Chapter six: Sleepwalking
Charmaine couldn't sleep again, so she walked the short distance from her house to Heck's place. Trembleton at night was usually peaceful, and tonight was no exception. The soft rush of the wind through the trees and the occasional bark of a dog excited by this were the only sounds other than Charmaine's feet crunching over the fall leaves as she walked. As she approached the familiar multi-colored building, she could see that the lights were still on in the office downstairs. She sighed, thinking that her brother must still be working as he'd a habit to - long into the night. Heck's insomnia was even worse than her own, and he was always taking on more work than he could comfortably handle. Having the intern around would probably help with that, if Heck could learn to delegate tasks. Charmaine let herself into the office with her key, gearing up for a good lecture. Heck really needed a stern talking to, especially after what he'd done to the mayor. She still intended to make sure he sent that apology letter.
When she walked into the office area, what she found in the waiting room was not Heck hard at work. What she saw was Newt the Intern, sound asleep on the couch. He was half nestled into the cushions, his mouth slightly open, arms curled over his chest as if to ward off a blow. Which, considering, might have very well been a smart idea. Charmaine reached for the Better Haunts and Graveyards magazine, rolled it up, and whacked the intern lightly. "Hey, Nate!"
"Newt," he muttered sleepily.
"Whatever. Wakey wakey." She nudged the couch with her foot.
"Mehhhh...."
Charmaine shook his shoulder.
"Five more minutes, mom..." He swatted at her hand.
She rolled her eyes. "I am NOT your momma. Now come on, get up."
Newt grudgingly came to his senses, sitting up and rubbing his hands across his eyes. He yawned softly. "Oh, hey Charmaine..."
"Hey yourself."
"What time is it?"
"Sometime around midnight," Charmaine guessed. She perched vulture-like on the arm of the couch, staring down at him. "Are you homeless?"
Newt blinked the sleep from his eyes. "What? No..."
"Then why are you crashed out like Sleeping Beauty on Heck's office couch?"
"Oh, I was having a sleepover..."
"A sleepover?" she said, with mock girliness. "I should have put on my jammies and brought my Hello Kitty sleeping bag!"
The thought of the boss's sister in her 'jammies' made Newt blush. "Well, I - um. So what are you doing here this late, anyhow?"
Charmaine cast her eyes down to the floor. "Couldn't sleep."
"Why not?" he asked, and studied her face. She seemed tired, maybe a bit worried.
"It's nothing," she insisted, waving a dismissive hand. "I just have a hard time sleeping occasionally. " Occasionally meaning at least once a week - granted, much better than Heck's track record of nearly every night, but it was still frustrating. There was something infinitely frustrating about lying down and staring at the ceiling, barely visible in the darkness, waiting for her mind to shut down and sleep to finally come. Her thoughts kept turning, and the more she thought of things, the more awake she was. Then she'd get up, thinking if she did something perhaps it would make her tired enough to sleep. Usually that just made her more wound up though, and then it was just easier not to sleep and just push through till morning.
"Have you tried cocoa?" Newt asked. "All warm, and chocolaty... mmm. It's comfort food."
"It's not a food, it's a drink."
"Comfort drink then. But it works. Or chamomile tea - that's good, too."
Charmaine rubbed her head and looked down at Newt. She could tell he was trying to help, really. But it wasn't any of his business why the Vargas family didn't sleep well at night anymore. "So... sleepover?"
"Yeah, 'cause little Billy's parents weren't---" At the mention of Billy, Newt's eyes grew wide. He glanced quickly around the room - no sign of him. "Crap."
"Billy's parents weren't crap? Huh? Who is Billy anyhow?"
"He's the kid Mr. Vargas brought back yesterday." Newt got to his feet and started glancing behind chairs and under desks. "He's about this tall--" He gestured with a hand to indicate Billy's height. "--and very hyper. Red hair and freckles."
Charmaine got up to look with him. "And you lost him?" she said, giving him a disapproving glare. "Heck's going to kill you - at least once or twice."
The intern cringed. He really hoped she was kidding. "Billy," he called, as loud as he dared. He didn't want to wake Mr. Vargas up, just in case. "Billy... where are you? I um, I have some candy."
"Oh yeah, 'cause kids come to to strangers with candy all the time. No one's ever warned them about that one."
"Well.... do you have a better idea?" Newt asked, an edge of desperation to his voice when he checked behind the potted plant and yielded no undead kids.
