Nightfall

Victor stared up into the darkness, his ears straining to hear the tolling bells of each hour. There was little doubt that by this time his mental clock was quite accurate. And getting up earlier would be, though rather unpleasant, not a disaster. At long last he heard the bells begin to chime. Counting slowly in his head, nodding with each soft tone, a slight smile spread across his lips as he reached seven. He stood up on his bed and pulled the heavy black curtains open. He stepped down from his bed and opened the curtains of all of his windows, the soft moonlight floating into the room. He glanced across the room into his mirror, straightened his black and grey tie and left the room.

"Victor!" he heard a warm voice call from the room next door. "I thought I heard someone opening curtains." A fairly tall man, with soft white skin and dressed in shades of brown emerged from the room. He smiled a smile that was nothing short of contagious. "How's life in the dark, my friend?" William was a very warm person; he was friends with everyone in the household. However, he would forever and always claim that Victor was his best friend.

"Dark," Victor said in a sort of half smile. "How is everyone else?"

"Well enough. I won't bother to deny that I miss having you around during the long hours of the day, but work makes it somewhat easier. The Doctor has been locked in his room for the past few days, running various experiments that make my skin crawl, coming out only to eat or play a few rounds of poker. Patrick refuses to leave the greenhouse at all, which is extremely unnerving given" he paused," circumstances. Zachary is as brainless and frivolous as ever, and lately Marcus has been calling one particular person repeatedly and asking them over--they never say yes. You know the definition of insanity as well as I do." He sighed. "It would seem that this, right now, is the most logical, intelligent and sane part of my day."

Victor laughed. He put his arm over William's shoulder, "Well that's never a good sign, is it?"