Twisted Little Things and Other Stories Read online

  “Out!” Annette yelled.

  As Donna stormed out and the door swung shut, Lisa looked over at Clyde, who was carefully avoiding eye contact with anyone.

  “I'm sorry you had to see that,” Annette said after a moment, taking a deep breath. “I consider myself to be a reasonable woman, but there are certain rules at this restaurant that must be obeyed, and table nine is one of them.” She glanced at Lisa. “You've had something of a baptism of fire tonight, haven't you? With Donna gone, there'll be a lot more shifts available, at least while I find someone to replace her. Are you free for the rest of the week?”

  “Um...” Lisa paused. “Sure. If you need help, I can totally -”

  “Sort the bins,” Annette continued. “I'll tidy up the worst in the main area, and then we'll fix the rest tomorrow. I just want to put a cap on this miserable night, so I'd appreciate it if everyone could -”

  “Fuck you!” Donna suddenly yelled from the next room, accompanied by a brief crashing sound. “And fuck this lousy stinking restaurant!”

  “What's that bitch doing now?” Annette stammered, hurrying to the door. “Out!” she screamed. “Get out of here before I have you charged with criminal damage! Out! Move your ass!”

  Heading to the door, Lisa looked out and saw that Donna had overturned table two on her way out, sending plates and cutlery crashing to the floor. A moment later she heard more shouting outside the building, with Annette having followed Donna out into the parking lot, where the two women were engaged in a war of words as a couple of buses flashed past on the main road. The whole scene was so surreal and loud, Lisa couldn't help staring with wide, shocked eyes.

  “I saw this coming a mile off,” Clyde muttered, as he began to set the dishwasher on to run overnight.

  “Donna seems a little.. fiery,” Lisa muttered, turning to him.

  “That's one way of putting it. The other would be -”

  They both turned as they heard the sound of glass breaking outside, followed by Annette yelling a stream of obscenities. A moment later, footsteps could be heard heading back inside.

  “Yep,” Clyde continued, “I definitely saw this coming a mile off.”

  “If anyone sees that little bitch in here again,” Annette said breathlessly, storming back through to the restaurant, “I want the police called, is that understood? She's banned from setting foot on my property. No exceptions. For fuck's sake, she just trashed one of my wing-mirrors!”

  Stopping in the doorway, she looked across the restaurant. All the tables had been left exactly as they'd been when the building had been cleared, with dirty plates and half-finished food everywhere. The place was a mess, and some of the paintings on the walls had been left crooked after the paramedics had hurried through earlier. Food, plates and napkins were strewn across the floor.

  “Oh God,” Annette whispered, sniffing back tears. “All that work, ruined...”

  Lisa waited to be told what to do. The place was a mess and she figured they'd have to tidy it all up, but she wasn't sure where to start. Besides, she couldn't help thinking about the poor man who'd died at table nine. Despite everything he'd said and done during his two appearances at the restaurant that evening, all she could focus on was the fact that he'd suddenly slumped forward against the table and actually died just seconds after she'd been talking to him.

  “Chop chop!” she remembered him saying as she'd walked away. “I'm a decent tipper, but only when the service is up to scratch.”

  Famous last words.

  Taking a deep breath, Lisa wiped a tear from her cheek.

  “Fuck it,” Annette said after a moment, turning to her. “Food goes in the bin, everything else can be left until tomorrow.”

  “I don't mind staying and -”

  “The decision is final,” Annette continued. “I appreciate the offer, but I think we should all just draw a line under this unfortunate evening.” Reaching into her pocket, she took out a set of keys. “Are you free in the morning?”

  “Sure,” Lisa replied. “I mean, I can be.”

  “Then take these,” Annette continued, thrusting the keys into her hands, “and come back at eight, nine at the latest. We need to be open for lunch, so I'd really appreciate it if you could get here early and start putting things straight. By eleven in the morning, this place needs to be spotless.”

