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Shortest Night
A Night in the Woods fan story
CHAPTER 1
August 20th, 2017. Turtle Rapids. Funny how some empty fields just felt empty, but others felt like they were full of action. This one felt like it was bridging a few places together. There were people wandering through the field, thirsty yellow-green grass crunching under their feet. Probably doing the same thing they were—scoping out the place for tomorrow. Dark trees lay in one direction, and in the distance around all the other sides were buildings poking up, as if to remind everyone they were in a town big enough to matter.
"Drop it," said Bea, barely looking back as she trudged toward town. "You've got enough issues already without adding impaired vision to the list."
Mae leapt behind, taking big steps to clear the stiff grass, since she wasn't wearing boots like the others. "But what if I take them off just as the sun's disappearing, but before it's totally covered? There won't be enough light to blind me much, and that way I get to see the whole life-transforming moment from start to finish!"
"It's still not safe. We're talking about direct sunlight. Everyone else is taking off their glasses as soon as total occlusion occurs. If you don't do that too, you'll be blinking and squinting at the beginning of totality."
"Actually, she may have a point," huffed Angus, treading steadily along beside them. "What makes direct sunlight dangerous is that there's so much of it. It's not like it's a special kind of light or anything. Well, okay, it is—there's the UV rays—but it's not really different from reflected sunlight. So in theory… there should be some point before first contact that the amount of light is safe for viewing with the naked eye."
"See!?" Mae bounded forward and spread her arms. "That's exactly what I mean! For just a little unsafety, you get to experience both sides of the moment, not just one!"
"What if you time it wrong?" put in Gregg from up ahead, sounding amused. "You could take the glasses off too soon and go half blind. Or you could take them off too late and wind up just like everyone else. But it'll be a battle of timing. You'll be all tense, waiting there, ready to whip 'em off at the perfect moment… and while everyone else is relaxing and awestruck, you're sitting there stressed and ready to pounce."
"I suspect Mae wouldn't enjoy this kind of thing without some kind of drama," Bea suggested.
"See, this girl knows me," said Mae, pointing at her. "But don't worry, I won't be dramatic through the whole thing. I know how to relax, too." She practiced putting on her viewing glasses, then taking them off quickly. Putting on. Whipping off.
"Hey fools," called Gregg. "Before we go back to the hotel, you wanna head downtown and check out Main Street or whatever they've got around here?"
"Sounds good," said Angus.
Mae was left behind practicing, staring at where the sun might have been. Then, with a jerk, she dashed after her friends, glasses dangling from her hand. "Hey! Guys! Let's see if they have a really nice restaurant with everything, and then see if we can get them to make us a taco bowl."
"We'd still have to pay for it," Bea pointed out.
"But really," said Gregg. "Would we?"
"No crimes," said Angus. "We agreed on that."
"Right, true. Only joking. I make it so I was only joking in retrospect."
"Then again," Angus added, "if it's that nice a place, why stop at a taco bowl? Why not a taco pizza?"
"Oh. My God," said Mae.
"See, this right there, this is why I love you," added Gregg.
"Taco Buck has pizza tacos, but a taco pizza?" Mae expounded, still hurrying to catch up. They reached one of the many sidewalks in this town with irregular texture, like they were made from bad concrete. "That'd be… wait. Would the toppings be actual little tacos, or would it just be, like, taco flavored?"
"You were actually imagining a pizza covered with tiny tacos?" asked Bea, looking over.
She had a way of making Mae feel instantly stupid. "Um… no?"
"That'd be so ballin'," said Gregg. "Even if that's not how they make it, we should tell them to do it that way." Mae's heart floated for a moment; she could always count on Gregg's support, no matter how stupid she was.
"Orrrr, we could check out that bar and grill," said Bea. The street had a small town feel, but a thriving one, with lots of unique small businesses. The tallest buildings were made of coral red brick and rose three stories high, with more colorful establishments dotting them at the base.
"Dude! We can't go there," cried Mae. "We're not 21 yet!"
"I don't see anyone carding at the door," said Bea. "Besides, don't you have that fake ID?"
Mae'd had a little too much fun making that. "Yeah, but… it didn't exactly work last time."
"And we did say no crimes," said Angus, looking uncomfortable.
"Pff. Fine," Bea caved. "Let's go to a sandwich shop or something."
"In just three weeks, I'm gonna be 21," Mae said. "We should all get together again for that."
