Bloody jump scares

LOCATION Ethan's home
DATE 2nd of October 2021
TIME 2 am
TOPIC FOR  @Tamila
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The borderline collie had suddenly started to bark, making Ethan sit up quite fast. He was a night owl, and it often took him long to fall asleep at night for that reason, because it was the time of day he was most energized. So, he had only been a sleep for around twenty minutes when Puzzle had woken him up. Ethan also knew his dog wouldn't just bark without a reason, someone was in the house. He hushed on Puzzle, before listening in, hearing footsteps. Ethan swung his legs over the bed, and picked up his sweats from the floor and quickly put them on before making his way towards the door, "stay," he commanded Puzzle, before he carefully opened the bedroom door and walked to the slim hallway. He knew he had said to Zoe she could stay at his place if she wanted, he also knew she was out to see some family. But there was a chance she had come back, after all he had given her a key, but there was no messages on his phone.

Hearing someone in the kitchen, the lights were turned on, Ethan pressed his brows together and moved with soundless movements, almost as if the shadows carried him. He turned the corner and clicked his tongue as an annoyed expression painted on his face. "Fucking hell Tamila - what are you doing here?" He asked shaking his head, knowing she couldn't possibly have heard him till he broke the silence. "You know there is a thing called a phone, and you use it to text or call people with."

Tamila had arrived really late in the airport from USA to Athena, and it had been a pure nightmare to get cab to Ethan’s home on St. Michael Circus. So far, everyone understood her, but sometimes, the line between American English and Athenas English was just a little too grand. But she managed it. But even though it was late, Tamila wasn’t tired yet, but one thing she was, was hungry. She was so hungry. So, as soon as she had paid for her cab, she headed straight to the front door and found Ethan’s spare key and locked herself inside, closing the door behind her and locking it. She put the key on a shelf and heard a dog bark as soon as she entered the kitchen. She turned the lights on, so she could see what she was doing, so she wouldn’t walk straight into a chair or something alike. She tried to move quietly, knowing that Ethan probably wanted his sleep. Who knew, maybe the bark had woken him up. She was aware that it was a possibility.

She started to search for a bowl and then some oatmeal and those two things were more than enough for her to search for a good time being. All of a sudden, someone spoke to her, and since she hadn’t heard or registered nor dog or steps, she almost jumped into the air in surprise. “God, Ethan,” she yelped as quietly as possible. She looked at the bowl and the box of oatmeal in her hands as he asked what she was doing. She looked back up at him, “Getting something to eat,” she exhaled, “What does it look like?” she said and shook her head a little. Wasn’t it obvious? She also knew it was childish of her to reply in that manner. Good thing she was the youngest of the bunch. She put the things on the counter and started pouring the oats into the bowl while she listened to him. She looked over her shoulder as she put the oats down again. “I tried to text you before boarding, but my phone died,” she said and fished her phone up from her back pocket and clicked on the home button multiple times to prove it to him. She sought to the fridge. “So eh,” she said while she opened it and fished out a gallon of milk, closed the door and turned around to face him with the gallon in her arms. “Can I stay for today at least?” she asked and folded her arms across the gallon of milk and gave him some childish puppy eyes.

He spooked her, well, karma was a bitch - not that he had anything against her stopping by or anything, but sneaking up on him like that, in his house? It was very unclever, even if they were family. "I can see that," he mumbled a bit by her response and made a small whistle to let Puzzle know he could run into the kitchen. Ethan made a small hand movement and the dog sat down next to his owner. Puzzle was clearly excited about Tamila being home not doing anything but looking at her, then looking over at Ethan almost as if he was begging for permission to run towards her. Ethan took a slightly deeper breath in as she explained, "I told you that you should have bought a power-bank," he shrugged a bit. It wasn't like he needed proof, he believed her. "You know, you could just have called ahead and told me how much you missed your older brother" he laughed a little bit, giving Puzzle a nod so he could rush over and borderline collie could greet Tamila.

"Of course you can stay," he then confirmed. The guest room was free after all, he just needed to make a bed ready for her. "But I reckon you are to jetlagged to even try to sleep?" Ethan then asked scratching the back of his head a little bit. Not that it bothered him, clearly he didn't even look tired from having been waken up at this hour, he didn't even look like someone who was tired - which was mainly because he wasn't. "But - If you are going to steal all my food, you could at least give me a hug first." He chuckled a little.

