Night As We Know It

By H.L. Sudler

The relationship between Nick Fullwood and Johns Mayweather has always been built on favors. In high school, and now years later as adults. Nick, a newspaper journalist, needs a desperate favor from Johns, now a police officer. But this favor is so secret, so dangerous, it could cost both of them their lives. Against the dark nightlife of Los An

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archer Publishing
• Release date: Jun 28, 2021
• ISBN: 9781735199375

H.L. Sudler

H.L. SUDLER is the author of six books, including Patriarch: My Extraordinary Journey from Man to Gentleman, CafeLiving's Favorite Cocktails (with Keith Vient), Man to Gentleman: A Beginner's Guide to Manhood, his short story collection The Looking Glass: Tales of Light and Dark, and his thriller novel series Summerville and Return to Summerville. His short story The Way of All Flesh was selected for the PATHS Humanitarian Writing Award. He has served as a magazine publisher, a newspaper editor, and a contributing writer to numerous anthologies and periodicals. He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and currently lives in Washington, DC.

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NIGHT AS WE KNOW IT

_______________________

H.L. Sudler

An Archer Publishing Book

Washington, D.C.

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Night as We Know It

Published by Archer Publishing

1315 Park Road NW, Washington, DC 20010

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. 

Copyright © 2021 by H.L. Sudler

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any printed or electronic form. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights.  Purchase only authorized editions.

ARCHER PUBLISHING is a registered trademark of Archer Media Networks LLC.

The ARCHER PUBLISHING logo is a registered trademark of Archer Media Networks LLC.

Archer Publishing ISBN

978-1-7351993-7-5

Books by H.L. Sudler

Patriarch: My Extraordinary Journey

From Man to Gentleman

Summerville

From Man to Gentleman:

A Beginner’s Guide to Manhood

Return to Summerville

The Looking Glass: Tales of Light and Dark

CafeLiving’s Favorite Cocktails

Stories by H.L. Sudler

The Looking Glass: A New York Love Story

Blood Moon

You Won’t Forget Me

Midnight

Sandman

Wake the Dead

Daytrippers

Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.

Mark Twain

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Night as We Know It

It was night, full dark no stars. They were on their knees, outside, the two of them, hands up. The black asphalt was wet and shiny. Fire raged all around them. Intense heat radiating, the crackling infernos burning orange and yellow. Guns and rifles were pointed at them. They were bloody, their faces, hair and hands. They were panting, out of breath.

  Johns Mayweather turned to Nick Fullwood and said, Tell them a story.

Tell me a story.

  This was how it was between them when they were at Franklin Charter Academy, Nick telling Johns made up stories as they sat across from each other in the school cafeteria.

  Johns was a football star, beefy, brown hair, and as the girls would say, hawt. Those eyes, those large hands, an upper torso that narrowed down to a trim waist, muscular ass, and hairy legs that fueled many a daydream, and caused many a sigh. He would sit across from Nick, chomping down on a sandwich, guzzling chocolate milk, prepping for the fruit cocktail and cookies he had ready for dessert.

  Nick had been an unlikely friend. Johns was good at sports but not good at too much else, and the two made an unspoken pact. They became pals. Each needing something from the other. 

  Nick was a nerd, wiry, cute, shy (until you got to know him and he opened up). He was smart as a whip, but not the persnickety type like some around the school. The girls who walked the halls with their chin up and books tight against their bosom. Or the guys who wore sweater vests and sat on the debate team, who were suspected of having a little sugar in their tank.

  No, Nick was a watcher, eyes always scanning, recording everything. He was easy like Sunday morning, non-assuming, almost to the point of being aloof, bored. Some teachers hated him. Yes, hated. The way he could easily answer a question after getting caught staring out of the window nonplussed them. How he could explain the answer to a problem, logically, coolly, rationally. Most of all, they hated him because he was smart...and he knew it.

  He didn’t flaunt it, he wasn’t that type of guy. But there was always an indication in his voice that you were missing something and he wasn’t. It was almost like, Don’t you see it?  Don’t you see what I see?

  Johns admired that, thought it funny, the way Nick wielded his intelligence. 

  It was like a superpower, like his own; his strength, his bulk, his good looks, his charisma. He could just about charm or punch his way out of a penitentiary. And Nick…watching Nick in action from the back of a class, Johns thought that if