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1: The Diner

I walked into the Diner exhausted, angry and full of sorrow. At 3 in the morning, I expected fewer people inside. There’s a truck driver, two girls sitting together, the obvious waitress and the chef in the back.

“Sit anywhere you like, hun,” The waitress tells me with a smile on her face. It’s an act, she hates her job. She should’ve taken that job with her sister and went back to school. Instead, she’s stuck here now. She’s young, probably in her early twenties. She’s blonde and clearly exercises on a regular basis.

I sit in the booth across the two girls, facing them. They’re not paying attention to me. Instead, the redhead one is thinking about the best way to come on the brunette. The brunette is more worried about her sick mother, however.

“What can I get you?” The waitress asks with a smile still and holding a menu out for me to grab. It seems she or no one else seems to know who I am. It must be the hood that I have on. She must have not seen my face completely. To her, I’m just another idiot for wanting the shitty food here.

“I don’t need a menu, thank you. I’ll have straight black coffee, please.” I need coffee. I haven't slept in days. I don’t know how I’ve been going on but I have. All I want is coffee. I watch as the waitress scribbles down my order even though she doesn’t need to. She smiles again and tells me its right on my way.

A minute passes I think, It’s hard to tell. “Everything good for you, Rick?” The waitress says to the truck driver. He’s a fat slob who happily persuades the poor girl that she’s doing a great job. Outside he’s a good guy but I know his thoughts. He’s waiting for the right day to find her alone and take her out back to rape her. Yeah, that’s all in his mind right now, just how much he wants to fuck the shit out of this poor nineteen-year-old.

“Don’t work yourself too hard, Dakota,” He laughs at himself like he’s the funniest guy in the world. It’s nothing but disgust to me. I watch him return his attention to the small TV behind the counter of the cash register. “Can you turn it up, sweetheart?”

“Sure thing, Rick,” Dakota, which I hope is her name answers. There’s a re-run of the News Special about me. I don’t pay attention to it, it pisses me off to see the news about me. “Here you go,” Dakota places the coffee in front of me before I can sense that she’s here. Damn, I’m tired.

“Thank you,” I answer with a half-smile. She thinks I look familiar then she walks away.

“Fucking R,” Rick says all loud, interrupting me from my light sleep. I must have shut my eyes for more than a few seconds. “That prick thinks he’s better than us and thinks he can walk all over us. I wish I could give ‘em a piece of my mind.”

Fucking annoying.

“Fucking Rick always plays that shit too loud like he fucking owns the place. God, I wish he could die so he can leave me and this place alone.” I hear Dakota think while she helps the other two girls. Now the two girls are talking about the brunette's most recent breakup. They’re young, dumb and up way too late to be out here. But then again so am I.

Then the fat bastard starts getting louder. The TV gets louder. It’s about me, and it’s always about me. I’m so fucking tired. I’m reminded why I haven't slept for the past five days. they’re still talking about it. The screaming, the shouting, the crying, the beg, then like clockwork, silence. Every damn second I can see her, him, the child, the lover, the naive, the depressed, the happy, the content somehow be erased from the world. Erased like how everything was taken from me. So now, as a balance to all things, I must erase the world.

“I shouldn’t ever turned Diana down. I mean she was right about school. I should take her job and do what she does but I’ll make more here once I become a manager soon. Ugh, I hate this place,” Dakota thinks with a smile while getting the final thing from the two girls. “Need a refill, hon?” she asks me. I lock eyes with her for the first time. She’s innocent, naive, and way too young to be here.

“You should take the job,” I tell her. She takes a step back, a bit threatened. She swears she’s seen me before. “Um, I’ll get you another, my treat,” she fakes a smile, trying to get away, realizing who I am. I jolt my arm out and grab her wrist, cutting off the escape she tried to me. “Let me go!”

Rick the truck driver almosts jumps out of his seat, but calmly stands up to try and defend little Dakota the Waitress. The two girls become silent and all eyes are locked on me and the waitress. “Can I ask you a question, Dakota,” I ask calmly and tired.