"So we can watch you get shit-faced and drag you home babbling nonsense? I'll pass."
"Aw, come on, Bea! It wouldn't be the same without you."
Bea sighed, presumably thinking it over. Gregg drifted back and whispered in Mae's ear: "I would've slipped you drinks through the back door. You could've sat in the alley."
"What, in the dirty alley?"
"Yep! With the rats and bugs and leaves and stuff. You could've watched the sun go down… looked through the dumpster if you felt like it…"
He made it sound like a treat. "Probably have more fun than you guys inside."
"Hecks yeah!"
"I don't know," said Bea, who'd been listening in. "That place had a pool table."
"Pool is fun," said Gregg. Mae knew from experience he didn't actually play pool—he just liked hurling the balls at the pockets.
"Pool's fun," agreed Bea, taking one last drag from her cigarette before they entered the sandwich shop.
Angus was in the seat diagonally across from Mae. The others had gone up to get their sandwiches. The place was done in whites and creams, with tall soft blue booths. For some reason, it made her twitch. Maybe because it was too nice?
"Doing all right?" Angus asked.
"Mm? Yeah, I think so. It's a little weird being three hundred miles from home, is all."
He scooted over, closer to being across from her. "I mean… everything is the way it should be? You're not feeling… disconnected?"
Gregg had told Angus about her shapes issue, she knew. He'd told everybody. He'd promised to keep it secret for her, but she'd said, You know what? Don't. Tell everybody. I don't think I could tell that story again, but they deserve to know. And so he'd told Angus, and Bea, and Germ, and Mr. Chasokov, and he'd told her mom and dad. He'd been basically the best friend in the world for her.
"It's okay, actually. Maybe it won't be tomorrow. But you guys are here, and… and this place is important right now. It means something, you know? People are coming in from all around for the same thing, and it's like there's meaning everywhere. Meaning sauce on everything, like a big meaning sundae."
As if to prove her point, a lanky, dark guy in the next booth leaned over the edge, draping his elbows over the seat back. "You folks in town for the eclipse?"
"Yep," said Mae.
"Where you from?"
"Possum Springs. Deep Hollow County."
The guy blinked, resettling himself languidly. Mae wondered if his friends were up getting sandwiches too.
"It's in Bolts Arbor," Angus explained. Right—of course Mae should have specified the state. It wasn't like Possum Springs was in any way famous.
Now recognition showed on the guy's face. "Must be pretty serious astronomers to come all that way."
"It wasn't that far," said Angus. "Half day drive. We started this morning."
"Still. You have telescopes?"
"Nope!" said Mae, taking some weird pride in the fact. "Angus has a pair of binoculars. And that's it!"
"You came all this way just to watch with the naked eye?"
"Not naked. We've got eclipse glasses!" She put hers on, then off again quickly, to demonstrate.
"That's something. But still. Long way to come for just three minutes of darkness."
"Aren't you going to watch?"
"Sure. Still feels like kind of a big deal over nothing."
"So you live here, then?" asked Angus.
The lanky guy shook his head. "Nice place, though."
"Yeah," said Mae. "Why does this town get to have the eclipse? Now everyone's staying here and buying hotel rooms and sandwiches and stuff. Why couldn't Possum Springs be in the eclipse path?"
"Guess it could've. It just wasn't."
Not for the first time, Mae wondered whether that thing—Black Goat—could have made it happen that way. If they'd been in the path, Possum Springs would have had a big influx of visitors and money. The town council would've been really happy. And all it would have cost was another innocent kid.
"But anyway, I had to come," she explained. "A friend of mine is an astronomer and he made it clear it was, um. Not optional."
"Of course it's optional."
"No, what did he say? 'The total eclipse of the sun is one of the things that makes it clear God is still with us, not far away. It brings tears to the eyes and wonder to the soul. You have seen lunar eclipses, yes. But they are only curiosities! When the moon covers the sun and day is subsumed by night, that is when you know what it is to be alive. And it is when you realize that you never really knew, before.' Something like that."
"Good memory," commented Angus.
"I've had some problems lately," Mae admitted. "And I think it'd do me good to know what it is to be alive. Because I'm not entirely sure I remember."
The lanky guy shrugged. "We're alive right now. Just look around."
Bea and Gregg arrived and started passing out juicy, artisan sandwiches. "I know we're alive," insisted Mae, "but that doesn't mean everyone sees the same thing!"