  “I can stay late tonight,” Lisa told her, “it's no -”

  “Not tonight,” Annette said with a sigh. “Let's just do the bare minimum and get out of here. I'm sure you'll both agree that it'd be good to finish this night as quickly as possible.” She sighed and headed to the door, before glancing back at Lisa. “That bitch smashed the wing-mirror on my car,” she continued. “Can you believe that? I always knew there was something wrong with Donna, but I thought she'd tamed her wilder side. You know, I hired her even though she's technically still on probation after getting in trouble with the police. She'll regret screwing this opportunity up, I can promise you that.”

  As Annette headed through to the office, Lisa looked across the chaotic restaurant. She didn't even know where to begin cleaning up the mess, but after a moment she saw table nine in the far corner. The paramedics had spent a long time working on the dead man before giving up, and eventually he'd been carried away. Table nine was more or less still in place, albeit with the plates and cutlery having been knocked to the ground and smashed.

  “Lock up, you two,” Annette muttered, heading to the front door. “And Lisa, thank you for coming in tomorrow morning. I just... I think I'm getting a cluster attack from all of this. God knows if the restaurant can ever recover.”

  She was still talking to herself as she headed outside.

  “It's fine,” Lisa replied, watching table nine. Despite everything that had happened, she still couldn't shake the feeling that someone or something was watching her.

  Seven

  “That's the last of it,” Clyde muttered, hauling a bag of flattened cardboard into the container by the side of the restaurant. “God, as shifts go, that was a nightmare. Even by this place's standards, that one was a right old peach.”

  “I still can't believe that poor man died,” Lisa replied, as they began to walk toward the bus stop. “I mean, I saw he seemed a little sweaty, but I think I might have been the last person who ever spoke to him. Imagine that. You go out for a meal by yourself, you get into an argument with the staff, then finally you're seated, you order lobster and the next moment...” She sighed. “And then you're gone. Just like that.”

  “Yeah, well, there's a reason no-one's supposed to sit at table nine.”

  “You don't really believe that stuff, do you?” she asked as a bus rushed past.

  He paused as they reached the stop. “Nah,” he said after a moment. “Not really. I mean, it's fun to freak out the new hires and all, but when you get down to it, it's all bollocks, right?” He paused. “Why, you don't believe in it, do you?”

  She shook her head.

  “Sure?”

  “Absolutely not,” she replied. “It's still just so sad, though.”

  “Yeah, well, now there are two ghosts to worry about at that table,” he said with a smile. “Relax, that was a joke.”

  She nodded, before checking the timetable. Feeling a vibration in her pocket, she took out her phone and saw yet another message from her mother.

  “Boyfriend?” Clyde asked.

  “Mother,” she muttered, rolling her eyes as she slipped the phone away. “I don't know why, but she's really against me working at the restaurant. She was desperate for me to find another job, and now she's spent the whole evening texting me, asking if I'm okay.”

  “Some parents are like that,” he pointed out.

  “Not mine,” she replied. “Not usually. I don't know what's up with her.”

  “It's just freakish bad luck,” Clyde continued, glancing toward the darkened restaurant. “What happened tonight, I mean. Now bad luck is something I do believe in. Some people, and some p
laces, just can't catch a break, and that restaurant's one of 'em. If you ask me, Annette should just sell it off and move on. The place is cursed. It shouldn't be a restaurant anymore, someone should turn it into something totally different,” He paused. “I think a lot of restaurants have a table nine,” he added finally.

  She turned to him.

  “I don't go out eating fancy much,” he continued, “but the few times I've been dragged somewhere, I always look around and see if there's an empty table. Quite often, there is, and sometimes I wonder if it's just empty 'cause someone reserved it and hasn't shown up yet, or if... Well, maybe the restaurant's got another reason to not seat anyone there.”

  They both turned and looked back toward the dark restaurant. With all the lights off inside, the windows were filled with constantly shifting reflections of the busy street.