“No, now let me go,” her voice dropped from her cheery act to what seems her regular self.

Rick is now walking over to me and says, “Alright bud, I don’t know who you are but why don't you let the young lady go.” He intends to force me off her with the knife in his pocket. I’m too light dressed to be carrying a weapon. He’s right but I don’t need a weapon.

“What stopped you from taking your sister’s offer for her job, Dakota?” I ask her again, tightening my grip as she starts to try and break free.

“Let me fucking go!” she raises her voice while wondering how the fuck I know all that.

“Alright asshole, let her go,” Rick says, pulling out his knife like he has any real threat.

He hates me. Rick thinks that just because I have all this power I’m free to abuse it and I don’t deserve it. He has hated me ever since I couldn’t stop the Vegas bombing that killed his buddy. Like I was anywhere near that place when it happened. I laugh, “So you can act like a big hero so Dakota here will fall into your arms? What about your plan to rape her? Surely this is the best moment to take advantage.”

“How the fuck?!” Rick thinks but scoffs it off in his actual actions. Inside he realizes who the hell I am and is terrified the truth is out.”

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“You think you can give me a piece of your pathetic mind, Rick?!”

Dakota wants everything to stop, she wants to go home. She’s scared and doesn’t know what to do. I don’t blame her. The brunette reaches out for her phone to call for help. No, now is not the time. All cell signal is now lost by my will. No one is getting out until I am done. I am their master, I am their owner, I am their God. Rick loses his cool but for some reason stops charging at me once I tell him to stop in his mind.

The two girls and Dakota the waitress watch in terror as Rick slowly places his knife over his throat. “Dakota, did you know that Rick once raped a young girl when he was 18 and left her for dead?,” I tell her calmly, soothing her, making her lose her fear. She is in no danger, I assure her of that. “he thought about it. He jerks off about it. Hell, he even rapes other women with you in his thoughts,” I laugh.

“Just stop!” The redhead yells at me.

Rick is scared out of his fucking mind. He wants to cry but he knows he shouldn’t. I mean, there’s no way R can kill a person just for the fun of it. What happened a few days ago was an accident, he didn’t mean all that. R is a good person, he’s the savior of mankind. It’s impossible for R to kill even a scumbag like him.

Dakota is silent, she calms just like I thought she would. She sits down next to me and stares at the ground. The brunette is desperately trying to get some sort of signal. The redhead is now running to the entrance that somehow got locked.

“What the fuck do you want, R?” Rick trembles when he asks.

I scoff, “What I want? I just want Dakota to answer my question,” I say, breaking her from the spell. Dakota looks at Rick, she’s terrified but still calm. “But then you interrupted me. How rude of you, Rick.”

The knife is now just barely cutting the skin. He feels it, he’s about to cry and it’s pathetic. Then the chef comes in and yells, “What the fuck is going on here?” but can’t say anything else as he examines everything that’s going on in the room.

“Emmy, do something!” The redhead pleas to her friend. Emmy is a name I haven’t heard since I was a little kid. Oh, the bad memories.

“James you gotta help me!” Rick yells preventing me from hearing what Emmy says.

Why does everything have to be so complicated?

Everyone now screams as Rick’s lifeless body drops to the floor and his blood begins to travel towards my feet. Emmy and the redhead desperately try to open the locked door. Dakota is now crying but still unable to move. James the chef just wants to go home and never come back. He thinks about running away through the back but he can’t leave Dakota here with me after knowing her for so long.

“Can everyone please be quiet?” I say in a low tone voice but make sure everyone can hear. The redhead is the only one who doesn't listen to me but that’s when I notice the Emmy girl is unusually calm now. All she thinks about is her dying mother and frighted that she might not be able to be at her side for her final moments.

