Head Full of Ghosts

Chapter 5 - King Prowler

"Psst, Nano!"

Nano did his best to keep his muscles from tensing and his body from jerking up suddenly at the sound, and then as casually as he could manage he sat up straight and glanced around, making sure no one else was around. Though if there was anyone else around, they no doubt would have already heard Zahra's call just as clearly as he had.

"There's no one around," hissed Zahra. "Just let me in!"

"If there's no one around, why are you bothering to whisper?" Nano hissed back, swiveling in his chair to face her.

Zahra considered that for a moment, and then, still quietly hissing, said, "Just let me in!"

Nano let out a long, frustrated sigh, but he rose from his chair and unlocked the inner gate, stepped around the guardrail, and unlocked the outer gate to let her pass through.

"Did you find it?" he asked as she passed him.

She spun around so suddenly he stopped short of closing the gate and turned to meet her gaze with a look of surprise.

"Find what?" she asked, a little defensively. "Find something? Why do you think I found anything?"

Nano narrowed his eyes and turned his head away a little so he could glare sideways at her, eyeing her with as much suspicion as he knew how to give. "The... spiced caramel macchiato," he explained. "Did you find any?"

Zahra tried her best not to let the relief show on her features. And failed. "Oh, that! No. Sorry. I didn't look for that. I, uh, I don't want you to freak out, but actually I did find something else."

"Is it okay if I come in? I mean, the thing's unlocked."

Nano jumped and spun around so quickly that he lost his footing, tripping on one of the guard rails and stumbling backwards almost to the inner gate. As he went he grabbed Zahra and pulled her back with him so hard he practically dragged her across the floor.

The stranger stood half in the gate and half out of it, one hand resting on the open door, the other raised and pointing at the lock.

It took Nano nearly a full minute to first remember that he had a gun, then with trembling, awkward fingers to free it from his holster and get it pointed at the intruder.

"Stay back!" He shouted, and after a moment the stranger let his eyes go wide, and with slow, purposeful motions he raised his arms into the air and stepped back a couple steps.

"Don't shoot," the stranger said, though his voice didn't sound that worried. If anything, it almost sounded a little playful.

"Who are you?" Nano demanded. " What... what do you want?"

"Uh, hi, I'm Kevin and I'm an alcoholic."

Zahra giggled, but Nano just started shaking his head, a frantic look in his eye. "Oh Jesus. Oh Jesus. Oh Jesus. Zahra. Oh, Zahra, what have you done?"

"Nano, it's okay. He's not dangerous. If he wanted to hurt me, he had plenty of chances already."

"You don't know that. You can't know that! He could just be trying to trick you! Or maybe trying to use you to get in here. He could've been watching you for a long time. Maybe he knew you came out every day and wanted to use you to get in here."

"Or he could've just come to the door and asked to be let in," said Zahra.

"What if he's not alone? What if there's others? Maybe he was just working on a way to get inside so he could get them in. Like a Trojan horse!"

"A what horse?" Asked Zahra.

"It's a little before your time," said Kevin.

"Nano, there's pretty much no chance any of that is true. With the way I met him, there really couldn't be any others. He wouldn't even be here now if I hadn't insisted."