Page 13 of The Midnight Order
“Just a touch. Alright, tell me what’s good here.”
“Just about everything. I don’t know how Howie does it, but the menu is fucking amazing.”
The older man scoffs, and the longer we talk, the more annoyed he gets. Finally having had enough of our shit, he stands and tosses cash down on the counter, eyeing us narrowly as he leaves.
The door slams behind him from the wind, and I jump, a wince blanching my face.
“So, that’s Stan. He’s a rip-roaring good time.”
I laugh again, and all the tension I usually have while in town melts.
I haven’t had a good girlfriend in… God; it feels like ages.
Part of me thinks getting excited about having a friend in town is useless because once I flip Aunt Soliel’s house, I’ll be headed back to the city and the firm I left behind.
The other half of me thinks having her to help pass the time might be nice.
“Well, I think I’ll have the Philly cheesesteak wrap,” I announce, and she nods as she writes it down.
“Alright, coming right up.”
I hold my hand before she gets her pad back fully in her apron. “Silver.”
She smirks. “Quite the name, Silver. I’m Nova.”
My chest flutters as I shake her hand, knowing I’m not the only one with an odd name in town.
Pulling into my drive nearly twenty minutes later with my food in tow, I get all my things and balance a root beer in my arm as I dig for the key in the outer pocket of my purse, coming up empty.
Once I get on the porch, I place my food on a weathered side table near the door, next to the rocking chair.
The overhead light flickers, and I look up at it.
Dark had fallen while I waited for my food at Howie’s, and my stomach coils as I dig for the key faster.
“Come on, don’t do this to me. Not now.”
The contractor’s words about the manor across the woods and whoever lives there being above the law are digging at my brain as panic spreads through me.
My heart pounds faster as something rustles in the tree line across the lawn.
Fuck!
“I swear, if I die here…” I whine to myself as my hand brushes the key, finally, as a receipt moves out of the way.
Looking up as I turn to put the key in the lock, I’m struck still, and my eyes land on the same thing I thought I saw earlier.
A man stands among the trees.
He’s eerily still and has a white, partial mask on his face.
He cocks his head at me, likely to see if I’ll give him a reaction, and I turn away.
Quickly, I get the key in the lock, open the door, and leave my food on the porch as I slam the door and lock it.
Rushing for the kitchen phone, I call Officer Hottie up and beg him to check the perimeter of my house.
This time, I’m certain I saw someone.
