The Brightest Dawn
darkness
Exhausted.
No, more than exhausted-- fatigued. Dawn was the most fatigued she had ever been since she started commuting by airplane. It was a choice she'd made in an effort to spend more time at home and to save money by relinquishing her twin sized bunk bed at one of the Kew Gardens crashpads. As she drove home along the damp back streets, eerily quiet during this time right before the devil's hour, Dawn rolled one shoulder at a time. The weight of stress from her twelve-hour duty day combined with the lassitude from being awake for nearly twenty-four hours had settled nicely into a pair of knots right between her shoulder blades. If she was lucky, Nico would still be awake and he would fix her a cup of tea and rub her down with some oil when she got out of her much-needed shower.
Dawn snorted. Who was she kidding? There was no way her boyfriend would be up at this time of night. With a sigh, she turned on her blinker to let absolutely no one know that she was switching into the turning lane. She darted her dark brown eyes up to the the rearview mirror, though, just in case. As she turned her attention back to the road in front of her, something in her rearview mirror made her double take. From the corner of her eye, it looked like a big dark figure had darted across the road behind her but when she slowed down to look over her shoulder, nothing was there.
Could've been the shadow from any of those trees, Dawn thought to herself even as an uncomfortable frown settled into her naturally arched eyebrows. She adjusted herself in the driver's seat and pressed a little harder on the accelerator-- doing forty-five in a thirty-five mph zone wouldn't hurt anybody. Taking account of her surroundings, there were only a few more miles to go before Dawn would be safe at home. She reached for the volume knob to turn up the local NPR radio station that always played soothing classical songs around this time and relaxed a bit as the sounds of an orchestra played from the speakers. But, there again. Something from Dawn's peripheral vision drew her attention to her rear view mirror.
"What the hell was that?" she demanded. She glowered as she tried to recall what it was she thought she saw. Another shadow racing across the street? Only... there was more than one this time. Three? Four? Dawn let out an audible groan, wondering if her little fall in last week's yoga class had done more than give her a sore spot on her forehead. She had seen copious amounts of TV shows and foreign dramas to know the ramifications of a bump to the head as it pertained to the heroine but, surely, in real life, a bump was nine times out of ten, just a bump... Right? Dawn's heart rate sped up a bit as her inner turmoil began to snowball. Which would be the lesser evil at this point: an operation on the subdural hematoma currently growing in her head that her insurance probably wouldn't pay for, or one or four mysterious figures lurking in the darkness with evil powers this world had never seen before?
Dawn tried to laugh off her ridiculous internal monologue as she went from forty-five to fifty miles per hour. Her neighborhood was just up ahead and all of her delirious thoughts would be forgotten once she had a good night's rest. The familiar bend in the road that led to her tiny subdivision prompted a sigh of relief from Dawn. She slowed down to a reasonable speed and took the first left turn to get to her street. As expected, she seemed to be the only commotion in this small pocket of urban residence. She pulled into her short driveway, right behind Nico's new-ish Ford SUV. There was a moment of indecision about whether or not to drag her luggage into the house now or wait for the morning. She thought better of it in the end and got out of the car to pull her suitcase and lunchbox from the passenger seat- her neighborhood was cute and all but she still wouldn't want to tempt any new or needy passersby. She shut the door and in the blink of an eye, the street was a lot darker than it was just a second ago. Dawn looked around and noticed that not only had every single streetlight gone out, but the houses had gone dark as well. No porch lights outside, no kitchen lights inside. Everything was just... dark.
"What the fuck is going on?" Dawn asked, her feet momentarily immobile on the pavement of her driveway. Looking up, the stars were still hard to see against the black night sky since the lights from elsewhere in the city still shone brightly against the overcast clouds. Whatever it was Dawn had hoped to find in the calm sky, she found it and got her feet moving towards the side door of her house. As she walked the few steps, the lights on the street came back on, and once again, Dawn could sigh with relief.
The storm door and inside door both squeaked and groaned loudly as Dawn let herself in. She'd never been happier to hear such dissonant sounds as she locked the doors behind her. The luggage went against the wall, her keys went on the kitchen counter and her purse went onto a chair resting perpendicular to the kitchen table before she kicked her black ballet flats onto the growing pile of shoes by the front door.
