Chapter Text
mia was waiting at the front of her diner, gosh things have been slow. they were only in a small town after all, so there wouldn't be much people anyway, ugh. okay, just stay awake until eight a.m., then she could take a quick nap. she decided to distract herself with cleaning the diner, when she spotted a girl with red hair in a green jacket.
what was her name again? bella? no, something like that. ella, that was her name. she moved in like, three weeks ago? thats one more resident to this shitty town. ella walked in and sat near the front.
"hey, what can i get you?" mia reluctantly asked, the sentence starting to sound weird after the millionth time.
"ah.. this is my first time here. what do you recommend?" mia paused to think, probably cheesecake. ugh, that sounds so good with a milkshake right now. classic combo.
"i would recommend cheesecake and a chocolate milkshake, my personal favorite,” mia commented.
"i'd like to get one of those then," ella ordered, which sent mia to go make a cheesecake and milkshake. ella seemed like a nice girl, what could possibly happen to her?
"excuse me, i have to go to the back real quick, do you mind?" mia asked, needing to pause on making her cheesecake.
"yeah, i dont mind! take your time," ella smiled. mia walked to the back of the diner to take a quick smoke break, usually her favorite time, until she heard a gunshot go off in the diner.
the hell?
mia rushed in, only to see daphne trying to hide the gun in her dress. ella was still standing, but now she was basically paralyzed, unmoving, probably taking the whole situation in. daphne had a guilty look on her face, trying to hide the gun by adjusting her stole.
"um.. i'll help clean?"
yeah, whatever. as long as it distracts mia.
after daphne delivered the final shots to end ella, she put on some fancy gloves. oh, all mia had were cooking gloves. luckily she had bleach and other cleaning supplies from when she first bought the diner and wanted to clean it. eugh, the diner was grimy at first. daphne first threw ella's body in the dumpster behind the diner, while mia started soaking up the blood from the floor.
daphne couldnt bring herself to end ella, so she had to do it for her. while that was happening, a whole lot of blood came out. her once warm skin became a sickly pale complexion. mia brushed it off, murders were--for some odd reason--a common thing. the vigilantes and detectives are supposed to be working together to try and find the mafias, yet somehow mia found one before them. ugh, whatever, her brain basically zoned out while cleaning, and when she came back daphne was standing over her.
"you did it?"
she responded with a brief nod, before setting her shrug down and helping clean. daphne's usual smile was instead a sharp line, probably focused on getting rid of the evidence. mia gave her the rubber gloves and poured bleach to completely get rid of the blood, the bleach made it smell like a pool, disgusting. she always preferred to stay inside anyway.
"mia, why didn't you panic?" daphne asked, cutting through the silence.
"i don’t know..? i was just bored."
speaking of, she just remembered the cheesecake that’s cooking. it’s gonna take at least another 30 minutes, but that’s fine. she has more in the refrigerator, right? she went to go check, and what was in there practically disappointed her.
so she didn’t have anything in the fridge, just a couple sad left overs. with cooking and having to wait for the cheesecake to cool down, it would take basically another day. yeah, whatever. she can simply buy a cheesecake from the grocery store, they typically have it. daphne noticed mia pacing back and forth between the fridge and floor, as if opening the fridge 10 times would make something magically appear.
“mia?”
”hm?”
”hows it like with the diner?”
the random question caught her attention, why was she curious about it? mia supposed it would be nice to have someone else work at the diner…but daphne is a showgirl if she remembered correctly. they’re typically in the club or the casino, so it would make no sense if she wanted to work at the diner.
“as of right now, it’s kinda boring. rarely anyone comes in, and the only other person that did come in here died.” she sarcastically added, targeting daphne for killing a customer, but it wasn’t her fault anyway.
daphne chuckled, and readjusted her hair piece.
“haha, my apologies. i can pay you to cover ella’s bill and the materials.”
“oh, that would be appreciated.”
they sat in awkward silence after that.
”so.. are you hungry? i can make you a bagel sandwich or whatever, on the house.”
the woman adjusted her shrug, and actually hid her gun this time before responding with, “that’d be amazing, but i feel obligated to pay. think of it as an apology.”
mia went behind the counter and started preparing the bagel. “do you want any specific toppings or anything you don’t want?”
