The Town That Never Sleeps

[man_nav_naudas]

WHO(?): Raivis (?) and Peter
WHERE(?): Quiet Mound, a sleepy little town outside of Liberty, in the foothills of the _____ mountains in____, _____.
WHEN(?): Friday October 8 to Sunday, October 10 (?)
WHAT(?): It was meant to be an escape. The truth however, cannot stay hidden in the fog.

Comments

UNNCECESSARY RAMBLING IS UNNCESSARY.

[longlivesealand]

It was thanked to Peter's innate ability to drone out any unpleasant feelings that allowed the hyperactive young man to bite through the tedious transits from Point A to Point B. He could suppress the interrogative questioning from the old biddy on the plane. He could forget the detour when the car rental place did not have the car they requested, and they were forced to head across town to pick up the sedan that they originally ordered. He could pretend the two-hour drive to the resort was not two hours of his life that was wasted on the road. He could ignore the buzzing migraines centered on the back of his neck as the promised gorgeous scenery turned out to mundane trees after trees. All the troubles involved with traveling, he would and could endure, but Peter Kirkland refused - he abso-bloody-lutely refused to listen to that bloody song blasting from the satellite radio one more time

I KNEW WE SHOULD HAVE TAKEN THAT LEFT TURN AT ALBUQUERQUE...

[man_nav_naudas]

Raivis wasn't entirely certain if the sensation of being watched was an effect of that dense cloud or of the concussion blooming in his skull from a brief acquaintance with an airbag and a whirlwind fling with his headrest. He stared out, dazedly fixated on spiraling smoke tendrils leaking through cracks in the smashed metal of the rental; at the slightly bent pole with its flickering light on top and its apparent lack of remorse for having come out of fucking no whereHe had turned his gaze aside for just a second, just an instant to try and rouse his husband for the change of plans. It shouldn't have been long enough for the road to curve. He hadn't felt the vehicle veering off course because the wheel had been kept steady. They had been driving, cautiously, and suddenly- they weren't

LATE POST IS LATE. :D

[longlivesealand]

Peter was not aware that he was bleeding until he was told. Then as if a switch was flipped on and his skin parted like the Red Sea, blood began to sweep out of his wound - a small but deep gush over the forehead. He pressed his fingers to the wound, checking if it was in fact as severe as the pain stabbing his nerves. It was

:DDD

[man_nav_naudas]

There came a very prominent, distinctive 'fuck' from Raivis (repeated in Latvian for the sake of maintaining some semblance of modesty around Peter) then a hush. Then a muffled sigh or sob; coming from behind the cover of a hand over the young man's mouth, it was too hard to tell which. His teeth worried at a knuckle as he watched blood congeal, distantly marveling at how the absence of clarity in the world seemed to make it inherently brighter.

"Quiet Mounds." He said at last. The cell he pulled from his pocket showed the same dismal 'NO SERVICE' across its screen. He stuffed it back in hastily. "At least, I'm fairly certain that's what it was called." Waving away a plume of moisture spiraling by his ankles, crawling its way along his leg, Raivis shuffled sideways on the ground now beside his husband to curl an arm around him. "We're already within its city limits. If we walk a little bit, we...well, we should come across someone. Maybe we'll catch a ride along the way

And I posteth.

[longlivesealand]

Peter scratched the area around his head injury with a deep frown, making his brows look thicker than normal. He watched Raivis pace anxiously trying to find a bar of phone signal. In the thick fog, the Latvian faded in and out of Peter's eyesight. Peter tapped his fingers around his wound with one hand and reached out for Raivis in the free hand; his heart pounded against his ribcage as his veins filled with fear that he would lose sight of his husband. Raivis, unaware of Peter's calling, kept on loitering deeper into the gray blanket

Now get thee to thine choppa'

[man_nav_naudas]

They could be damned when they arrived in town. They would be damned if they didn't. October heralded the autumn season and the autumn season brought about the closing of doors, the desertion of streets in small lakeside tourist traps like this one, population: Countable On One Hand. Raivis hoped for a tow service still operating, a walk-in clinic wherein the injured may rest. Despite himself, at the thought, his gait grew quicker and in their wake- a moment unseen- the silhouette of the rental gradually vanished beneath white maws of trailing mist.

