It's late at night and I'm hungry. Late enough that the roads are clear and there's not much open.
sigh
"I guess there's always a diner" I mumble to myself.
I've been driving down the highway for many hours now. Probably should have called it a while ago, but this is a pretty remote stretch of the country and there wasn't even a good place to pull over to camp for the night. Not that that's my preferred way to spend the night. Sometimes that's just the only option when you're on your way to a job. This line of work isn't for everyone, but it keeps the lights on and everyone fed.
Decent sized town here, so they should have what I want. I take the next exit, the signage showed a chain diner being this way. I know most people use their GPS these days, but I'm an old school map book kind of guy. I lament the idea that they're tracking me by my phone, so I limit the amount of data I give them. You can never be too careful and they're always watching.
Pretty dead out and extremely quiet. The only sound I hear as I'm pulling into the diner is the distinct sound of my wet tires against the pavement. I'm not the type to listen to music when I drive, otherwise I might not even have noticed the disquieting stillness of the night. Not that it's anything unusual; it's just a symptom of how late it is. What's interesting though, is there's actually quite a few people in this diner. It's not packed, but it's certainly not empty.
Doesn't appear to be over the road folks either. Whatever, it's not as though I care. Just need to eat then get to the rest stop coming up to pull over and catch an hour or two of sleep before soldiering on.
I park my little van and prepare to head inside, making sure to press the lock button until it beeps twice and testing the handle to make sure it actually locked. I'm kind of particular about these things. With my kind of luck, I have to to be. As I'm heading inside the door makes this loud scraping noise and everyone nearby looks my way. I'm used to the looks of these kinds of mid-country crazies, so I pay no mind to it and pick a seat at a table in the corner of the room facing towards the wall.
Don't bother with the menu - I know what I want.
I look around the room and spot what I'm looking for. There's a woman in a uniform talking with the people at a table there. Wow is her skin ever weathered and cracked! In fact, it seems like everyone in this place is looking rather wizened. What's the average age in this town? I thought the olds were supposed to be in bed early; or do they just get up hours before dawn here? Not wanting to catch the eyes of these people, I look down at the table and stare non-distinctly at a spot in the middle of the table.
I hear someone calling to me: "Sir? Excuse me, Sir?"
I look up with somniferous eyes from my gaze at the table at the source of the sound and just let out a quiet "Huh?"
"I just asked you what you would like to drink." It was the woman. "Lizzie" reads the name tag. Gravelly voice going right along with the weathered appearance.
"Oh, I'll take a coffee. And I'll have the chicken, biscuits and gravy - extra gravy."
"Sure, I'll get that started for ya!" says Lizzie before trotting off to put in the order.
I resume my stare at the table and think about what I'd just seen. What was with her eyes? I ask myself. Were those the eyes of a person? How interesting, there was an interesting green color and texture to her eyes. I couldn't really focus well, but she almost had eyes like a cat's I'd say. She's a little bit old to be wearing crazy contacts like that. God, she was looking at me like I was her prey and she was going to eat me. Were the other people staring at me again as well? I should have paid more attention, but it's too late to take a look around now. Eye contact makes me uncomfortable enough as it is. I don't need to make eye contact with a whole table full of people. I have never been to this town before, but I'm kind of getting a bad feeling from this place. Plus it's been drizzling all day so there's this sort of lingering haze about the whole area. Definitely doesn't help with the vibe of this place. I'll have to make sure to...
A plate of food appears in front of me, interrupting my train of thought.
"Is there anything else I can get for you?" Asks Lizzie
"N-No, thank you"
"Well just flag me down if there's anything else I can get for you." She says, smiling at me before walking away.
A terrible, devilish smile. There were definitely too many teeth in her mouth, all pointed and sharp looking. I've definitely stumbled upon something here... My heart's racing and I don't what to think of this place. Did she not realize that she gave herself away?
I look at the food in front of me, looking perfectly normal - just like you'd get from any diner across the country. I look at the coffee. "huh?" There's cream and sugar packets opened sitting next to it, and half of it's gone. Did I already drink this? When did I do that? Oh god, did they already get me? I've got to do something before the drugs take effect!
I feel a small tap on my shoulder and look up - "Sir, are you okay? Is everything all right?" I hear in Lizzie's gravelly voice.
I stand up with a jolt and look at her at a loss for words. Her form seems to be warping, becoming less humanoid by the second. "Wh... Wha?"
"Are you Okay? You've been sitting there mumbling something to yourself looking kind of upset for a little while now - Do need help or something?"
I can see clearly now what she looks like. She's some sort of part human, part crocodile creature. Her features would be less described as weathered, and more described as scaly. The eyes that caught me off guard earlier are not out of place at all. They fit right in with her other gharial-esque features as they seem to become more striking and terrifying by the second.
I stumble backwards, nearly knocking over the chair that I was sitting in. I look around the room and they're all staring at me. All of them. Hungrily. These crocodile creatures are going to eat me. This whole town is these crazy creatures isn't it?
I look back at Lizzie as she says something like "It's okay! You're okay!" as she slowly reaches a single scaly claw towards me. I turn away from her and start to rush towards the door. The other abominations posture as though they're going to get up. I think I detect surprise from them, but it's difficult to tell given their reptilian features.
I ignore them and push through the door as it screeches against the ground loudly again, unlocking my vehicle as I leave the building.
I begin to open the door to my little van and as I'm rushing to get inside I bang my head against the door frame. I make it to my seat, but the last thing I see before everything goes black is two of the crocodilian creatures standing at the entrance to the diner staring at me.
I wake up and look around. I'm seated in my car and everything is apparently as normal - It feels as though a few hours have passed. I'm at the rest stop I'd intended to stop at to sleep. There's normal humans here going for your typical road trips restroom breaks. Nothing seems amiss, so I get out and grab some snacks from the vending machine. I'm absolutely famished and a bit confused, so I get back into my vehicle and eat my snacks. I notice something scrawled on a notepad and pinned in front of my speedometer.
It's my handwriting and it reads:
"Our society has been infiltrated by crocodiles."
Thanks for reading!
I decided to try my hand at writing a little short story. Not what I normally read or write. Open to criticism - and guesses as far as what the original concept is supposed to be.
I'd also considered ending the story when our narrator blacks out, but that wasn't my original intent so I didn't. You can call the story there and it'd be just as complete though in my opinion.Guurg
Image Sources:
https://www.pexels.com/@denniz-futalan-339724/