POV: Nichole Wright Location: London, England
Nichole awoke to the sweet aroma of baking pancakes and fresh maple syrup. She could hear the loud noise of someone toiling away in the kitchen. Nichole opened her dark green eyes to see a bright sunlit living room.
Nichole was laying on a worn out faded pink sofa with a long black trench coat wrapped around her like a blanket. The living room was small and it a fuzzy beige carpet. Sunlight streamed through two large glass doors that lead to a balcony. Across from the faded coral sofa was a matching faded pink chair, and both the sofa and chair were arranged to face the old television in the corner. In the center of the living room was a scratched up coffee table. Nichole panicked as she recognized her surroundings and realized that trench coat wrapped around her body was foreign to her.
Nichole's attention immediately shifted to the noise coming from the kitchen. With her heart pounding, she slowly sat up, careful to avoid making noise, and Nichole's darted to the nearby to the nearby doorway that lead to the kitchen. As she removed the black trench coat, Nichole realized that she was missing her leather jacket, and a blood-stained white bandage covered her right forearm. Nichole touched her hand to her and found that a tight white bandage was wrapped around her head, with extra gauzes stuffed in her ears.
"What happened last night and how did I get back to my flat? The last thing I remember was…" thought Nichole, recalling the event at the Twilight Club.
"Maggie," she whispered sadly.
Suddenly there were footsteps coming down the hallway. Nichole to see the young man, in the trench coat, from the previous night. He walked down the hallway with two plates of pancakes. He smiled as he noticed that Nichole was awake. He was dressed in the same outfit from the club, minus his black trench coat.
"Good you awake. I was starting to worry," said the young man, setting the pancakes down the coffee table. Then he sat down in the faded pink chair across from the floral sofa. Nichole's stomach growled as she gazed at the plate of pancakes sitting on the table in front of her.
"Would you like some pancakes?" asked the young man gesturing toward the table. Hesitantly Nichole picked up the plate and a fork. She curiously examined the three pancakes by eyeing them and stabbing them with her fork. After much deliberation Nichole finally took a bite of a pancake and to her surprise, they were quite delicious.
"Enjoying the pancakes?" asked the young man accompanied by a small grin.
"Yes, they're good," said Nichole after she swallowed mouthful of pancakes.
"Nice of you to finally grace me with the sound of you voice," said the young man with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
"Shut up," snapped Nichole playfully, as she swallowed more pancake.
"Feeling better?" asked the young man with a slightly humorous tone.
"A bit better," responded Nichole, quietly continuing to eat her pancakes.
"Now that you've eaten…..I assume you want to know who I am," said the young man with his previously humorous and witty dominator had disappeared, and was replaced by a serious and humorless tone. Intrigued Nichole put down the half-eaten plate of pancakes.
"By your response, I take it you want to know," said the young man.
"Go on," encouraged Nichole.
"My name is Daniel Kelly, but most call me Fox," answered the young man truthfully. Nichole was uncertain of the truth in Daniel's words, so she remained cautious.
"What happened last night and how do you get into my flat?" asked Nichole her voice unwavering.
"Well if your so anxious to know…..I was looking for my friend Thomas, when I found everyone inside dead, every last person. I spent for what seemed like hours searching for survivors, but all I found were piles upon piles of corpses. That was until I saw you. I caught you right as you collapsed and then you pasted out in my arms. Fearing for your life and my own, I carried you off before the police arrived. I needed to get you somewhere safe," he paused before continued. "So when I removed your bloody jacket, and I found your ID and the keys to your flat. I decided that this would be the safest place to bring you, after your ordeal," explained Daniel.
"You broken into my flat?" asked Nichole slightly enraged.
"I used your keys. So technically it's not breaking and entering," replied Daniel trying to reassure her.
"Why didn't you just take me to the hospital?" argued Nichole.
"The police would have just kept you imprisoned for being a murder suspect," said Daniel.
"Any ideas for the cause of the… episode at the Twilight Club?" said Nichole. Before Daniel could reply there as a loud repetitive knocking at the door.
"Dam! It's my mum!" cried Nichole, shooting up onto her feet. "Look you need to leave now!"
"Well maybe she would like some pancakes," said Daniel as he stood up.
"Ugh…. no! Now you need to leave," stressed Nichole as she grabbed Daniel's hand and dragged him toward the balcony door. Nichole quietly opened the balcony door, with her mother still pounding on the front door. Then she pulled Daniel out onto the balcony, and let go of Daniel's hand.
"Why are we standing on your balcony?" asked Daniel, who seemed a bit confused.
