MOROS - Tyler Galpin

02

02

Tyler Galpin missed his mother.

It wasn't something he liked to talk about with anyone, ever. Sure, he had sessions with Doctor Kimbott, but they were more of a formality than anything else. Kimbott had never gotten him to confess his thoughts and feelings to her, nor truly talk about the why of anything. These days, it felt like he was just going through the motions.

High school was a drag. He looked forwards to the afternoons and weekends he'd spend at the Weathervane, because when he was making coffee, he could switch his brain off. It had become muscle memory now; how to aerate the milk, the perfect balance of brew and blend... When he was behind the counter, he could stop thinking.

And he'd been doing a lot of thinking these days.

"Freaks," his friend Matt sniffed as they watched a pair of Nevermore students walk past the Weathervane windows. Matt was sat with a cup of drip, as usual, with his girlfriend Abbie across from him.

Abbie scrunched her nose up, "Agreed. They should really warn us when they release them out in the town."

"They're not animals," Tyler pointed out, collecting their empty plates, "I'm sure they don't want us bothering them as much as we don't want them bothering us."

Matt snorted, standing up and ruffling Tylers hair, "Look at that Abs, our boy is going soft."

"Am not-"

"Let's go," Matt nodded to Abbie, who quickly started collecting her stuff, "See you tomorrow Ty, yeah? Try waking up with your head screwed on right tomorrow."

Tyler watched his two friends hastily leave the Weathervane, Matt's arm around Abbie. He waited until they were down the street before huffing out a frustrated sigh. He collected their dishes, leaving them on the side before rubbing his eyes tiredly.

Sometimes, he just wanted to take the next train out of Jericho and never come back.

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Winona wasn't sure when she started having the nightmares.

Sometimes she thought it might've been when her dad died, but it was probably a long, long time before. They were the reason Weems had agreed to her having a solo room; it was slightly unfair to wake up a roommate with screams every other night.

She was desensitised to what she saw: murder, blood, gore... The whole horror film setup, every single night. Some nights, it was people she'd met that had passed on, their last few minutes sticking with her as they crossed on to the other side. Other times, it was people that she'd passed on the street, their fate attaching to her like a mosquito.

She used to have nightmares about her nightmares, walking around with a haunted look in her eyes. These days, that 'haunted look' had just become her stare, and the nightmares didn't bother her as much anymore. They still kept her up though, which meant many late nights and early mornings with multiple steaming cups of coffee.

"You're going to give yourself heart problems," Xavier observed as Winona drank her third coffee of the morning.

Winona glared at him, the two hours of sleep she'd had that week evident on her face, "Get lost, Thorpe."

Xavier didn't listen. Instead, he glanced around the cafeteria, ensuring no one was near them before leaning towards Winona, whispering;

"Did you know someone was going to try and kill Wednesday?"