  “I should've known something'd happen eventually,” Clyde muttered. “Something like table nine, it was a ticking bomb waiting to go off. Now I guess it's time to start looking for another job, just in case Annette can't salvage the situation. I bet you tomorrow night there's a big drop-off in bookings. By next week, we'll be down to 50% and it'll only get worse as word spreads. I reckon this whole mess is the death knell.”

  As the bus approached, Lisa reached into her pocket to double-check that she'd remembered the keys that Annette had given her earlier. Not finding them, she checked a couple of other pockets, before realizing that she must have left them in the door.

  “I have to go back,” she said with a sigh. “I forgot the keys.”

  “Leave 'em,” Clyde said, as the bus stopped and its doors opened. “No-one's gonna rob the place.”

  “I can't,” she replied, stepping back. “I promised to take care of them. I must've been in such a daze, I wasn't paying attention. I'll get the next bus.”

  “You want me to come with you?”

  “I'll be fine. I'll see you tomorrow.”

  As she headed back to the restaurant, she looked at the building's dark windows and felt a faint shiver. A moment later, the bus flashed past and she saw Clyde waving at her, and she waved back. Slipping down the street at the side of the restaurant, she fumbled in the darkness until she found the side door, and sure enough she'd managed to leave the keys in the lock. Relieved that she hadn't lost them completely, she was about to secure the door when suddenly she heard a faint bump from inside.

  She froze, telling herself she'd been mistaken, but sure enough she heard the bump again. Something had definitely moved inside the building.

  “I won't take this lying down!” she remembered Donna yelling earlier. “I'll get you back for this! I'll make damn sure you regret firing me!”

  Pausing, Lisa heard another faint bump from inside the building. She was exhausted and just wanted to get home, but at the same time she was starting to worry that Donna might have returned to wreak revenge. Pushing the door open, she stepped into the restaurant's reception area, still listening for any further signs of movement. She didn't want to believe that Donna would do anything stupid, but she couldn't dismiss the idea completely and she wanted to make sure there was no more mess to deal with in the morning.

  “Hello?” she called out.

  Silence.

  “Donna, are you here?”

  She waited, but now the restaurant seemed completely still and quiet. For a moment, she stared into the darkness ahead, before turning to lock the door again.

  Immediately, she heard another bump, and this time when she spun back around she felt certain that something had moved just at the edge of her field of vision.

  “Donna?” she said cautiously, looking across the restaurant but seeing no hint of anyone. “If you're here, you really need to let this go. You can't risk getting in trouble with the police again.”

  She waited.

  “Do you want to have to talk to the police,” she asked, “just because you got mad about being fired? I'm sure you can find another job.”

  Hearing no reply, she considered leaving, before realizing that for her own peace of mind she had to double-check that Donna wasn't hiding somewhere. Shutting the door and locking it from the inside, she fumbled for the light-switch and gave it a flick, only for the lights to stubbornly stay dark. She tried a couple more times, muttering under her breath, before realizing that for some reason the power seemed to be out. After searching for some kind of master-switch, she figured she'd be better off taking a look around in the dark. The thought wasn't exactly appealing, but she felt as if she had no choice.

  Besides, she wanted to prove to Annette that she could handle responsibility.

  “Donna?”

  With her hands out to guide her, she felt the front desk and then edged her way around until she could see all the way across the dark restaurant. With no lights in the building, she could only really make out the silhouettes of a few tables and chairs against the brightly-lit windows. Occasionally a passing car or bus cast a flash of light across the scene, but only for a fraction of a second at a time. On a few of the tables, she could see scattered plates that had been left until the morning, but there was absolutely no sign of Donna.

  She felt her phone vibrate again, but the last thing she needed was to deal with her mother's paranoia.

  “If you're hiding somewhere, Donna,” she continued, heading to the swing doors and pushing them open, peering into the dark kitchen, “it's not funny. Please, you could screw this job up for me. And you could make things really bad for yourself. No matter how pissed off you feel, just let it go!”