At every stumbling, shambling movement onward his fervent hope mutated further into an obsessive, oppressing mantra.

It will be there, it will be open. It will be fine, it will be alright. We will be okay.Burden, comfort. Repeated through each jerky tripping on loose debris, through the taxation on their bodies of awkwardly distributed weight, the wavering to reestablish balance. When a shingled peak broke the monotony of the gray above them and looming shadows rose in the paleness ahead

Too bad I left the key in my other shirt.

[longlivesealand]

The air was heavy, choked full of tension that made Peter's lungs contracted uneasily. No matter how or where he placed his eyes, there was only the endless gray fog that stretched on like an ocean. Vague hints of civilization protruded through the shroud now and then. A bent lamppost here, a chain-link fence with a gaping hole there. Nothing - and no one - alive yet, Peter took note---a fact that he chose to push to the back of his mind for now

There's always AAA (and my html failure).

[man_nav_naudas]

"Strange

[longlivesealand]

The sudden shattering of silence sent Peter---literally---jumping out of his seat. The plastic chair squeaked like a startled mouse when its occupant moved, another sound that lifted Peter on high alert. He snapped his head to stare at the chair, as if afraid that the object had gained a life and would leap at him. Only when he was certain and had convinced himself that his chair was safe did Peter sit back down. His fingers gripped the cold plastic as he watched Raivis desperately trying to reach the mystery person on the other line. His heart was heavy with hope that someone, out there, anywhere... someone would be able to help

[man_nav_naudas]

It did look familiar. Initially. A recognizable face that on closer inspection seemed not to belong to the person he thought it was oddly assuaged his terror.

Not Toris, then, just someone strikingly similar. Someone with a mimicking hint of sadness about the eyes- also brown, he noted- and the downward slope of posture Raivis's cousin had when the man thought no one else was watching.

Save that Peter was watching now but the slouching never stopped. The stranger did not nervously straighten as Toris would have, eager to please, to avoid conflict. He shuffled out of the stall with a tenuous sigh as though breathing itself were simply too much to bear; like the air expelled from his collapsing, expanding lungs was just a coincidence. Incidental living.

"Oh." The doppelgänger tilted his chin up slowly, matching Peter's stare with something blank, vaguely curious. "So you were the one shouting. Haven't seen other people around here for a while. Excuse me..."

His head drooped, he shambled by without another word.

[longlivesealand]

"Toris...?"

On second impression, the person, though strikingly similar to Raivis' cousin, was nothing like Toris after all. There was a brooding and depressed aura about the stranger that felt unfamiliar. Subconsciously, his brain sent signals to his legs, beckoning them to take a few steps back.

"Who are you?" Peter's words came out strong and rude, almost interrogative if not for the curiously raised eyebrow. "Have you been there the whole time? Do you work here, maybe?"

[man_nav_naudas]

"Work here?"

The young man pivoted in place, as sluggish as his voice, drawling on each syllable with such moroseness it induced an urge to punch the words out of him. "No... No one works here anymore. We got lost in this place, my friend and I. Then I ran away. He was... bullying me."

His gaze slid to the floor and remained there, locked on his own feet nervously shuffling about. Backwards. Away from Peter. "But I have to go find him again. Always have to go back. Don't you have to find your friend? 'Raivis' is your friend, right? You should..." Again, he turned for the hallway and his last words floated over his shoulder as a quiet, eerie murmur. "Find him."

[longlivesealand]

"Bullying you?"

Peter's eyes drew to Toris' doppelganger. The unknown phantom's gesture, movement, mannerism all hinted to a tormented soul. Peter would feel bad, should feel bad for the bloke, but his own heart was filling with worries over the whereabouts and safety of Raivis.

"You all right, mate? You look... Maybe we should go together, you know. It'll be good to have a buddy around! And, you are from this town, aren't you? So you can show me the way. I need a car shop. Raivis and I were in an accident."

Even as he spoke, the young man was already gliding away like a ghost. If Peter didn't know better, he would have thought it was only a figment of his tired imagination. He loitered behind the man, stepping in footprints that the stranger didn't leave.

"What do you say? This place, it just doesn't... feel safe, you know."

[man_nav_naudas]

No response