I see all. Her mother is worried sick about her daughter Emma. Apparently, she hasn’t visited in a couple of days. The stress about Emma’s mother has caught up to Emma and she’s unable to cope and sleep. Of course her friend, Beth knows nothing about this and thought Emma invited her this night out to express her feelings. She’s been waiting for this moment ever since she met Emma. Now the last thing Emma wants to do is die, but if it must be, it must be. R is the God of this world. Emma strongly reminds me of Alowynne. I don’t know if I like that.

Beth the redhead now is considering suiciding by attacking me, maybe to give Emma a chance to live. This place, they are are good people. Yeah sure, Beth is selfish but she has lived her life clean for the most part. Beth was in a path of self-destruction before she met Emma. Ever since then she’s been happy, clean and most importantly stable. Beth gets in front of Emmah then says, “I don’t care if you kill us R! Just let my friend go”

Is she serious? Is that really how she’s going to defend her friend?”

Someone came from the back. Three police officers, no back up just yet. The whole state is on its way though. How did they found out? A bullet is coming, no a few. “Get down!” I shout as I push Dakota. The bullets barely miss us.

“Hands up,” The sheriff shouts like he has power over me. Two other officers bust throw the back door with him. One is a rookie, no more than a week in the force. The other is a member of the Mexican Drug Cartel playing undercover. “Let the girl go!” The sheriff commands me. Now the sheriff has been bribed and bribed to overlook many things. He’s corrupt and knows he can’t be stopped by anyone. Anyone is not me though. The undercover and sheriff drop their guns to grab their throats. They gag like they’re being choked. The rookie lowers his arms a bit and stares before trying to help then.

Beth, completely thoughtless runs over and picks up one of the guns and aims it at me. Anyone fighting for their life would not hesitate to shoot it, but she does. “Let us GO!”

I let out a huge sigh. Beth doesn’t have the will to kill for her life. “I just want to talk to Dakota here. All I want is an answer from her.”

The rookie shoots a bullet but he did aim for me. A warning shot. The other two are now on the floor gasping for air. “Let them go R!” The rookie shouts.

“Why” I shrug. “One of them is an undercover agent for the Mexican Drug Cartel. He helps smuggle and makes sure the right dealers are not arrested. The other is corrupt and takes bribe from every gang in the state and often works with your friend to help smuggle. They’re scum.” I wave my hand, and with that, all brain function in the two cops cease to exist. “Can I talk to my friend now?” I turn to Dakota. Beth and Alex the Rookie won't shoot me, I don’t let them. Up in the door, Emmah stands as calm as ever and the Chef is still standing in disbelief of everything. I don’t think his mind is here anymore, he hasn't moved an inch.

“W-what do you want from me?” Dakota asks trembling.

“What stopped you from working at your sister’s job?”

Dakota is in disbelief that I’m still on that. She doesn’t hesitate. “Because I'm afraid of the big change. I don’t wanna move states and start all over. I have no friends and barely any money to support me. I didn’t take it because even if I hate it here, I’m home here.”

Beth and the rookie lower their weapons. The chef starts to pay attention again and Emma falls to the floor with her back against the door. The state is about to be here in no less than ten minutes. “All of you are good people. Beth, you need to stop thinking for yourself and be considerate of others. You are so caught up in Emma’s feelings about you that you haven't once asked if she was okay. Emma, death is the road to awe. The good, like your mother, die in peace. She’s worried you won’t be able to tell you how much she loves you before she passes. Go see her, tonight. James, go home and live a wonderful life with your wife and kids. Quit this job, you have more than enough money. Your kids need their father in their lives. Alex, you’re naive and too optimistic. Your police force is corrupt. Stop it.

And Dakota. Call your sister, she’s is your escape to be happy. Happiness is the road to acceptance.”

The front door gets unlocked.

I can hear all the sirens coming from each direction. As Emma stands and gets out of my way she asks, “Why did you kill all those people? Thousands died, what happened to you?”

The nerve she has makes me laugh. She really is like Alowynne.

“My world was taken away from me, Emma. I don’t have to justify my actions anymore,” I scoff before I lift myself and float to the clouds.

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