  She waited, but the restaurant was silent now.

  Stepping back, she looked across at the tables again, just as another bus approached the building and briefly lit the room. Shadows swung wildly across the tables as the bus flashed past, but darkness quickly began to fall once again.

  “Donna,” Lisa continued, “if you -”

  Stopping suddenly, just as the light from the bus faded, she saw that table nine in the far corner had been completely reset. Once the light from the passing bus had faded, she paused for a moment, trying to work out why someone would have put table nine back to normal while leaving the others until morning.

  “Donna?” she called out. “Are you trying to be funny? This isn't funny.”

  She waited but, after hearing no reply, she began to make her way carefully across the room, fumbling past the other tables until got closer to table nine. Sure enough, despite the lack of light, she was just about able to make out the plates and cutlery, which had been replaced perfectly along with a wine glass and a menu. Even the tablecloth looked to have been changed, and she knew for a fact that the tables had been a mess when she and Clyde had left a few minutes ago.

  All of them.

  And yet somehow, table nine was back to its usual state. Someone had reset it perfectly.

  “I get it,” she said out loud, rolling her eyes. “I'm supposed to think this is a ghost, right?” She turned and looked back across the dark restaurant, imagining Donna chuckling to herself somewhere out of sight. “Do you think I'm that dumb?” she asked. “Donna, I'm exhausted, okay? I get that you're annoyed with Annette, but she gave me the keys so if you're out for revenge tonight, you're only going to get me in trouble. You really need to move on and just try not to let your temper get to you. Please?”

  She waited, before realizing that there was one way she could flush Donna out. Reaching into her pocket, she took out her phone and brought up Donna's number. She heard the dial-tone, and then she waited to hear Donna's ring-tone from somewhere nearby in the room. Convinced that she'd quickly get to the bottom of the situation, she was surprised when she suddenly heard Donna's clearly-drunk voice screaming at her from the phone.

  “Get down here!” Donna yelled, with loud music thumping in the background. “Fuck that restaurant! Me and some mates are getting trashed at the Clarry! Lisa, get your ass here this instant! It's five shots for a fiver! Five for a fiver, babe!”

  Feeling a cold chill run
up her spine, Lisa raised the phone to the side of her face. She'd been so, so sure...

  “Where are you?” she asked cautiously.

  “I told you! The Clarry, down by the seafront!”

  Lisa opened her mouth to ask again, before realizing that the music in the background couldn't possibly be faked. She glanced at table nine again, and then across the dark restaurant.

  “The Clarry!” Donna shouted again, sounding as if she was on the verge of passing out. “I'm so wasted it's like I can't even see anymore! I think this guy wants to buy me a -”

  As the call suddenly went dead, Lisa stood in silence for a moment, trying to come up with a new theory. After a few seconds, she glanced down at table nine and saw how neatly the plates had been laid out, along with the cutlery and the salt and pepper shakers. There was even a clean, smudge-free wine glass. For the first time since hearing the story of table nine, she began to feel a ripple of cold fear running over her shoulders and up onto the back of her neck. She knew, absolutely knew, that there was no such thing as ghosts, but at the same time she couldn't deny that table nine was somewhat creepy.

  She took a step back, still watching the table carefully, before bumping into a nearby chair. She waited, half expecting to hear another sound, but the restaurant remained silent and table nine remained defiantly neat and tidy, as if it was waiting for someone to take a seat.

  “This is dumb,” she muttered under her breath, hoping to swat away her fears. “No way am I getting sucked into this.”

  For a moment, she considered taking a seat and just getting the whole thing over with. After all, Clyde had mentioned how staff sometimes dared each other to sit at table nine, and clearly nothing too bad had happened. Staring at the empty chair, however, she couldn't quite bring herself to do the same, and finally she told herself that she was simply above such games.

  The chair was just a chair, the table was just a table, and as for the fact that it had been reset after the night's events...