Neighbors. A Sabriel Fic.

Chapter 6

Sam would wake up at 4 o’clock every morning. Not because he had to, but because he wanted to. And every morning at 4:15 he would be outside running. It didn’t matter if it was snowing or raining, he adjusted accordingly, adding gloves or a hat. He would run down to the park, which was a mile and a half away, jog for another mile around the path and come home. Usually it would take him half an hour to finish, sometimes longer depending on the day. His brother, Dean, never understood why Sam would run 5 miles every morning, or why he would even want to get up at 4, but had done it every day since he was fifteen.

 To be honest, Sam didn’t really know why he would get up that early either. He figured it was probably because it was something that he chose to be constant in his life, or he liked being alone so he could think because god knows he wasn’t able to do that at work. Maybe it was both. But either way, he ran without so much as a thought as to why he shouldn’t run.

It just so happened that this morning he couldn’t sleep. Something woke Sam up, nothing he could put his finger on, but he wasn’t tired anymore. He checked his alarm clock and cringed. It was three in the morning, three twenty-four to be exact, but who’s counting? Sam hadn’t willingly been up at three since he had to take an early flight to Stanford for college, and even then he was barely lucid at the time. Since there was no way he was going to fall back asleep before his alarm went off he decided he might as well go for his run thirty minutes early.

He changed into something more suitable for running, it probably wasn’t acceptable to be outside running in just a pair of boxers, and he really didn’t want to pay a fine for some law saying he needed pants. He laughed at the thought of having to call Jess to have her pick him up from the police station in his underwear. Just her face alone would be priceless. But he wouldn’t do that. He didn’t need a record down at the station.

He grabbed his keys and cell phone and left the apartment complex. He thought it was quiet at 4:30, but that was nothing compared to 3:45. It was silent, the only sound was his feet slapping against the pavement and the breaths escaping his lungs. The whole city was asleep and Sam was enjoying every moment of it. It had been quite a long time since he ran with a smile plastered onto his face, usually it was too early to do much more than scowl as he ran, but this time it was peaceful and serene. It was something he could get used to, but he knew he wouldn’t. He would never be able to will himself out of bed before four ever again.

Today, he decided to take a different route home from the park. Instead of taking the left path, he took the right one. Sam hadn’t taken this path ever. He had lived in the area five years and not once had he taken the right path. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to take it, he just never had the time to go explore that direction. He came to a dead end, and the only ways out were to go back the way he came, or to go through the alley to his left. Since he was feeling adventurous he decided to go through the alley.

 Sam wrinkled his nose in disgust when the smell of garbage hit his face. Dumpsters overflowing in a dark alley, how cliché.  Something didn’t seem right to Sam, not like there was a dead person’s leg sticking out of the dumpster or anything, it was more why was there a dumpster behind the building when there was barely enough room to pass a car through there let alone a huge garbage truck? He figured that was probably why it was overflowing.

He squeezed himself though the small gap between the wall and the dumpster, and after putting his hand in some foreign substance, he decided it really hadn’t been a good idea to go that way. It was brighter on this side of the dumpster though, and he could clearly see the things he might have stepped in or bumped into otherwise.