Vitus and Leila

Chapter three: Twenty one men

Half an hour later eighteen men in black suits came in quietly, one of the men went up to the counter where Julie was standing, "Hello, we ordered a table for twenty one people" he said. "Yes, over there by the window," Julie pointed "We'll be over with the menus in just a second." "Thank you, can you please wait with the menus until all the men are here?" the man asked politely. Julie nodded slowly, a strange atmosphere was in the air of the shop and she dared not to be her normal loud self. Leila had cautiously watched the men as they came in, when the men were seated, she was expecting them to start talking. But there was not a sound, it was so silent, you could of heard a pin drop. Leila, who normally enjoyed being surrounded by silence, suddenly felt very uneasy. She looked to the table, all the men were seated with there heads looking down at the table and three chairs were still empty.

A few minutes later, a man dressed in a black suit with an ear piece and a small microphone, came in and looked around the shop, he looked in the bathrooms, in the kitchen and even in the staff room, he then went back to the door. "All clear" he said into the small microphone which was clipped onto his jacket. He then held the door open for two more men to come in. The second man was dressed as if he was the first man's identical twin.

The third man however looked totally different, Leila's eyes slowly travelled up the strangers body. The tall man was also dressed in a black suit but he was the only one wearing sunglasses. All in all he looked different to the other men. To start he was absolutely massive. His legs were long and muscular, his tummy was toned and his arms were as big as tree trunks. His hair was pitch black and a little stuble had grown along his chisled jawline.

When he reached the table all the men stood up and bowed their heads down to him. After he had greeted them solemnly, he sat down and so did they. Julie came running over to Leila "come on, girl, these lot seem a lot more polite and quieter than the ones yesterday, what are you waiting for?!" Leila let out the breath she had been holding. "I'm coming" Leila told her her quietly. "Good, here are half the menus, I'll give out the other half!" Said Julie excitedly and started to walk towards the table with the group of men. "Was she absolutely oblivious?" thought Leila "These men might be quiet but they have a rather scary aura about them." She shook her head to free herself from her own thoughts and quickly followed Julie to the table, Julie had already welcomed the guests and was just about to start handing out the menus at one side of the table. Leila took the other side of the table and started handing them out, all the men thanked her politely, when she got to the head of the table the man looked up from his hands and looked straight at her. Leila shuddered all of a sudden she felt very cold, she quickly passed him the last menu and turned around to Julie. They walked back behind the counter together. "Who is that guy?" Julie asked Leila quietly. "I don't know but he really scares me." Leila whispered pulling her cardigan around her a little tightly and adjusting her apron accordingly.

Mary came and stood next to the girls, who were waiting for the men to decide what they wanted to eat. "There's a large number of men in this shop, but it seems like there's only one man in here" she said under her breath, nodding at the head of the table. The two girls nodded in agreement. It was a strange situation, even though there were twenty one men in the place who were all deciding what to eat, all you could hear was the rustling of the pages from the menus being turned over. It felt like a cold and silent winter's night, which seemed to swallow the whole shop in it's icy coldness, and everyone knew where the chilling atmosphere was coming from.