Chapter 6: Night Falls

Courtney looked up as Alex and Sam walked in loaded down with blankets and pillows. It had grown dark outside and a chill had swept the house. Luke and Tracy had been quiet for the past hour or so and things had gotten rather boring; earlier events not included. Tracy had apparently been attacked by a ghost and although Courtney didn't believe it it couldn't have just been a shared hallucination between Luke and Tracy. Besides she had the weird red hand print wrapped around her wrist that proved what she saw, what she'd heard, hadn't just been in her head.

“What are those for?” Tracy spoke up, eyeing the blankets and pillows as Alex and Sam placed them on the floor.

“Alex didn't think you all would wanna split up and the upstairs rooms are old and dusty so we brought the cleanest bedding we could find down here,” Sam announced proudly. Alex had made two makeshift beds while they were talking but he remained silent. He'd been like that since Sam left him alone in the library and Sam hadn't tried to make him talk to him.

“So it's like a sleepover?” Courtney smiled at the thought. She used to have sleepovers with her friends all the time. She slipped under the covers of the makeshift bed nearest to her, tired yet not ready to sleep.

“Ooh we should play some games. That would be fun and help to lighten the mood,” Tracy suggested, which was met by an unhappy groan from Luke on the other side of the room.

“What kind of games? I've never been to a sleepover before,” Alex finally joined in on the conversation as he finished smoothing out his blanket. Everyone looked at him like he'd suddenly grown two heads.

“Really? Never?” Tracy and Courtney piped up in rather creepy synchronization. Alex didn't think it was that big of a deal because Luke had acted like the mere idea of this little ‘sleepover’ was a chore.

“How about we just do icebreakers or something to get to know one another?” Sam suggested. It was the best course of action since they only really knew each other's names.

“At least then I can't say you're all complete strangers,” Luke moved to sit in the center of the room as everyone else began to sit in a circle.

“Okay… Where's everyone from?” Courtney started being the first to get situated on the floor.

“New York City,” Alex answered rather quickly. He didn't really like talking about himself in front of friends let alone strangers. He sat quietly at the far side of the circle fidgeting with the sleeves of his light blue hoodie avoiding being the center of attention for very long.

“Austin, Texas,” Tracy chimed in. She sat on Courtney's left braiding her own auburn hair.

“Chicago,” Luke sat on one of the throw pillows he'd grabbed from the couch. He was to Courtney's right but he disregarded the circle, still not fond of sharing info with a bunch of strangers.

“Roswell,” Sam shrugged his jacket off using it to sit on as he scooted over next to Alex.

“Well I'm from LA,” Courtney said, surprised at how fast everyone had answered.

“Ooh, have you ever seen any celebs?” Tracy asked, her face lit up as she smiled. Her hands had paused mid-braid as she turned to face Courtney.

“I wish. Then I'd have interesting stories to tell,” Courtney sighed. She lived in a city of celebrities yet she'd never seen or met any. Her mom had although she never told Courtney any details or who she met with.

“Does anyone have any favorite hobbies?” Alex popped up redirecting the conversation.

“Does baking count?” Tracy was practically buzzing with excitement. She seemed to love meeting new people and talking their ears off. Something Alex didn't quite get.

“Yeah as long as you do it for fun I'd assume so. Like gardening or knitting,” Sam shrugged, “I like to play piano.”

“I make homemade jewelry,” Courtney pulled off a corded bracelet which she'd made about a year ago and gave it to Tracy who had her hand out wanting to check the quality.

“Do video games count?” Luke didn't really have many hobbies but he was good at gaming in his own opinion.

“Sure,” Alex nodded, repositioning himself to where he was actually in the circle now “I'm a bit of a bookworm and I sketch too,” he continued once he got settled in next to Sam.

The back and forth lasted a while as they continued asking each other whatever popped into their heads like: “What's your favorite food?” Or “What do you wanna do in the future?” By the time they all called it a night they weren't strangers anymore which was a comfort to all of them. Alex hadn't seemed as tense around them as he had when he'd gotten here. Tracy and Courtney had mostly led the conversation but none of the others had really minded. Sam no longer felt alone and Luke had quit acting like they were all constant annoyances which was a good thing since he was rather rude earlier.