The stranger was silent, just watching them pass out the sandwiches.
"Getting in fights with the locals?" asked Gregg.
"Not really, just talking."
"Don't worry, I'll protect you if he tries to beat you up. Did you get the one with extra tomatoes?"
She had. She had gotten the one with extra tomatoes. And she'd paid for it herself. It was good to have a job and be able to pay for things now and then. And it was good to have the burden gone, to know an ancient cosmic thing wasn't trying to tell her something, or use her for something. To know that she was living her life for herself.
But that wasn't the same as knowing what it was to be alive.
Two rooms. They'd splurged and gotten two rooms for obvious reasons, or at least reasons that were obvious after they'd split up for the night and could hear sounds coming from Gregg and Angus's room. Strange sounds. Impressive sounds. Even Bea had her eyebrows raised.
"I guess this trip is like a romantic getaway for them," she observed.
"Going to see the sun wink out? Hell yeah it's romantic," Mae said. "Like that song, about standing by someone while the stars are falling out of the sky and the world is ending? And you put your hand on their shoulder and just… watch. Like it's a big deal, but it's not as big a deal as the fact they're here with you. The world may be ending, but that's the real big deal."
"Pff. I don't think that's what's romantic about that scenario."
Mae sat on the bed, feeling it bounce like a good hotel bed. "Then what is?"
Bea wandered slowly across the room. "It's about the end of things. The world is ending in the song… it doesn't get much heavier than that."
"And you think heavy means romantic?"
"It means you've gotten through everything. All the shit and detritus is finally over… and here you are. At the end of it all."
"I can't believe your description of one of the most romantic songs includes the phrase 'shit and detritus.'"
She shrugged. "Not in a great mood. I'm kinda pissed they won't let me smoke in here."
Turtle Rapids did seem to have a lot of No Smoking signs. "You can smoke in the field tomorrow. You can smoke it up all through the eclipse."
"You're lucky you don't smoke," said Bea. "You don't know how it feels not to be able to."
"I guess I am pretty lucky that way," Mae acknowledged.
Bea finished putting her things away and peered at the wall past which indistinct murmuring and thumping furniture could be heard. "Wanna watch TV?" she asked.
Probably to drown it out, Mae thought. But… "Yeah, sure."
They sat on the one bed together. Turtle Rapids didn't have Garbo and Malloy, apparently. There was a sports channel with a fishing show. A crime show that was too complicated to get into. A news show with lots of pundits around a table that made Bea groan. Another crime show, but with vampires involved somehow. A documentary show about the very eclipse that was happening the next day. They wound up watching that for a while before deciding to turn in.
"Flip you for the bed," said Mae.
"Ugh. We're sharing the bed. And you don't have anything to flip, anyway."
"I've got guns!" insisted Mae, flexing her biceps. "I can flip you."
"Please don't," said Bea, turning off the lights. "Besides, I paid for the room. I definitely get to sleep in the bed, and I say you can too. Just don't kick or anything."
"Would stealing allll the blankets be considered 'anything'?" asked Mae.
"Yes, Mae. Stealing the blankets would be considered 'anything.'" She undressed and got into bed, so Mae went to the other side and followed suit.
They turned out the lights. "Hey Bea?"
"Yeah?"
"Remember when I said I wanted to help you? How you put in so much work to take care of the store on top of Chamber of Commerce stuff and your night class and everything, and I just wanted to find some way to help? And you said, 'Mae, the best thing for you to do would be to get a job and help your own parents'?"
"Yeah?"
"Well… now that I work at Taco Buck, I can help them out a little. And they appreciate it. I think Mom cried a little when I gave her my first paycheck. And then I made her take me out for donuts 'cause I didn't have any money. And I won't lie—having a job kind of sucks. It's like… you have to go to the same place every day, and do the same stuff, and if you want to go out and have fun somewhere else, you can't, 'cause you're trapped."
"Yes, Mae. I know what 'having a job' entails."
"But even so… even with the job I have to do like five days a week… I still want to help you." She rolled over to look at her companion, staring at the ceiling. I mean, I did what you said… and I still want to help. You're still the strongest person I know, but you have so much weighing on you and I… I just want to lift a little bit of it, somehow. Is that wrong?"
Bea was still. "No. That's not wrong."
