Night Rush

I was running on the streets. The sun was just above the horizon, about to fall below the small buildings ahead of me. I would still have some time before it went completely dark, but I would rather not try my luck by being outside until the last safe moments.

I kept a moderately fast pace, not tiring myself too much, but at the same time, not being too slow.

"Ahoy!"

There was an old man sitting by the pavement, with his hand in the air. He was yelling, I didn't know what for.

"Hey, kid!"

It took me a while to understand that he was calling me. I was eager to just ignore him and continue, but I thought I could spare a second to hear what he had to say.

"Come over." he said. I walked towards him.

"Can you help me get up, son?" he asked.

Inside me, there was an irresistable urge to just run away. Of course it would be very rude, but I wouldn't prefer risking my safety over it. I just averted my gaze and kept going.

"Hey!" the man yelled behind me. I didn't listen.

But then... I slowed down and stopped. The guilt was weighing me down. I slowly went back to where the man was.

"Help me, please." the man repeated a few times. I finally held him and helped him get up on his feet.

Suddenly, he put a good portion of his weight on my shoulders. I tumbled, but didn't fall.

"Can you get me to that house over there? My left leg doesn't work, you see." he said.

"Sorry, but I really have to go." I said.

"Yeah, I really have to go too, but you can see our difference." the old man said. "Do you want me to sleep outside?"

I didn't answer the old man, but started to practically drag him as I walked towards where he wanted to go.

"Easy son, I am not your peer. I can't keep up!"

"Mister, I am really sorry, I am in a rush. Can't you ask someone else to-"

"Everyone will be gone in a minute. You are the only one who actually stopped to help." he said. I couldn't decide if I felt good or bad about that.

After a while, I brought him to the front door of a small building.

"Thank you son. I won't forget that." he said.

I just said "Good evening." in return and hastily left the street he had guided me into. The problem was... I didn't remember where I had come from.

"Damn it!" I said, almost loudly. I looked around, and saw the sun dropping below the horizon. Only a few, darker shades of orange and red was still in the sky. Planet Venus, "the evening star", was dominating the sky as the brightest light source, which would not help me at all.

I was getting worried. Instead of trying to get home, I could just shamelessly ask people to let me stay in their houses. I couldn't believe that I was doing this just because of some 'legend' being told to newcomers, but as far as I was concerned, the threat was real.

I turned around and ran back to the house where I had left the old man. After a short moment of hesitation, I knocked the door. Perhaps he would be kind enough to offer me some help in return for what I did for him.

However, no one was answering the door. I knocked the door harder. But still... There was no movement.

I looked left and right. There was no one left in the streets.

For a final time, I knocked the door in hopelessness.

Then, I heard something behind me, in the street. Rapid footsteps approaching from behind, getting closer and louder.

I held on to the door, I wasn't brave enough to turn around and look at whatever that was.

"Ender!"

It was Sena. I was sure of it, so I turned around.

"What are you doing out here!?" I asked.

"My father had sent me to look after you secretly, apparently he guessed that you could have trouble." she said. "I just had some trouble keeping up."

"What about YOU, why are you still here? It is getting dark!" I said.

"I know." she said.

"There is no way we are going to make it either to my house or yours in time." I said.

"I know." she repeated.

"And somehow you are so calm about all of this." I said.

"I know."

"Was this night thing a joke all along?" I asked.

"No." she said.

"Then what the hell are we doing here!?" I was frusturated.

"Shut up, I am trying to think of a solution!" she shouted. "We are not going to get anything done if we panic like you do."

She had a point. I shut up.

Suddenly, she grabbed my arm and started running. With no choice, I started running with her, into the darkness.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"I think the shortest way to safety is simply getting out of the town." she said. "If the curse only hits our town, we should be safe outside, right?"

It made some sense, but I kept following her mostly because I had no other choice.

She unexpectedly stopped. I barely stopped before running into her.

"Did you just see that?" she asked me.

"Did I see what? It is just black, I don't know how you even see the way out of the town." I said.

"Having lived here for years, I just memorized this part." she said. "We keep going north, and we are out of the town in no time."

"But north... That's where the mountain is." I said.

"Yes, but we are not going to actually climb the mountain anyway." she said. "We can just wait for the sunrise there."

I followed her in silence for a little longer.

"This is going to make quite an adventure story." she said.

"IF we get to live to tell that story." I said.