Chapter 8

The colorless nature of the black skies seemed to consume all of the *day burned objects, thus revealing the once hidden and naked pale skin of the moon. Blankets and covers hung onto the night shaded mattress while they drowned into a twisted mass of material on the carpeted floors.

The red digits of the mechanical machine which could tell time stared hauntingly at nothing, as if it were making an empty threat to somebody.

It seemed to be counting up to something, as it’s red digits slowly changed into the next number and the next number after that. This process would occur only after every sixty seconds. The event was estranged from one which might be considered normal. One might have expected something to happen eventually.

For there are so many of the sixty seconds which occur throughout the life cycle of a "telling time machine" , and in any one of those seconds any given event could occur. From a meteorite falling into the Earth, to a grain of sand flying away with the breeze, the possibilities are limitless to what eternity might imagine.

But why didn't anything happen? Was it just so subtle and cunning that it would count so far without talking until you've eventually died from the time you've spent watching the time?

Nathan stared horridly at the alarm clock on his bedside.

"2:00 am", the clock kept flashing.

He remembered looking at it just 5 minutes ago when the clock still read, "1:55 am". Even though time moved illusively at the existential speed of sixty seconds a minute, it was still very tiresome to be patient for change to occur in those lost sixty seconds.

Nathan continued to watch the nothingness as his swollen eyes refused to close and enter complete darkness.

He brushed his drooping hair backwards with both of his hands and silently screamed to himself. No matter which way he tossed and turned in his bed, his restless body and mind was just not allowed to shut down and *stop existing for the night.

In frustration, Nathan got out of his bed and paced around his room. His body was too tired to actually walk so he limped aimlessly back and forth in what can be described as "zombie motion". He looked at his classic nylon string Yamaha guitar which was standing under some shadows in the corner of his room and contemplated playing a bit of guitar, but he eventually arrived at the conclusion that it would be too noisy and would probably wake up his parents who were asleep downstairs.

So he resolved to stopping in front of the oculus window.

He stared tiredly at the street which was just below his house. It appeared to be desolate and free of any form of life. The only things which loitered the streets were the shadows of the large trees which grew out of other peoples' yards. It was so silent and peaceful. Nathan remembered that back at his old house in America, the streets were almost never completely silent. There was always some car driving pass, or cop siren going off or even just stray animals digging through the trash.

Did he miss his old home and school?

It was a question which Nathan didn't really like to think about. But, things were certainly much different in Paris.

Nathan didn't really take the time to fully grasp his mind around it. He was actually in Paris, the home of the great Eiffel Tower and the historic Cathédrale Notre-Dame. Yet Nathan Marquette felt no sense of amazement or excitement for the new possibilities which might have awaited him in this new world. It might as well have been a clean slate for him. Perhaps it was Nathan just been a *misanthrope but it all just seemed the same to him, just different people with the same view. Or in other words, it's just different places with the same concepts.

"Imagine if a werewolf ran across the street... That would be awesome.", Nathan thought to himself while yawning.

"Hey Nathan.", said Nathan's conscience

"Yes?", inquired Nathan to himself.

"A werewolf would be awesome right about now.", his conscience reinforced Nathan's earlier statement.

"I know that's what I said.",Nathan rubbed his eyes.

"What do you want anyway?" asked Nathan, feeling a little annoyed with his energetic conscience.

"No need to be aggressive. We're pals. I know what will make me tired."

"So, why should I care?" , snapped Nathan.

"Because if I get tired then you get tired and get to finally sleep.", Nathan's conscience was almost laughing at him at this point.

"Okay... Fine, what's the plan.", asked Nathan.

"Let's go for a walk outside."

*

"You know what, I'm so tired of feeling tired, I'm not even going to question you. Let's go for it.", agreed Nathan.

Of course you can't just sneak out of the house at 2:00 am and expect that your parents would be okay with it, but being quiet meant that Nathan could often go unnoticed. The oculus window also appeared to be large enough for Nathan to climb out of. This would make sneaking out significantly easier because then Nathan wouldn't need to actually go all the way downstairs to open the front door.

He put on some shoes and grabbed his trusty black hoodie from the office chair which was just next to his dressing table. Upon further inspection the hinges on the oculus window appeared to be quite rusted. So Nathan pulled the latch off as softly as possible, so soft in fact that only a slight click could be heard. The clicking noise was quickly carried away into the dark. He then pushed the oculus window ever so gently to try and allow the rusted hinges to glide over each other smoothly. But it was not gentle enough.

A loud squeaky sound followed Nathan's action of pushing the oculus window open. And what's worse is that Nathan pushed it open as slow as a tortoise. He hoped that by pushing it slowly the squeaky sound would be minimized, but it only sounded worse. It was like a high pitched squeaky - scratchy sound.

To get a good idea of what it sounded like, imagine that you are a robot scratching your back with a steel brush and you have a squeaky hinge in your brushing arm.

Nathan paused in the same posture that he had been in with the oculus window fully open and listened carefully for his parents. The dust which had been in between the frame of the window fell to the window sill like glittering snow particles. Nathan could feel some of the dust tickling his nostrils. He tried his best to avoid sneezing right now as that would surely wake up his parents.

As Nathan stood still, his eyes began to tear as it felt like the dust had been doing a dance inside of his nose.

The shadows in his room stood still and thirty six more seconds passed by without any further sounds passing Nathan's ear. He took that as a safe sign to continue.

He immediately stuck his head out of the window and let out a very *tumultuous sneeze. There was a great feeling of relief in his watery eyes and nose. The air which entered though his nostrils was finally at liberty to move tickle free.

Now it was time for the escape to begin.

Extending one foot out of the oculus window, Nathan was able to find the tiled roof below him. He then proceeded to crouch his back to fit through the window.

Once his back was arched through the window, he was able to bring his last appendage which was his left foot, outside too.

Luckily he was not afraid of heights because if he slipped there was a one story drop below him.

Nathan stood gingerly on the black tiles of the roof. The roof was in a slanting angle towards the ground, so standing upright without sliding wasn't too easy.

For a brief moment Nathan felt like a superhero standing up on a rooftop in a black hood. It really gave him a sense of purpose and confidence. The only difference was that he was too afraid to straight up jump off of the rooftop.

So Nathan sat down on his buttocks and slid just far enough to hang off of the edge of the roof by holding onto the drainage pipes which were running horizontal to the roof.

Looking down just below him, Nathan saw his parent's *oblong shaped bedroom window. The window was closed and covered with a lace curtain. So Nathan couldn't see inside, he could only hope that they couldn't see him either.

With enough self convincing, Nathan loosened his grip on the drainage pipe above him. Feeling his weight become too much for his arms to hold up he let go of the drainage pipe and landed on his feet in the front lawn.

With hours of sleep depravity and time seemingly being stagnant, Nathan was free to go anywhere that his legs would take him.

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DEFinitIOnS iN ThIS CHaPtEr :

*Tumultuous - Describes making a loud noise.

*Oblong - a rectangular object or flat figure with unequal adjacent sides.

*Day Burned Objects - things that you would usually only be able to see under a light.

*Stop Existing For The Night - My way of describing "sleep".

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NOtEs

If you see one of these [*] anywhere then that is a point of discussion or just hidden information.

Now I don't know about you but I don't think trusting your conscience at 2:00 am in the morning is a very good idea.

If you couldn't sleep, would you go for a 2:00 am walk in the morning in a neighborhood which you barely know? And are you excited to find blood - thirsty werewolves in the dark?

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