He heard a knocking knoise. He opened his eyes and realized,
a) with great disbelief,
b) painfully,
c) both,
d) none of the above,
that he
a) had fallen asleep before starting the car.
b) was suffering a terrible hangover.
c) both.
d) none of the above.
He opened his car window and muttered a half-hearted apology.
The street was now deserted. The clubs would surely be closed by now, since the break of dawn was being heralded by pink slashes throughout the vast starry sky of a Southern early Spring morning. The cold chill of silence shattered the sleepy town, reverberating back and forth between the empty office buildings.
– Wha’ do you wan’ anywaysh?
– Morning, sir. Have you just happened to fall asleep at the wheel? –He heard someone snickering, too. Two men.
Trying to pull himself together, he squinted through the mists of alcohol still veiling his sight. He couldn’t make out who was addressing him.
– No, officer. I just thought about taking a little nap before heading home to the missus. Will you cut me some slack this once?
– Well, I am no officer, but you look like you had a rough night. Wouldn’t want to drive in this state now, would you?
– No, no, of course not. Probably walking will do some good. Fresh breath of air, y’know?
He opened the door and one of the men helped him out. As he was slowly crawling out of his drunk stupor, he noticed that in fact they weren’t policemen. Quite gently, one at each side, they held him up and dragged him towards an abandoned general store. The door was unlocked so they were able to gently slide in and drop him on a barber’s chair.
At that point, he was struggling to think. However, he couldn’t remember whether it was vampires or policemen that were supposed to be fictional creatures.
The signs of a looming hangover started to settle in.