"I'm thinking," Charmaine said, though she didn't see why it was her job to get the intern out of trouble anyhow. Still, if a zombie kid was running amuck in town, Heck was likely to be blamed and she had to protect her brother. Besides, the intern had a pretty pathetic face right now and it made her feel sorry for him. "How'd you lose him to begin with?"
"I don't know," Newt wailed. "We played hide and seek a while, then he asked me to tell him stories, asked me like a million questions about stuff - then fell asleep. At least, I thought he was asleep. On the chair. So I crashed out on the couch..."
"Well, he's obviously not sleeping now,' Charmaine said. "Hm... what's the kid's full name?"
"William-something." He couldn't quite remember.
Charmaine grumbled. "Fine, that will have to do." She marched down the hall and opened the door to the basement, then called down in her most authoritative voice (which made Newt back up quickly). "William! If you're down there young man, you come up here right this minute!"
Silence.
"....I guess he's not down there," Newt offered.
"Yeah, hm. Let's check outside. C'mon." Charmaine headed for the front door, pushing it open and taking a good look around. "William! Where are you? Answer me this instant!"
Newt padded out after her, admiring her strength in time of crisis. He hoped that someday he'd learn to channel his inner bitchiness like that, to pop up at a moment's notice when needed. He looked around the yard, then pointed towards one of the bushes which seemed to have a blue jacket draped over it. "There- that's the kid's suit."
Charmaine headed over and collected the jacket. She held it up close to her face in the moonlight to examine it for any clues, and immediately regretted the proximity when a whiff of something unpleasant drifted from the fabric. "Ugh! Why does this smell like puke?"
"Um... dunno. kid must have thrown up or something."
"Yuck. Anyhow, let's see... he probably squeezed through the fence bars here and went on down the road," she surmized, and headed around to the gate and towards the road. "C'mon Nate."
"Newt," he corrected automatically, and scrambled after.
"William! William, where are you?" Charmaine called, her voice growing sterner and more demanding as they walked through the streets of the town.
"Billy! Uh, hey, Billy... c'mon out..." Newt tried.
No use. After searching up streets and down streets, in the park and in the playground - no Billy.
"Maybe we should try the graveyard?" Charmaine suggested. It was entirely possible that Billy had gone back to a place he found familiar - and that would be either his home, or his grave. Since she had no idea where the kid lived - she was kicking herself right now for not checking the file - the graveyard seemed the best place to check.
"Um, let's head back towards the office first? Maybe he's gone back there..." The intern had no desire to go back to the graveyard - especially not in the middle of the night. He'd seen enough creepy stuff to last him all week.
"Fine, okay- we can check his file while we're there, maybe see if he went back to his home."
Newt breathed a heavy sigh of relief, and followed Charmaine on home.
When they got there, they found the object of their searching - little Billy, looking just as pleased as could be (minus his suit jacket) talking to a barrel-chested man with a handlebar mustache who was barely taller than he was. Spotting Newt, Billy waved cheerfully. "Hi Newt! Hi lady - look what I found. It's a circus guy!"
"Where were you? You weren't supposed to leave the--- circus guy?"
"Ah good evening - does this charming young boy belong to you?" the circus man asked ,giving Charmaine and Newt a bright smile. "I found him out by the fairgrounds where we're making camp, and I thought it best to escort him straight home."
"Thank you so much sir," Charmaine said. "He's-- a guest here ,and he shouldn't be wandering off like that. His parents are due to pick him up in the morning and they would have been so worried."
"I'm dead!" Billy said cheerfully. "I'm gonna eatchur brains..." He advanced on the circus guy, making a grarr face.
The man took it all in stride, chuckling and patting Billy on the head. "Well, a dead boy like you would certainly enjoy our Reanimation Circus! You simply must come down - we're having a special show on Halloween. All of you, really. Do come to the show..."
Charmaine gave him a dubious look. "Well, as nice as that sounds Mr...."
"Stan - Stan the Dwarven Strong Man."
"Mr. Stan. Halloween is usually our busy night," Charmaine said. She pointed towards the business sign on the building. "Necrotic Technologies, Inc. We have a lot of work around this time of year."
"Like Little Billy here," Newt piped up.
"I'm going to the circus!" Billy said. "I'm gonna tell my mom and dad to take me."
"Ah, well... if you do change your minds - here are some tickets for you - free admission!" Stan passed tickets out to each of them and gave a charming smile to Charmaine. "I certainly hope to see you there, Ms. Vargas. But if not, well - have a pleasant Halloween."
And with that, he was heading on down the road, presumably back to the fairground.
