28- Don't play with the pet's food , it belongs to them , not you . My shift is fairly uneventful . The same group of vampires are back again , and once again they complain they don't like the taste of their drinks . I ignore their whining . They complain about it but they still keep ordering more , so they can't hate them that much . I'm happy when Anat stops by again and asks me another riddle . " If you don't keep me , I'll break . What am I ? " Anat asks enthusiastically . I consider for a minute and make a few guesses but I don't get it right . O " A promise . If you don't keep a promise it is broken . Your turn , tell me one . " Anat requests eagerly . " Umm ... Okay , I have one . What can you catch , but not throw ? " I ask . Anat answers immediately . " A cold ! " Comes the quick response . " That's right . " I say cheerfully . " Here's your tip ! " Anat hands me a fifty dollar note and walks off . " Wait but ... " Anat has already moved on to asking someone else a riddle . " But you didn't even get a drink . " I mutter to no one since Anat is clearly not listening . I'm starting to think Anat doesn't actually come here to drink , just to ask as many riddles . as possible . Well , I got fifty dollars out of it so I'm not going to complain . But how wealthy do you have to be to be willing to hand out so much money for like three minutes of conversation on a regular basis ? Eventually the evening comes to an end and Torin kicks everyone out . He's been really quiet all evening , barely even speaking to me and not saying a word to anyone else . He's much more talkative when it's just the two of us . As he locks the doors and I start tidying , I catch him yawning . He has to be exhausted , he's been awake for basically two whole days . No matter how much he insists that he doesn't need as much rest as a human , he can't go on forever . " You should go get some sleep . " I tell him . Torin frowns . 29 29 Ø ل 1/3 111 < 100 % Lesson 28- Don't play with the pet's food , it belongs to them , not you . " But there is still cleaning to do . " He objects . I roll my eyes . " I can handle things here . I slept late so I'm not tired at all . You won't do anyone any good if you're dead on your feet . Go on , get out of here . " I don't give him a chance to argue . I rush over , grab his arm and tug him towards the door behind the bar . Then I open it and shove him through . " Go home . I'll see you tomorrow . " I insist . Torin looks kind of bemused but he didn't resist while I was tugging him along and he lets me close the door in his face . I smile with satisfaction and get to work cleaning . I do the regular cleaning , then decide I need to give all the floors a good mop , including out back and the kitchen . Jackson did an admirable job of limiting the mess , but some of the white dust has still made it behind the bar , carried along on people's shoes most likely . I fill a mop and bucket and get to work . Half an hour later , I've mopped the entire back area twice and I'm moving onto the bar area . I leave my mop and bucket in the doorway and go to pull up the no slip mats from behind the bar area . I'd take them outside and hose them down or something but I can't go outside . Maybe I could clean them up in the shower somehow . I'm just pulling up the last mat when I notice something interesting . There's a trap door hidden by the mat at the very end of the bar . Huh , does this place have a basement or something ? Laura didn't mention it on the tour . Maybe it's used for long term storage or something ? Curious , I test to see if it's locked . I tug at the little handle and it lifts easily . Not locked then . I pull it open all the way and kneel down next to it to look down into the darkness . I can't see a thing . Damn it . I wish I had my phone so I could use the torch . Well ... This is kind of disappointing . I can't see a thing . I wonder if there's a torch somewhere ? I'm just pushing off of my knees to stand up when a dark shadow moves towards me from the hole in the floor . I scream and collapse backwards , scrambling away . I can only describe the thing in front of me as a large , shadowy tentacle . It doesn't even look solid . It must be more solid than it looks though because the shadow reaches up towards the bar and grabs one of the empty bottles that I haven't gotten around to throwing away yet . It then retreats back into the hole and into the blackness . The room is quiet and I can't hear anything other than my own frantic breathing and the sound of crunching glass . I continue to scramble back towards the doorway , not turning my back for even a second until I am completely out of the room and the door is closed behind me . What in the actual hell was that ? It takes me several minutes and a dose of my asthma medication to get control of my breathing again . My heart rate is another matter entirely . That trapdoor is still open . Whatever creature is down there could be loose in the bar . It could be destroying everything for all I know . Except ... it didn't seem particularly aggressive or anything . I was right in front of it and it paid no attention to me at all . All it did was take an empty bottle 2/3 20 29 ل ) L O ||| 11:21 Fri , Aug 29 Lesson 28- Don't play with the pet's food , it belongs to them , not you . that I was going to throw away anyway . Maybe I can distract it with food ? Or more empty bottles . If I can just get the trap door closed up again then it should be okay . The more I think about it , the more I realise that the creature probably isn't THAT dangerous . I mean , no one mentioned it to me , and the trap door wasn't locked . Surely if there was some deadly creature beneath the bar , someone would have warned me about it , right ? It's probably insane , but after another couple minutes , I've talked myself into trying to close the trap door . It's not like I have a phone or any way to call for help . I make a stop off in the kitchen and grab some leftovers , making sure to grab a variety of options . Meat , potato , even some vegetables . I stop in front of the door and take a deep breath before pushing it open and peeking inside . The creature isn't visible anywhere . Maybe it went back in the trap door on its own ? I bravely take a step inside and place the plate of food on the bar . Then I grab the mop and hold it out in front of me as I approach . I can hear more crunching glass from the hole in the ground and I realise that the other empty bottles are now gone from the bar . Well ... I suppose that's one way of disposing of empties . I accidentally knock the end of the mop against the bar and it makes a loud thud . The crunching stops and the room goes silent . I nervously take the plate of food and armed with the mop , approach the trap door and in a quick movement , tip the food down there . I try to reach for the door to close it but I can't lift it with one hand and I'm reluctant to put down the mop . I'm starting to panic when a new sound fills the room . Chapter Comments