Zinnia [DreamNotFound]

RETRIEVAL

After dinner, Sykkuno and Corpse bid their good nights and left. George stepped in to help do the dishes, allowing his mother to rest up for the night since she had a full day ahead of her. With only the two of them living under one roof, they always looked out for each other.

George ended up cleaning the entire kitchen as well as the living room to save his mother some time for the next day. When he was finally satisfied with his work, he drank a glass of water then closed all the lights before heading back upstairs to his room.

His feet sauntering up the stairs, pausing now and then to admire the little pictures on the wall that is parallel to the stairwell. Each picture had sentimental meaning, as they mostly depicted him and his mother, with one of the photos being him as an infant, George's favorite being the ones with his mother.

When he finally made it up the stairs, he took a quick detour to his mother's room to check up on her. Considering that the crime rate in town was very low, they didn't bother to lock their doors. George cautiously turned the door knob of his mother's room and slid his head in between the gap. It was unlit but his eyes were able to acclimatize to the lack of light. A small wave of relief washed over his system as he saw his mother snuggled in peacefully.

He adored and cared for his mother above all else. She had always been there for him, and George would rather lose himself than her. It wasn't his obligation, but he pledged to himself that he'd make his mother proud.

Little did he know, he's already done so much and to his mother, the term proud was an understatement.

Now George sat on the edge of his bed, his eyes scouring his room before fluffing his pillow for a good night's rest. Casual hoots from owls outside filled the serene ambiance in his room as he positioned himself in bed. With the only light source illuminating his room being the lamp on his bedside desk, he was just about to switch it off when a rustle from outside stole his attention.

He glanced at the window, his senses spiking up for some apparent reason. George approached the window, pulling the frame open and allowing the flavor of the inky hours to pervade his room's atmosphere.

He looked about, unsure of what exactly was he casting around. After hearing another ruffle from a tree, his head swiveled into that direction. A light sigh decamped from his lips upon the emergence of a squirrel. The creature skiddled across the branch it stood on, pausing on their tiny feet to rub their face. George smiled as it made eye contact with him, their coal eyes reflecting the radiance of the night's fluorescence. "Goodnight, little one." he greeted before the creature retreated into the thick leaves of the tree.

There were aspects of the night that George was fond of. For instance, the serenity of the twilight somehow granted him a feeling with no fret, as do the white specks strewn across the inky horizon like paint splattered on a canvas, nocturnal organisms ruling ecosystems and fulfilling their roles in the circle of life, and the way the moon casts and illuminates an alluring shade over the lands. Not as vivid as the sun, but abundant to highlight and bring out the ambiance of the night.

And so he kept the frame of the window open, welcoming the refreshing air in. He turned around, halting in his posture upon landing contact on a silhouette leaning against his bedroom door, their hands tucked in their pockets and their right foot crossed over the left- similar to an assassin you would find in an alleyway.

He squinted his eyes, striving to perceive the figure in the dim light. George took a step forward, the moonlight reflecting on the figure's teeth as they smiled. Little fangs protruded, but he was nowhere near scared for that smile had an uncanny resemblance to something George has seen before.

The smile soon blended in the light as they moved from their position and emerged from the shadows. George felt his heart pound, but not because of fear. Perhaps perturbation, or maybe a bit of delirium after concluding the mysterious entity's identity. "What are you doing here?" George spoke up as he approached the figure. He paused, seeing as they vanished from their place in the blink of an eye. He stood, disoriented, scrubbing his eyes whilst questioning his sanity. He backed up, presuming that he must have been hallucinating and needed to get some sleep. That possibility had immediately been proven false when his back bumped into something- or someone.