Bloody Business

Chapter 5: Choose wisely who to socialize with

Her coworker, albeit someone she's not that close or familiar with, is in the dining area, just two rooms away, eating fruit out of human skulls like a chalice, with their other fellow cannibals.

Noemie had her face buried in her hands still as Gavin held her close.

"I think I'll just call in sick for work tomorrow morning." The woman said, slowly raising her face out of her hands.

Gavin released her from his arms, standing up to unbutton his coat and finding his locker to shove it back in.

"Or quit and find a new one, maybe move to a different state, that would guarantee your safety." He responded, half joking and half not.

The woman shook her head.

"It's hard to find a new place, and I can't just leave."

She also stood up and unbuttoned her coat, her blouse that was underneath the coat was a little wrinkled from how snug it was around her. The lady went to one of the metal boxes lined against the wall, the one with her name written on the rectangular name plate in black ink cursive, turned the dial of the lock hanging from the handle in a routine motion, opened it, and neatly placed her folded coat inside, the only one to treat their coat so tenderly really. The woman stared into the metal box, looking at the inner part of the door, and the opening slits on the upper parts of it, big enough to slip paper through, which was how the chefs were typically notified of what to cook and how many patrons.

(A funny thing about that as well, the manager who usually does this, slips the notes into each of the lockers of the chosen chefs for the night, and each note has different information on them. Noemie and the others found this out on their first nights working together, comparing the notes they had gotten and having to piece it together. The manager thinks it's funny, I think it's funny too.)

"If it's alright to ask you..." She spoke.

The tall man turned to her as he was adjusting the collar of his shirt that also got wrinkled underneath the thick coat. He closed his locker door by leaning his back on it and crossing his arms, waiting.

"How did you end up working here?" She turned to fully face him, arms holding themselves as her usual stance. Her purse was slinged onto one of her shoulders already.

"Do you owe money to a loan shark? I thought Morticians earned a lot."

The man slightly grinned and gave her an amused look, the atmosphere still being light. He shook his head as he patted down on his pockets, then pulled out a silky looking cloth from one of them and used that to clean the lens of his glasses.

"Student loans needed to get paid off." He lied. "It takes a while to go from a student to an intern, and a full-on Mortician." He rubbed the back of his head.

Noemie simply hummed in response, clutching her purse as she went to the door to the kitchen, about to go back inside, making Gavin give her a confused look as he was walking to the exit.

"What are you going back for?"

She stopped before she could press the door back, turning to look at him.

"You know one of the waiters from earlier?"

"No, not really. They die a lot; I don't bother trying to recognize any of them."

She frowned at him, he waved both his hands up in a mock surrender, smiling an awkward grin.

"What? I don't want to sound like a jerk but it's true. It's like when someone avoids getting a pet, knowing they don't live long."

Noemie was about to retort back with something but stopped herself, her mouth opening and slowly closing as no sound came out, her eyes slowly pointing from him to the floor in front of her. She quickly shook away her instant thought.

"I want to go back and talk to one of them, Everett. He got bitten yesterday; I want to check on him before I go."

This time Gavin frowned and tilted his head.

"You, got acquainted with one of the waiters?"

"Umm, yes." She replied with a slow, careful tone. Her eyes examined him up and down warily.

"And he got bitten yesterday but you saved him?"

"No, just wrapped him up."

"You realize that almost proves my point that they die often and you're just setting yourself up for sadness if you get too connected to him?"

Her fingers squeezed against each other, she didn't move from her spot as she nervously looked away from his judging gaze, and back to the door. His eyes never left her as she went back inside the kitchen, anyway, seeing the two women who were now cleaning some of the empty plates brought back and not saying anything to them. She too could sense that they weren't the social types.

This is the part where she would listen in on what's happening outside the kitchen, in the dining area, by walking close to the door. This time she avoided the window as Gavin advised, choosing to not want to see the face of a familiar coworker out there and feeling sick again. The sounds of the chatter could tell her what the atmosphere were like out there, the clicks of shoes against the floor could hint how busy the servants were entertaining them, or walking on eggshells around him, but the most difficult for human ears to hear through a door and from a distance is the clinking of silverware against plates.

She leaned her ear near the threshold as she listened.

The chattering was of a normal volume for a group of people, and it didn't sound like anyone was panicking, somehow, these cannibals tonight still had bits of their humanity intact to still have table manners. The sounds were relaxing enough for the woman to drop her guard and doze away in her spot, staring at whatever blank table her eyes landed on, and imagining a little vision that was definitely better than the place she was in now, that's what most daydreamers tended to do.

