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Machealis made sure Graves and I made our way outside of the estate and back onto the street. I let Graves drive while I poked around the contents of the briefcase.
“Hold the hell on Sol. You wanna tell me just what the hell that was back there?” Graves asked.
“What do you mean?”
“The hell do you think I mean, man. You were gonna fucking shoot the butler! What the hell was your problem?”
“Oh. I uhh don’t really know. That goo or slime or whatever the hell it was. It kind of spoke to me. I- I don’t know…”
“If I’m gonna be out here risking my life with you I gotta know you’re gonna be good man… You good?” Graves asked.
“Yeah, I- I’m good. Thanks for having my back in there and keeping me in check.”
“It’s fine, just don’t make it a habit haha.” Graves gave me a light hearted shove.
“Hey it’s been a long night, how bout some grub? I know an all night diner just around the block. Best coffee in all of Dog Wood.” Graves let go of the wheel and mimed reading a banner with a grin on his face.
“Fine. We can go over these documents over a nice cup of joe.” I said.
Graves drove just a few blocks more down the road and swung a left into a very dilapidated looking alleyway. There were a couple parking spaces to the right with an old Buick claiming the leftmost one. To the left was an unlit neon sign that read LIZZY’s PLACE.
Just below the sign was a huge pane of glass and through it was the diner. You could see almost the entirety of the diner, even back past the counter where I could see the cook flipping burgers. It was odd because I couldn’t see anyone else inside besides the waitress standing at the counter. Maybe a small late night snack for the two of them I thought.
Graves led the way into the diner. The door let out a small jingle as the bell on top shook the place awake. The waitress’s eyes flashed in surprise when she heard us come through the door. Her eyes darted to us and then quickly, she cut them to the far end of the diner.
I followed her gaze and there sat at the end of the counter was a man in a long black waistcoat and a black fedora. Funny, I hadn’t seen him through the window outside. His face was shrouded inside the flipped up collar of his coat and his hat was tipped so low the only thing I could make out was his steely blue eyes.
Graves gave me a firm pat on the back. So hard that it nearly knocked the wind out of me. I looked to see what the hell had come over him and saw that he was sweating bullets. His body was all tense and he gave me a look that I didn’t like at all.
His face said that something was wrong, no, it was more than that. He was scared, but not for himself. I looked over to the waitress and she had that very same look on her face. They both looked like I had just stepped onto a landmine and that they were afraid that my next step would be my last.
I began to turn my head back to the man at the end of the counter and again Graves gave me a firm slap on my back. This time it did knock the wind out of me and I almost doubled over.
“What the hell!” I yelled.
“How’s bout I seat yall then.” The waitress said ushering Graves and I to the booth on the opposite side of the diner.
Graves took the seat facing the counter and the man while I sat opposite. The waitress put a couple of menus on the table and two cups of coffee.
“It’s a wonder you boys popped up in here when ya did. Didn’t catch the sign huh Graves? Suppose you didn’t tell our new friend here the rules, ignorant as he is.” The waitress said.
She spoke in a sweet southern voice mixed with that cheery customer service tone we all are so used to. Yet, you could hear the anger and worry in her voice clear as day.
“Sorry Mrs. Lizzy, I didn’t notice the sign.” Graves said, looking down.
“You and me both know what sorry will getcha in a town like this!” She just barely lost her cheery tone while she laid into Graves. Her tone softened back to the usually cheerfulness when she turned to address me.
“Well hun just so you know. The special is Black Pie Pudding. Don’t pay any attention to it ok? That pie is bad for ya. Real bad. So don’t pay no attention to it. Ya’ll just order and gone and get, okay.”
She flipped the menu over and pointed to the last item on it. There was a drawing of a black pie in the shape of a fedora. Its edges were oozing some sort of liquid and there were puffs of smoke coming from it like it was fresh out of the oven.
She tapped her fingers twice on the pie and raised her eyebrows at me as if to ask, “Got it?” I think I got the gist of it and nodded my head.
“Yeah, I’ll have one egg over easy and some toast.” I said looking over at Graves.
“Same for me.” Graves added.
The waitress left, giving Graves one final glare before she did. Even while she was laying into Graves she still had that look of worry on her face. It was fully exaggerated while she pointed out the pie.
The man in the fedora wasn’t a man at all I think. Most likely another creature or one of the many strange apparitions that plagued this town. I wanted to ask Graves questions about it but all I had was a working theory based on the clues Lizzy and Graves were trying to give me.
It was obvious that whatever that thing was parading as a man sitting at the counter didn’t want to be noticed. To what extent I could only guess. Graves hadn’t let me look at him for not more than a half a second before he slapped me on the back. So I figured taking a peak behind me was off limits.
Lizzy hadn’t even addressed it by name. She had to use something else entirely to merely address him. So I supposed talking about him in the proper context was off the table as well.
I guess Graves saw me in deep thought and realized what I was thinking about. Probably because he had been where I was sitting before. He grabbed my hand and just shook his head. I hated that. Mostly because I couldn’t just sit here ignorant to the apparent danger I was in. I had to at least know how bad things could get.
