Lights Out [OPEN]

[Deleted]

He stood in the middle of an overgrown trail holding a flashlight. It was dark and he was frightened. He'd woken up in the middle of the night and left his tent to go to relieve himself in the woods. Now he wasn't sure which way the tent was, and it was so dark.

He heard rustling in the trees and turned around, clutching his flashlight.

"Dad?"

His voice was that of a child, small and shaky. It echoed through the woods, and it scared him, hearing his own voice thrown back at him. He heard a dog barking. He wondered if someone camping nearby had a dog.

Hearing no answer, he kept walking, hoping he was getting closer to his father's tent. It was their second night camping, and he'd decided in the first ten minutes he didn't like it.

He saw a clearing up ahead and felt relieved. He started running, his sneakers pounding on the ground, but just as he reached the clearing he tripped over a root. He landed hard on his stomache, dropping the flashlight, and cried out.

"Daddy!"

he cried.

He looked up, barely able to make out the shape of a tent in the dark. But it looked smaller than it should have.

He heard a low growl and sat up on his hands, blood beginning to seep from scrapes on his arms and knees. He sniffled, tears starting to roll down his cheeks. Why wasn't his father answering him? He was a light sleeper...

The only warning was a loud bark before he felt the teeth dig into his lower leg. He screamed and kicked his other foot, looking back to see a large black dog gnawing at his leg.

"Daddy! HELP!"

He tried to claw at the ground as the dog pulled and screamed as he was dragged further down the trail.

Pilgrim sat up straight in bed, his eyes open but unable to see much in the dark motel room. He raked a hand through his blond hair, acutely aware that neither the hand nor the hair belonged to him. He got out of bed without turning on a light and pulled on the pair of boxers and the pair of worn jeans that were on the floor.

Memories like these always came back to haunt him in his sleep. He guessed it was the result of keeping them pent up all the time.

He went to the mini-fridge in the corner of the room and opened it, looking for the rum he'd stored there, only to find the light wasn't on and the cold air wasn't running. Pilgrim frowned and figured he should check if it was plugged in, but that would require pulling the fridge out from the wall and he just wasn't in the mood to do that. He glanced at the microwave and noticed the digital clock was out. He tried a lightswitch and nothing happened.

"No power? Seriously?"

He sighed and grabbed the ice bucket from the top of the fridge and dumped the water in the bathroom sink before leaving the room and heading down to the lobby to the ice machine. He didn't expect to run into anyone else during the wee hours in the morning and hadn't bothered to pull on a shirt or his shoes. He whistled a tune by Johnny Cash as he strolled down the hall and headed down the stairs to the lobby.

[mandi]

S

[/color]era hated motels, they were dark and dirty, smelled and usually hosted humans she did not want to meet. Still, half-angel or not she had to sleep somewhere now and then. She might not have to actually sleep but she found she would get rather grouchy if she didn’t and didn’t have the patience to get a job. So she lived on low income and dealt with it by staying in lame ass motels. It wasn’t the most charming way to live but she’d make due. That was one thing she found amusing. Back in the day, when she’d been young living had been way easier. Now, in the time with all the technological advances she had a harder time. It was a little ironic but made sense all things considered. Really, she didn’t exist which made it difficult to live like a human. Then again, she didn’t want to live like a human, she was way better than a human. She smirked a little and rolled over in her itchy, irritating bed. After a moment she growled and untangled herself from the sheets and climbed out of bed, letting her feet touch the chilly floor. She furrowed her brows and stared at the digital clock beside her bed, noting that there was no time. Curious she opened her mini fridge, no light and no cold. That meant her food was shot for the week… She toggled a switch and that didn’t work either.

“Great… That’s just my luck, I could have picked the motel across the road but NO, I had to choose this one…[/i] She thought bitterly to herself. She was curious if it was just her room so she grabbed a form-fitting sweater and through it over the tank-top she was wearing. She debated putting on a pair of jeans but decided that her purple plaid PJ pants would suffice and opened the door to look outside… None of the outside lights were on…Dark. She rolled her eyes, slipped on a pair of converse and headed into the hallway, deciding to mention it to the front desk. Or, if there was nobody there she’d just leave a note. The hall was chilly and Sera grumbled under her breath as she walked, pulling her hair up into a messy ponytail behind her head. Of course, just my luck… Why does this always happen to Me? All the time! She thought, furrowing her brows at the dark window of the lobby door.