Outside in the dining area, almost all the patrons were done sipping the last bits of fruit juice from the inside of the heads each one was given. A couple heads could be seen tipped over, as some were nibbling a bit on theirs while they talked to each other, like the cut open head was an edible chalice, just with multiple holes.

The servers tonight were dressed in lighter red suit vests instead of dark red, (sometimes their outfits change, depending on the occasion of the patrons, their roles were like dolls in some ways), it matched with the scarlet red of the walls and the darker red of the floor. The red room, one of the waiters was heard to call it.

The patrons had finished their meat dishes molded from brain earlier, they gnawed at the skin and the cartilage of the ears and nose until the heads turned into skulls with some bits of pink and red still on, along with some stringy looking pieces of blue and red that some would get, stuck between their teeth.

All of the waiters either lined against the walls with their hands behind their backs, or the one that would walk around the table to refill the glasses of bloody alcohol from time to time, looked tense but more relieved than yesterday. If you paid close enough attention, you could see their chests rise and fall as the patrons finished the last of their skulls, faces no longer as neat as when they entered the room, and began to get up to leave.

The two ladies were just about finished as Everett, the one Noemie was waiting for, came through the door to bring in the last round of plates and the empty cups, all stained with red that would be hard to clean.

Noemie woke up from her daze as he walked in, waking up from the sudden brush of wind next to her. He carefully passed her and placed the last of the dishes opposite from the stack of clean ones, next to one of the ladies who paid him no mind, simply washing everything in the sink nonstop, grab one, scrub, rinse, put aside, repeat. They were more like robots than Noemie.

He nervously cleared his throat, feeling intimidated by their silent responses, and his eyes glossed over to Noemie who shyly waved to him and nodded. The woman pulled Everett by the sleeve of his new white button-up shirt, away from the two working ladies.

"Don't disturb them." Was all she said as she pulled him to the chef locker room.

Gavin was also leaning against the threshold, having decided to wait for her but not willing to go back into the kitchen. Perhaps a good decision as the aroma of the kitchen would've stained his business looking attire of a shirt with a collar, tucked into his pants. His arms were crossed, and his brows knitted as he saw Noemie come through the door, tugging on Everett's sleeve to keep following her, but stayed silent, even as he made eye contact with the lithe and toned looking man.

"How's your arm?" She asked as the door lightly shut behind them. "And, sorry for pulling you, I just didn't want to bother the girls."

Noemie looked over her shoulder and peaked through the door to see them still washing dishes non-stop, not saying anything. The woman was like that at one point, until Gavin began conversing with her, in which she happily obliged as it kept her distracted from her thoughts that would sooner grow depressing during the cutting phases.

"It's fine, thanks to you." He rubbed his right arm gingerly and then unbuttoned the links on his wrist to roll or shuffle it up, revealing a new wrapping of bandage around the bite wound.

"I had it looked at by a close friend, doesn't hurt as much anymore."

Noemie looked at his arm as he rotated it, as best as possible without hurting himself. Gavin also squinted at it from a distance, his arms still crossed and staying in his leaning position.

"I'm glad tonight's patrons had more humanity." Noemie said.

Everett chuckled, moving his sleeve back down and looking at her with a smile.

"Don't think too much about it, we might get jinxed with another crazy one tomorrow." He gently nudged her hip with his elbow. "These weird rich people." He shook his head, muttering mostly to himself.

She grinned at him and playfully backhandedly slapped his shoulder, perhaps because it helped her to make light of their situation. Gavin stayed silent, the gripping of his fingers on his forearms hinting that he was holding back wanting to say something, his glasses disguised the emotions lurking in his eyes as Noemie looked over to him, making a tired and small, but visible smile. She gestured to her friend and calmly introduced him.

"This is Everett, the one I wanted to check in on before we left."

When the tall man said nothing and just made a nodded greeting to the other guy, Noemie tilted her face and knitted her eyebrows, still smiling though.

"Still don't feel like socializing?" She asked him gently.

He shrugged his shoulders and stood up straight, scratching the back of his head and turning away, opening the door that led to the dark tunnel of low but rising staircases, back up to the surface. Throughout his movements, it was like he immediately tried to wipe away whatever emotions he was feeling, like trying to hide it from her, erase it and replace it with something calmer and more reasonable.

Noemie didn't question this, she queried a brow up at his behavior but brushed it off, not being the type to bother questioning a lot of things. She turned to Everett one last time for the night, and bid him goodnight as she observed his arm, giving it a light pat through the white fabric.

"Take care of yourself." Her fingers made contact with the layers of new bandages on his arm. "And don't do anything rash."

He patted her hand that was rubbing his arm and then gave her a light rub back on her shoulder as he looked down at her with relaxed eyes.

