With a little grogginess and pain in my back, I got up from the bed.
Sun was shining through the curtains — revealing more of the room decor that I couldn't see yesterday — the walls were plastered with posters of some obscure rock bands, and among them were more pictures of Mr. Honasson’s son, varying in age.
But before I could look around more I heard knocking on my door, so I approached it.
As expected it was Mr. Honasson, in his hands he had a pair of sandals which he silently passed to me, he then said that he was expecting me to be hungry so he made some sandwiches downstairs for me to eat before we headed out to town.
With that, he once again left me standing there and headed downstairs.
It took me a few seconds to process what happened after which — I put on my newly acquired sandals and left the room.
With the squeaking of floorboards under me I approached the stairs, but before I could take a single step down I got startled by the sudden shout from Mr. Honasson
“The kitchen is gonna be to your right. don’t want you to waste any more time by walking around”
As I finally cleared the final step to the first floor I turned my attention to the kitchen.
It was quite dark in there because the curtains were shut, only letting a few rays of light pass, themselves being colored blue because of the curtain color.
While looking around I noticed a wall clock, it was 3 PM already, it was no wonder why
Mr. Honasson was in such a hurry.
Then, just as he said, a plate with three cheese and ham sandwiches was sitting on the table.
Not wanting to take any more of his time I quickly gobbled up the sandwiches and left the kitchen.
Probably hearing my approach, Mr. Honasson soon met me near the stairs.
He turned to the large closet that was standing under the stairs, opened it quickly, and took something out.
Before I could see what it was he just as quickly put a baseball cap on my head and then did the same for himself.
“Seeing how you reacted to light yesterday I decided that you're gonna need it, also before I forget…”
He then just as suddenly as before opened one of the drawers and took out a pair of sunglasses.
“Here, you can use these too for the time being”
With those words, he handed them to me and I produced a single nod as a sign of acknowledgment.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
We got outside, and as I was waiting for Mr. Honasson to lock the door I got a much better look at the surroundings now that the sun was in the sky.
The fields of grass from yesterday were still waving in the wind, the scarecrow was looking slightly less creepy now that I could see it in more detail.
What didn’t look less creepy was the path from the house — it was still covered in my blood.
“Yeah, you are helping me with all of this later. don’t want Dave to think I started killing tourists, again”
As I stared back at him he had a creepy grin that showed otherwise.
Noticing my stare he quickly removed the smile and started walking towards the forest, with me trying to keep up with him.
The forest was quite dense, and packed full of my sworn enemies — mosquitoes!
Those blood suckers terrorized me my entire life, no matter what kind of bug sprays I used for them — they still wouldn’t leave me alone.
And so the entire way to the town I was slapping myself all over, and while I was doing so — Mr. Honasson would sometimes help me to not go face first into trees.
It was agonizing, but I kept telling myself that it all would be over soon.
And it was — a few slaps later we were already out of the forest and out on the town’s main street.
Though it would be hard to call what I saw at that moment a “Town” — buildings were crumbling and a lot of them were boarded up, even tho the town seemed like it would turn to dust with the slightest gust of wind — the people there looked like they wouldn’t trade this place for anything else.
With all the sightseeing, I didn’t even realize when we finally arrived at the police station.
As we opened the door and its chimes started ringing the head of a female receptionist popped up from behind the desk, she was totally sleeping on the job — because I could clearly see the shape of keyboard buttons imprinted on the side of her face.
She quickly realized that something was wrong because Mr. Honasson was struggling very hard not to laugh.
When she pulled out her pocket mirror to have a look at herself her face became tomato red from embarrassment.
After that little interaction, we finally approached the desk and Mr. Honasson took the lead.
“Hi Cassandra, quiet day?”
She was still fiddling with her handbag trying to get out her makeup kit.
“Yes it is, the last case we had was back when your pickup smashed into one of the abandoned buildings”
Mr. Honasson’s laughing transformed into awkward coughing.
“We are here to see Dave, is he around?”
With a seemingly better mood, she stopped rummaging in her purse and put it down,
She then pushed one of the buttons on the panel beside her, and a few minutes later a man arrived before us.
“I sure hope that it was something important, my TV show starts in five!”
Cassandra didn’t even bother saying anything, only motioning with her eyes toward us.
When Dave finally looked our way his face instantly turned brighter.
“Jack! You know that I can’t pay you that bar check today right?”
With a happy sigh, Mr. Honasson spoke.
“I’m not here about that, yet, I’m here because of this young man.”
Dave turned to me with a serious expression and looked me over.
“And what do you want me to do with him? Did he steal something from you? You know you could've just called-”
Mr. Honasson quickly interrupted him.
“No, no, he did nothing wrong. He happened upon my house last night — all bruised up, bloodied nose, no clothes.”
Dave’s face quickly went pale, and then he looked back at me, with a look that said ‘I'm sorry’.
“Alright, follow me. Cass — could you please record the episode for me?”