It was past midnight and Joseph still couldn't sleep. Nothing new, this has been going on for over a year now, some nights he'd stay awake simply tossing and turning, unable to get any sleep until the sun was almost up, then he'd spent most of the day barely functional. No use trying to fight it, that only made things worse.

Just another one of those nights, Joseph thought bitterly as he got out of bed and pulled some clothes on. If he was going to be up all night, might as well have some food in his belly, and the nearby diner had a decent deal at this hour.

He zipped up his jacket and pulled a scarf around his face as he headed outside the dorms. Stoker University was uncharacteristically quiet at nighttime. During the day, it was full of students going about their daily activities, but now the campus was a ghost town as everyone was asleep. Well, mostly everyone anyway.

Joseph glanced back at the dorm building, seeing all the windows dark and quiet, not a single shadow moved against the night. I wish I could be like the rest of you, he thought bitterly, walking off campus.

Stoker University was located a short drive away from downtown, meaning there were several roads passing through the University on the way to downtown. Along one of these roads was a small 24 hour diner called Beto's.

Joseph came in, greeted Sam, the worker who usually worked the grave yard shift, and sat down at the nearest empty booth. Sam came by a few seconds later, handing him a menu, "Late night again, Joseph?" He asked.

"Yeah," Joseph replied, rubbing his eyes, "think I'll have a milkshake and the waffle dish."

Sam nodded, "Alright, coming right up."

Joseph sighed, staring out the window towards the University in the distance. Tomorrow was going to suck. Luckily, he only had one class at one in the afternoon, English, but with barely any sleep, he wasn't sure if he'd be able to stay awake throughout all of it. At least he could use this extra time to look over his essay for Doctor Sanborn.

There was one silver lining about tomorrow though. Emily was in that class. Who knows? Maybe if he managed to get some sleep, he might dream of her. She smiled at him a few times and whenever …