Senot Eht Esrever, Liat No Senot
“A cup of tea, Perhaps? My throat is rather dry.”
I blinked confusedly, broken out of a haze. What?
Tea?
I repeated it aloud.
“What?”
The voice repeated once more, its tone dry and weathered like nails on a chalkboard:
“Tea, Please. You asked me what I wanted– chamomile if you have any, but green will suffice if not.”
I looked down to see the man sitting in the booth. At least, I think it was a man.
His smirk was a bit too wide, his stare a bit too knowing. His pinstripe suit was nearly pristine, as if it just came out of a dry cleaning bag. And even though the heater was broken in this section of the diner, his table was just so warm.
I blinked a few times and nodded, hurrying off to the kitchen.
“Okay. Be right back.”
Walking away from his corner booth and into the kitchen, I felt sore. I tend to space out a lot at work, but never this bad.. Maybe I'm just tired.
I grabbed a chamomile tea bag from the cabinet and placed it in a mug, pouring the kettle of boiling water over it as my mind raced. Why does he look so familiar? Hurrying back to the table with the cup, I set it down in front of him. He slammed it back with a concerning swiftness, steam still overflowing from the porcelain. My gut churned. He gave me a plasticky grin. Spitting out the tea bag, he let out a sigh of relief, and with a voice now smooth as butter, he remarked:
“Refreshing.”
I forced a customer service smile and nervously asked, “Okay.. can I get you anything else?” He rose from his seat, sliding a two dollar bill under the mug. As he stood, I could finally register just how much taller he was. Sure, I’m not that tall. An average 5’6.. but he towered over me. His jet black hair scraped the ceiling and blended into the dark window behind him, his waxy skin glistening by the fluorescent light over his shoulder.
“No thank you, Daniel. You have fulfilled my request.. But what can I get you?”
Shaken, I looked at him with confusion.
“What do you mean.. And how do you know my name?!” His grin drooped into a dry, piercing stare.
“It was on your name tag, dummy. Why is that what surprised you? Haven’t you already noticed?”
I gulped and shook my head. “Noticed.. Noticed what?” With a ferocious, gleeful wave of his arms, he motioned around him.
“Your coworkers. Patrons. Hell, even the cars outside- Dan, I keep on telling you! You need to stop spacing out! Look around you, they’re all gone!”
Horrified, I did as he asked and was greeted with that horrifying revelation. The diner was empty. Parking lot was empty. Even the park across the street was completely devoid of life, shrouded in dark smoke.
“Don’t you remember? The frail old bastard who always complains about your dyed hair. The shrill voiced blonde who always double parks and forces you to use the customer spaces. Your arrogant prick of a boss who books you early shifts and underpays you. You wrote about them in your little diary, and I took care of them all for you, “Dan.” Or rather.. Took care of you for them.”
He kicked the overstuffed diner seat with the heel of his boot and it crumbled to dust behind him. His grin seemed to stretch further across his face, creasing and stretching it like rubber. He picked up the mug, next. Hurling it at the ground, it shattered, then scattered sand all over the carpet.
“Come on… What else can I do for you? This realm is mine to bend at your every whim.”
He brought a little plastic cup of creamer down to my chin, peeled it open… and a tiny pool of magma spit out from the flimsy vessel. A droplet bubbled up, popped and left miniscule flakes of white hot ash to sear the bridge of my nose. I yelped out in pain as the burn faded into a dull numbness, the rest of the cup being poured onto the floor.
The carpet sparked and erupted into flames. Growing impatient, he stepped against my foot. The weight of a dozen boulders seemed to crush every bone below my ankle, and the floor seared my sneaker like a burger patty. I screamed. He erupted into laughter and screamed back at me.
“This world will only be a hell if you make it one with your damned indecisiveness, your constant hesitation.”
He shook his head and stepped away from me, previous laughter now a dismissive chuckle, letting me collapse onto the burning floor.
“Daniel Ash, Hah! is that really what you thought your name was? Wake up, Dante, Embrace the inferno.”
“What… Who!?” I scrambled away, trying to get back up onto my feet as the fire bit at my flesh. My faded purple hair had now turned a crisp black to match his, the flames eating away at anything they could reach. Its laughter increased, now screaming at me. The voice still persisted, though– projected into my mind like some twisted bloody teleprompter.
Too late.
The fire, previously contained to the rug, now creeped and skittered outwards to the rest of the diner like a cluster of incandescent spiders, webbing the walls in smoke and flame. Powerless, I choked into sobs and screams. “I want to leave!!” I beat against his shin, stuck on the ground. I prayed so badly this was just a dream, attempting to dissociate out and into whatever mediocre reality I was ripped from, but the room just seemed to spin around me as it was engulfed in heat. The stern voice was projected into my brain once more as his tangible voice kept screaming, roaring, spitting flakes of cooling spittle onto my inflamed face.
I told you not to space out like that, Dante. The time to act has passed- Better luck next time, I guess.
The flames raged on, his wax skin now bubbling and melting and spatting onto my skin like oil from a fryer. I weeped matching scorching tears as the screams’ tone matched the ringing in my brain and the bleeding of my eardrums..
Too weak to speak, so mentally I begged, beating against my skull; Please, I’m begging you! Let me out!! Let me go!! With my last gasp of air, C02 filling my lungs, I choked out “What do you want…” His scream faded with a crescendo into a squeak, twisting into another one of those plastic smiles– also melting, like the rest of his face– as the room seemed to fade into black.
“There is one thing that I want, actually.”
“A cup of tea, Perhaps? My throat is rather dry.”
I blinked confusedly, broken out of a haze. What?
Tea?
toneS on taiL, reversE the toneS