Chapter Text
Daniela lent against the metal prep table, playing lazily with the frays on the sleeves of her black shirt. A shirt that probably was owned by the last unlucky night shift worker at this dull job.
Her mom begged her to get a job. Apparently, being 21 and living under your parent’s roof means being forced to succumb to the horror of a part-time job. She figured that the dingy kiosk that illuminated her face when she would wait for the bus to go into town was enough.
She thought, ‘fuck it’ , and made the reckless decision to apply for a job. After no vacancies appeared online, because why would Daniela take the time to have a meaningful conversation face to face, she was forced to knock on the shutters that have definitely seen better days. With an ear shattering grunt, the shutters opened and the man who revealed himself was emotionless and spoke little words.
Daniela furrowed her eyebrows but shook it off. She has seen more emotionally avoidant girls in high school. Plus, she owes her parents. Years of their, nothing short of generous, contributions need to be repaid eventually. All of them good daughter duties that her mom is constantly reminding Daniela she needs to fulfill.
So, here she is. In blue sweatpants and a long sleeve black top that cannot shake the stench of spiced meats and whatever horrors this place holds. She agreed to work the night shift, with the intention of playing block blast all night on her phone.
Imagine her horror when she turned on her phone at the start of her shift and all she was met with was a black screen and the sign of a red battery.
"Dead, great", Daniela huffed out. What was she supposed to do now?
She shoved her phone into her back pocket with a roll of her eyes.
This was her third shift on the job. Her first two were rather uneventful, besides her eyes hurting from watching her block blast levels rise and rise. Hopefully, her third shift has a bit more life too it.
Taking the sights of her surroundings, she’s starting to realise how run-down this little shack is. The steel work top at the front of the kiosk was littered with odd brown stains, the little rectangular TV stand was about the same size as her phone and there was a strange black blob to the left hand side of the flickering vending machine that was definitely too warm to function properly.
Thinking of it now, that odd black blob only appeared last night after she served a customer. A girl with dark hair who she recognised from her high school. Ilya, Daniela thinks she was called. She assumes something just leaked off from the counter when she had her back turned. Ilya just yapped on about how good it was to see Daniela again, even though Daniela cannot remember them actually having a conversation before.
With nothing else to do and already being half an hour into her shift, Daniela figures that she might as well grab a mob and investigate the dark spill. Walking over to the mop bucket under the TV, she spotted a girl walking across the road towards her kiosk.
A girl she recongises within a heartbeat. A girl with pink bangs and a smile way too big for this time of night.
“Megan, why are you here half past midnight?” Daniela sighed, regardless of the smirk plastered on her face.
Megan just beamed further and then practically jumped onto the kiosk. Her hands pushing her up on the little ledge below the window and sitting, uncomfortably, facing Daniela.
“Dani, why are you not happy to see your best friend right now?” Megan teased back.
This earned an eye roll from Dani, whilst a smile tugged at her mouth.
“Tell me why I willingly took a job working at a Shawarma kiosk, then I will answer that”, Dani replied.
“Better get used to it Daniela, but can I have a shawarma and cola pretty please best friend?” Megan answered, her eyes lighting up at the thought of free food.
“You have to pay this time” Dani deadpanned, knowing she will just pretend to swipe Megan’s credit card. Who knows if the CCTV actually records anything in this place, but it is better to be safe than sorry.
Megan giggled and Daniela took this as her queue to start actually making a shawarma. Dani wouldn’t say it is her specialty, but Megan doesn’t seem to mind the taste of stale flatbread and dry meat.
She prepared the Shawarma, grabbed a cola, and handed it over the kiosk to Megan.
Megan took it gratefully with a “Thank you” and a promise that she will come by later to check Dani is still ‘sane’.
With that, she headed back home. The promise of her return making Dani slightly more optimistic for the night ahead.
Daniela sighed and returned to her chore of cleaning up that mysterious mark on the floor. She grabbed the mop, checking the CCTV on her way. Like most of the time, it was clear; no one was in sight. It gave Daniela a chill that she felt throughout her whole body.
She made her way to the other side of the vending machine to her, the side of the dark mark. Inspecting it closer, it seemed to have a different texture than she first imagined.
“What the hell?” Daniela muttered.
It seemed to originate from a singular point on the floor and was made up of dark black strands. Like hay? No, not hay, it can’t be. It isn’t that thick or straw-like.
Hair.
It was hair: dark black and long hair that seemed to have been spread on the floor. Weirdly, still all attached together, as if the follicles were still attached to something.
“What the f-”
Daniela was cut off by a tap on the kiosk window. She shrieked, embarrassingly loud. Embarrassingly loud considering the girl she was met with on the other side of the counter.
“Oh, hi Lexie, what do you want?” Daniela managed to choke out. It came out ruder than she anticipated.
Lexie, a girl she used to go to high school with, stood staring at Daniela with a shit eating grin. Daniela grimaced and thought that was an odd reaction considering she might as well have screamed in her face.
“Sorry Daniela, I did not mean to scare you” Lexie answered in a tone that was way too calm for the events that just unfolded.
“Oh... no bother, do you want a Shawarma” Daniela replied, her mind still consumed by the hair behind her. What the hell, Dani thought, of course she wants a Shawarma, why else would she be here?
“Yes please” was Lexie’s response back. Short and sweet. Too short for someone who would never stop speaking on her lunch table a few years back.
Daniela, definitely flustered by now, started to slice off the meat from the vertical spit in the corner. She purposefully averted her gaze anywhere but the hair to the right of her, by the wall. Consequently, she looked back towards Lexie’s direction and gave her a faint smile.
Lexie reciprocated the smile, but her eyes gave the indication that her mind was elsewhere.
Daniela ignored the sinking feeling in her stomach and moved around the kiosk to complete Lexie’s order.
After an awkward few minutes, she handed over the Shawarma to her old school friend and took her payment. With a nod of her head, Lexie turned and walked off.
Dani, feeling off put from the interaction, watched her walk off into the fog. As if that would help her piece together why Lexie was acting so unlike herself. Instead, she just strolled off aimlessly past Daniela’s line of sight.
Daniela couldn’t wait to end this shift already. She turned on her feet to check the time on the glowing digital clock beside the vertical broiler.
Her mind was still racking up the reasons that Lexie was acting so strangely. She completely forgot about the situation on the floor. The hair, or whatever Daniela made herself believe that it was.
“The hair” Daniela gasped suddenly as she suddenly remembered its existence.
The hair.
That was no longer hair.
Well, no longer just hair.
Daniela’s eyes popped, she jerked back into the metal prep table and put a hand over her heart.
Now, prodding up from the floor was a face. A face that the hair was attached to.
A face, with dark hair, brown eyes, and lips coated with pink lip gloss.
“Why the fuck is there a hot girl coming out of the floor!” Daniela screamed. Matter of fact, so loud that the hot girl winced. She was alive.
She was... alive?
Daniela’s jaw was stuck in a permanent position, that any witness would believe she was trying to catch the many flies in the kiosk.
What the fuck.
On that thought, Daniela’s body collapsed beneath her and her body made a deafening thump as she hid the cold floor of the Shawarma kiosk.