"It's not like I try to make rash decisions, they just follow me."

He turned and walked over to the door leading to the kitchen, bid her goodnight in return, and left. The taps of his dress shoes made loud from the tiles of the kitchen floor.

Waiters and the guards that work in the red room go through a different door, for their locker rooms are in the opposite direction, while the ones who work in the kitchen leave through the corridor leading back out into the front office, because that's how the rooms were designed. Whoever designed the place was in an awful hurry.

Gavin cleared his throat, the woman turned around to see he was still standing by the opened door entrance to the staircase going up, tilting his head, gesturing for her to come along. She briskly walked over to the stairs as he put a hand on the small space of her back, walking with her as he let go of the door behind them. It slightly slammed closed, it was a heavy door but the two didn't pay any mind to it, they were used to it and just kept walking up the staircase together in silence. They've heard worse, or so I've observed.

Normally people would trip in this scenario, but that's only for intruders or strangers. All who have entered through this corridor and haven't tripped, are the ones who have gone through it enough times to avoid walking with mistakes in the dark.

"When?" Gavin asked out of the blue-or- darkness.

"Hmm?" Noemie responded.

"When did you first get familiar with him?"

Noemie hummed as she tried to recollect the memory, it was dark of course so they couldn't see each other all that well, such was the security of that dark staircase against intruders. The only other sounds were of resting walls and the clicks and taps of shoes against each step of stairs.

"On my second night here, I think. I just know it was almost a month ago."

"The second night? Did we talk that night?"

"We did I think, not much really, you were showing me what knives to use for which body parts and I don't remember saying much to you. So, it was less talking, and more you were explaining to me how to work here. I'm grateful for that, by the way."

"Of course. I also remember you didn't say much to me, you were like a depressed cat."

The woman chuckled, and so did the tall man.

"But, when did you get a chance to talk to that guy?"

"When everyone else left as soon as they finished their requested dishes for that night. I stayed behind even after the old pair of dishwashers had finished their job, looking through the large freezer."

"You stay late too often; don't tell me you like this place?"

"Goodness no!"

Gavin tried to stifle his laughter this time.

"I met Everett when I almost got myself locked in, I didn't realize the brick keeping the freezer door open was sliding. He caught it in time, and he was also staying behind to help clean up the mess that one of the patrons for the night had caused, you know, the one patron who tried to eat the others."

"I still can't believe they brought a poker game set to play while they ate, no wonder we made so many skewers."

"Everett told me all about that night, along with his name as he walked me home."

"He walked you home that night as well?"

"Aah, yes, I remember he insisted, and I just obliged. Truthfully, I was feeling very scared of everything, both for me and him."

"Hmm."

They reached the door with light bleeding through the bottom and opened it to the back of the little entrance area, with the person at the desk as usual who gave them greetings and goodbyes as they walked out of the motel. They quickly cut their conversation as soon as they saw the little bits of light approaching and made sure to stay silent until they left the doors of the motel.

Gavin looked around, even though not much could be seen in the dark and the trees surrounding the place except the path were very dense. He searched for his phone in one of his deep side pockets of the suit pants, pulled it out, and looked at the time as he squinted his eyes at the brightness of the screen.

Please don't take that as a hint that the kitchen was a very dim place, the dark staircase was just very long.

He showed his phone to her after adjusting the brightness of the screen, the time was shown to be midnight already.

"Looks like it's the witching hour, since Everett walked you home once, I suppose I should take a turn and walk you home as well. If you'd like?" He placed a hand on her back, which Noemie seemed to have accepted as she made no move to reject or avoid, rather, she looked into his eyes blankly.

"The witching hour is between three to four in the morning, and I actually would enjoy your company for a bit longer." She smiled tiredly, allowing him to step closer as he wrapped his arm around her back, all the way to her shoulder, letting his hand rest there. She let him hug her to his side.

They walked down the path, still not continuing the conversation from earlier, just filling the silence with random things like their plans for tomorrow, their day jobs, and how the other person does laundry to get the stench of metal and cooking oil out of pants and shoes. They acted like this until they got deeper into the city by a car that came to pick them up, and then finding a bus stop and getting on, in which they both stood together as they held onto the bars attached to the top of the bus to stay steady and pull out their phones.

Their fingers tapped quickly on their respective phone screens, and the positions they stood in next to each other allowed them to easily tilt and show their screens to each other, able to see each other's screen with ease. Even with some empty seats, they chose to stand in a place of the bus with less people, and their faces away from the windows.

'I think we're safe.' Gavin's screen read.

'Keep acting to be safe, she's a very detailed woman.' Noemie's screen replied as she quickly tapped her fingers onto the tiny letters.

