5
Rune
It was my first day of work since Eve’s death.
And everything felt wrong.
Everything reminded me of Eve, and I had to stop myself a few times from looking over to ask her a question. Which was dumb. But I guessed it had already become a habit to bullshit with the sunny blonde all day while we were working.
Sorrow churned in my gut for what felt like the thousandth time, cloaking me and settling onto my shoulders until I felt like the world had darkened around me.
It was a strange thing, to mourn so much for an almost stranger. I thought part of me was mourning the loss of a fresh start. Eve had been my first friend, a symbol of the possibilities of this place. With her gone…and with the town turned against me…
Not to mention the killer lurking somewhere around.
Oh, and my weird new healing power that had sprung up.
Things had taken a turn for the worse.
The whole town was on pins and needles, especially after the disastrous town hall meeting. Neighbors who had once been friends now glared at each other suspiciously as they passed by. Fights between pack members were frequent, and fights between the Bitten and Lycan packs…they were nonstop. I hadn’t had any one-on-one time with Wilder or Daxon since my encounter with Daxon the night of the town hall incident, a week ago. Any time I saw them in the street, they looked tense, haggard…exhausted. I knew from Jim and Carrie that they’d been working round the clock to try and calm the town down, a feat in itself since they’d also been ready to tear each other’s throats out.
I tried not to miss Wilder…or Daxon. I tried not to read into their silence or the fact that they weren’t around. I mean, why would some girl they’d been after mean much compared to the safety of their packs and the life they’d built for them?
See what I mean? I was spiraling.
The problem was that I’d had a lot of free time the last few days. I was supposed to work two days after Eve’s death, but Marcus had let me know that the diner was basically a ghost town with everyone keeping to themselves and they didn’t need the help. I could hear the worry in his voice as he spoke to me, but surprisingly, I didn’t hear any suspicion…or judgment.
If I hadn’t already made up my mind that Marcus was good people, I would have then.
Without anything to do, and the fact that I couldn’t go near the woods and run, I was restless. I tried old Sudoku puzzles that Carrie had lying around downstairs, and I’d tried to do pushups in my room and even go on walks, daring everyone to glare at me as I passed them by.
But that insane urge to run, the one that I’d never experienced before coming here…it didn’t go away.
I would lie in my bed at night, tossing and turning, sweat dripping down my spine as I fought the urge. It would be ridiculous…insane, to put myself at risk out there. But I knew in the back of my mind that I wouldn’t be able to resist forever. There was something inside of me that had to feel the freedom that running had begun to make me feel. It was a need, not a want. I would just have to push it off for as long as possible.
When I did eventually fall asleep, my dreams had been filled with nightmares of Eve’s lifeless eyes staring into the heavens and of the shadow creature in the woods.
Let’s just say I wasn’t looking like a well-adjusted, well rested woman at the moment.
I shook my head at my distracted thoughts when I realized I was pouring the water from my pitcher onto the table instead of the man’s cup. The man in question glared at me as some of the water began to run into a rather awkward place on his lap. I started wiping down the table, my rag moving automatically to help with the water that had dripped on him until I realized I was about to wipe the man’s crotch. He stared at me wide-eyed. I flicked my gaze to his dinner companion and realized with horror that he must be with his wife. She obviously thought I was trying to come on to her husband and looked like she was a second away from sticking her dinner knife into my jugular.
I quickly pulled my hand away from the stranger’s unfortunately rising dick and backed away with my hands held up beseechingly to ward off any attack. “Let me get you some cheese sticks…on the house,” I blurted out before scurrying away.
Licia was behind the bar today, and she was biting her lip and shining the same glass vigorously as she tried to contain her laughter. She’d obviously been watching me make a complete fool of myself.
“Don’t say anything,” I warned her as I typed in an order of cheese sticks into the diner computer, trying to stop blushing from embarrassment.
“You should have seen your face,” she said with a snort as she wiped a tear from her cheek. “Maybe we should add massages as an extra dinner option. Harold looked like he’d be down for it.”
“Harold,” I whispered in disgust as I sneaked a glance at the man in question. His wife was furiously whisper yelling at him from behind her menu, and Harold looked like he wanted to disappear.
I groaned again and leaned my head against the wall as I listened to the cook whistle an off-key version of “Baby Got Back.” “You can take the cheese sticks out of my check,” I told her as she continued to laugh.
She wiped her eyes again. “Are you kidding me? That may have been the most hilarious thing I’ve ever seen. I should be the one paying you for the entertainment.”
I stuck my tongue out at her and was about to say something when a bark of disgust from nearby reached my ears.
Licia’s nose scrunched up. “Lord, help us,” she muttered as I turned to look where the sound was coming from.
As a favor to one of his buddies, Marcus had hired his buddy’s sister to replace Eve. The new woman, Beverly…was unique.
“What is this?” she asked in an abnormally deep voice to the confused looking customer at the table she was in front of. Beverly was short and stocky, with saggy boobs that hung near to her belly button by the looks of things. I didn’t know what kind of bra she wore, if she wore one, but it wasn’t very effective. She had a little bit of a mullet going on with grey streaked curly hair up front with a sort of long, wavy do happening in the back. I’m not even sure that Miyu could fix whatever Beverly had going on.
Besides her unusual looks, which frankly destroyed any notion I’d ever had that werewolves were all beautiful, Beverly also had an attitude that didn’t quite fit the service industry, or really any industry actually. She was surly as a pit bull, couldn’t smile at customers to save her life, and seemed to have the impression that customers were supposed to pay her an exorbitant tip no matter how her service was.
Licia was about to have a nervous breakdown because of her.
“Um, your tip,” the customer answered, fidgeting nervously in his bench seat and looking around for help.
“You gave me a ten-percent tip,” Beverly continued as she held up the receipt in question furiously.
“You didn’t even fill my water—” the man tried to bite back.
“If you think I slopped all over this restaurant to give you your motherfucking dinner for a ten-percent tip, you have another thing coming,” Beverly retorted, her voice rising with each word.
“I’m going to kill Marcus,” Licia moaned before flinching in horror at her choice of words. It was a dangerous time to joke about murdering someone, not when there were real murders taking place. I gave her a weak, reassuring smile before wandering over to Beverly’s table to try and calm her down before she scared off every other customer in the place. I may have wanted to leave here, but that still wasn’t possible without any money. At this point, I wasn’t sure that I was ever going to get my car back with the rate Wilder and Daxon were going.