Of course, it was just Serafina’s luck that the lobby was empty. She glared at the desk, her hands balling into fists. Another thing to add to her ‘why-I-hate-motels-list’; the fact that the staff were never around when you needed them. Still she wasn’t going to just leave now. She searched the desk and found a pad of paper as well as a ball-point pen and scribbled down a note that read Power’s out, or was last night depending on when you get the note. Just thought you ought to know. She placed it on the computer’s key board and strode pushed the doors open violently, in a rather bad mood only to stop and blink in surprise. She wasn’t alone in the middle of the night apparently. Nope, there was a guy up, one who unlike her hadn’t thought to throw on cloths before wandering about the motel. Sera wasn’t sure what to say so she gave a small smile while thinking, Awkward… [/font][/size][/blockquote]

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As he'd expected, the place was pretty empty. Who wanted to wander around a motel in the dark in the middle of the night? The only reason he was even doing it was because he wanted a cold drink.

Pilgrim walked over to the ice machine and opened the metal flap of a lid. He was greeted by a rush of cool air and he blinked reflexively. He grabbed the metal scoop from its makeshift holder on the side of the machine and started scooping ice into the bucket, singing as he did so.

"Well, you may throw your rock, hide your hand, workin' in the dark against your fellow man. But as sure as God made black and white, what's done in the dark will be brought to the light. You can run onnn for a long time, run onnnn for a long time..."

He chuckled to himself, scooping the last bunch of ice into the bucket and letting the lid slam shut. He continued humming the song as he tossed the scoop back into its holder with a clang that made him wince. He turned around to head back up to his room and blinked at the vague outline of a female figure he could see in the dark.

"Oh, uh... Hey," he said, his lips curving into a smile even though it was probably too dark for her to see it. "Didn't realize I had an audience."

[mandi]

S

[/color]era felt one of her delicate eyebrows raise at the response she got from her staring. Though she was, technically an audience but she hadn’t really wanted to be one. She just was a little old time in comparison to the female humans of today. She wasn’t the type of girl who swam a lot or hung out at the beach so she still felt a little awkward around half dressed humans. That much she’d gotten from her Angel blood, she might like to drink and have fun, had emotions and was bound to earth but she was a bit of a slow learner when it came to things like that. She wore a purity ring for crying out loud… You couldn’t get more innocent than that… Which was kind of amusing considering how old she looked and how pretty she was. Usually people thought her purity ring was a wedding band, which worked out just fine for her.

“Uh… Hi?” She mumbled, rather unsure how to react to the situation. She supposed the guy was being friendly enough… And yet there was something about him that irked her. She wasn’t exactly sure what it was, but he made her uncomfortable. Her guess was that it was the fact he wasn’t wearing a shirt, even in the dark she could see that much. He was smiling too… Or so she thought, it was a little hard to make out, after all it was dark enough and motels didn’t usually consider natural lighting when they built their lobbies… She could feel herself blushing already, she hated not looking good in public. Even if it was dark she was in her PJs and an old sweater with her hair thrown up, not exactly how she liked to be seen. She almost laughed at her own weirdness. She didn’t like it when humans hit on her, yet enjoyed looking good and batting her eyelashes… What a tease… She’d probably pay for it eventually, like that poor curious cat.

“I didn’t mean to be your audience,” She replied to him, wincing at how lame her own response sounded. She scanned her brain quickly in a desperate attempt to say something else to cover up her stupidity. “Uh… Is the power out for you too?” She asked quickly. Of course it was… Stupid question…[/font][/size][/blockquote]

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"Uh… Hi?"

The girl seemed surprised and a little uncomfortable.

"I didn’t mean to be your audience," she said. "Uh… Is the power out for you too?"

Pilgrim looked around the pitch-black lobby.

"Nope. I got lucky and got the one room immune to power outtages."

He chuckled.

He couldn't see much of the woman in the dark, but she looked fairly petite. Judging by her body language, she was fairly awkward and uncomfortable.

"I just came down here to get some ice for my drink," he explained.

What else was there to say? Other than 'I just had a really disturbing nightmare,' which he never would've admitted to anyway.

He wrinkled his brows, disturbed by the memory.