”no bacon or sausage, please. the rest is up to you.”
got it. uh, mia was planning to add bacon, but after that she had to think about something else. um…a bagel with eggs, cream cheese, and veggies? that sounds good, should she ask daphne for confirmation? no, y’know what? mia decided to just wing it, you only live once, right? she sliced the bagel, lightly toasted it, and started cooking the eggs.
in the faint background, she heard the door open. hm? who else was coming in? she slightly turned her head to look, and it was a woman wearing a fluffy hat with shorts and gloves. the outfit was kinda... weird. especially for this weather, it was literally the middle of june. it’s was too warm for anything like that, so, likewise, mia also couldn’t imagine wearing anything like that. oh, she’s wearing long sleeves with long pants. scratch everything, whatever.
she went back to cooking the eggs and put them on the bottom of the bagel she had cut in half previously. after a couple last touches, she added the cream cheese and veggies. it looked pretty delicious, and mia herself had almost ate it. daphne and the woman had been talking about something, but she was too focused on the bagel to actually notice. not that it was any of her business anyway.
mia checked the time, 2:38. great, four more hours before she can close up for the day and take a nap. today was tiring for her, especially when ella died. well, i guess she spoke too soon when she said that the night was going to be boring. as long as another incident doesn’t happen. mia couldn’t help but eavesdrop on daphne and the other woman, whose name is chanel. apparently chanel mostly controlled everything in sorority, whatever that is. isn’t it that big bougie mansion?
the bagel sandwich was placed on a plate and given to daphne, who started eating it immediately.
“chanel, are you hungry? you can order anything, i’ll cover it since you were recently assigned sorority president.”
”thank you, but i’m fine. i already had snacks on the way here.”
then the two went back to talking, and mia stared at the cheesecake that was cooking. should she make herself something? other than cheesecake.. oh! chocolate milkshake!
she got the ingredients from the fridge, ice cream, milk, and chocolate sauce. then she put it all together, and started blending it. after that, she put it in a cup and put whipped cream on it. yummy!
.• ♬ ͜͝ ̣̣♡.• ♬ ͜͝ ̣̣♡.• ♬ ͜͝ ̣̣♡.
after daphne and chanel left, mia checked the time again, 5:53 am. oh well, she’ll just start closing up early. so she started her routine of cleaning up the diner, sweeping, mopping, then cleaning up the blender, knives, and whatnot. then she remembered ella was still in the dumpster. eugh…the thought of seeing her body again irked mia more than it did a couple of hours ago.
she has to take out the garbage though, and that means she’ll see ella one way or another. reluctantly, she got the trash bag, and dragged herself over to the dumpster. surprisingly, it didn’t smell like anything. huh? mia expected it to smell… rancid. when she lifted the cover, ella was still there. her clothes had completely absorbed her own blood, and she had pale, clammy skin. she was in an uncomfortable position, and mia hurriedly threw the trash bag over the dumpster, then slammed it shut.
she’s definitely going to get nightmares about this.
the walk back to the front was slower than usual, we mia was in deep thought. is she gonna be caught having a body in the back? is she part of the mafia now? actually, no. she’d prefer to stay neutral. after all, things are more fun from the sidelines, and if she stays quiet, no one would even know she’s there.
is chanel a mafia too? all she knew was that daphne is definitely one, but chanel? maybe she simply saw daphne in here, and came in too.
yeah, whatever, daphne already paid and left so she probably shouldn’t dwell on it for too long. daphne paid well, and added tips, but the smell of bleach wouldn’t leave. would other people get suspicious because of that? no, she’ll just say she never saw ella, simple as that. mia turned the lights off, locked the door, and started walking to the motel.
when she got in, toby briefly nodded to acknowledge her. he was fidgeting with a random key at the front desk, uh okay. mia walked by and looked for her room.. 110…102…104…106…108…found it. she unlocked the door and slumped onto the bed. her back was tired from hunching over and cleaning the blood, but the image of ella wouldn’t leave her mind. she turned over and grabbed her phone from her bag.
maybe if she scrolled on social media, she'd be able to forget and take a nap. it’s only.. 6:25. she opened the app and started scrolling.
new posts from people she knew filled her screen, but she rarely ever posted something.
apparently cameron broke up with another girl, gosh, how many people has he dated? every day it’s like he's seeing a new girl. the next video was just chanel’s shopping haul, in which beatrice and celine were in the background. surprisingly, the next video was of the showgirls at the club, partying with drinks.
mnn...mia was feeling pretty sleepy, so she put her phone aside and rolled up in bed.
. ⋅ ˚̣- : ✧ : – ⭒ ⊹ ⭒ – : ✧ : -˚̣⋅ .
she woke up on the floor somehow. was she fighting in her dreams? she got up to check the time, 9:42 am. two more hours until the meeting in the center of the town, so she peeked her head out to see who was in the hallway. mia saw luke and hudson strolling down the halls. luke saw mia too, and waved at her. decisively, she waved back, but she didn’t really know the two. in fact, she didn’t really know anyone in this town. occasionally she’d talk to someone, but she didn’t want to make friends.
“hi mia!” luke greeted, hudson silently stared her down. the two were a stark contrast to each other, with luke being overly cheerful and childish, while hudson was serious and stoic most of the time. mia originally thought the two were friends, but after overhearing a couple of conversations and coming home to certain sounds from their motel room, she quickly found out that they were dating. maybe that was mia’s fault, why would friends share a motel room? anyway.
