I squint as I try to see the road in front of me.  Sure, my headlights are on and it certainly makes it a great deal easier, but I must've forgotten to either drink a cup of coffee this morning or sleep last night.  And either way, it's catching up to me.  After a little more driving down the highway, I decide to pull over to the side and stretch my legs.  I get out of my car and start pacing back and forth, trying to figure out if it's safe to drive home.  Finally, I get back into the car and turn up the air conditioning all the way, which is certainly a freezing-cold surprise to my body.  I'm now awake enough to keep going, but I'm not sure how long the air conditioning will keep me conscious for, despite my car now feeling like a f*cking freezer.  Yikes.  

I know I shouldn't keep driving right now, but I'm desperate to get home.  I need to get home and get a good night's rest, and more importantly, see the love of my life.  As I think about that, I glance down at my hands gripping my steering wheel tightly, my knuckles turning whiter by the second.  The diamond on my wedding ring manages to still glitter despite the only source of light being my headlights.  I lean back in my seat and exhale deeply.  

"Hey Siri, give me directions to home," I manage to say, barely mustering up enough energy to talk.

Setting course for 'home'.  Continue down I-95 for 25 miles.

"What?!" My eyes widen as I glance over at the directions displayed on my phone.  According to the app, it will take me at least forty-five minutes to get home AFTER getting off the highway.  I guess today's highway patrol took me quite far from home.  Scratch that, it took me way too far from home.  

"Hey Siri, what's the time?"

The time is ten thirty-nine PM.

"Hey Siri, what's the time near me?"

The time is ten thirty-nine PM.

D*mnit. I was hoping that somehow that stupid AI had gotten the time zone wrong.  At this point, my best bet is just to find somewhere decent to crash for the night.  I take a deep breath and pull back onto the highway.  To my surprise, my phone begins to ring.

Incoming call from Richard Woodson.  Would you like to answer it?

"Yeah, obviously," I grumbly dryly, and shift my tone as soon as I hear that the call has connected. "Hey, Rich!"

"Sam, what's wrong with you, man?  It's late as h*ll!" Rich scolds.  Of course he'd seen that my car was still on the road; he specializes in that sort of tracking and monitoring technology back at the station.

"Relax, I'm fine.  Just on my way to find somewhere to get some rest that's nearby.  Can't keep people safe if I'm the one causing the accidents," I laugh.  Rich isn't amused.

"When's the last time you've taken a break, man?"

"Meh." 

"That's not even an answer!"

I laugh to myself again. "It's fine, Rich."

"You're killing me, Samuel Brown.  You're absolutely killing me."

"Don't worry about me, I'm serious.  I'll be fine.  And that's Sheriff Samuel Brown, by the way," I say smugly.

"I didn't know that you become more of an *ss when you're sleep deprived," Rich grunts, but I can tell he's just teasing me.

"Let me flip the question- why and how are you still awake?" I counter.

"Because I can't go to bed knowing that your dumb *ss might be out there driving like a drunkard."

"I can't tell if that's sweet or insulting."

"Yes."

I smile at the road ahead of me.  I know Rich is worried about me.  I remind him softly, "I'm going to be fine.  Like I said, I'm finding somewhere nearby to spend the night , and then I'm going to be back at the station tomorrow morning for work."

"If you say so.  Now, if you excuse me, I'm going to try to get your highway patrol schedule adjusted so this doesn't happen again.  G'night, Sam."

"G'night, Rich," I say, and once he hangs up, I let my shoulders slump from exhaustion again.  I squint to read the highway signs half-masked by darkness.

Finally, I can't keep driving anymore, and I take the next exit, not even bothering to see where I am.  I just need to find somewhere to crash for the night.  To my dismay, though, I realize as soon as I pull off the highway that I've wound up in an area almost completely occupied by hiking trails and woods.  Basically the one place with nothing but trees as far as I can see.  I curse my luck under my breath before finally making the decision to just try to sleep in my car.  I'm adjusting my seat to lean all the way back when I glimpse something through the trees.  Light.  I stand there next to my car for a minute, staring at the light.  It takes a minute to register in my brain what such a sight means.

I shut my car off, grab my bag from the passenger seat, lock the car, and then make my way through the woods towards the light.  It takes a little longer than I anticipated, and my legs are trembling from exhaustion as I walk, but thankfully I manage to drag myself forward until the source of the light is finally revealed.  It appears to be an old hotel.  Why it's out here in the middle of the woods, I'm not sure.  But I'm too exhausted to even begin to think about that at the moment.  I compose myself as much as I can before entering the building.  While everything is rather blurry for me, I can still make out the figure at the front desk.

"Can I, uh, help you sir?" the figure asks.

"One room, please," I say, approaching the front desk and moving to pull out my wallet, but the figure stops me.

"We can discuss payment in the morning.  For now, you can just follow me." 

I'm way too tired to argue, so I just follow them to an old-fashioned elevator.  Once we arrive at the level I'm staying on, the figure hands me the key, I manage to put together enough words to thank him, and then I somehow unlock the room and make it onto the bed before completely blacking out.  I'm not sure how long I sleep for, but I know that I could've slept longer if it weren't for the phone in my room going off.  At first, I'm convinced I'm imagining it until I sit up, take in my surroundings, and then finally realize that the phone is actually going off.  I reach over and grab it, bringing the receiver to my ear.  A distorted voice echoes in my ear, sending chills down my spine as I slowly process the words.

"This is your wakeup call!  Prepare to DIE."

(1146 words!)

Ayye, it's the last player!  Sam my beloved.  

Also this now means that whenever I get around to it, I can now start writing the Banban spinoff with Sam and Toadster since Sam has been properly introduced!! 

Anyways that's it for now :D