Free Nocturnal (episode n. 1) by Quelli di ZEd

CHAPTER 1

    It was morning.
    Lately it seemed like it was always morning.
    Not like “it's still too early for lunch”, rather like “pull yourself out of that damned bed and try to keep your eyes peeled because you have to go to work”.
    Amanda hated that sensation.
    Although she wasn't used to stay up late at night, recently she felt like she wasn't able to sleep enough. No, not exactly... she wasn't able to rest enough, just as if sleeping made her more tired instead of shedding tiredness off her.
    She rolled in the bed, repressing a yawn and pulling along most of the blankets, letting her bare back uncovered. A shiver ran down her spine, killing the already feeble will she had of getting up, but with a supreme effort she was able to put the blankets aside completely, fighting against the instinct to pull them up again and nestle in the pleasantly warm bed for some extra minute of sleep. She knew all too well that, if she did, those minutes would soon become hours, and she would have to explain the rector of the university the reason why she had skipped work. No one in the world wanted to explain that man anything, and Amanda was no exception.

    After gulping a warmed coffee and washing with some water that couldn't be called just “cold”, she was at least able to keep her eyes open without using her fingers. She put on her glasses and some clothes chosen at random from the chest – doing it all in the wrong order, so that her pullover got caught in the frame of the spectacles, and she had to spend five minutes trying to wriggle it free without launching them on the floor or, even worse, under her feet – then she finally left for the station, cheerfully thinking that she was not too late after all.
    In those days almost everyone had a personal means of transport. She had thought about that too, then decided that, even though she could buy one, she preferred not to have it, all things considered.
    After all, public transports where perfectly fine and not expensive, the only problem was avoiding the most crowded times, which she was able to do... most of the time.

    The station wasn't far from her place, ten minutes at worst using the main streets. Of course she didn't have that much time, so she rather turned into the alleys who cut the block like a network. They didn't have a good repute, but so early in the morning they were almost deserted... then again this should have been an additional good reason not to go there at all. Anyway, so far nothing bad had ever happened to her, and that was the thought crossing her mind when she bumped against an obstacle that shouldn't have been there, and fell sitting on the pavement.
    Thankfully her large bag, mostly full of papers, fell between her and the hard floor, sparing her part of the impact, but still she fell hard enough for her glasses to jump and come to a halt on the tip of her nose. She thought she had to look quite ridiculous like that.
    The first thing she did, however, was not putting them back in place but looking up to try and understand who had decided to place a wall in the middle of the alley. She found out the wall had arms, legs and a quite terrifying haircut.
    The expression on the face of the bloke while he walked toward her left no doubts about the fact that he hadn't bumped into her by mistake.
    «Quick!»
    The voice came from behind her assailant, thus either he was a good ventriloquist or he had an accomplice hidden to her by his size. She chose the second option, which was soon confirmed by the apparition of another boy approaching. This was much slimmer than the first. He actually looked like a badly-assembled scarecrow and walked like he was just going along with the wind, but when it came to the haircut... deciding who had the worst would have been a very hard choice.
    «The bracelet.»
    This time it was the walking wall speaking. Amanda looked down at the simple crystal bracelet around her wrist as if she was seeing it for the first time