Novels2Search
Hallowed
Chapter 1

Chapter 1

When you’re trapped in a diner that is full of empty space, what are you meant to do? Try to act all proper in hopes that a customer will walk through the door? Or sit on a stool by the counter and complain to the cook who isn’t even paying attention to you to begin with?

Well, Alice Greycraft was stuck in this dilemma. She could just go home and have that shower she’s been longing for all day, but that would mean losing out on half her pay check, and that was one thing she couldn’t afford. It was inevitable that she was going to have to lounge around and mope for the night. Or so she thought.

As if by magic, a customer walked into the diner, and Alice couldn’t help but be relieved. He made his way over to a corner booth and sat down. Alice gave herself a minute before walking over to take his order. When she was standing at the edge of the booth, she put on a fake smile and tried to sound as cheerful as she could.

“Hello, and welcome to Harry’s,” Alice said.

“May I take your order?”

The man thought for a moment before answering.

“Just coffer please,” He said.

“Black, if you wouldn’t mind.”

Alice jotted down ‘Black coffee’ hastily onto the notepad she had taken out of her apron and walked back to the diner counter. She gave the order to the cook before sitting back down on the stool. Once the coffee was brewed, she poured it into a Styrofoam cup and brought it over to the customer.

“Here you go sir,” Alice said daintily.

“Black coffee, freshly brewed.”

The man let a crooked smirk come onto his lips.

“I never would have been able to guess that,” He said.

“ ‘Specially after waiting for it to brew.”

Alice smirked back at him before asking if he wanted anything else with his coffee. When he answered her, she nearly did a double take.

“Can I get a bit of you with this coffee miss?” He questioned.

“Course you can, if you took me out for dinner first.” Alice replied.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

The fact of the matter is, Alice was secretly hoping he would say yes because she hadn’t eaten since her shift started, and that was about four hours ago. However, the man just chuckled and started drinking his coffee.

Just about when Alice was about to go back towards the counter, the man asked her for her name, when she gave it to him, he smiled and gave his name back.

“My name is Jason, Jason Maxson.”

Alice tried to make a note about remembering his name, but realised that she would probably never see him again after tonight.

After he had finished his coffee, he left ten dollars on the table. Alice started smiling like an idiot to herself once she figured out that he left an eight dollar tip for her to keep. Alice grinded through the last few hours of her shift before clocking out and going home. She walked the normal way back to her apartment, which involved walking through a couple of alleys, and past abandoned shops and boarded up houses. Once she got to her apartment block, Alice rooted through her bag and grabbed her keys to her apartment.

Once inside, the first thing Alice did was walk to her bathroom, strip naked and jump into a shower. She let out a gasp once the cold water hit her back, but the water started to warm up soon after. After her shower, Alice got out of the shower and started to dry herself off. Once she was relatively dry, Alice looked herself in the mirror and let out a small sigh.

“Someday, you’ll be able to get out of here,” Alice said to herself.

“Just you wait and see.”

Now that she was looking at herself, Alice realised that she didn’t like her blonde hair, and was contemplating whether or not to dye it a different colour, and she noticed that her eyes were darker than usual. Normally, her eyes are a pale green shade, but tonight they are almost like a shade of emerald. Alice thought that she was just imagining things and went to her room to dry hair properly and get into her pyjamas. Once she was dressed, Alice panned out across her bed.

Alice drifted out of consciousness and fell to sleep before being awoken by a loud banging noise. Alice sprung straight into attention and slide off her bed. She kept in a crouched position and crept into her sitting room. The room was pitch black but there was crashing sounds coming from her kitchen which was only four feet away from her.

Alice grabbed the vase that was on the coffee table and continue to creep towards the sounds in her kitchen.

“What the fuck am I doing?” Alice whispered to herself.

Alice reached the counter in her kitchen and saw the outline of the figure that was standing at her refrigerator and swung the glass vase against the back of his skull. The figure dropped like a cinder block and Alice went to turn on the lights. Once she had the  lights turned on, she gasped as she looked at who the figure was. It just happened to be her last customer, Jason Maxson, except, his face was now covered in scared and strange markings. Alice grabbed the telephone that was mounted to the wall and dialled 911.

After calling the emergency services, Alice kept looking back at Jason.

“Why would he be here?” She asked herself.

“How did he know where I lived? Did he follow me home?”

A million and one thoughts were spinning through Alice’s mind. Whatever his reasons for breaking into her house, he definitely had planned it in advance. That thought alone sent a chill down Alice’s spine.

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