The Nightjar Motel

Every night Jeff wakes in Room 4 of the Nightjar Motel, and the clock on the nightstand says 3:47. Every night the red sign over the office goes dark, and what comes dragging up the row of doors is Del, the stranger in the next room he wouldn’t let in on his first night.

Dying sends him back to 3:47. So does sleep, and so does the highway. The towels come back clean and the chain comes back off the door. Only the pistol on the table remembers. It held six rounds the night he checked in. It holds three now.

Iris, the only other guest who carries last night into tonight, is waiting on the walk. She has a surprise for him. She always does, and it is never good. Tonight it’s a new guest in Room 2, the first fresh headlights on that road since his own.