"Babe?" she called out tentatively. The master bedroom of the quaint ranch bungalow was at the end of the single hallway and it seemed that the door was slightly open. Dawn proceeded to shed her detestable airline outfit one article at a time- the scarf and pantyhose were the first things to go. "Babe, if you're up, I have to tell you..." Next went the stiff button-down shirt. "...on my way home, it felt like I was in a fucking episode of Stranger Things except I didn't have a cool sound track playing in the background." Off next was the skirt and, lastly, the bra, all finding their way into the hamper just outside the one bathroom in the house. Down to just her undies, Dawn pushed her bedroom door all the way open and saw a large motionless mound on the queen-sized bed in the middle of the room. It looked like Nico was out cold so Dawn tiptoed in and placed a whisper of a kiss on his bare shoulder. Before exiting the room, she grabbed one of his t-shirts from the floor and the jar of raw shea butter from the dresser.
There was a giant star-shaped nightlight in the bathroom that remained on virtually all day and night; it was bright enough to give everything a warm yellow tint but not so bright that a half-sleep person would shake their fist at it. Dawn looked in the mirror above the sink to criticize her reflection and it was more or less exactly what she thought: red where the whites of her eyes used to be, dark circles and bags under them, mauve lipstick still smudged on her lips from eight hours ago, and a few flakes of dandruff near her hairline that suggested it was almost time to take her braids out.
Nothing a shower, a glass of wine, and face mask won't fix, she thought to herself as she turned away from the mirror. As she reached for the shower knob, everything went black. A feeling of dread welled in Dawn's chest and she commanded herself to remain as calm as possible. She'd locked the door behind her and there wasn't really anywhere for anyone to be hiding since the other two bedrooms in the house were either full of her half-finished art projects or Nico's musical instruments. She was safe. But she still found herself shuffling slowly across the floor with her arms stretched out in front of her in case she bumped into a wall- or, an intruder. She opened her eyes as wide as possible as if that would improve her vision in the pitch blackness. The kitchen wasn't far, though, and she had successfully felt her way to the kitchen table. Just as she began to rummage in her purse for her phone, the lights came back on. Geez... She let out a breath.
It would be awful if the lights went out again while she was in the shower so Dawn gathered up a few candles from the coffee table and bookshelf from the living room and a few tealight candles from a drawer beneath the microwave. She set them all on the lid of the toilet seat in the bathroom, just in case, and proceeded to do a perfunctory wash up from the bath tub faucet. She quickly brushed her teeth and rubbed in some of the shea butter on her face, elbows, knees, and feet. After she tossed her undies and wet washcloth in the hamper, Dawn yanked Nico's maroon t-shirt over her head, pulling her long braids out from the neck. After moving all the candles, once again, to a less inconvenient location on top of the washing machine, Dawn sauntered wearily back into the bedroom with one candle and a lighter in tow. She was hungry but there was no point in trying to cook or eat something if the power was just going to go off again. She walked around the foot of the bed to get to her side and slid beneath the cool cotton sheets. Dawn wriggled her body towards the middle of the bed, hoping to cuddle against Nico's broad back but she sat upright in the bed to find herself alone. She jumped out of the bed and turned on the ceiling light to confirm, sure enough, Nico was missing from the bed.
"Nico?" Dawn called, crossing the hall to his music room. It was empty. She looked in the third room but it was empty as well. A dizzy spell overtook Dawn and she stumbled all the way to the tan suede couch in the living room.
Was she losing her mind? Hadn't she just given Nico a kiss a few minutes ago? His car was parked outside. His keys and wallet are in their normal spot on the counter in the kitchen. His book bag was right there beside the front door. She had just kissed him!
Dawn rubbed her temples and found herself rocking back and forth in a self-soothing motion. She had to get a grip. She had to call someone... and tell them what? That her boyfriend is probably somewhere in the fifth dimension and she might be losing her mind? She stood up slowly, heading to her phone once again. Her mother would not appreciate a hysterical call in the middle of the night but Dawn's mother always knew what to do in any situation. With shaky hands, Dawn scrolled through her phone's call history until she found MOMMY. She tapped the call button and raised the phone to her ear only to hear an automated message claiming the number was no longer in service. Dawn looked stunned at the phone screen and felt a sharp sting to the side of her neck. Her hand flew to the site of the pain and, confused, she pulled out a small metal dart. She'd just managed to frown before her eyes rolled back and she collapsed into darkness.
