Café de Nuit

Moving toward the door, the man who had been tending the bar lowers a metal switch over the top of the door handle. Turning the doorknob lightly, he nods his head in satisfaction before looking to the rest of the room.

"We will be closed until morning," he simply states. "You are welcome to stay the night, but nobody else will be allowed in while the cafe is closed. If you decide to leave, then we ask that you pull the door shut behind you. The latch will fall back in place and lock the door after you leave."

Moving toward the bar, he gives a faint but courteous smile to all the patrons. "We hope that you have better dreams this evening."

Seemingly satisfied by the security measures of the Cafe and the reassurance of his friend. Vincent lies down on the big cushions, trying to make himself comfortable.

"Thanks mate. I think we should be safe enough... I really need some sleep. Do wake me up when the time comes, eh?"

With these words he closes his eyes trying to relax. Soon he drifts into a deep slumber...

As sleep quickly takes Vincent into its ethereal embrace, the young man loses all sense of the reality around him. His eyes close the final time before succumbing, and the image of the dimly lit room melts into a dark grey haze.

Feeling slow and fatigued, Vincent looks all around him. The haze, or was it fog, hung thicking around him. His first instinct was to call out to Gabriel or to run until he found something, but Vincent was a rational man. Yelling and running would accomplish very little. If nothing else, it might attract danger to him.

Instead, he slowly moved forward and reached down for his weapon. Unforunately, there were no weapons to be found. In fact, all of his gear and clothes had been removed from him...

Standing stark naked, the yound man tried to rationalize why his clothes would be missing. A cold wind whipped past him, and its touch chilled his bare flesh to the bone. Moving forward, if only to find some sort of shelter, Vincent cursed the situation under his breath.

After what seemed to be several long minutes of sluggishly moving along. Vincent noticed that the grey haze slowly began to clear away. As more of his surrounds became visible, he noticed a large desk a few yards in front of him. Sitting at the desk was a man dressed all in black.

"This must be the one that Renaldo had been speaking about," Vincent stated to himself.

Vincent began walking closer, but the sound of several voice laughing drew his attention to behind him. Sitting in several rows of chairs sat nearly featureless people. All of them were dressed in the traditional garb of intellectuals, but they lacked any facial feautures except wide eyes. Despite the lack of mouths, the group of several dozen scholars continued to laugh at the naked man.

"They see you for who you are," the darkly dressed man said from behind the desk. "And you will be exposed to the rest of the world..."

Vincent spun around to confront the man's vague accusations, but the room continued to spin over and over. As Vincent lost his balance and began to fall, the dream ended and he woke up covered in a thin sheet of sweat. Looking to Gabriel, he notices that a few hours had passed since he had fallen asleep.

Gabriel looks at his friend, a somewhat amused look on his face.

"Look who's up... From the look on your face, I guess you had a nightmare, huh? So, what was it? Any black-garbed figures in it?"

After Vincent catches his breath, he proceeds to give a detailed description of his dream. The swordsman listens intently and with interest to his friend.

"Hmm, sounds disturbing... Well, I think it's my turn to rest and chase some nightmares, no?"

As Vincent nods in agreement, Gabriel lies down, muttering a few words before starting to fall asleep.

"Nothing happened while you slept by the way... Wake me in the morning or earlier if anything happens..."

Vincent nods his head again as Gabriel settles down for some sleep. Wiping the sweat from his brow, Vincent carefully looks around the dimly lit room. A darkly robed figure had been in his dream, but he hadn't seen anyone like that in the past few days. If someone was affecting people in the waking world, he was currently at a loss as to who it could be.

Gabriel paid no attention to his slightly agitated friend. Instead, he sprawled out amongst a large group of pillows and fell asleep... At least he felt like he had fallen asleep.

He opened his eyes and noticed that the Cafe had gained a significant number of patrons. Loud laughter and conversation echoed througout the dimly lit room, but it was too indistinct to be understoon. Gabriel puched himself up slightly, but his arms and legs felt sore and sluggish. Looking over to Vincent to ask what was going on, Gabriel noticed that his companion was nowhere to be found.

"Interesting," he said to himself.

"What is so interesting?" a warm, feminine voice asked fom beside him. As Gabriel slowly turned his head to look, he saw a curvey blonde haird woman kneeling next to him. She wore a thin set of robes that were made from a strange purple colored silk. While the robes were large, the garment seemed to be tied in all the correct areas to display her curvey figure underneath. As his eyes linger a little too long, she laughs a smooth and tempting laugh. "Perhaps, you were speaking of me?"

Gabriel tries to find the correct words, but his mind was cloudy and his thoughts would not create coherent sentances. Rubbing his forehead slightly, Gabriel look back at the young woman. However, she was no longer alone. This time a man dressed in dark black robes stood behind. His left hand gently tracing her should and neck.

