Strange Days

[Mandaz]

Everett watched the boy make his decision with ire. She didn’t trust him. She didn’t like him. That sweet, innocent act only meant he was hiding something dark. The girl could feel it pour off of him. It rattled her to her core how strange the boy was. Not someone that could be fully accepted by her. Not until that gut-wrenching feeling went away.

“I’ll be watching you.” she warned, but her tone made it sound much more threatening and menacing. She would not sleep until she was sure the monster had gone first.

--

“I..uhm…all right.” He agreed. Manny couldn’t say that he had ever slept in a real bed before, let alone with someone. The idea seemed really…nice actually. Manny liked not being alone, and he knew that other people were warm. So the notion of sleeping in a real bed, with warm covers and another warm body just seemed very pleasant. He hesitated for a moment, watching Everett glare at him before edging to the bed and setting his hands upon the blankets. He was almost taken back by the comfort that seemed to radiate from the covers. With a tiny smile seeping past his lips he slipped underneath the sheets and laid his head upon the pillow. It was something he’d only dreamed about until now, this level of comfort.

Instinctively he curled up and grabbed his knees. He’d always slept like this to keep him warm, but once he realized that it was safe he stretched out a little, making an unsure little tired noise as he did so. He buried his head in the soft pillow and could feel himself instantly drifting off to sleep. Everett’s threat caused him to tense a bit; he shrunk back towards the middle of the bed until his back unexpectedly met Daniel’s. Manny jumped a bit, but eased back when he realized he had a friend with him.

His only friend. It made him happy. Happy enough to drift off into the sweetest sleep he’d ever had.

[Nayt]

Daniel inevitably fell asleep first. There was no stopping that . . .

When he dreamed, Daniel dreamed of another time and another place. What, exactly, he didn't know--nor when, how, or who. He had a lot of dreams like this, but they were all different. Sometimes it rained, sometimes it was bright and sunny, and other times he couldn't tell because it was crowded and impossible to see--as if he were short, or something. A child, maybe? Daniel couldn't remember a time when he was a child.

. . .

. . .

When the two woke up, however, Daniel was absent from the room. The indent upon the bed suggested that he had, in fact, been there, but he was otherwise gone, with no explanation why. Granted, his pack was still in the room, but that would leave Everett and Manny alone, nonetheless . . .

[Mandaz]

Everett had a bad habit of letting her guard down in her sleep. In dreams she had no urgency or sense of bitterness that seemed to cling to her like a wet rag. The rising sun would warm her body under the blankets, giving her a final moment of comfort before invading her eyes and forcing her to wake. She winced, whined, and finally let the sun wake her. With a yawn Everett stretched and lifted her body into a sitting position. Her lazy eyes looked around the area, trying to remember where she was and how she got there. Her attention came to the curled up little dingy body on the opposite bed, breathing loudly through his mouth as if he were whispering his snoring. What startled her was not that he was still there, but that Daniel was conveniently missing.

“Hey” she groaned, trying to get the sleeping boy’s attention. “HEY!”

Manny jumped, startled by the shouting. He moaned sleepy protests but soon yawned to show that he was awake, Everett couldn’t see his eyes beneath that mess of hair, afterall. “Hello” he mumbled to her, pushing his sleep heavy body up.

“Don’t give me that.” She snapped “Where’s Daniel?”

Manny seemed surprised that she would ask such a question. He pondered this for a bit, and then turned to see that he was no longer where they left him. He turned his head back to her and shrugged his shoulders. “Iono.”

“Have you done something with him? Is that his blood on your fingers?” She accused

“N-no! No ma’m.” he stuttered, nervous now that he was going to get into trouble “I-I just bite them a lot. It’s my own blood. I promise.”

“I don’t trust you kid.” Everett hummed as she folded her arms. “Something about you is off”

“Ahh. I didn’t do anything though!” Whined Manny. “I don’t want any trouble.”

“Trouble is pouring off of your body. I can sense it. Daniel might be fooled but I can see something different about you…”

[Nayt]

"Hey!" a familiar voice declared as the door opened with a heft slam.

It was right at the time that Everett declared her mistrust of Manny that the door slammed open-- and in stepped Daniel Kerington, rather happy about a discovery of his. He strolled in with his hands deep within his pants pockets, and took notice--much to his surprise--of the fact that Everett and Manny were both very awake. Odd, because Everett was the type to enjoy her sleep more than anything else, and Manny came off as a little similar.

"Oh good, you're already awake," Daniel remarked as he stopped walking. The fact that Manny and Everett we currently awake meant that he wouldn't have to go through the trouble of waking them up himself. "oI fixed us up a deal in town. They got this sorta bathhouse thingit in town. And the three of us got tickets in for a few."

Daniel reached into his pocket to retrieve three tickets. They were kind of generic, made of paper and colored in and reading the word "ticket" on both sides, but one could only expect so much from this town. It may not have been a village, but it wasn't quite a rich metropolis, either.

"It probably won't be loike a hot spring or anything, but still: we all kind of need a bath, roight?"

The way Daniel figured it, they could all get cleaned up, then he could buy supplies while Everett checked for rumors and such on black feathers, and if there was no lead to be found, they could just head out and continue on the same path.

[Mandaz]

Everett slipped out of bed to retrieve her shoes and sword, gathering up her work clothes to be burned later. She let the boys converse a bit before announcing her readiness. “Well let’s see it then. The sooner we can get out of this town the better. I’m ready to get on the road again.”

--

Manny perked up when Daniel came into the room. A friendly face was always a welcomed sight, much nicer than Everett’s scowling at him. He pushed off the blankets he had snuggled under, instantly ready to go. There was no need for him to put on shoes or comb his hair because he lacked the essential resources to do such things. “That sounds cool!” He exclaimed. “Oh but…will the villagers recognize me? I-I guess I could keep hiding though. I…I can still go, yeah?”

[Nayt]

"Of course you can, Manny!" Daniel exclaimed, "Everyone's only seen you at night, so it isn't loike they're gonna recognize you or anything loike that."

It made perfect sense to him. The villagers had never seen Manny out in the light, so they didn't know what his face looked like or anything like that. In the dark, he was at a disadvantage, because they knew what his silhouette looked like. Then, he had to hide a bit. But in the light of day, he'd be just a regular kid to them. It was kind of ironic.

Daniel approached his bag and threw it over his shoulder. They weren't going to be coming back to the inn. After this, they were going to be back on the road--and whether Everett liked it or not, they were going to have a third person traveling with them. At least to the next town.

"Well, let's go, then," Daniel said as he held the door open for them.

He let the door hang open after the fact and looked into the confines of the room for a moment. The smile had all but faded from his lips, and his eyes couldn't help but focus on the far window, where there was at least a twenty foot drop to the ground, where a man could tie a rope and remove himself from the world. The passing thought was nothing shy of sobering, but it was no difference. He'd been sober all along. Daniel shut the door behind him and started down the hall behind his friends, letting himself smile again.

And they returned to their journey once more . . .

We're done lying for a living
The strange days have come and you're gone--
You're either dead or dying
Either dead or trying to go . . .



Good morning . . .
Don't cop out . . .

Strange Days//Fin.