It was a saturday night,I had just finished cleaning the restaurant I was currently working in. All of my coworkers had gone home, It was just me in this dark lonesome dump. The restaurant was so rundown,the paint job was peeling off in chunks and the water pipes on the ceiling looked like they would burst any minute now.I was pretty sure the only thing that was keeping said place alive was the food. It was surprisingly good and the bar had a wide variety of drinks.
My boss had given me this job once he saw my waitressing skills and my quick ability to multitask when I covered for my friend. Ironically she had said the boss wasn’t going to be there and that she would talk to her co workers to see if they would be ok with it. They reluctantly agreed and once I was there they were really nice and explained the basics to me so I can do her job. Everything was fine until the manager had come in for some papers he needed and while doing so he spotted me and went to talk to the co workers about it.Upon watching me he hired me on the spot. At the time I thought it was weird but I accepted anyway. He told me to come in the next weekend to fill in the contract and start a shift. I was kinda ecstatic to start a job,I mean I was freshly out of high school,so I could use the experience for my upcoming resume.
When the weekend came around I went to the restaurant to fill out the contract and some security waivers for my security and blah,,blah,,blah. I really didn’t pay much attention to it. What I do remember is the set of rules the manager had set out for me.
RULES
Don’t turn off the lights after closing time.
Lock the doors if you’re alone in the restaurant.
Don’t drink the water.
That last one was off putting to me,which is why I had memorized it.I had found it so bizarre,I mean how could I not drink water while being here? That’s like a basic for a human to even survive.I didnt question him much upon hearing the rules he had set for me. I just thought he was anxious about the water bill or that he was just one of these people who didn’t like tempting fate.I mean he was pretty old,I would say he was somewhere in his 70s. So I just carried on and didn’t do so. But tonight I was exhausted From Running around serving people. My back was a mess, my feet were non existing and my throat was killing me for a drink,and warm coca-cola was not cutting it for me tonight.
Since I was the only one here I took the opportunity to break the third rule,I didn’t see anything wrong with it anyways,I remember looking in the coolers for a bottle of water but there wasn’t any. All the cooler had was beer,juice, soda and more beer. Without a choice I made my way to the kitchen and opened up the faucet from the dishwasher. Once there I lowered myself to the height of the faucet and used my hand to scoop as much water as I could into my mouth until my thirst was somewhat satisfied.
The kitchen was pretty rundown too,everything looked beaten and like it was stuck in the 90s. Even the lights looked ancient. They would even flicker from time to time,and everytime they did you would hear a faint buzzing sound.
As I regained my posture and closed the faucet,all of the lights started to flicker on and off in different areas of the restaurant.It almost looked like a club. At the time I didn’t know what to do, so I just watched and hoped that they would stop,but it didn’t. For 23 minutes the lights flickered on and off,and that was more than enough to cause a short circuit in the place,leaving me in complete darkness. I tried to turn on and off the breakers to see if anything worked but it didn’t. I relented by texting my manager what had happened before my phone died. I still had to finish putting away the plates and taking out the trash so I couldn’t leave even if I wanted to.
I turned on the stove for some light and heat,and proceeded to put the plates away as neatly as I could in the dark.It was cold and I could even see my hands even with the stove on as a source of light. It was making me a bit paranoid,I felt as if I was being watched by my every mood. Every step I took,every breath and every movement had me on edge. Of course I brushed it off and told myself I was just tired from working.That was until I felt a tap on my shoulder. I was left paralyzed and clutching onto the porcelain plates that had been put away for dear life. And that’s when I felt two slimy arms snake around my waist into a tight grip and two hands firmly wrapped around my neck.I couldn’t breathe or move my feet, Everything inside me was screaming to run but I couldn’t. I was frozen in fear.
…did you drink the water…?
Was all I heard upon hearing a hoarse and breathy voice near my ear. I couldn’t talk so I just shook my head no in fear of what would have happened to me if I said yes. The grip around me tightened and the most blood curdling scream was released near my ear. I felt something run down my pants,it was warm,,I had peed myself. Whatever had me in its grip was mad, and as the screams echoed the lights started to flicker on and off in a rapid manner,when that happened I saw it. Right there on the reflection of the metallic plate railing,a disfigured and severed maiden,her skin looked wrinkled and wet,almost as if it was melted onto her bones or as if you spent hours on end submerged in water.Her clothes were snagged and torn and her eyes looked ghosted and blood shot.
HELP ME,yOU MUST HELP ME,drInK,DriNk THE WATER,SET ME FREE YOU RATCHED BEING.YOU DUMB IGNORANT BEING.LET MEOUT.
she kept screaming those words over and over and her grip on me was suffocating.I was losing air and quick. Next thing you know I grabbed one of the plates and slammed into her head,wiggling myself out of her grip making my grand escape.
I had never ran so fast in my life till that moment. I ran and I pushed myself into the door, opening it up in an instant,I didn’t look back I was too afraid to do so. I ran for so long,I didnt even know where I was when I woke up face down on a sidewalk…
It wasn’t even after I got home that I realized that I had broken the 3 sacred rules. I was beyond terrified and I had to internalize myself in a psychiatric facility for the mere fact that I couldn’t even bathe myself for 6 months. I was deemed psychotic after telling my therapist what had happened that Saturday night..No one believed me, they all said I was crazy. So I was now a lifelong patient in the facility.It wasn’t until a year passed,when I found myself watching the news on the small tv they had for us patients in the “relax room” when the restaurant’s name popped up. Apparently they had found a body in the water boiler that supplied the restaurant after the water was coming out with maggots. They showed a drawing of who they thought the victim was.. and there she was. Her name was Jane Bennet. and she had disappeared exactly one week before I officially started working there. Exactly the same night the manager had comed in to get a few papers he’d had left behind.The manager was now under full investigation and was the prime suspect of the case. Upon hearing all of this I fell frozen in my seat, warm yellow liquid was trickling down my legs reaching the floor.
Up till this day..I still feel the slimmy arms wrapped around my body…