Deep and Dark December by Paul Cave

Author:Paul Cave [Cave, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-06-23T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Six

The small office room could not hold Ben’s interest any longer. He had done his best to keep his mind occupied, and Cal’s also, but the fears that he felt were just too great for him to ignore.

He felt trapped. In here. Blind to what was happening in the main diner.

For the umpteenth time, he looked at the calendar pinned to the wall. A naked girl, December ’81, had her back to him, her ample buttocks filling up most of the picture. She had a large cake in her hands, and a smudge of white cream had ‘somehow’ found itself smeared across her bare behind.

Ordinarily, Ben may have found himself more engaged with the finer points of the photographer’s product placement and thinking, but not today. Not now.

More so, he could not stop looking at the date circled underneath the main photo. Today’s date. None of the preceding dates had a circle around them – just this one.

Ben felt invisible spiders scurrying up his spine. What was the significance of today? Apart from the damned obvious, that was. Had the cook unwittingly, subconsciously, circled the date that marked his last?

He reached out, and cautiously turned back a page to reveal the past month. November ’81 was a different girl, chocolate finger in her hand, one end tipped towards her open mouth, in a suggestive manner, and two dark smears of brown running across her cheeks, just below her dark eyes.

Ben could not be certain if she were meant to be an American footballer, or an Apache squaw. None of the dates below had any circles around them. Ben dropped the page quickly as if it had just taken a bite out of his fingers.

He had to get out of here.

He dropped to his haunches and offered the mutt a tickle behind one ear.

“Stay here, boy,” he said. “I’ll be right back.”

He stood. Cal looked up expectantly. “Right back,” Ben echoed.

He backed out of the small office, shielding the opening with his legs so Cal could not escape. The door shut with a gentle click. Ben stood there for a second, expecting to hear the mutt bark from within.

Silence.

Good boy, thought Ben. Maybe the mutt had started to tune in to the fact that not all was normal. Not today. Not on a day that was circled. No sir.

He moved away from the office and entered the main diner. The lights were off inside, and he could clearly see the immediate area beyond the diner. Everything brightly illuminated by the lights of the overhang.

Rivers and the deputy were pressed up against one of the gas pumps. The thing that had arrived recently was standing just a few yards from them. Ghoulish face bone white and switchblade glinting with hideous intent. The figure’s one working eye roamed over the dark interior.

Ben had a moment of pure terror when that one eye seemed to stop at him. Pinned him in place with that unblinking orb. But in the next second, it moved on, towards the opposite end of the diner.

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