[Open - Area Around Irish Coffee After Midnight]

[everywere]

I check all the locks and alarms again, even though I did that all on my last sweep. Routine is both an enemy and an ally. As long as I don't use the routine to become lazy and remain alert, it's my ally. Not that this place is a likely target but lack of vigilance is an enemy.

I can hear the training drilled into my head, even if I don't remember where and when it came from. Like everything else I know it's just there. No memory of how or why, just there.

I hear a sound, faint, but definitely there. No human could hear it, but then I'm not human. I don't know what I am, exactly, but I'm not human.

I sweep the flashlight back and forth, although I keep it on more to blind others than help me see. I can see perfectly in the dark, just like I can hear things a human shouldn't. I take a deep breath and I can smell that whatever it is, it's a human. Or at least smells similar to a human.

"Who's there?" I call out.

Comments

[irishcoffee]

Maggie muttered to herself all the way back to the shop.

All right, it was a three block walk, but still. It was one in the morning and a time she'd sure as hell rather be buried in her comforter and not walking down the deserted Folly streets to pull the fruit from the freezer to the fridge so she wasn't making her tarts with popsicles in a few hours. Still muttering I start digging through the messenger bag around my shoulders for the keys.

"Why do they always go to the bottom?"

Her head snapped up when she heard the voice. "It's just me. Looking for my keys as usual."