Tamila heard the small whistle and shortly after how a dog ran downstairs and as soon as he saw that it was still puzzle, he had she could feel how her heart lighted up. She loved that dog to the moon and back. She wanted to greet him approximately as much as he wanted to greet her. Ethan on the other hand kept the focus much better and pointed out how she should’ve bought a power-bank. The siblings shrugged almost mirrored. Her smile widened as he mentioned she should’ve just called ahead and told him just how much she missed him. As soon as he allowed puzzle to greet her, she put everything out of her hands to sit down on the floor and greet the happy border collie. She caressed Puzzle all over and gave him all of the love she could. Things that people might not notice was how she actually examined fur, bones, smell of breath and teeth. She couldn’t help it.

She looked up at him as he told her she could stay, “Thank you, Ethan,” she said truly heart warm. If it was even possible, her smile grew, this time a bit cheekier, “Completely jetlagged,” she said, “I’ll make the bed myself, don’t worry,” she said. She knew very well how Ethan was the most energized at night but that didn’t mean he shouldn’t be sleeping at this hour. He had a job to take care of in the morning. As Ethan demanded a hug as payment for eating all of his food, she stopped the examination and got up on her feet and hurried over to him to place her arms around him in a big embrace. “God, I’ve missed you.”

He chuckled a little as Tamila got on her feet and hurried over to give him the hug he requested. It was only a few months, compared to the range of time that usually went by before they saw each other. However, he was happy that she was here, because despite what had been the normal, only seeing each other few times a year - the month back home in California in August had been making him a bit home sick. Ethan was just thankful for every thing the trip had given him, refreshed energy, a new perspective of things  - he had met Zoe. Ethan was over the moon happy. "I've missed you too," he squeezed her a little bit tighter before letting her go. "I honestly thought you would stay in Cali, I mean October is far better celebrated back there compared to here," Ethan confused, then again. Ethan had always loved October month, not just because it was his birthday month. There was just something about the month he really liked, and what person whom loved Halloween would complain about sharing birthday with the Holiday? It was even funnier after he had met Elenora and found it was one of her favorite Holidays as well. "Of course you could just be here to spend time with your favorite brother," he chuckled a little teasingly.

Even though it hadn’t been that long since they last had seen eachother, Tamila thought it was an eternity since they last saw each other. Hearing Ethan telling her, that he had missed her too, felt so heartfelt and the way he hugged her a little tighter almost felt like he was making sure her heart felt hugged too. It was so nice. There was just something so nice and homey about being near Ethan. She shrugged a little as he let go and confessed that he had believed she would stay in California, but before she could really reply to him, he teased her with her wanting to spend time with her favorite brother, “But Harry isn’t here?” she teased back and let her hands cup his face shortly, shaking his face a little. “I believed I needed a little change, and I honestly thought, what better place to go to than to where my best bro is?” she said with a little slang and gave him a little nudge on the shoulder, almost as if she was acting like someone who was a part of the ghetto. Of course, she was only playing around, and laughed a little of herself. “You got work in the morning, right?” she wondered and slowly worked her way back to the counter, around Puzzle, so she could pour milk into the oats in the bowl.

"Yeah, No, Zoe told William to stay back at the ranch to take care of things," he said and thereby also announced that he was seeing Zoe. Well, he knew if William wanted to join them he could, but William liked California so much that he couldn't dare to leave. Not that Ethan held it against his younger brother. Ethan chuckled a little as she gave him a little nudge on the shoulder. "Yeah of course," he shook his head a little rolling his eyes for a brief moment at his younger sister. The question about work in the morning made Ethan turn his eyes towards the watch in the kitchen, "yeah - but I promise you after work, I can be all yours," he promised with a bigger smile walking over to get himself a cold glass of water. "You will most likely be knocked out because of jetlag, you wont even notice me being gone," he pointed out shortly after looking towards his sister as he took a sip of the water.

She nodded a little when he explained where William was, she knew where he was. Zoe and Ethan were still talking. It made a little bell of romance ring in the air. She noticed how he looked at the clock in the kitchen. Time was a bitch. Never had time been on anyone’s side. It was always the wrong time. She scrunched her nose a little making the apples of her cheeks swell a bit in her smile.
While he poured a glass of water, she filled her bowl of oats with milk. She put the milk back to where it came from and found a tablespoon while listening to Ethan talk about jetlag. She hushed him a little and made a small gesture with the hand holding the spoon, as if jetlag never got a hold of her. “I am certain jetlag won’t come to me,” she said, even though she usually was hit quite hard with jetlag. For goodness’ sake, she was so fresh and awake at this hour, who would’ve believed that. She took a small spoon of her food. “What I was thinking about, was how much you should go back to bed and let me try and take an all-nighter, so jetlag won’t get to me,” she said and nodded quite consistently. She took another spoonful of her oats.