"It would seem, my dear," the black clad man stated, "that our friend is at a loss for words. Perhaps, the cat has his tongue?"

Gabriel tried to protest, but nothing more than a couple of meaningless moans escaped from his lips. Looking back at the couple, he noticed something thick and pink in the womans palm.

"Not a cat," she responded, "I have his tongue..."

Gabriel tried to scream, but the nub remaining within his mouth would not form the words that his wished to cry out. Instead, a bloody froth spewed forth between his moans.

Sitting bolt upright, Gabriel looked over at Vincent who merely returned his gaze. Touching the tip f tongue with his index finger, Gabriel sighed in relief before explaining his dream to his friend.

"So, any ideas my friend? I don't usually bother with my dreams too much, but the circumstances are not exactly the usual."

Gabriel stretches a bit to drive away the last of the stiffness of sleep before going on.

"I suppose we could start by asking around a bit. You know, when did these nightmares start, if something strange has happened lately, things like that anyway..."

The duelist looks around briefly before sighing and smiling.

"At least no dopplegangers graced us with their presence it seems..."

Between his disturbing dream and Gabriel's unnerving experience, Vincent seems rather downcast. His logic is hard pressed to find solid explanations in the stuff of nightmares. Gathering his resolve, he looks around the room. Turning to Gabriel

"Dopplegangers? Thankfully not... I am sure they would find our backs a very convenient place to plunge their daggers into..."

Even he is not able to laugh at his abysmal try to joke.

"Where should we start? Whom should we ask? Perhaps we could give Renaldo an accounting of our dreams."

Vincent and Gabriel looks around the room as they try to decide their next course of action, but there doesn't seem to be many people available to dicuss their nightmares or the next course of action. Renaldo is nowhere to be found, although it is likely that he was either working on his logs or trying to get some sleep himself. As for the other patrons in the room, the majority of them were slumbering fitfully.

In fact, the only people that seemed to be awake at the moment were the two of them...

"Heh... they don't seem to have a problem sleeping, though it seems their dreams are far from pleasant. They're probably used to them by now, I guess."

Gabriel then turns to Vincent.

"Well, I suppose we'll have to wait for them to wake up or for Renaldo to come back. Then again, maybe we should leave and return a bit later. We should tell the owner before we do so though."

Putting one hand on the table he starts tapping his fingers before going on.

"What do you say? We could use the fresh air. Who knows, maybe we'll run into a certain annoyance and get rid of it too."

Despite his disturbing nightmare, Gabriel seems quite relaxed. Nevertheless, he does feel this was no ordinary nightmare, but that just means things are going to get interesting.

Giving Gabriel a worn and concerned look

"Yes, why not... We have taken some sleep and it seems that no one here can help us for the time being. We can certainly use the fresh air to cleanse our thoughts from our dark dreams."

Rising quietly he gathers his belongings and ,after leaving his contribution, approaches the bar tender.

"Sir, we would like to leave your establishment. I trust there is no problem at this time? It is nearly morning."

Vincent's voice startles the bar tender, who was definitely day dreaming even if he wasn't fast asleep. Realizing whose voice it was and what had been said, the man quickly composes himself and nods his head. "The doors will remain locked for about another hour, but both of you are welcome to leave at anytime. Once the sun has cleared the horizon, we will unlatch the doors for the morning customers to come in."

Stiffling a yawn and stretching his arms, the bar tender begins wiping down the counter and glasses for the morning business.

"Let's go for a walk then, huh? A little fresh air will be welcome..."

With these words Gabriel opens the door and waits a moment for his friend to join him.

"Coming?"

The swordsman steps outside and is joined in a moment by Vincent. Closing the door behind them, they welcome the cool air. After stretching a bit they begin walking down the street in front of the establishment.

"This street is as good as any to start. Let's look around the town for a while and maybe return to this place when it's open again."

Taking several deep breaths

"By all means. Should we head for the city market? It is always an interesting place."

With this words he starts walking down the road, taking a careful look of their surroundings.

"Everything seems friendlier in the morning, no? Especially when you are not hunted down..."

"Well, whether we're still being hunted or not is open to discussion. Let's not relax too much, no? Though I know you hardly need to be told..."

Looking around a bit, everything seems quiet.

"The market it is then..."

The two friends start walking about the town, accompanied by the sound of Gabriel's whistling.

Vincent and Gabriel reach the market after a rather uneventful walk. Some people begin to open doors and window shutters as the sun rises, but the streets and alleys are mostly empty of life. Even the rats, which tend to scrounge through the rubbash tossed into the alleys, seem to be quite and subdued. While there is nothing overly strange about this, it is a far different environment than the streets were last night.

"Morning, gents," a younger man said as he passed by and continued on toward the market.

Round the corner themselves, Garbiel and Vincent find themselves at the market. Vendors open crates and barrels and begin setting up their wares for a morning of bartering and bargains.