No, more than exhausted-- fatigued. Dawn was the most fatigued she had ever been since she started commuting by airplane. It was a choice she'd made in an effort to spend more time at home and to save money by relinquishing her twin sized bunk bed at one of the Kew Gardens crashpads. As she drove home along the damp back streets, eerily quiet during this time right before the devil's hour, Dawn rolled one shoulder at a time. The weight of stress from her twelve-hour duty day combined with the lassitude from being awake for nearly twenty-four hours had settled nicely into a pair of knots right between her shoulder blades. If she was lucky, Nico would still be awake and he would fix her a cup of tea and rub her down with some oil when she got out of her much-needed shower.
Dawn snorted. Who was she kidding? There was no way her boyfriend would be up at this time of night. With a sigh, she turned on her blinker to let absolutely no one know that she was switching into the turning lane. She darted her dark brown eyes up to the the rearview mirror, though, just in case. As she turned her attention back to the road in front of her, something in her rearview mirror made her double take. From the corner of her eye, it looked like a big dark figure had darted across the road behind her but when she slowed down to look over her shoulder, nothing was there.
Could've been the shadow from any of those trees, Dawn thought to herself even as an uncomfortable frown settled into her naturally arched eyebrows. She adjusted herself in the driver's seat and pressed a little harder on the accelerator-- doing forty-five in a thirty-five mph zone wouldn't hurt anybody. Taking account of her surroundings, there were only a few more miles to go before Dawn would be safe at home. She reached for the volume knob to turn up the local NPR radio station that always played soothing classical songs around this time and relaxed a bit as the sounds of an orchestra played from the speakers. But, there again. Something from Dawn's peripheral vision drew her attention to her rear view mirror.
"What the hell was that?" she demanded. She glowered as she tried to recall what it was she thought she saw. Another shadow racing across the street? Only... there was more than one this time. Three? Four? Dawn let out an audible groan, wondering if her little fall in last week's yoga class had done more than give her a sore spot on her forehead. She had seen copious amounts of TV shows and foreign dramas to know the ramifications of a bump to the head as it pertained to the heroine but, surely, in real life, a bump was nine times out of ten, just a bump... Right? Dawn's heart rate sped up a bit as her inner turmoil began to snowball. Which would be the lesser evil at this point: an operation on the subdural hematoma currently growing in her head that her insurance probably wouldn't pay for, or one or four mysterious figures lurking in the darkness with evil powers this world had never seen before?
Dawn tried to laugh off her ridiculous internal monologue as she went from forty-five to fifty miles per hour. Her neighborhood was just up ahead and all of her delirious thoughts would be forgotten once she had a good night's rest. The familiar bend in the road that led to her tiny subdivision prompted a sigh of relief from Dawn. She slowed down to a reasonable speed and took the first left turn to get to her street. As expected, she seemed to be the only commotion in this small pocket of urban residence. She pulled into her short driveway, right behind Nico's new-ish Ford SUV. There was a moment of indecision about whether or not to drag her luggage into the house now or wait for the morning. She thought better of it in the end and got out of the car to pull her suitcase and lunchbox from the passenger seat- her neighborhood was cute and all but she still wouldn't want to tempt any new or needy passersby. She shut the door and in the blink of an eye, the street was a lot darker than it was just a second ago. Dawn looked around and noticed that not only had every single streetlight gone out, but the houses had gone dark as well. No porch lights outside, no kitchen lights inside. Everything was just... dark.
"What the fuck is going on?" Dawn asked, her feet momentarily immobile on the pavement of her driveway. Looking up, the stars were still hard to see against the black night sky since the lights from elsewhere in the city still shone brightly against the overcast clouds. Whatever it was Dawn had hoped to find in the calm sky, she found it and got her feet moving towards the side door of her house. As she walked the few steps, the lights on the street came back on, and once again, Dawn could sigh with relief.
The storm door and inside door both squeaked and groaned loudly as Dawn let herself in. She'd never been happier to hear such dissonant sounds as she locked the doors behind her. The luggage went against the wall, her keys went on the kitchen counter and her purse went onto a chair resting perpendicular to the kitchen table before she kicked her black ballet flats onto the growing pile of shoes by the front door.
