You weren’t one to be late for work, but you felt almost glued to your bed this morning. You looked over to your clock that illuminated the time in bright red in your dark room, 7:30. Your shift started at eight and it was a twenty minute drive to get to the small cafe you worked at, it was family owned, well you techincally weren’t family but Peter and his aunt May considered you family. After you got out of school you struggled to find work, Peter and May basically took you in.
Peter was your best friend of 6 years, he wouldn’t fire you although he made constant threats every time you came in late, it was hard to take him seriously, but May on the other hand scared you, that women was worth taking seriously.
The thought of a lecture from her was enough to peel yourself out of bed. You shuddered as you pulled the blanket off of your legs, fall was starting to turn into winter and that meant today you’d be plagued with putting up the Christmas decorations inside and outside of the cafe.
You sat on the edge of the bed for a while longer before looking at the time again, 7:40. You knew there was no way you’d make it to work on time, after coldly blinking at your clock wishing that the next time you opened them it’d say 7:00 and you’d have all the time in the world to get ready, you decided to pick up your phone and call Peter.
You yawned as your phone rang, getting up you put on your slippers and headed to your bathroom, your ringtone echoed in your hallway all the way to the bathroom, Peter answered and you sat your phone on the bathroom sink.
“Hey man, I’m gonna be-”
“Late again?” he said sounding unamused,
You winced, “Yeahhhh…..Sorry?”
“May’s gonna be pissed at you not me, man.”
“I know, and I have no excuses, I’ll be better from now on.” You said with pride in your voice
“Like you said last week…..?”
“You know what I’ll see you when I get there, bye Pete!” You say hanging up the phone before he could respond.
You sighed with both hands on the sink before you looked up at yourself, you looked tired, life and other things had almost drained the life out of you. Although you were still young you looked like you had aged almost 10 years older than you were. Maybe 10 years was dramatic? You were never really too nice to yourself, mostly only ever indulging yourself into work.
You never went out but you were fine with the quiet life you had, even though you were late most of the time, maybe all of the time, you still loved the place with everything in you. Peter and May were your family.
After getting dressed in a nice sweater you left, The wind outside made it feel colder than it was even with your hands in gloves. You didn’t bring coffee because well, you worked at a cafe. So you’d just have to bare the cold while waiting at the bus stop.
When you arrived at the cafe you could see the line of customers from outside through the windows the shop had instead of walls. Peter at the register looking like he was about to loose his shit, you walk in and the little bell on the door rung causing Peter to look at you. He bolted away from the counter, “Oh thank God you’re here!” he said giving you a quick hug leaving the person last customer at the register pissed off and confused.
“Please for the love of god take the register. If I get asked for another pumpkin spice I might explode.” he said hands gripping your shoulders looking you in the eyes.
“Alright…why don’t you take a break, yeah?” you pat his shoulder.
He let out of sigh of relief but quickly remembered he’s supposed to be mad at you, “Yeah and don’t think this gets you out of decoration duty, bud.”
You give him a quick thumbs up before walking over to the register putting on a quick bullshit smile and adding a ‘What can I get for you today?’ The abandoned customer scoffed before asking for a pumpkin spice. This was gonna be a LONG day.
You ended up staying late for decoration duty, hanging the lights up outside of the building in the cold. Peter felt bad and decided to help a little before he left and lended you his coat, he was so bad at being a jerk.
You stood on a latter, hammer in hand shivering. You heard a trash can hit the concrete, you whipped your head around every which way until your eyes landed in an alley way. A man swayed side to side barely able to stand on his feet, you could hear his groans from where you stood. Creeped out by the abnormal behavior you kept working, he was probably just drunk.
On the bus ride home you didn’t stop thinking about the man, remembering small details that you didn’t think about then, was he covered in blood? He also seemed unnaturally pale didn’t he?
Those thoughts lasted until you opened the door to your apartment, paranoia was just getting the best of you. After settling into your apartment you made some tea before getting into bed the tea set on your beside table left there only to get cold like you’ve done countless times before, It didn’t take you long to fall asleep.
You woke up in a pool of sweat only a few hours later, it was 5 am. The screams of terror outside woke you even more, your curtains were illuminated orange as it covered the horrors that took place outside.
With rugged breaths you got up from your bed, hesitating to even look out the window. Cars lined up as people around them fled, they were evacuating. You quickly grabbed your phone from the bedside table your hand hitting the mug of tea that sat there causing it to fall and shatter, but you were too shooken up to care.
You called Peter wholeheartedly expecting him to answer, but he didn’t. Your back was hunched up against your bed on the floor as you scrolled frantically through your phone trying to figure out what the hell was going on. All you could seem to find was live streams and short videos of the outside, people were panicking, fleeing the city, and in the background of one of the videos you even saw bodies.
You sat down your phone and confusion and fear washed over you, already feeling defeated, already feeling dead not even knowing what killed you.
You stayed huddled up beside your bed for an hour not knowing what to do. You were pretty sure you heard three crashes outside, and the honking never stopped even though you knew they knew they weren’t getting anywhere. Chills ran through your body when you heard the cries of kids.
Rocking back and forth you muttered ‘I don’t wanna die’s’ into your wet arm, after that you don’t know how you did, but you fell asleep.
You were woken up again. By cries and pleads outside of your door, it was a man. With where your mind was you didn’t know if it was safe to open the door, you had seen your share of horror films.
“I’m hurt!” he grunted followed with breathless pants.
The sound of his voice got closer to your door, before he started break it down.
You panicked and ran out of your room into your living room, you eyed your couch and the door. Quickly you started pushing it in front of the door, the man outside shouted louder.
“Hey! Please!” he coughed his voice muffled through the door.
You stopped in your tracks, “H…How do I know I can trust you..?” you gulped
“You don’t, just be a good person.” he gritted through his teeth wincing at whatever injury he had.
“What’s happening out there…?”
“I don’t know.” he answered honestly.
“Are you gonna hurt me if I let you in?” you whined
“No.”
You hesitated, hand on the door handle not knowing who or what was on the other side. But he was right, you had to be a good person.
You unlatched the locks and opened the door, a very worn down man stood outside, or at least he looked like he had a rough morning. He clutched onto his side leaning into the doorway and you’re sure if he stood up he’d be even taller than he was.
he stood there out of breath, “Are you gonna let me in?”