The Night Mare - Lost In Darkness

Chapter 2: The Preparations

When the first rays of sunlight reached the small window of his apartment, Keola looked down.

He noticed the pizza stains on his shirt and the piles of sweat under his armpits. He felt fresh sweat dripping down his back.

He never understood why, but after a night with no sleep, he always bursted out sweating.

Normally he'd shrug it off - Who would notice anyway? Always locked up in the same few square meters - but today was different; today he cared.

He took off his shirt and threw it on the pile. He then looked at his sweatpants, shrugged at the coffee stains, mehed and kicked them out too.

He waddled around his small apartment, turning every pile inside out and came to the conclusion that he had nothing to wear.

Don't get me wrong: there were plenty of old clothes scattered around, but each and everyone of them were either stained, smelly or both.

Staring down at his tummy and bare legs, Keola contemplated what he'd do.

Washing one set of clothes would take some effort, but certain clothes would take much more effort than others.

He didn't like putting effort into things, but he had no idea which stains would come off easier than the others and he had no idea how many washes it'd take to get rid off the funky smell.

Keola looked at the piles of clothes, picked them all up and dumped them in the shower.

He could use a wash himself, so he thought that if he'd just soak them while cleaning up himself, he could rub the wet clothes together and see what stains would come off.

He gave his idea an approving nod, patted himself on the shoulder and squeezed himself in the shower.

☆*:😱:*☆

Lots of scrubbing later, Keola had a huge pile of clothes with a few remaining stains on, one with stainless clothes that had become too small for him to wear and one with mismatched clothes that still fit him.

He grumbled and scrubbed some more.

Having put in way more effort than he wanted, he eventually found a stainless not funky smelling shirt going with one of the stainless not funky smelling pants he had scrubbed clean earlier.

Satisfied with this victory, it hit him that he still needed to dry all those clothes or mold would claim them after all that hard work.

Keola sighed. He summoned some more effort and hung his clothes to dry.

The pile of mismatched clothes already crowded his drying rack and he still had two piles to go.

Keola stared at the pile of freshly washed clothes that had become too small for him to wear.

He shrugged, mehed and opened his small window.

He picked up the pile, walked to the window and threw them out.

☆*:😱:*☆

The clothes hit the street with a thud.

An old man wearing a hat nearly escaped being crushed by them.

He tilted his head and pricked his ears. The dirty ends of the piece of cloth wrapped around his eyes danced in the summer's breeze.

He heard Keola clap his hands. "One effort less." Keola patted himself on the shoulder. "Just a few more to go and I'm ready for the night mare."

The old man outside adjusted his hat. An eerie smile crossed his lips. "Indeed one effort less," he lisped.

☆*:😱:*☆

Keola's apartment became a jungle of drying clothes.

As the last clothes were hung drying, Keola looked around.

Empty packages were scattered around the floor. Stray chips were decaying and the months old pizza no longer looked like pizza... It was a mess, to say the least.

Keola sighed and summoned some more effort to start cleaning.

With his apartment deep cleaned and his dried clothes neatly folded and stacked, with a batch of fresh cookies and a message written on paper near his head, Keola let himself fall on his futon.

So much effort, he thought. So. Much. Effort... Please let it be worth it. Please let the night mare visit me tonight.