"No going anywhere else," Newt said, shaking a finger at Billy. "You're supposed to stay here until your parents come for you in the morning."
"You were sleeping!" Billy protested. "I was bored! Plus I scored us free tickets to the circus - how cool is that?"
"Pretty cool," Newt admitted. "If we have time to go..."
He glanced towards Charmaine, but she was busy staring down the road after the strong dwarf, wondering how he had known her name...
(words: 1837)
When she walked into the office area, what she found in the waiting room was not Heck hard at work. What she saw was Newt the Intern, sound asleep on the couch. He was half nestled into the cushions, his mouth slightly open, arms curled over his chest as if to ward off a blow. Which, considering, might have very well been a smart idea. Charmaine reached for the Better Haunts and Graveyards magazine, rolled it up, and whacked the intern lightly. "Hey, Nate!"
"Newt," he muttered sleepily.
"Whatever. Wakey wakey." She nudged the couch with her foot.
"Mehhhh...."
Charmaine shook his shoulder.
"Five more minutes, mom..." He swatted at her hand.
She rolled her eyes. "I am NOT your momma. Now come on, get up."
Newt grudgingly came to his senses, sitting up and rubbing his hands across his eyes. He yawned softly. "Oh, hey Charmaine..."
"Hey yourself."
"What time is it?"
"Sometime around midnight," Charmaine guessed. She perched vulture-like on the arm of the couch, staring down at him. "Are you homeless?"
Newt blinked the sleep from his eyes. "What? No..."
"Then why are you crashed out like Sleeping Beauty on Heck's office couch?"
"Oh, I was having a sleepover..."
"A sleepover?" she said, with mock girliness. "I should have put on my jammies and brought my Hello Kitty sleeping bag!"
The thought of the boss's sister in her 'jammies' made Newt blush. "Well, I - um. So what are you doing here this late, anyhow?"
Charmaine cast her eyes down to the floor. "Couldn't sleep."
"Why not?" he asked, and studied her face. She seemed tired, maybe a bit worried.
"It's nothing," she insisted, waving a dismissive hand. "I just have a hard time sleeping occasionally. " Occasionally meaning at least once a week - granted, much better than Heck's track record of nearly every night, but it was still frustrating. There was something infinitely frustrating about lying down and staring at the ceiling, barely visible in the darkness, waiting for her mind to shut down and sleep to finally come. Her thoughts kept turning, and the more she thought of things, the more awake she was. Then she'd get up, thinking if she did something perhaps it would make her tired enough to sleep. Usually that just made her more wound up though, and then it was just easier not to sleep and just push through till morning.
"Have you tried cocoa?" Newt asked. "All warm, and chocolaty... mmm. It's comfort food."
"It's not a food, it's a drink."
"Comfort drink then. But it works. Or chamomile tea - that's good, too."
Charmaine rubbed her head and looked down at Newt. She could tell he was trying to help, really. But it wasn't any of his business why the Vargas family didn't sleep well at night anymore. "So... sleepover?"
"Yeah, 'cause little Billy's parents weren't---" At the mention of Billy, Newt's eyes grew wide. He glanced quickly around the room - no sign of him. "Crap."
"Billy's parents weren't crap? Huh? Who is Billy anyhow?"
"He's the kid Mr. Vargas brought back yesterday." Newt got to his feet and started glancing behind chairs and under desks. "He's about this tall--" He gestured with a hand to indicate Billy's height. "--and very hyper. Red hair and freckles."
Charmaine got up to look with him. "And you lost him?" she said, giving him a disapproving glare. "Heck's going to kill you - at least once or twice."
The intern cringed. He really hoped she was kidding. "Billy," he called, as loud as he dared. He didn't want to wake Mr. Vargas up, just in case. "Billy... where are you? I um, I have some candy."
"Oh yeah, 'cause kids come to to strangers with candy all the time. No one's ever warned them about that one."
"Well.... do you have a better idea?" Newt asked, an edge of desperation to his voice when he checked behind the potted plant and yielded no undead kids.
"I'm thinking," Charmaine said, though she didn't see why it was her job to get the intern out of trouble anyhow. Still, if a zombie kid was running amuck in town, Heck was likely to be blamed and she had to protect her brother. Besides, the intern had a pretty pathetic face right now and it made her feel sorry for him. "How'd you lose him to begin with?"
"I don't know," Newt wailed. "We played hide and seek a while, then he asked me to tell him stories, asked me like a million questions about stuff - then fell asleep. At least, I thought he was asleep. On the chair. So I crashed out on the couch..."