"There is a drainage pipe on the wall over there," Nichole pointed at a metal pipe on the brick wall. "We're only three-stories up and you look like a strong guy, so you should be able to climb down," said Nichole.
"You expect me to climb down three-stories on a drain pipe," said Daniel concerned with his own safety.
"Yes… well get climbing. See ya," replied Nichole walking back to the door and opening it.
"Hey, I'm gonna need my coat back," said Daniel before Nichole disappeared back into the living room of her flat. Nichole turned around to face him.
"You know what? I think I'll keep it….. for now," answered Nichole.
"Then I will see you again?" he asked with a small smile. There was another series of loud knocks at the door, along with a undisguisable yelling.
"Perhaps," said Nichole turning away for only a brief second, but when she looked back Daniel was gone.
Nichole walked back inside and she closed the balcony door behind her, locking it. Nichole rushed through the living room and down the hallway past a few closed doors. Once she reached the front door Nichole opened the door to see her red-face mother standing there.
"What took you so long?" demanded her mother angrily. Nichole's mother was an attractive middle-aged woman, with dirty blonde hair that went down to her shoulders. She had a pair of light blue eyes that men found irresistible for some reason. Her mother wore a significant amount of makeup, which her daughter found repulsive. She was wearing a tight pink dress shirt that her boyfriend found appealing, a pair of black dress pants, and a pair of pink high heels.
"Ewww! What happened to you last night?" asked Nichole's mother disgusted as she glanced at her bloody bandages, and walking through the door. Nichole shut the door and then followed her mother down the hallway, while trying to come an explanation in place of the truth.
"I…. fell down some stairs and hit my head. One of my guy friends walked me home and patched me up. He came by earlier to check on me, also he made pancakes," answered Nichole being careful not arouse an suspicion, as she followed her mother into the kitchen.
"Who made pancakes?" said Mrs. Wright as she spotted the stack of pancakes sitting on the kitchen counter.
"My friend Daniel…. you can go ahead and eat some. I've already had breakfast," Mrs. Wright stared intensely at the plate of pancakes. "I going to go take a shower," said Nichole wanting to escape the awkward situation.
"Good idea, Charles is coming over later," said Mrs. Wright. Then Nichole left the kitchen, but before she walked down the hallway toward her bedroom, Nichole went back into the living room. Nichole grabbed Daniel's black trench coat off the sofa, so her mother would not see it. Then she briskly walked down the hall toward her room, and she was careful to hide Daniel's trench coat. Nichole stopped in front of a closed wooden door located near the front door. She turned the door knob and entered her bedroom.
Nichole's bedroom was small, but the large window made the room feel larger. The walls were painted a dark red color, similar to bricks, and the floor was covered in a tan carpet. Her queen-sized bed took up most of the floor space in Nichole's tiny bedroom. Beside the bed was a nightstand with a small bedside lamp, an alarm clock, and an iPhone charger sitting on it. Against the wall opposite the bedroom door was a lager dark chestnut wardrobe. On one wall as a door that lead to Nichole's bathroom.
Nichole locked the door behind her and tossed Daniel's trench coat onto her bed, before walking over to her wardrobe. She flung open the wardrobe to see clothes neatly hung up on clothes hangers, and blocking Nichole's view of her clothes was her black leather jacket from the previous night. Stuck to the jacket was a yellow stick note that read in tiny print:
"I put your belongings back in your pocket, and I also added my number to your phone for future reference.
Sincerely, Fox"
Nichole tucked the note into her jacket pocket and moved her jacket aside. Nichole grabbed a clean black tank top, dark blue jeans, and clean undergarments. She shut her wardrobe and walked into her bathroom. Nichole closed the bathroom door and locked it. Nichole's bathroom was tiny. There was a sink, a toilet, and a dark red shower curtain. The counter around the sink was cluttered with several different hygiene products.
Nichole placed her clean clothes on the bathroom counter. Slowly she began to unwrap the bloody bandages that covered her head and ears. As she removed the bloody bandages and saw the bloody gruesome remains of her ears, Nichole was horrified by what she saw. The tips of both of Nichole's ears were ripped clean off, and the surrounding tissue was almost black closest to the wound. Through the thick coating of blood Nichole could see that the rest of her ear had turned a light shade of purple and blue. Urgently Nichole turned on the sink and grabbed a wash cloth. After wetting the wash cloth, Nichole carefully tried to wipe away the dried blood from her wounds.
Once the massive amounts of died blood, were removed Nichole began to examine her right ear for sighs of trauma. There were no visible cuts aside from the cuts around the tips of her ear lobes. Nichole's ears were covered almost entirely in purple bruises that stung every time Nichole touched them, and her earlobes were slightly swollen.
