Night Falls

I can't sleep. It's late at night, the only sound I hear is the distant hoot of an owl. The cracked window, creating a breeze in my neglected room, makes the sheer curtain sway. I wrap my purple blanket around my small frame, thinking of how my life was like just a few years ago. How happy I was, naive. My wooden floors, now lifted up from weather damage, and my door falling off its hinges.

This small cottage, I now call home, is at the front of an open field. A slaughter house is on my right that I went in once, but after I saw the sharp tools on the wall that was stained maroon at the tips of the blades, I never went in again. I wonder where my family is, are they safe? Did they escape?

I throw my legs over my bed and onto the floor, putting on my slippers. I light a small taper candle and head over to the kitchen, grabbing a jar of peanut butter and a pack of saltine crackers. Perishable foods are a must when you are forced to live in such conditions. My family and I are got seperated when everyone was forced to leave the city, due to a mysterious gas that distributed the air. Poisining everyone who dared to stay.

After I ate my snack, I slowly walked back to my room. Looking at everything through the doorway. Reminiscing on my old room back home, when my walls were a dusty pink and my sister was just down the hall. When my family would have cookouts with our neighbors, laughter filling the air. When I believed that he truly loved me. I get to bed and wrap myseld up with my blanket, the only blanket I have. My bed is really just a matress on the cold hard floor.

I wake up the next morning to the sun beating down in my room, making me kick off my blanket as sweat drips down my face. My stomach grumbles as I walk into the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth, I skip the makeup. I grab my clothes out of my brown suitcase and head over to my beaten down hondic sivic. My hair is braided and I have on a tank top and a pair of tan shorts. I grab my sun glasses from my dash board and head over to Barbras diner, the only place open this early that's close by. A motel is also next door, its mostly for the misfits and drunks. The grocery store is farther than that, making grocery shopping with what money I have, impossible.

I pull into a parking space, shutting off my car. From a first look, the place looks abandoned. Few cars fill the parking spot, the giant circular sign that reads 'Barbras diner' for passersby's light up the sky, the open sign flashing 'open' as an old gruff man walks out the doors with a to-go bag. I grab my keys and hop out of my car, not bothering with locking my car. If anyone wants to steal this hunk of junk, they can be guess. I open the doors, the bell chiming above as I chose to sit in a booth that is secluded in the back as a grab a flimsy menu from the table.

"Hey doll, what would you like to start out with?" The plump waiter asks, her pen hovering over her notepad.

I look at the cheapest thing I can find on the menu, "Just a stack of pancakes with bacon on the side." I say as I give her a polite smile.

I look out the window, the background noise of bustling dishes and the occasional conversation of a granpda and a little kid whose asking for a lego for his b day. I watch as a few cars zoom by, and look over next door to a person walking out of the motel who is unmistakably drunk as she stumbles onto the sidewalk. She pulls out a beaten down flask out of her jacket and takes a swig as sbe stumbles onto the busy road. I gasp, feeling helpless as she walks infront of a car. I turn away when I hear the screeching of tires and the hoot of a horn blaring and then, the thump sound. Bile rises up my throat as my heart beats so loud that I'm sure anyone in this diner can hear.

"Pretty nasty, right?"

I jump out of my seat, putting my hand on my heart as a lengthy man is standing by my booth. "Do you mind if I sit here?" He gestures to the vacant seat across from me.

"Uhm, No I-I dont...Who are you?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.

I'm Jet, nice to meet you." He reaches out a hand, "And you are?"

"I'm Kate." I say, shaking his hand cautiously.

"Well, now we aren't strangers." He winks as the waitress brings my food.

"Pancakes! How delicious! I'll have the same thing." He tells the waitress in an upbeat tone.

She writes it down in her notepad and disappeares into the bustling kitchen. Awkard silence is now in the air as I take a bite out of my bacon. "Soo-" I say around a full bite.

"Tell me more about yourself Kate. Are you from here?"

"Uhm no.. I'm from New York-"

"Oh right! The poisonas gas! My family is also from there, my grandma didnt make it out." He looked down at his calloused hands.

"Im so sorry.." I say generally as the waitress brings him his plate of pancakes and bacon.

"Anything else?" She asks.

We both shake our heads as she moves on to the next table.

"How long have you been here?"

Conversation change, noted. "Long enough.. I miss my family." I feel comfortable enough to spill to this stranger, he has a welcoming presence about him. I can't complain he came over to my table to chat, its been too lonely here without my family.

"How many siblings do you have?" He asks as he grabs a napkin from the table.

"One.. Shes older than me. I've always looked up to her growing up. My parents loved me, dont get me wrong but they were always gone for work so she kind of raised me in a way, I guess. She taught me everything I need to know about hair, I'm still working on doing makeup." Heat creeps up my neck, feeling embarrassed that I word vommited all of that.

"Thats great, she sounds wonderful." He says, giving me a crooked smile that eases my worries.

We talk for a while, me mostly spilling way to much to a stranger who I just met. The waitress comes back and gives us our checks. "Well, it was nice talking to you." I say as I scoot out of my booth, throwing a ten dollar bill on the table and walking out of the door, him following suit.

I slip on my sunglasses and look around the parking lot for my honda civic, I swear it was over there by the light pole. You have got to be kidding, I mutter to myself. It looks like someone did have the balls to steal my car. I look over to Jet in desperation, "'Hey!" I wave him over. "This is kind of awkward and I totally get if you say no, but uhm-Someone stole my car and-"

"It's okay, I'll give you a ride. Just give me directions." He smiles at me as he walks over to his red pickup truck as I follow behind. I'm becoming more and more thankful for this stranger by the second.

I lift myself up in the passanger seat, looking around his truck as he hops into the drivers seat. A coke bottle is in his cup holder and a carton of cigarettes sits on the passenger floor.

"Im starting to think this place is cursed."