Chapter 39.

Ugh. Was this all just an elaborate trap? I’m done. I’m so done right now. I was of the mind to toss her phone on the ground and break it in rage, but I refrained from digging myself a deeper grave. I didn’t immediately put her phone back though, I opened up the photos app and found said recording she spoke of. It was about 50 minutes long and there was a caption, “My cute employee falling asleep at work again.”

I skimmed through the video and realized she’d recorded me right up until I woke up, before we left to eat. If this was in any other context, being recorded without your knowledge by a woman while you’re asleep would definitely be a sign you’re dealing with a psychopath. If I had checked the pictures first instead of the search history, I’m sure that I would have reached that conclusion.

Getting played with so badly… feels bad man. I don’t think I’ve ever been schooled this badly before.

I’d suddenly made another discovery about why women were to be feared aside from being bat shit crazy at times. The ones that weren’t insane, but intelligent and wealthy, were probably just as terrifying as the lunatics in their own way.

While I had such thoughts in mind, I suddenly realized something else when I skimmed through the video. At the beginning of the video my right hand was perfectly fine and there weren't any bite marks on my finger. When I skimmed through the video again, I realized that although I definitely hadn’t moved from the start; yet somehow, at some point, visible near the end of the video were distinct bite marks on my index and middle fingers. I rewound through the video to find when the bite marks had appeared, only to realize to my horror they never disappeared. By the time I rewound the video all the way to the beginning where I initially started from, unlike when I first watched it, the bite marks were suddenly there and perfectly visible in plain sight.

I closed the photos app under the impression that it might have been some kind of bug with the video and I reopened it and navigated back to the video again. When I was back to the beginning, this time I didn’t have any bite marks anymore. Once again, I skipped through the video until the end, but what disturbed me the most was the fact that there were no bite marks throughout the entire video.

More than I had ever been before, I was actually freezing right now. I didn’t know when it happened, but the air was livid. I was chilled all the way down to my bones. I looked around only to discover there was not a single customer to be found anywhere in the restaurant. In my nervous state, I checked behind the counter and found no trace or sign of any employees either. The restaurant was suddenly abandoned. Only dead silence emanated throughout the area. What was once a bustling establishment full of life was now an eerie ghost town at a death like standstill.

Now, if this was a movie, the natural thing to do in this situation would be to check the toilet to check in on Val. If I were a true man, that would definitely be what I would do. That is, if I was a true idiot who had never watched a horror movie, so to speak, that was surely what I would have done.

As such, I did the natural thing that any sane person should do. I slowly stood up from my chair before I made a sudden mad dash towards the exit as I tried to fly out the door. Screw investigating and getting to the bottom of this. I’ve seen enough crap to know a bad deal when I see one.

Slam. Rattle. Rattle. Rattle.

Eh? No no no. The door wouldn’t budge an inch no matter how hard I pulled or pushed. While I tried to force my way out, a creepy, but slow squeak of a door resounded from behind.

I’m not looking at the toilet damn it! I heard nothing at all. What creepy slow squeak of a door? Squeak your mom!

I picked up a chair and tossed it against the window to try and break out. I’m definitely not going to stick around for a slaughter story. Yet, to my dismay, no matter how hard I slammed the chair against the window, it rebounded back with overwhelming force. What kind of witchfuckery was this? Did someone install bullet proof glass at McDonalds? Damn it! Is McDonalds actually a high class establishment all of a sudden?

Calm down. This can’t be for real. I need to think logically and find scientific explanations for every-

Ssssssssssssss...

The sound of a running tap interrupted my train of thoughts. Against my better judgement I instinctively turned towards the direction of the toilet when I heard it. The door to the women’s washroom, as one might expect, was open. Whether or not at some point there was a spooky ghost girl, who might have peeked through the crack of the door before she suddenly disappeared when the door opened earlier was unknown to me since I’d chosen to ignore it.

Oddly specific? Yes. Did it happen? I have no idea, but I’m glad I didn’t look earlier to find out. My gut instinct told me that surely would have happened if I had looked earlier.

As there was no escape and I was fairly certain things wouldn’t end until I at least checked out the bathroom and turned off the tap, I decided to man up a bit. Like a little girl too scared to be jump scared, I shut my eyes and made my way towards the women's bathroom. I also took precautions, I squatted as low as possible and crab walked as a safety defense mechanism so I could roll out of the way then curl into the fetal position in case things went south.

Ehem. I meant I crouched down like a manly basketball player, in a preparatory stance, so I could dodge in the event an axe was suddenly swung down on my head from a mystical rift in the space time continuum. Because that’s the only manly thing one can do in a situation like this.

Just ignore the fact that I made no sense just now. Also ignore the fact that I can’t see anything due to my eyes being closed like a legendary samurai too disdainful to look his opponent in the eye. I’m not a wimp who’s scared. I have no idea what I look like right now, but I can only presume I looked like a cool, humble, blind swordsman with an unmatched sixth sense. I can see with my mind. I can dodge the undodgeable. I can make it through this. Yeah… I just need to keep telling myself that.

Ahhhhhh! Who am I kidding right now?! I’m trying to play things off as a joke to try and distract myself, but it’s not working at all! I’m legitimately creeped out. I only made things worse for myself by keeping my eyes shut. It was actually far scarier with my eyes closed than when they were open. What if there really was someone... or something in front of me right now and I was completely ignorant of it the entire time?