"And I mean I know what you're thinking," Mae went on. "You're thinking there's no way I can help. That there's nothing you can trust me with I wouldn't screw up, and I'd only make things harder. And maybe you're right. But… but I still want to help somehow. And I just wanted to tell you that, even if it's useless. Even if it doesn't do any good."
Bea lay considering. "Well, next time we get a shipment of rock salt or manure, you can help carry it," she suggested.
"Do I look like a bodybuilder? I can't lift those huge bags. Plus, manure is icky, almost by design."
Bea shrugged. "Thanks for the offer."
Mae instantly felt terrible. "But I mean, I'll do it. Just tell me when it comes in and if I have time when I'm not working, I'll come and help."
"'Cause of your guns you're packing."
"Yeah, those!" She flexed one under the covers. It wasn't that impressive. "In the very worst-case scenario, we can lift the bags together."
Bea lay quiet for a while. "That actually means a lot to me."
A sweet spot bloomed in Mae's heart. Jackpot. "I want you to be okay," she said.
Bea didn't say anything.
It felt like they were about to fall asleep. Mae was used to the low lights and the muffled sounds, and she was ready to sleep… but then Bea said something else.
"You still having those dreams?"
Mae closed her eyes. She remembered them all too well. "No," she replied. "I haven't had any since the night in the mine."
"Glad to hear it."
Part of her actually missed the dreams. She didn't miss the sense of anxiety, of growing dread, of floating out to sea. But she missed the music, the guidance, the exploration. She wished she had some sense that someone out there had something in mind for her. "I think whatever it was trying to do with me, it's done now."
Silence. "Do you think it was trying to get you to kill those guys? By trapping them in the mine?"
Mae cried, shutting her eyes tight. "Maybe. But they were worshiping it and feeding it. Why would it want to kill them?"
"Dunno. It's evil. That's what you said, right?"
Mae didn't know if it was evil. It might be. Certainly the men worshiping it had been. She remembered the great cat telling her that she wasn't chosen—that there was no one to choose her. Had she been chosen by Black Goat for something? Or had her… her dreamstrings, just gotten tangled up in his for no reason? Maybe that just happened from time to time. Still, she preferred to think she'd actually served a purpose of some kind.
"I think it might actually be… beyond evil. Like, so evil that it isn't completely evil anymore. Does that make any sense?"
Silence. "Not really."
Of course it didn't. "But no, like… if you're good, you follow the rules, right? You do what you should. And if you're bad, you break the rules. And if you're really evil, you break the big rules, right? Like against murder and shit? Well… what if you're past that, even? What rules are there left to break? Only the kind that are so big that… we ordinary mortal people don't even know about them. Bigger than murder. And what if… what if those rules are actually good to break?"
Bea sighed. "I don't know, Mae. What if they are?"
"Then maybe that's what Black Goat is. So far past evil it breaks rules we could never imagine."
"Maybe," said Bea. "So what's your point?"
Mae considered. Her explanation had come out making more sense than she'd thought it would, and yet… "I don't know. I guess… I guess I just want some closure. To know if it's really done with me. To know if I did any good, or not."
"It's probably done with you, if it ever cared about you. More likely it was just… doing whatever it does, and you just happened to be in its way for a while. Like a deer that finds itself in some car's headlights. Assuming this thing is even real, we're probably just like deer to it."
Or like the moon just does its thing, and sometimes finds itself in the sun's way. "Well, either way," she said sleepily. "I still want to know."
"We all want to know," said Bea. But wait—did she mean, we all want to know whether your cosmic purpose is over? Or, we all want to know whether we've done any good? Or if we have a purpose? And you're not special that way, Mae, even if you did have a run-in with a cosmic semi-truck?
She wanted to ask for clarification, but by that time Mae was already asleep.
A/N: The eclipse is a real thing! After hearing a bunch about it, I kind of wanted to go, but I'm a bit too far from the path of totality for it to be worth it. But then it occurred to me that it would fit the setting and theme of Night in the Woods perfectly, so I'm writing this story instead. This will be a short work - probably just three or four chapters.
It's ambiguous whether the characters in Night in the Woods are human, so it seemed right to retain that ambiguity. But if the guy in the sandwich shop were drawn in NITW style, he'd be a crow.
Possum Springs is based on a town in Pennsylvania, so some people situate it there. Since names seem to be changed in the NITW world, I decided to change Pennsylvania to "Bolts Arbor." They're both names about trees that belong to some guy!
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