked aswell. The sky was pitch black with no stars or moon and only the roads, by the glow of streetlamps, were visible. A few redbrown leaves tumbled lazily down the road.

"Feel it? You're drunk! We're not going anywhere. Trust me, nothing is out there. Its only your imagination." I said turning back towards the game again, ready to finish this last game as soon as he sat down again.

He didn't follow my lead and only looked at me with a hurt expression.

I sighed. "Fine, we'll walk once around the block since it seems that you need some fresh air to clear your head. But after that you'll shut up and get to bed." It didn't feel right to just shut him down when he had at first been reluctant to open up about this.

Because of that we set out into the streets of my suburban home, drunk and unprepared for what would happen next.