Jamie stood there, already soaking wet after less than a minute outside, middle of a Tuesday night, a raging storm, in boxers, without socks or any other belongings. He was staring at a door that went from being open to closed on its own, and when he tried the handle, he found it locked. He looked down, and then realized that the saturated dirty white boxers, were now rather see through when they touched his skin, and the cold was causing things to become even more embarrassing.

This was not shaping up to be a good night when I fell asleep on the couch, he thought. Then a doppelganger burst into my place, I apparently insulted a mouse, was called dumb by a man that is a better-looking version of myself, and now I’m locked out. Nope, not a good night at all.

Jay grabbed Jamie by the shoulder and spun him around. “What did I say? Did I say please follow me outside? No. I said do not, under any circumstances, go through that door.” He pointed at the now shut door with his hand that still held the plastic cylinder containing the mouse with a raised voice. “You had thirty seconds to keep standing still, and you couldn’t even manage to do that. What is wrong with you.” He finished, his voicing getting louder throughout, and finishing with a yell. As they stood there staring at each other, a light flipped on inside the townhome.

“Crap. We have to go. Come on.” Jay said, grabbing Jamie by the wrist and pulling him along as he bent low and started to cut in between parked cars, heading away from the only lamp in the parking lot of the townhomes.

“What? Why? Who was in my house?” Jamie got out, not realizing he was jogging behind Jay in a slight crouch now too. Jamie looked back and saw the door to his townhome open and a grumpy appearing heavy-set man in grey pajamas open the door with shotgun in hand.

“I’ll shoot ya! I swear I will!” The man shouted as Jay pulled Jamie down to the ground between the two cars they were between, just before the older pajama-wearing gentlemen had looked in their direction. They both stayed quiet and hunched down, waiting to hear if he would give pursuit into the storm. Seconds ticked by and Jay lowered himself to look under the cars to see if there was anyone coming. Feeling reassured he raised back up into a crouch and looked at Jamie.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

“Shut up. Don’t move, don’t talk, don’t do anything.” Jay said, just loud enough to be heard over the storm, irritation showing on his face with the occasional lightning strike. “I have to call in to PD.”

Jamie looked at Jay and raised his hands to placate the guy. Not like I want to be here either. It was close to midnight now, and thanks to the cold rain he was starting to shiver. He looked around, taking stock of the situation.

At least it sounds like he’s calling the cops. Not sure how I’ll explain hiding outside in my boxers at midnight. The cars seemed familiar enough, but he couldn’t actually say if they were the same or different than what he would expect. It was dark, but it was always dark since there was only the one lamp at the other end of the parking lot. The surface of the parking lot was still rough and pockmarked asphalt, not comfortable at all considering his bare feet. Jay was next to him, phone inside the hood and talking to someone in a quiet voice.

Might as well sit down, can’t be worse than crouching anymore, Jamie thought as he lowered himself to the ground. It looked like Jay was just finishing the call anyway.

“A team will be here in the next hour, we just have to sit tight.” Jay said, going to one knee, still holding the plastic cylinder in his hand. This close Jamie could make out what looked like small airholes around the cylinder. Airholes which also appeared to be letting water in as the mouse was now very wet. The mouse also appeared to be pointing and squeaking, though Jamie couldn’t hear the small creature over the sheets of rain still coming down. Jay couldn’t either, or he was choosing to ignore the mouse, as he was constantly glancing around. It didn’t appear he was nervous, but instead just watching and analyzing.

“Look, there was another mouse in the house that ran at me. Trust me, I didn’t want to…” Jamie tried to explain as he was cut off by Jay.

“I said shut up. You’ve caused enough problems. Just. Shut. Up. Someone else will take over the case. You can talk to them about whoever else was involved.”

Great, another hour in the cold with psycho me. Jamie sighed as sat back against the car. Just as the back of his head hit the door, the car’s alarm started wailing in an old fashioned EEEE-OOOO EEEE-OOOO with the headlights flashing.

Crap, he thought, as Jay’s head snapped towards him, looking at him incredulously, while a few of the townhome windows lights flipped on.