Arthur = England
Madeline = Fem! Canada
Alfred = America
Neculai = Romania
Børre = Norway
Arthur feels himself drift into sleep. His eyes are feeling heavy and everything he sees is turning blurry. He hates the night shift in the office. No, not hate, he loathes it with every fiber of his being. The entire building during the night is desolate except for the interns in the lobby, but even the interns aren't interesting.
Arthur likes to think of them as dull college students who just want this job as a title. He's very judgmental of these students. But at this point in the night shift, he feels that they would actually help him stay up. He knows nothing happens until the dawn to morning hours.
He places his hands on the table and gets up, staggering a bit due to his drowsy state. His eyes glance at the clock placed above the door, its hands reading one in the morning. He mutters inaudible slurs under his breath. He exits the room and heads downstairs, the sound of his feet hitting against the stairs echoing in the corridor. He almost falls, exhaustion coming to him quickly. Maybe he could convince one of the interns to make him a cup of coffee or tea. He really didn't care what he drank at this point.
He arrives in the lobby, to see the weary female intern studying with numerous textbooks open. She looks up, brushing her hair away from her face. "Oh, Mr. Kirkland, something wrong?"
Out of all the interns, Arthur admired Madeline. Despite being quiet and timid, she has a good heart and her obliging to the night shift tonight made him feel bad almost. "No, just exhausted. How are you feeling?"
Madeline shows a weak smile, "Tired. But I have an exam tomorrow afternoon so I'm kind of glad I took the night shift."
"I was just about to apologize for such a late notice. Almost none of the interns agree to the night shift." Arthur scans the lobby, there was supposed to be one more intern with her. "Where is Alfred?"
"He said he was going to make coffee but he's been gone for a while."
Of course. God knows what he's doing. The boy always does weird things when alone.
"Great, he's supposed to be in charge of incoming calls." He heaves a sigh, "I'm so sorry, Madeline, but can you be in charge of calls? I am expecting a call from either Børre or Neculai soon."
Madeline nods and shifts closer to the phone, "I got it, sir."
"Thank you, Madeline, you're an angel. I need to see what your friend is doing." As he leaves, he hears a soft giggle from Madeline and a turn of a page.
He's making coffee and he doesn't even know how long the boy has been in the coffee room. Knowing Alfred is a science major he could be doing chemistry in the room and make some explosive solution with coffee for all he knew. Alfred made weird things with barely any materials. The boy is smart but he's an idiot.
Arthur trudges down the corridor to find the coffee room. The lights flickered above him and Arthur remembers that he needs to change the lights but he always forgets. Neculai, his co-worker, always bugs him about the light and constantly complains about it being dim whenever he has the night shift, as well as feeling a bit frightened by the dark since it's 'creepy' to him. Arthur found it funny since he always found Neculai as the person who might have admired the dark but it's the complete opposite.
Arthur feels the need to tell Madeline to remind him in the morning when the stores open but he feels that he already put too much on her to deal with. He heaves another sigh and soon finds the coffee room with the door slightly open. He hears nothing but quiet breathing. Arthur cautiously opens the door, not wanting to be part of a coffee explosion if there was any.
Instead, he finds him asleep, sitting down on a chair while his head rests on his arms. Drool is flowing out of his mouth; he's smiling like a dog. Arthur is irritated, finding the intern sleeping during work hours. Arthur looks behind him, a cup of coffee resting next to one of the coffee makers. With a sly smile, Arthur takes the cup of lukewarm coffee and pours it on Alfred.
Alfred shouts and jumps out of his chair, shocked to notice his boss had just poured coffee all over him. He groans and mutters, "oh my god."
"Alfred, you can't sleep on the job. You have poor Madeline doing three things at once! Get back to work, you're on call duty!"
Alfred brushes himself off and groans once again at the reminder of Madeline, "Ohhhh...I promised her I would make her coffee. Give me like five minutes and I'll get right back, okay?"
Yet again, Arthur sighs and he's obviously very annoyed with him. "All right, but this is the last time. Next time I find you sleeping on the job you're out of here." The intern says nothing but nods in return, understanding the magnitude of how much trouble he almost got in.
The clock reads two thirty in the morning when they finally get a call, and Arthur is relieved to hear from them but is nervous to the reason why they're calling so late. He'd usually receive a call almost every hour to explain how they're doing or what they've found in the past hour. The last call he received was three hours ago.
Alfred answers the phone, "Magic Trio: Crime Investigation and Supernatural Hunting Services, I'm Alfred F. Jones, how may I help you?"
Arthur recognizes the voice immediately, Børre. Alfred nods after a short pause and looks over to Arthur. He doesn't even need to say who it is since Alfred is already holding out the phone for Arthur.
Arthur snatches the phone and places it against his ear, "Børre? Is everything all right?"
On the other line, he sounds distressed due to the sound of his breathing. This makes Arthur overly anxious, something had gone wrong. In their entire history of working, nothing had ever gone wrong. He hopes only equipment had gotten lost or damaged.
"I can't find Neculai anywhere…"
His stomach drops. He almost drops the phone. Neculai is out there, in the dark, lost in pitch black darkness. The man's fear became real. Arthur does not know how to react.
"Did...did something happen?"
"I don't know...he just disappeared out of thin air..."
"…How long has he been gone?"
He hears Børre heavily swallow, "…over an hour. I've been looking and looking. I only found his lantern…I don't know what happened. He just disappeared."
Arthur begins to think of the worst. Neculai could have been attacked, but that was the last thing both of them wanted. No one wanted that to happen to anyone. But if anyone in this town found out Neculai had gone missing, the town will suffer with only two detectives and hunters.
"Børre, I'm sorry to say this but retreat for the night. Bring the lantern back. We will search in the morning."
"Are you serious? I'm staying out here until dawn, even if I only find his materials."
He can't fight back; Børre is very passionate about his job and companions. He is concerned about him; if the same thing happens to him then Arthur wouldn't know what to do. He can't replace Neculai and Børre or even imagine himself without them.
Now he thinks he's jumping to conclusions and he feels himself getting lightheaded at just the thought of losing the two in one night.
"Arthur, I promise I will come back. I will keep searching for now."
He's reluctant to even give Børre the approval to keep searching in the pitch black woods where anything can attack anyone.
"…Be careful." The call ends and the phone slips out of his hands almost immediately. He feels the worried eyes from Alfred and Madeline behind him but Arthur can't face them right now. He doesn't even know what to feel.
A/N: I'm thinking this may be short? I already planned this out but it's just a matter of dividing the chapters. Thank you for reading!