Chapter One

The night seemed to never end. The house had no bed, and barely had a table and a chair. There was a fireplace in the back of the one-roomed house, but it looked so filthy and full of cobwebs that even if Birdie knew how to light a fire, they were too afraid of it being a safety hazard.

The house was falling apart. Stars peeked through the ceiling where it was missing boards, and they had more than once nearly tripped over said boards. Every time the wind blew, it made a sharp whistle when it blew through the cracks in the walls. The door was barely hanging on to its hinges from when they almost broke it to get in. Birdie was almost certain that whatever animals were outside if they were determined and smart enough, they could easily get in.

It was impossible to fall asleep in this house, it was much to unfamiliar, much too stressful, much too dangerous to even consider falling asleep in. All Birdie could really do was sit in the creaky, wobbly chair and wait for the sun to rise.

It felt as if time had stopped in that cabin, completely undisturbed as everything continued as it had before Birdie moved in. Slowly, almost unnoticeably, the room began to lighten, going from pitch black, to a slightly lighter black, to light enough that Birdie could start making things out in the house. There was a counter that went from the front wall to the back wall, where it turned into an 'L' shape until it touched the fireplace that was in the middle of the wall.

There was a large window next to the door, with a few broken panes, and two more on either side of the fireplace. The floor was covered in a thick layer of dust, only interrupted by Birdie's footprints leading in from the door.

Birdie slowly blinked, their mind fogged over from how sleep deprived they were. That had been the longest night they ever had, and now they were certain that they're about to have the longest day they will ever have. The house needed some major work before it was livable, and this was the only place they had that they could stay in.

Birdie ignored the pressure behind their eyes and got up. Hopefully, there would be a shop open this early in the town, and they could hopefully, maybe, get food.

They gripped the back of the chair tightly as they stood, the room spun around them. They closed their eyes for a moment, letting the dizziness pass before leaving the house.

Birdie opened their eyes and sighed deeply. Their limbs didn't want to cooperate, they wanted nothing more than to find a spot to curl up in and fall asleep, but they had things they needed to get done, and first on the list was getting food.

They opened the door and hopped back as the door fell to the ground with a loud bang, sending dust flying everything. They clutched at their sweater, right above their heart, and tried their best to calm their breathing down. Panicking right now wasn't going to help them any.

"Shit," they swore and added 'fixing the door' to their mental list of things to do. For now, though, they were going to have to leave it be and go into town before the day really started. If they were lucky, they would only have to talk to the cashier at the local grocery store, if it was open.

The porch was creaky, the floorboards wobbly and broken in spots. Birdie shuddered and grimaced in fear as they watched something crawl along in the shadows under there. They couldn't tell what it was and they certainly didn't want to find out.

The immediate front yard was a wreck, a stone fence was in ruins, and the grass looked to be taller than them. Hidden between the tall stalks of grass were large rocks, larger than what they could currently pick up without hurting themself. The yard was yet another thing that they needed to work on.

The pressure behind their eyes started to burn. They were fine. They had to be fine. They couldn't afford to not be fine right now.

Breathing in, Birdie shoved their hands into their pockets and stepped off the creaky porch. Their shoulders were up to their ears as they tried to fight off the cold wind, carefully pretending that the rustling they were hearing was coming from the trees.

Despite everything, it was starting to look like a beautiful fall day. The sun was barely peeking over the mountaintops, casting orange rays onto the grey clouds. It was nowhere near high enough to start warming up yet, but Birdie could at least appreciate its beauty.

The sudden switch from walking on dirt to stepping on stone startled Birdie into looking where they were walking. The town square was empty, not a soul to be seen. Looking around, Birdie could already tell that the local grocery store was probably the only store in the town.

As they came closer, they could see that the building neighboring it was a clinic of some kind, the sign on the door was flipped over to [Open!], with its days and hours right under it. It looked as if it was open every day, all day.

Sighing, Birdie tensed, pushing open the door to the grocery store, a little jingle letting whoever was working know that they had entered. Anxiety curled up right next to dread, making itself right at home. Their throat was beginning to hurt from how tight they held themself. Furrowing their brows, they didn't see anyone at the register, but they did hear a sugar-sweet voice call out that they would be with them in a minute. His voice was muffled like he wasn't in the main part of the store.

Instincts screamed that something was off, wrong, definitely not right.

Birdie chose to ignore their instincts, they couldn't afford to listen to them right now.

Picking up a small basket, Birdie began to go up and down the aisles, carefully picking out a few different bagged beans, like lentils and pinto beans, and several cans of hardy soup, and a couple of reusable containers, and a single pot they could cook the stuff in. It was going to use up the rest of their money.

"Isn't It Early- Oh." Birdies eyes widened as a tall, lanky looking skeleton turned the corner and stood at the end of the aisle, "You're Not Black."

He had to be at least seven feet tall, and he wore a pale pink apron that had "Sugar" stitched onto it in cursive. The store lights cast a glint onto his braces. It was hard to look away from his face.

"uh," Birdies mouth went dry, their chest ached and suddenly the sense of "everything-is-wrong-you're-in-danger" went out like a flickering lightbulb that gave its best effort and all they could feel was an overwhelming feeling of DREAD, "uuhh,"

His eyelights flickered down to their chest, swiftly followed by a brief, twisting pain.

"Miss," in the back of Birdie's mind, they couldn't help but point out how pretty he looked, "Miss you need to breathe, I heard that's very important for humans."

"i-i-i-" the hands around their throat squeezed tighter, "i can't."

In the next second, he had said something, and then he had disappeared.

They sunk onto the floor, cotton clogged their ears and their head was getting really warm, uncomfortably warm. Their eyes started to flutter close, it was getting really hard to keep them open.

Birdie couldn't tell how long they had been like this, or when the peachy colored eyelights had come back, or even when the mint colored eyelights joined them, but it felt as if eons had passed.

Birdies eyes shut one last time, their mind too worn to stay awake any longer.