Lesson 28- Don't play with the pet's food, it belongs to them, not you.

My shift is fairly uneventful. The same group of vampires are back again, and once again they complain they don’t like the taste of their drinks. I ignore their whining. They complain about it but they still keep ordering more, so they can’t hate them that much. I’m happy when Anat stops by again and asks me another riddle.
“If you don’t keep me, I’ll break. What am I?” Anat asks enthusiastically. I consider for a minute and make a few guesses but I don’t get it right.
“A promise. If you don’t keep a promise it is broken. Your turn, tell me one.” Anat requests eagerly.
“Umm… Okay, I have one. What can you catch, but not throw?” I ask. Anat answers immediately.
“A cold!” Comes the quick response.
“That’s right.” I say cheerfully.
“Here’s your tip!” Anat hands me a fifty dollar note and walks off.
“Wait but…” Anat has already moved on to asking someone else a riddle.
“But you didn’t even get a drink.” I mutter to no one since Anat is clearly not listening. I’m starting to think Anat doesn’t actually come here to drink, just to ask as many riddles as possible. Well, I got fifty dollars out of it so I’m not going to complain. But how wealthy do you have to be to be willing to hand out so much money for like three minutes of conversation on a regular basis?

Eventually the evening comes to an end and Torin kicks everyone out. He’s been really quiet all evening, barely even speaking to me and not saying a word to anyone else. He’s much more talkative when it’s just the two of us. As he locks the doors and I start tidying, I catch him yawning. He has to be exhausted, he’s been awake for basically two whole days. No matter how much he insists that he doesn’t need as much rest as a human, he can’t go on forever.
“You should go get some sleep.” I tell him. Torin frowns.
“But there is still cleaning to do.” He objects. I roll my eyes.
“I can handle things here. I slept late so I’m not tired at all. You won’t do anyone any good if you’re dead on your feet. Go on, get out of here.” I don’t give him a chance to argue. I rush over, grab his arm and tug him towards the door behind the bar. Then I open it and shove him through.
“Go home. I’ll see you tomorrow.” I insist. Torin looks kind of bemused but he didn’t resist while I was tugging him along and he lets me close the door in his face. I smile with satisfaction and get to work cleaning. I do the regular cleaning, then decide I need to give all the floors a good mop, including out back and the kitchen. Jackson did an admirable job of limiting the mess, but some of the white dust has still made it behind the bar, carried along on people’s shoes most likely. I fill a mop and bucket and get to work. Half an hour later, I’ve mopped the entire back area twice and I’m moving onto the bar area. I leave my mop and bucket in the doorway and go to pull up the no slip mats from behind the bar area. I’d take them outside and hose them down or something but I can’t go outside. Maybe I could clean them up in the shower somehow. I’m just pulling up the last mat when I notice something interesting. There’s a trap door hidden by the mat at the very end of the bar. Huh, does this place have a basement or something? Laura didn’t mention it on the tour. Maybe it’s used for long term storage or something? Curious, I test to see if it’s locked. I tug at the little handle and it lifts easily. Not locked then. I pull it open all the way and kneel down next to it to look down into the darkness. I can’t see a thing. Damn it. I wish I had my phone so I could use the torch. Well… This is kind of disappointing. I can’t see a thing. I wonder if there’s a torch somewhere? I’m just pushing off of my knees to stand up when a dark shadow moves towards me from the hole in the floor. I scream and collapse backwards, scrambling away. I can only describe the thing in front of me as a large, shadowy tentacle. It doesn’t even look solid. It must be more solid than it looks though because the shadow reaches up towards the bar and grabs one of the empty bottles that I haven’t gotten around to throwing away yet. It then retreats back into the hole and into the blackness. The room is quiet and I can’t hear anything other than my own frantic breathing and the sound of crunching glass. I continue to scramble back towards the doorway, not turning my back for even a second until I am completely out of the room and the door is closed behind me. What in the actual hell was that?

It takes me several minutes and a dose of my asthma medication to get control of my breathing again. My heart rate is another matter entirely. That trapdoor is still open. Whatever creature is down there could be loose in the bar. It could be destroying everything for all I know. Except… it didn’t seem particularly aggressive or anything. I was right in front of it and it paid no attention to me at all. All it did was take an empty bottle that I was going to throw away anyway. Maybe I can distract it with food? Or more empty bottles. If I can just get the trap door closed up again then it should be okay. The more I think about it, the more I realise that the creature probably isn’t THAT dangerous. I mean, no one mentioned it to me, and the trap door wasn’t locked. Surely if there was some deadly creature beneath the bar, someone would have warned me about it, right? It’s probably insane, but after another couple minutes, I’ve talked myself into trying to close the trap door. It’s not like I have a phone or any way to call for help. I make a stop off in the kitchen and grab some leftovers, making sure to grab a variety of options. Meat, potato, even some vegetables. I stop in front of the door and take a deep breath before pushing it open and peeking inside. The creature isn’t visible anywhere. Maybe it went back in the trap door on its own? I bravely take a step inside and place the plate of food on the bar. Then I grab the mop and hold it out in front of me as I approach. I can hear more crunching glass from the hole in the ground and I realise that the other empty bottles are now gone from the bar. Well… I suppose that’s one way of disposing of empties. I accidentally knock the end of the mop against the bar and it makes a loud thud. The crunching stops and the room goes silent. I nervously take the plate of food and armed with the mop, approach the trap door and in a quick movement, tip the food down there. I try to reach for the door to close it but I can’t lift it with one hand and I’m reluctant to put down the mop. I’m starting to panic when a new sound fills the room.
Brewing Trouble
Detail
Share
Font Size
40
Bgcolor