"Well, he's obviously not sleeping now,' Charmaine said. "Hm... what's the kid's full name?"
"William-something." He couldn't quite remember.
Charmaine grumbled. "Fine, that will have to do." She marched down the hall and opened the door to the basement, then called down in her most authoritative voice (which made Newt back up quickly). "William! If you're down there young man, you come up here right this minute!"
Silence.
"....I guess he's not down there," Newt offered.
"Yeah, hm. Let's check outside. C'mon." Charmaine headed for the front door, pushing it open and taking a good look around. "William! Where are you? Answer me this instant!"
Newt padded out after her, admiring her strength in time of crisis. He hoped that someday he'd learn to channel his inner bitchiness like that, to pop up at a moment's notice when needed. He looked around the yard, then pointed towards one of the bushes which seemed to have a blue jacket draped over it. "There- that's the kid's suit."
Charmaine headed over and collected the jacket. She held it up close to her face in the moonlight to examine it for any clues, and immediately regretted the proximity when a whiff of something unpleasant drifted from the fabric. "Ugh! Why does this smell like puke?"
"Um... dunno. kid must have thrown up or something."
"Yuck. Anyhow, let's see... he probably squeezed through the fence bars here and went on down the road," she surmized, and headed around to the gate and towards the road. "C'mon Nate."
"Newt," he corrected automatically, and scrambled after.
"William! William, where are you?" Charmaine called, her voice growing sterner and more demanding as they walked through the streets of the town.
"Billy! Uh, hey, Billy... c'mon out..." Newt tried.
No use. After searching up streets and down streets, in the park and in the playground - no Billy.
"Maybe we should try the graveyard?" Charmaine suggested. It was entirely possible that Billy had gone back to a place he found familiar - and that would be either his home, or his grave. Since she had no idea where the kid lived - she was kicking herself right now for not checking the file - the graveyard seemed the best place to check.
"Um, let's head back towards the office first? Maybe he's gone back there..." The intern had no desire to go back to the graveyard - especially not in the middle of the night. He'd seen enough creepy stuff to last him all week.
"Fine, okay- we can check his file while we're there, maybe see if he went back to his home."
Newt breathed a heavy sigh of relief, and followed Charmaine on home.
When they got there, they found the object of their searching - little Billy, looking just as pleased as could be (minus his suit jacket) talking to a barrel-chested man with a handlebar mustache who was barely taller than he was. Spotting Newt, Billy waved cheerfully. "Hi Newt! Hi lady - look what I found. It's a circus guy!"
"Where were you? You weren't supposed to leave the--- circus guy?"
"Ah good evening - does this charming young boy belong to you?" the circus man asked ,giving Charmaine and Newt a bright smile. "I found him out by the fairgrounds where we're making camp, and I thought it best to escort him straight home."
"Thank you so much sir," Charmaine said. "He's-- a guest here ,and he shouldn't be wandering off like that. His parents are due to pick him up in the morning and they would have been so worried."
"I'm dead!" Billy said cheerfully. "I'm gonna eatchur brains..." He advanced on the circus guy, making a grarr face.
The man took it all in stride, chuckling and patting Billy on the head. "Well, a dead boy like you would certainly enjoy our Reanimation Circus! You simply must come down - we're having a special show on Halloween. All of you, really. Do come to the show..."
Charmaine gave him a dubious look. "Well, as nice as that sounds Mr...."
"Stan - Stan the Dwarven Strong Man."
"Mr. Stan. Halloween is usually our busy night," Charmaine said. She pointed towards the business sign on the building. "Necrotic Technologies, Inc. We have a lot of work around this time of year."
"Like Little Billy here," Newt piped up.
"I'm going to the circus!" Billy said. "I'm gonna tell my mom and dad to take me."
"Ah, well... if you do change your minds - here are some tickets for you - free admission!" Stan passed tickets out to each of them and gave a charming smile to Charmaine. "I certainly hope to see you there, Ms. Vargas. But if not, well - have a pleasant Halloween."
And with that, he was heading on down the road, presumably back to the fairground.
"No going anywhere else," Newt said, shaking a finger at Billy. "You're supposed to stay here until your parents come for you in the morning."
"You were sleeping!" Billy protested. "I was bored! Plus I scored us free tickets to the circus - how cool is that?"
"Pretty cool," Newt admitted. "If we have time to go..."
He glanced towards Charmaine, but she was busy staring down the road after the strong dwarf, wondering how he had known her name...
(words: 1837)