“hello,” mia responded, standing awkwardly in front of her door. it felt like hudson was analyzing mia, why was he staring so intensely? weirdo.
“i’m going to go to the bookstore, have a great day,” she said to break the uncomfortable silence. turning around, she grabbed her bag, wallet, phone, and earbuds, then went off. the bookstore was owned by bertram, and it was only a street away from the motel.
mia decided to listen to some random songs while walking and headed out the door of the motel.
‘darling, give me your absence tonight
take the shade from the canvas and leave me the white
let me sink in the silence that echoes inside’
she opened the door to the library and bertram greeted her at the door. mia politely responded back, since she didn’t want to be seen as ignorant. the bookstore had this warm yet unusual feeling about it, but mia brushed it off. it looked like there were more books in the murder mystery section, so she decided to pick one up and skim through it.
”shadowboxer”
what an odd name for a book…she flipped it around to see what the description said.
”a cold case suddenly reopened by giselle, the main character, which then leads down a rabbit hole and slowly drives her insane. will she figure out who did it, or will she go crazy?”
that’s…actually really interesting.
“bertram? i’d like to buy this book,” mia requested.
”that one? it’ll be 20 quid.”
she handed him the bill, then went on her way. across the street was alex making fun of cameron, who was trying to brush off his last break up. that’s what he deserves. she would’ve kept walking, but she heard a couple whispers from an alley. when she went closer to inspect it, there was a small group of people talking to each other in the dark. is this some kind of cult? there was only, like, four to six people there, and it was…amara, amor, or was it valentin and valeria? she never figured out the difference, but the pairs were always together. back to the list: amor, amara, emma, sue, and athena.
before they saw mia, she quietly walked away. whatever they were doing, she didn’t want any part in it.
“mia, is it?” a womans voice came from behind mia. she was caught off guard, and jumped a little.
”yes, why?” mia turned slowly, and was face to face with grace. didnt grace used to date hudson? gossip spreads like wildfire in a small town, especially one having only 50 people on a good day.
”just wondering, haven’t seen you in a while.” oh, that was right. the last time they talked was a year ago. even then, mia couldn’t remember what they talked about. she was never much of a talker.
”was nice meeting you though,” mia added, getting ready to walk away.
”wait, have you seen ella? she was supposed to give me recommendations on plants.”
“uh, no i haven’t. sorry, i don’t think i’ve met ella before.”
”she has red hair, not like fallon’s but more of a vivid red.” grace tried describing ella, but all it did was remind mia of her body in the back of her dumpster.
”ah, i see. if i see someone like that i’ll let you know,” mia said, before speed walking away. what if grace thinks mia is being suspicious? no, that’d be bad, because then they’d think mia is the weird murderous distant girl, running a diner to lure her victims…stop it. okay, she was just overthinking it now.
speaking of grace, why did she and hudson break up? actually, maybe when hudson was with grace, he figured out he was gay or whatever, that would make sense.
mia checked the time and noticed it was getting close to the afternoon. what else should she do? oh, she didn’t have breakfast yet. should she go to fallon’s or lily’s bakery to eat? uh…eenie meenie minie moe, catch a tiger by its toe, fallon’s bakery won! not to mention the bread being on display only multiplied her hunger. it looked delicious, ugh.
fallon was at the register counting her money when she noticed mia walked in. mia scanned the bakery, taking in her surroundings. fiona and fallon were both behind the register, but it looked like fiona came in on her break to see fallon. as long as the bread tastes good then she wouldn’t mind.
"morning, what do you want?" the woman with ginger hair asked, her voice sounding mature and raspy.
mia pointed at three pastries.
"25 quid."
she dug through her bag and pulled out a 20 quid bill and five bills worth one quid. fallon prepared the food in the bag then handed it to mia.
she went on her way, eating and walking. she opened her phone again and started scrolling.
the first video was just a rant from cameron and blackpill, for if you want girls to be more "submissive" or whatever. not that the girls even stayed with him anyway…
the second video was slightly better, it was amara doing a “get ready with me” to go on a date with valentin.
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when mia got to the middle, she noticed people trying to count everyone who was there. ever since people started to go missing more, they decided to meet up everyday.
"huh. is ella not here anymore?" valeria asked, putting her index finger on her chin to think.
grace spoke up, "i havent seen her in a week, im worried."
"oh, what if..?" amara implied that ella could be dead.
as much as everyone wanted to disagree, it was still true.
"but we dont have a single idea who did it, and where she even died! she just.. disappeared." steven added.
"we should skip the vote, no use in guessing who the mafia is and who isnt."
the vote was skipped.