“So how bad is this Black Pie Pudding?” I asked.
Graves winced almost immediately and I could hear a slight shuffling at the counter behind me.
“Very. Very. Bad. Please Sol, let’s just wait for our food and eat.” Graves said in a shaky voice.
“How long has the pie been available?” I asked, trying to ignore his growing panic.
“God Sol. Longer than you can imagine. Longer than anyone can imagine. Now please…” There was a clear scraping sound from behind me. Like someone had just gotten up from their seat in a hurry.
Graves grabbed my hand and squeezed tightly. He said nothing but his eyes spoke loud and clear. He was pleading to me. Screaming for me to stop, but I had just one more question.
“Can we stop it?” I asked.
“No.” Graves said in a whisper. I could hear his voice catch in his throat and he left it there. His eyes locked with mine, but now they no longer pleaded. His eyes held no words. Only terror.
The first thing I felt was a warm breeze behind me. A steady breath just on the left side of my neck that ran down past my shoulder and sent a shiver up my spine. He was close, to close for comfort. Too close for me to do anything, but breathe along with him.
With every breath my lungs filled with the most rancid smells imaginable. The man smelled like death or maybe something else. Maybe it was the moment just before death I was smelling. That moment just before a life gets snuffed out and is forever forfeit to the unimaginable void. My death, that’s what I was inhaling, and on the exhale, fear so thick you could drink it with a straw.
SMACK!!!
Mrs. Lizzy slammed the plates of food in front of us, breaking me out of the trance I was in. She looked at me like she was about to have a heart attack. She just shook her head in disappointment.
“Now, I done told you boys. Put the food in your stomachs and get the hell out!” She snapped.
We both scarfed our food in less than a bite and was out the door before we finished chewing. I could still see that man out of the corner of my eye. Still sitting on the other end of the counter.
Graves hopped into the driver’s seat and sped off into the direction of my house. We rode in silence for a while before he pulled over and put his head down on the wheel.
“You ok man?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
“No..” He said.
“You have to start following the rules Sol. For the love of god. You don’t know what that thing was going to do to you.” Graves said.
“Well now that we can speak freely, I assume at least, you can fill me in.”
“You just don’t get it do you Sol?! That’s not how things work around here. What you did back there.. Just remember it’s always better to follow the rules first and ask the questions later.” Graves warned.
“Well what the hell are the rules man?! Because from what Lizzy said your’re the one who fucked up bringing me in there blind! I’m getting sick and tired of being the last to know what the hell is going on!” I snapped.
“Ok you wanna know about the damn place then fine, I’ll tell you!” Graves yelled back.
“Thank you.” I said, exasperated.
“That diner, LIzzy’s Place, is one of the very few places that damn thing can show up to newcomers. Most everyone has already been exposed to it by now so it isn’t much of a problem for most residents of the town. So you forget things like that when you’re patrolling around with a newcomer like yourself. I have to keep reminding myself that shit around here isn’t as normal as I’m accustomed to believing it is. For that I’m sorry. I’m sorry I put you in danger for the second time tonight.”
I hadn’t expected that. Nor did I realize that if I had gotten killed, that in a way my death would have been on Graves’ hands. All of a sudden I felt like a complete ass for putting myself and him in more danger than we needed to be in.
“It’s fine man. I’m not exactly the best at following the rules anyway.” I said, trying to ease the tension a bit.
“Thanks man.” Graves shot me a smile and I could see him start to return to his old self again.
“Anyway Sol. That thing in there, we call him the Hatman. Once you see him there isn’t any getting rid of him. That’s why we try to keep tourists and passers-by away from the places he can appear without having seen him before.”
“So, you’re saying I’ll see him forever now?” I asked.
“Yep, you only see him every once in a while, maybe once or twice a month at best. But the trick is to not acknowledge him at all. If you do then he has you. He likes to pop up and try to scare people into looking at him or appear in unexpected places, but you get used to him.”
“But we couldn’t even talk about him at the diner. I wasn’t looking at him at all.” I said.
“He was in the room Sol, that’s the thing. If he appears and you acknowledge him in any way whatsoever he can get to you. Even if you talk about him to others that don’t know. Just the knowledge of his existence is enough for him to appear. That’s why I couldn’t risk telling you.”
“I understand and thank you, but it looked like there was a bit of leeway with how we can talk about him in the abstract.” I said.
“Only for a short while, man. Sol, if you would have asked one more question we would have lost you. You gotta play by the rules from now on.” Graves said.
“Ok Graves. I’ll play by the rules.”
Graves asked me if I wanted a ride back to my car and I told him to just drop me off at my house. He was going to pick me up in the morning anyway so I figured I could just grab it from the church later that day.
He dropped me off just as the sun began to creep out into the sky. I went up to my apartment and locked the door behind me. I looked at my bed and then at the clock on the counter. It read 6:32AM. No point in hitting the hay this early in the day. I decided to grab the briefcase that Pruit had given me and take a look. I’ll post my findings in a separate part because I think this one’s already getting on a bit long. Hopefully, I’ll be close to wrapping this case up soon.