CHAPTER ONE
What does a woman have to do to get some service around here? I am sitting in a crappy diner with crappy floors, crappy tables, crappy chairs and crappy walls. Everything, it’s all just… crappy. And apparently the service isn’t any better. I have been sitting here for what seems like forever and I have not seen a single other person. Where is the waitress? The cashier? Come to think of it, I don’t hear any sign of life either. It is completely quiet. No hiss of the frying pan as the cook dishes up someone’s egg sunny-side up. No clinking of silverware on porcelain. No tapping of the cash register keys. Nothing. Dead silence. And I can’t take it anymore.
I stand up from the rickety table that looks as if it’s about to fall apart any second and look around once more. Still, no one and nothing. Strange. I walk up to the counter and peered over the edge. Maybe they were hiding? Nothing. I walk around behind the counter through the swinging doors and continue my investigation. I go into the kitchen only to find that here too, no one is to be found. How did I even get in? It seems to me that the place is closed, and yet, here I am. What is going on?
A second later, I hear the light tinkling of the bell placed on the front door jam. I walk out into the main area behind the counter and see a small group of about three or four people. All are angled away from me. They have black suits on and seem to be judging the place as I did earlier.
“No one’s here. Well, no one who works here is here I should say. The place has been empty for hours except for me,” I say as I walk out into the dining area to meet the suits and maybe figure out what’s going on. They turn at the sound of my voice, and I am horrified by what I see. None of them have faces. It’s blank. No eyes, noses, mouths, nothing. I stifle a scream and turn towards the door to run, but there are more of them behind me. I didn’t even hear them come in. They start walking towards me and I turn back towards the original group. They too, are getting closer.
“Stay away from me!” I yell, knowing they aren’t going to listen, but hoping anyways that they might. “Stay back!” I turn and turn in circles as they come closer and closer, closing in.
“What do you want with me? Why are you doing this? Please! Just leave me alone!” But they didn’t. They didn’t say anything, or even acknowledge that I had. They just kept walking towards me. They started reaching out for me, their hands completely featureless also. No fingernails, wrinkles, knuckles. Just smooth skin, like the faces. I sink to the floor in fear, covering my head, praying that they would go away, but knowing that they wouldn’t. I could feel them closing in. I didn’t know what was about to happen, but I knew it wasn’t going to be good. I could feel their fingertips, unnaturally smooth, grazing my skin. And then…
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP
I jolt awake, breathing hard and fast, my adrenaline pumping. It was just a dream. Holy fuck. I slow my breathing down and look around the room. I’m fine, I’m safe, I’m not being hunted by creepy, faceless, suit dudes. Nothing to worry about. I look at my alarm clock and hit the off button. Right, I think to myself, nothing to worry about except being late for work. Again. I jump out of bed and run to the bathroom. I brush my teeth and my hair, then I throw on the outfit I laid out last night for this exact reason. I walk out to the kitchen and grab a banana, my wallet, my bag, and my keys. Then I’m out the door and rush towards my car. I peel out of the driveway and head to work.
I fiddle with my phone at the stop light, trying to find a song that fit my current mood. Finally, I find the exact one that I needed to hear, and as Post Malone came pouring through my speakers, I heard a noise come from the backseat. I look into my rearview mirror and a man’s sleepy face came into view directly behind me. I freeze, not knowing what to do. They don’t really teach you how to handle yourself in this kind of situation. I sit there, watching the man slowly wake up in my backseat, running through every possible scenario that could possibly lead to a reasonable explanation as to why he is here. A car horn sounds off behind me, pulling me out of my thought spiral. I drive because I don’t know what else to do. I pull into a gas station parking lot, and put the car in park. I turn around and come face to face with the intruder.
“Why the fuck are you in my car?” I feel like screaming, but I keep my composure as well as I can given the circumstances. “Who the hell are you? And how did you get in here?”
The man still seems a bit out of it, but eventually he meets my gaze and seems to gather enough of his senses to respond to me. “My name is John Smith… I think. I am an angel and it seems something has gone terribly wrong. I honestly don’t know how I came to be in your car, but I must have ended up in here for a reason. I just couldn’t be the one to say what that reason may be.”
You have got to be kidding me. John Smith? An angel? He’s a crazy person. Delusional. He must have escaped the looney bin and somehow ended up in my backseat. “You think your name is John Smith? You’re not sure? And you say you are an angel. How can you be sure if you don’t even know your own name?”
“You could be right… then unfortunately I have no answers for you. I have no idea who I am or how I got here.” Great. A delusional man with amnesia. Just my luck. I am so fired. Nobody is going to believe me.
“Do you have anything on you? Identification? A wallet? A knife? Gun? Passport? Anything?” I watch as he starts checking his pockets and the surrounding area for anything that could possibly lead to finding out who this man is or why he is IN MY CAR. I take a couple of deep breathes to keep my cool but I’m getting more and more anxious as the time passes.
“AHA!” the man exclaims pulling a piece of paper from is back pocket, his face lighting up with a giant, toothy, and oddly perfect grin. He hands me the paper and I snatch it from him maybe a little too aggressively, but given the morning I’m having, and about to have at work, who could really blame me? I turn back around in my seat and take a look at the paper. Damnit. It’s just a handwritten note with the words “My name is John Smith and I am an Angel” scrawled in blue crayon. You have got to be kidding me.
“Is this some kind of joke?” I turn and ask the man, throwing the paper back at him. He seems confused and looks at the piece of paper for himself. A sad look fell across his face. I almost felt bad for the guy. Until I remembered that he was in MY CAR and making me LATE FOR WORK. Jeez. Why do things always have to happen to me?
I sighed heavily and faced forward. “Ok John Smith. Here’s what we’re going to do.”
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from Short Stories https://ift.tt/2zTKUF1
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