The City of the Unexpected

Chapter 8

A few weeks later

Faith:

"Rose! Wake up! You're going to be late for work!" I exclaimed, while running around getting my bag packed for work, all I put in there is just a different shirt in case of emergencies, some lunch, my wallet and a reusable bag.

I heard a large thump and then Rose groan. I turned around and immediately laughed. Rose had rolled off the bed. I then smirked.

"Amy keeping you up at night?" I laughed as she glared at me and got up and went to the bathroom.

As she was in the shower I quickly wrote down a note saying goodbye and leaving her some money on the table that she can use to go buy herself some food. Her salary isn't the greatest thing on this planet so I try to help her as best as I can so we can save up more, especially since I assume that Rose will want to bring her girlfriend, Amy, along with us. Which means triple the savings. Ever since they got together, I picked up an extra shift at the coffee shop to make sure that we can afford to bring her with us when the time comes.

I left and headed straight for work, both Rose and I over-slept, but lucky for me I have an amazing boss that understands, just as long as we let him know in advance or when we know for sure that we are going to be late. I'm thankful for him. I'm actually quite sad though that I will be leaving him in just 3 weeks time.

As I got to the shop, I went straight to Mr Bee's office to tell him I arrived, but also to give him my 2 weeks notice. I told him in the beginning that I wasn't going to stay long, I just needed the money. I gave him my notice with much difficulty because he was trying to talk me out of leaving, but I managed and went back to work. I work from 12 pm until 9 in the evening. It's double pay, so I never complained.

I went and put on my apron and went to start clearing tables that have not been cleaned yet. I took all the dirty dishes to the kitchen, then picked up some food and brought it to the appropriate table numbers. I know what you're thinking, it's a coffee shop, you order, they call your name, you collect. Not here, what happens is that the customers walk in, sit down and we come to them with a menu like a restaurant.

Mr Bee even made a competition to make sure that we are all working to the best of our abilities, whoever serves the most food and drinks, or takes the most amount of orders by the end of the week, you get double the pay at the end of the month, but it is only "redeemable" once a month, so if you get it in the first week and again the following week, you will get rewarded for the first week, but the second would go to the runner up. It was a good way for me to earn extra money, and since I work a double shift, I would land up getting quadruple the amount of my regular salary. So as soon as I get in, I go straight to the kitchen to see if there is any food to be given out or any orders to take, then I serve and clear tables, but since I was the first one in today for this shift and the morning shifts where already gone, I didn't have to rush, so I did things differently.

By the end of the day I took 10 orders and served 15 people, the shop is very busy, with all the collage and university students that come in to use the free internet to do their projects either before their evening classes or after their morning class. So i picked a great time to make a lot of money due to those students having a lot of money to spare since this area basically belonged to the pretty well-off folk. I'm not complaining though, more money for me.

It was my turn to close up shop, so once I was done sweeping the floors and moving the tables and chairs, I hung up my apron, grabbed my bag and headed out, double checking if the doors were properly locked. As I was walking down the road towards the bus stop, I felt eyes on me, I tried to ignore it and started walking faster, however, whoever was following and watching kept up with my pace without any trouble, which was evident by the pounding of their footprints on the ground of the forest to my left.

I then heard a howl, and then a growl, one very angry growl, which caused me to stop dead in my tracks. I heard the growl getting louder, angrier, hungrier. It's at that moment that I realized why people in horror movies stop the moment they hear or see the monster. It's because they are paralyzed with fear. No amount of will in my body would not let me run, I was stuck. My body wanted me to fight, but my brain and heart were telling me to run in speeds that would make it seem like I am flying. 

I slowly turned my head to look to my left and the big, green, murderous eyes staring back at me caused me to scream louder than I ever thought possible and run. I ran passed the bus stop, I ran passed the welcome sign of the town, I just ran and never stopped. The creature that I saw scared the living daylights out of me and I do not intend to see it again.