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The witching hour is bad news for everyone. For people, it’s far too late to think coherently, and if you’re awake that late you probably haven’t slept in a long while. For Hansel, it meant he had to think about whether or not he was going to go back to his sire’s place, like he was supposed to, or find somewhere else to crash when the sun came up, like he usually did. Typically he would chalk this up to being too busy to notice the time until it was a little too late to hurry home, after all it fit with all the other blundering mistakes his sire seemed to think he made all the time. It’s good to play incompetent. At least it was good to play like he was playing incompetent when he was still seemingly totally lost with this whole kindred thing.
Staring at the time on his phone certainly wasn’t helping him, the time now reading one minute later than when he started. Maybe, he thought, three am was too early to start worrying. He shaked away that thought. Three was basically four, which was basically sunrise. He had to find someone that wouldn’t hate him immediately, or somewhere where he knew the sun wouldn’t touch tomorrow. He could, of course, just sneak into Claire’s haven again, but her sire knew his sire and his sire knew that he hung out with Claire sometimes. Besides, he did that yesterday. It was too predictable. He was too predictable.
Hansel continued to wander up and down various streets, taking turns and crossing streets based more on what walk signs were lit than any sort of thought out path. There were a seemingly unending number of stores and businesses closed for the night, locked doors, dark rooms. He could probably get into any of them if he really wanted to, but why would he? Most of them were just boxes made of glass, plus there would be people in them come the morning. So many people. There were barely any people out this late. Maybe that was a good thing for now, Hansel tended to get weird about people now, or maybe it was something else? Being around a lot of humans was just a bad idea, usually. Unless they’re your humans. His sire had told him that, without really explaining what ‘your humans’ actually meant. Maybe it was just people who liked you? That seemed too straightforward.
Hansel’s phone buzzed in his pocket. He checked it. It was a text from someone he had stopped speaking to before this whole thing he had to deal with now.
u up?
Incredibly rude, but maybe he could get something out of this.
No, why?
That seemed like the right response, same amount of rudeness, maybe a little funny. He held his phone while he kept walking.
im lonely
Well. Maybe he wouldn’t get something out of this. This person didn’t even know him anymore. Their contact was literally just ‘weird guy’. He didn’t want to talk to this weird guy who he half dated for maybe two months. Hansel wasn’t even sure it counted as half dating so much as just friends with benefits, except without the friends part, but they weren’t in love either, literally just benefits. What do you even call that when money never changes hands?
Focus. Hansel needed to focus. Get some shelter, maybe if he got there fast enough he would continue writing out his plans for a haven of his own, which would make it so he never had to do this stupid scramble ever again. He needed money for those plans, though. Focus. He needed to focus. Look around, pick up the pace. He could see construction, that wouldn’t be helpful, a parking garage! Except someone would definitely find him down there, people need to park all the time. The sixteenth street mall would help him cover a lot of ground fast, even if all the mall itself had was places that would open in the morning it still had basically no risk of getting hit by a car and then having to explain how he was completely uninjured by the car. He could take a quick look down all the streets crossing it and then. Something. Surely something.
The first few streets were duds, nothing within his sight would be a safe place to pass out for the day. All places that would open up for the day, but eventually he saw something very promising. Someone, in the barely visible distance, getting kicked out of somewhere. He scuttled closer, hoping no one would notice him getting close enough to listen.
“You need to go home, you’ve been here all night, we were supposed to close more than two hours ago”
“But Maria said I-”
“I don’t care what she said, buddy, we’re closed, and you’re hammered. Go home.”
Sounded like something that wouldn’t open until tomorrow night, maybe later, perfect, now all he needed to do was sneak in without the big guy seeing him. No big deal, it seemed like the lights were off for the night, and the streetlights seemed to stretch said big guy’s shadow by quite a bit. As long as he was fast, Hansel could absolutely get in without being noticed.
Hansel nonchalantly walked past this scene, checking to make sure he wasn’t missing a better way in. He wasn’t. He never did. It was go time. His biggest problem would be the sound of the door opening, assuming the big guy hadn’t locked it behind him. A real possibility. A possibility that he had to assume wasn’t true. He waited a few seconds. The gentle convincing turned to a yelling match, the drunken one lunged forwards, now. The ruckus from the bouncer trying to prevent an altercation would definitely be enough.
Hansel had perfect timing, he knew he did. He could move fast then either of them could notice. He knew he did. The door opened almost silently compared to the now inconsolable drunk person trying to get back in. Hansel got through the smallest amount of space he could slip through quickly. Perfection, as expected.
The door closed behind him with a loud THUD. That was not good. Not good at all. Without thinking he slid behind a bar, the first cover he could see, and waited. Nothing seemed to happen. He kept holding still. This went on for longer than he would’ve liked. The big guy finally opened the door. Hansel tightened his chest as if he had any breath to hold. Still, nothing. He heard a conversation between that man and, a woman? Maybe she was the Maria that other guy was talking about. Hansel couldn’t make out the words, which he hated. They aren’t even that far away, he thought, I should be able to understand them perfectly. The conversation was soon replaced with the clicking of heeled shoes. They grew closer. Hansel closed his eyes.
“How did you even get down there?”
Hansel slowly opened his eyes, crouched down in front of him was a gorgeous woman, dressed in an ensemble of entirely blue, all perfectly matching, “Hello? Are you alright?”
“Yes I’m-” he stammered as he sat up, hitting his head on the underside of the bar, “fine.”
The woman leaned in closer, almost uncomfortably so, lowering her voice to barely a whisper, “It’s okay, we’re both kindred, you don’t have to be sneaky with me”
“Please get away from my face.”
The woman backed up a bit, not enough for Hansel to be able to ignore her. He looked at her hair, a deep brown softly fading into blonde, like she hadn’t gotten her bleach redone in a while, despite it still looking perfect. That's something he might be able to use. Maybe. He was really grasping at straws for something.
“I haven’t seen you around here before, though. Surely you would’ve tried to introduce yourself in a more, let’s say, dignified manner?”
“Listen I know- I mean I can- I mean no. I. Listen to me. You should be scared”
“I don’t think I need to be scared.”
“Oh yeah well. Why not? Huh? I could uh. Actually I wouldn’t. This was a bad opener.”
“It was, but I appreciate you trying.”
That made Hansel’s blood boil. It was one thing to fail, it was another to be told you were trying when you did. How did she know he wasn’t being a bumbling idiot to get into her good graces- that was it!
“Oh, you think I’m trying?”
“Yes?”
“And how do you know that?”
Silence fell over the conversation for a few moments.
“You’re Maria, right?”
“I… Yes. I suppose you’ve heard of me then?”
“Of course I have,” he hadn’t, “I’m surprised that the rumors I heard were true.”
“What rumors?!”
“Oh I think you know,” he didn’t, but she seemed to, her expression somehow blanched despite already being quite pallid already, “Anyways I am going to crash here for the night because my sire is on another one of his ‘things’ and I dont want to deal with it, see ya!” He scampered out from under the bar, barely not crashing into Maria, and he dashed through an employee-only door.
Hiding himself from there was easy, the windows in the room were quite limited, and if he dragged himself just so onto the industrial shelves and dragged these things over there, he would be completely safe. From the sun at least. He checked his phone, four fifteen, damn he was good. The space was tight, but he could just barely get out his notepad and start making plans until the sun came up.