In The Shadows (Open)

[Kieron Sharpe]

It was a glorious early autumn afternoon. All day the sun had been high and bright in the cloudless sky, the air humid but with a breeze that kept it pleasant. It was warm, so much so that Kieron had switched out his usual flavoured coffee pick-me-ups for chilled energy drinks instead. As the afternoon had worn on the sun had lowered, bright on the horizon and casting its rays long and low across the land. This, of course, meant that on his break Kieron had gone to find a dark little corner in which to hide from it for a while.

It had been a fairly quiet afternoon, the sort that always left him a little bit at a loss. He enjoyed the quiet days because it meant he had to deal with less people, there was less to go wrong and he could sit and contemplate or maybe even sneak in a bit of writing for a little while. However, they could also get exceptionally boring and sometimes the contemplations were not always nice things. At least he only had a few hours left of his shift.

The staff lounge was thankfully empty when he arrived, and Kieron switched off the lights and drew one of the shutters so it created a little pool of darkness in one of the corners. He retrieved a bag of his snacks from where he kept them in one of the cupboards and opened it, idly flicking a milk chocolate-coated locust into his mouth before going to settle in the dark corner. It felt good to finally lift his shades up off his nose, letting his eyes relax in the darkness after a morning of constantly semi-squinting through the bright light. Chewing on another locust and cracking open a can of energy drink, Kieron got out his Kindle and settled to carry on reading from where he’d left off.

[Zebadiah Hayes]

Zeb had been outside enjoying the day, like most of the students seemed to be doing. But he was fading fast and needed a refill for his coffee mug. It had been a pretty good week, sleep wise, but he still needed his caffeine to feel functional.

He considered ducking back to his apartment, but remembered he had left the book of poetry he was currently working his way through in the lounge the other night. Figuring the his co-workers wouldn't mind if he stole some coffee as well, he headed in that direction.

He walked in to what he thought was an empty lounge and was getting his coffee when the sound of a soda opening startled him. He almost dropped his mug, but managed to catch it before he hit the ground. Though he did yell out a bit when the hot liquid poured onto his hand.

"Mr. Sharpe?" Zeb said, turning around to peer into the dark corner of the lounge. "Didn't see you there." He gave the other man a bit of a forced laugh, hoping that he wasn't interrupting or that he hadn't made too much of a fool of himself. The truth was Zeb always felt a bit awkward around the nurse because the first time he had seen the other man with his wings out, Zeb had thought he was hallucinating. Though he was pretty sure Kieron didn't know that, he still feel weird about it every time he took a student to see the nurse.

"Having a nice day?" he added, grabbing some napkins to clean up his mess.

[Kieron Sharpe]

But as I stood in the tower's topmost chamber, I beheld the horned waning moon, red and sinister, quivering through the vapours that hovered over the distant valley of Banof. And through an opening in the roof glittered the pale Pole Star, fluttering as if alive, and leering like a fiend and tempter. Methought its spirit whispered evil counsel, soothing me to traitorous somnolence with a damnable rhythmical promise which it repeated over and over.*

Even though he had read it probably close to fifty times in his life by now, Kieron still hung on to each and every word as his eyes scanned over the script on his Kindle, the little light barely visible, only bright enough so the words were actually readable and he wasn't just staring at a black screen. So involved was he with the story that Kieron didn't realise someone else had entered the staff lounge until he heard the other man startle and curse, probably at the noise from his own can cracking open.

“Crap, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you jump.” Kieron shut the Kindle quickly, reaching up to place it on the table next to him before standing. “Please, just call me Kieron. 'Mister Sharpe' always sounds a bit weird referring to anyone but my dad.”

The Irishman was of course completely oblivious to the dorm monitor's feelings about him; he simply assumed the guy didn't really like him, based on how awkward he seemed to be on the few times he brought a kid down to the infirmary. Kieron didn't lose any sleep over it. He slid his sunglasses back down his nose before heading out of his dark little corner and into the light of the room, squinting slightly as he made his way over to where Zebadiah was stood.

“Yeah, it's been pretty quiet but otherwise okay thanks.” Kieron indicated to the other man's hand, where the coffee spilled. “You really need to run that under some cold water. I can clean up the mess while you do that.”

[* Extract from Polaris by H.P. Lovecraft]

[Zebadiah Hayes]

"Sorry. Kieron," Zeb said, making a mental note and hoping it would stick. He started to wipe off his shirt a bit. One of these days he was going to invest in a complete coffee colored wardrobe. It seemed every other day he was spilling it on himself. Coordination was one of the first things to go when he wasn't sleeping well, it seemed.

"And no need to apologize. I just wan't paying attention," he continued. Zeb laughed a little at himself, hoping that it would defuse the tension. At least Kieron didn't have his wings out at the moment. Not that Zeb had any aversion at all to them, but he would have felt even worse if he had yelled something about Batman when he'd been startled instead of just spilling his coffee and cursing. Though he tried hard not to react to his hallucinations, which in turn had conditioned him not to react to suddenly to anything he actually saw as well, it was really the sudden noise that had gotten to him. But a noise and a man with bat wings in the dark corner would have been a bit much to contain.

"Oh. Thanks." Right, Kieron was the nurse. Of course the other man would be concerned with his hand. The cool water from the faucet did feel great on his hand, but it didn't look too burnt. Just very red.

"Looks like I'll survive," he said, holding up his hand and smiling. He walked over to refill his mug. Holding out the pot, he asked, "Would you like me to pour you some? I'll try not to pour it on you." He laughed awkwardly...again. Yeah he was going to need to come clean, at least partially, or there was going to be many more awkward jokes.

[Kieron Sharpe]

Kieron gave a small smile as the dorm monitor said he’d use his first name. It was a little hypocritical of him to hate his own title when he generally preferred to refer to other people by theirs – he still hadn’t quite got used to calling Mister Batista ‘Mike’. It was simply that Mister Sharpe always made him think of his father, and generally the less Kieron thought about his parents the happier he was. Even most of the students called him Kieron… or Batman, though he tried to discourage that. Of course, discouraging Sam tended to have the opposite effect and in the end the nurse had just given up on that as a lost cause.

“Yeah, I know that feeling. It gets you that way sometimes, doesn’t it? Especially towards the end of the shift; it’s so easy to just let your mind wander away somewhere else.” It was one of the reasons Kieron consumed as much caffeine as he did. With his job, he couldn’t really afford to be having his attention anywhere other than the patients he was looking after.

As Zebadiah went to run his hand under the faucet, Kieron grabbed a handful of paper towels and set about cleaning up the spill on the floor. It wasn’t too bad, thankfully, and by the time the water stopped running the only traces of the spill were the ones on the dorm monitor’s clothes. “Do you want me to take a look at it? I’ve got some burn cream in the first aid kit in the cupboard there.”

Kieron gave a quiet chuckle at the offer of coffee and the promise not to pour any on him, but gave a small shake of his head. “No thanks. I just opened the can that caused all this commotion. But thanks, though.” Kieron could sense the awkward tension coming from the dorm monitor, though he truthfully had no clue why it was there. Perhaps he really did hate the nurse. Eh, if he did, Kieron wasn’t about to lose any sleep over it.