"Babe?" she called out tentatively. The master bedroom of the quaint ranch bungalow was at the end of the single hallway and it seemed that the door was slightly open. Dawn proceeded to shed her detestable airline outfit one article at a time- the scarf and pantyhose were the first things to go. "Babe, if you're up, I have to tell you..." Next went the stiff button-down shirt. "...on my way home, it felt like I was in a fucking episode of Stranger Things except I didn't have a cool sound track playing in the background." Off next was the skirt and, lastly, the bra, all finding their way into the hamper just outside the one bathroom in the house. Down to just her undies, Dawn pushed her bedroom door all the way open and saw a large motionless mound on the queen-sized bed in the middle of the room. It looked like Nico was out cold so Dawn tiptoed in and placed a whisper of a kiss on his bare shoulder. Before exiting the room, she grabbed one of his t-shirts from the floor and the jar of raw shea butter from the dresser.
There was a giant star-shaped nightlight in the bathroom that remained on virtually all day and night; it was bright enough to give everything a warm yellow tint but not so bright that a half-sleep person would shake their fist at it. Dawn looked in the mirror above the sink to criticize her reflection and it was more or less exactly what she thought: red where the whites of her eyes used to be, dark circles and bags under them, mauve lipstick still smudged on her lips from eight hours ago, and a few flakes of dandruff near her hairline that suggested it was almost time to take her braids out.
Nothing a shower, a glass of wine, and face mask won't fix, she thought to herself as she turned away from the mirror. As she reached for the shower knob, everything went black. A feeling of dread welled in Dawn's chest and she commanded herself to remain as calm as possible. She'd locked the door behind her and there wasn't really anywhere for anyone to be hiding since the other two bedrooms in the house were either full of her half-finished art projects or Nico's musical instruments. She was safe. But she still found herself shuffling slowly across the floor with her arms stretched out in front of her in case she bumped into a wall- or, an intruder. She opened her eyes as wide as possible as if that would improve her vision in the pitch blackness. The kitchen wasn't far, though, and she had successfully felt her way to the kitchen table. Just as she began to rummage in her purse for her phone, the lights came back on. Geez... She let out a breath.
It would be awful if the lights went out again while she was in the shower so Dawn gathered up a few candles from the coffee table and bookshelf from the living room and a few tealight candles from a drawer beneath the microwave. She set them all on the lid of the toilet seat in the bathroom, just in case, and proceeded to do a perfunctory wash up from the bath tub faucet. She quickly brushed her teeth and rubbed in some of the shea butter on her face, elbows, knees, and feet. After she tossed her undies and wet washcloth in the hamper, Dawn yanked Nico's maroon t-shirt over her head, pulling her long braids out from the neck. After moving all the candles, once again, to a less inconvenient location on top of the washing machine, Dawn sauntered wearily back into the bedroom with one candle and a lighter in tow. She was hungry but there was no point in trying to cook or eat something if the power was just going to go off again. She walked around the foot of the bed to get to her side and slid beneath the cool cotton sheets. Dawn wriggled her body towards the middle of the bed, hoping to cuddle against Nico's broad back but she sat upright in the bed to find herself alone. She jumped out of the bed and turned on the ceiling light to confirm, sure enough, Nico was missing from the bed.
"Nico?" Dawn called, crossing the hall to his music room. It was empty. She looked in the third room but it was empty as well. A dizzy spell overtook Dawn and she stumbled all the way to the tan suede couch in the living room.
Was she losing her mind? Hadn't she just given Nico a kiss a few minutes ago? His car was parked outside. His keys and wallet are in their normal spot on the counter in the kitchen. His book bag was right there beside the front door. She had just kissed him!
Dawn rubbed her temples and found herself rocking back and forth in a self-soothing motion. She had to get a grip. She had to call someone... and tell them what? That her boyfriend is probably somewhere in the fifth dimension and she might be losing her mind? She stood up slowly, heading to her phone once again. Her mother would not appreciate a hysterical call in the middle of the night but Dawn's mother always knew what to do in any situation. With shaky hands, Dawn scrolled through her phone's call history until she found MOMMY. She tapped the call button and raised the phone to her ear only to hear an automated message claiming the number was no longer in service. Dawn looked stunned at the phone screen and felt a sharp sting to the side of her neck. Her hand flew to the site of the pain and, confused, she pulled out a small metal dart. She'd just managed to frown before her eyes rolled back and she collapsed into darkness.