Curiously Nichole started to unravel the bandage that covered her right forearm. Underneath the bandage was an unpleasant sight, along Nichole's forearm was a small one inch incision and the skin surrounding the cut was turning pitch black and gaining a scaly completion.
"Bloody hell?" asked Nichole. She desperately tried to clean her wound, and as the water touched her skin Nichole's right arm erupted in pain. Nichole immediately unleashed a painful screech; she jumped back and dropped the bloody wet wash cloth onto the floor. Nichole looked down at there arm, once the pain had subsided and to her surprise the incision had disappeared. The skin around the incision had returned to its original soft pale complexion, and all traces of the black scaly hide jade vanished just like the incision.
"What in the hell is happening to me?" thought Nichole in awe. Nichole ultimately decide to ignore the phenomena that she had just witnessed.
Nichole began to remove her clothes and tossed them onto the bathroom floor. After she tossed her clothes into a pile in the corner, Nichole walked over toward the shower. Pulling back the red shower curtain, Nichole turned on the water. Once the water coming out of the shower head was warm, Nichole stepped into the shower. Nichole started by washing her thick brown hair in an attempt to fill the remains of blood left over from the previous night. As the water touched her ears, sharp pain engulfed Nichole's ears and she hat to grit her teeth to prevent herself from scream. When the pain subside Nichole hesitantly continued with her shower.
Forty-five minutes later Nichole turned off the water, and she grabbed a towel from the rack on the wall. She wrapped the towel around her bare body and then she stepped out of the shower. Nichole dried herself off before she put on her clean clothes. Out of the corner of her eye, Nichole glanced at her own reflection in the mirror and she noticed that her formerly bloody bruised ears were once again pale and flawless. However, the tips of Nichole's ears had grown back to a pronounced point, similar to an elf.
"Great even more insanity," complained Nichole examining her new pointed elvish ears. Nichole grabbed her hair brush off the counter and she started to brush her thick brown hair. While she brushed her hair, Nichole was careful not to touch her ears.
After Nichole finished drying and brushing her hair, she unlocked the bathroom door and walked back into her bedroom. Nichole rushed over to her wardrobe. Then Nichole opened the wardrobe and she rummaged through the pockets of her leather jacket, until she found her iPhone 5. Nichole jumped onto her bed and leaned back onto her pillow. Nichole looked at her phone to witness the appearance of a new text on the screen.
"How are you holding up?" read Nichole. The text was from Daniel.
"Not very well….." typed Nichole into her phone.
"What is it?" responded Daniel nearly three seconds later.
"Hard to explain….." replied Nichole.
"If you want meet me at the café on the corner of 5th Street and Bakers Street," responded Daniel.
"What time?" asked Nichole.
"20 minutes?" replied Daniel.
"Sure, meet you there," responded Nichole. A couple seconds later Daniel replied with a simple smiley face, and a smile crossed Nichole's lips. She jumped up and walked briskly over to the wardrobe. After opening the wardrobe, she pulled out a dark red button-down shirt over her tank top followed by her jacket. Nichole slid her iPhone into the inside breast pocket of her jacket, along with her wallet. Before shutting the wardrobe, she grabbed a dark gray beanie and pulled it on over her head. She was carefully to cover the tips of her pointed ears. Once Nichole was certain that the points of her ears were covered, she slammed the wardrobe door shut, quickly pulled on a pair of black converse, and then she opened her bedroom door. Nichole stepped out into the narrow hallway.
"Mum! I'm headed to the petrol station on the corner. Do you want anything?" asked Nichole, loudly yelling to her mother.
"Get me a bag of crisps," answered Mrs. Wright.
"Alright, bye," shouted Nichole.
"Be back in time for lunch," yelled Mrs. Wright.
"Whatever," replied Nichole, as she opened the front door and walked outside. Nichole turned to the right and walked past the doors to the other flats on her way to the stairs. After walking down six flights of stairs of stairs Nichole emerged on the street.
Nichole turned to the left and she started the long walk to Bakers Street. Nichole walked past several parked cars, while others pasted her on the street. As she walked down the street, a chilly wind tore at her jacket. Nichole completely zipped up her jacket and pulled the gray beanie down farther over her pointy ears.
"When is it ever warm?" complained Nichole crossing her arms in an attempt to stay warm. Fifteen minutes later Nichole arrived at the corner of 5th Street and Bakers Street. On the street corner was a café that sold coffee, pastries, and was a favorite hangout for the teens in the area. Through the window Nichole spotted Daniel sitting alone at a table, with a mug in hand. Nichole walked over to the door of the café.