'Will you be ok going home on your own? Or do you want to come over to my place?' Gavin responded, typing a little bit slower than her. Clearly, he didn't work with computers and writing as much as she did.

'That depends, describe your home, don't use numbers.'

'apartment, looks like it could be a college frat house dorm. but i have a roommate, and we agreed to talk before bringing guests over.'

'can you tell him at this hour that you are going to bring someone?'

'no, he won't stop asking Q's and bothering us if i do that.'

'then let's do my apartment, however i live alone so we'll have to make a visible excuse.'

They stopped typing so quickly on their phones but still stayed in their positions, phones still on and just moving thumbs against the screen until the bus stopped, they quickly shuffled to get off, phones still out and in hand, but no longer showing the messages from earlier. The sidewalks in this part of the city were still filled with people, even at midnight, so they stuck together as they walked, pretending to point at shops and murmur things to each other, making themselves easy to lose in the sea of people and the bright lights from the places that were still open.

Noemie stopped at one point, hooking onto Gavin's arm as she suddenly lifted one of her feet up and massaged her elevated ankle, putting on a pained expression. Though, it's possible that it was a real expression as she and her other chefs had to stand for a while when working, and she was wearing boot heels, shoes that typically weren't that comfortable after a certain amount of time.

"We've done enough sight-seeing for tonight I think." Gavin said as he helped Noemie stay steady, letting her perch a hand on his shoulder as she examined the boot heel she lifted up and set back down.

The woman nodded and they walked over to a bench, Gavin took his phone out and did some purposeful taps, they waited and continued pretending to whisper sweet nothings to each other as they smiled and stayed close, new shoes, what to eat for dinner, and complaints about the difficulty of doing taxes.

A car pulled up at a spot close to the bench they sat at, and they went over to it, Gavin showed his phone to the driver before they entered the backseat of the car, and the driver took them all the way to Noemie's apartment building after she told them the address. Throughout the ride, Noemie kept her arms hooked around Gavin's, laying her head on his shoulder, it was hard to tell if that was an act or if she was honestly exhausted and was using him like a pillow since they were close. I feel I should clarify, it wasn't exactly surprising, considering their previous interactions, for them to act this close.

The woman had natural dark circles under her eyes, so she always gave off the impression that she was exhausted, which combined with her flat hair further gave her that tired look. Gavin didn't do anything to push her away, he seemed to help her escalate it by using his free hand to brush some hair out of her face, tilting his head at her as he said nothing. He was enjoying this.

They got to the apartment complex with the plentiful balconies for birds and dark walls, thanking and wishing the driver goodnight, and climbing the stairs to the woman's apartment number in silence. Unlike the other apartments, her building had stairs for the second floor so that tenants didn't have to go inside and use the hassle of the elevator, anything above the second floor required going inside to use the elevator.

She let go of his arm and rummaged through her purse for her keys, giving him a moment to look at the scenery from the second floor. He slowly turned his head to take in the view and look down at the area.

"You live in a nice location." He said as he looked over the rails. "But doesn't the nearby forest scare you?"

"I actually like it; I can hear crows from that place sometimes." she replied.

"Crows?"

She found and turned her key inside the knob, they walked in and slowly closed the door, like they weren't in a hurry for the breeze from outside that was being let in to be cut off.

They walked away from the door after taking their shoes off; she dropped her purse onto the low table in front of the couch, he put his phone, wallet and keys down next to her purse, and they stood in awkward silence, not knowing what to do next.

Noemie looked around awkwardly, then having a quick second spark in her eyes as she took his hand and led him to her bathroom, deciding to follow her usual routine. She gave Gavin a nod and then gestured with her finger, pointing from him to herself as she began to slowly unbutton her blouse, hands shaking a little as they walked to the bathroom. He nodded back, not breaking eye contact as he too, nervously began to slowly unbutton his shirt as well.

When fully in the bathroom, Noemie reached to turn on her shower as Gavin closed the door, it made a slam sound due to his unintentional force, making the both of them flinch a bit and stare at each other with wide, slightly nervous eyes. When the shower was now very loud, pouring out cold water, the breaths that they were holding were let out. Gavin sighed as his body leaned against the door and slid, Noemie also let herself slip to the floor, her breathing accidentally becoming manual, and she counted her breaths.

"So," Gavin began, resting his arm on one of his knees.

"Was there something you wanted to tell me in secret, or did you honestly want me to take a shower with you?" He asked in a tone mixed with teasing and awkwardness, tilting his head to her.

"I have something I need your help with, and if I have to take a shower with you in order to get you to say yes, then maybe both." Noemie replied in between breaths.