Nightingale - Dreamnotfound

||People Watching||

It'd be a lie to say I never went back. That after my shifts, no matter the time, I'd follow Sapnap home before turning back around in the direction I had just come from the moment he fell asleep. And every afternoon, just before the sun had the chance to set, I'd return back to the apartments with a new poem in my hands. They'd usually end up under my pillow, although I did keep some with me.

It didn't take long for it to become routine to the both of us. After about a week of this cycle, George would already have his book open to a new poem that he'd make me somehow decipher.

"Clay, you're back!" He'd say to me every afternoon. He'd usually be in his Starfish Position, but sometimes he was doing other things. Such as how today I found him sitting outside his home,  staring ahead at the faded red and green houses in front of him. Despite the fact they were just metal box-houses, he was completely engrossed in it. His eyes seemed to be taking in every single atom of the houses before him.

"Hello," I said, snapping him out of whatever trance I had found him in.

"Hi, Clay!" He glanced up at me and a grin split across his face, "Sit with me."

"What are you doing today?" I asked as I plopped down next to him.

"People watching."

I took a brief scan of the place. Sand, sand, houses, sand, and more sand. There was actually nobody out today, and it wasn't even a lockdown day. That was usually on Thursdays, and today was Tuesday.

"What people?"

"Well, they're gone now. They usually go inside once The Specialties come out. Nobody wants to get caught up with them, you know?"

"Yeah." I glanced around. Windows had been boarded up. Doorframes were blocked with random furniture that just so happened to already be in the houses. Usually they were open.

"Do you want to people watch with me? I know where they're usually out. I was just waiting for you to arrive to see if you wanted to join me."

"We'd be out in the open?"

"Yeah. Are you uncomfortable with that? Specialty members don't usually go there. Only when there's a threat there." His eyes broke away from mine when he said that. "But luckily I don't believe there is. Not that I, or the Specialty, know of, anyway. We'll be safe there, okay?"

"Okay." He jumped to his feet and grabbed my wrist, pulling me up. I didn't think there was a crevice of the land that the Specialty didn't know about. Then again, I never would have considered it with how we basically ruled over it. Usually you know the land you rule.

But he led me between the houses, twisting and turning within the small pockets until we came out of the other side to an open spot. It was circled with houses, and the perimeter was about the same as the perimeter of mine and Sapnap's apartment. As the sun was high in the sky, it hit the area perfectly.

People crowded the area. It was the most Commons I had seen in ages. There were parents with their children, couples huddled against the houses whispering to one another, and some people were alone, staring ahead the same way I had found George.

"Where are we?" I asked.

"Well, it doesn't have a name. All I know is a couple years ago some people found this small spot between the houses that enter into this little safe bubble away from The Specialties. It spread like wildfire around the slums, I'm surprised you haven't heard about it." His eyes flickered to me. "You're not a Specialty, right? They're the only people who aren't supposed to know about it."

I quickly shook my head. "I usually stay away from others. I don't really know anything that's going on, to be honest."

"You're not lying to me?"