“AH! a customer is here”

a lady shouts behind a counter. She walks around the table and goes towards Arthur, until she ends up in arms distance from him. This lady had black hair, pale skin, and was wearing an apron over a red striped button up and dark brown pants. Her outfit matched the atmosphere, you could tell at first sight that she worked here. The lady tiptoes to bring her face closer to Arthurs. He takes a quick step back, still surprised from the sudden change an impossibly strong wind to a seemingly innocent lady. She looks pleased from his reaction and with a gentle smile on her face she says to Arthur.

“Welcome To:You. How can I help your sir?"Arthur opens his mouth to reply but his stomach growls loudly before he could say anything.

“Sorry about that, uhm may i?'' Arthur asks the lady.

“ Oh-Of course! Right this way” she replies.

The lady leads Arthur to a table beside a large window and sits him down after giving him a menu. The table is a little small for him and doesn't have any other chair apart from the one hes sitting one. It made him feel a bit lonely but he didn't mind because there really wasn't anyone else here besides himself and that lady. Not to mention the view from the window was great. You could see the entire street from here. Even if he looked lonely to someone else, it would be worth it just for that view alone. He takes some time to admire the scenery. Arthur imagines the street being full of customers and shop owners urging people to come inside and take a look with posters and banners advertising the shops. Maybe at night, bars would open and office workers might come in for a drink after a hard day of work. Now however thats not the case, the street is empty, nobody in sight except for the occasional passerby, its hollow, everyone has already left and so has its life. Ripped posters in alleys, broken windows, overgrown plants, atleast the areas near the fast food outlets were relatively cleaner.

Arthur stops staring out of the window and brings his attention back inside the restaurant to look at the menu and see what he should order as well as to distract himself from a depressing thought. The first page of the menu was plain and pretty simple as the fonts used they used were pretty generic, much like the ones books use. On the other side of the menu the only thing that was on it were desserts. A whole section dedicated to ice cream and another just for cakes. It wasn't hard for him to decide his meal but held off ordering dessert for later since he couldn't make his mind up with so many options. The last thing Arthur needed was a migrain. He waited at his seat patiently for the lady to come back and take his order but she was nowhere in sight so he got up and went to the counter to look for her. She wasn't there either.

“Where are all the other workers?” Arthur said to himself.

"There has to be someone else working here"

Arthur got up and began to search around the restaurant. He started by checking the other part of the dining area which was smaller and dimmer than where he was. He went closer to get a better look of the area. It was a bar or maybe it wasnt, there were bottles lined up on a cabinet and some empty glasses on a shelf but it was so small to call it a bar, it felt even more cramped than the hallway he entered in. The seat was pushed into the counter and there was only enough space for a chair and to get up and move. This restaurant seemed to have a theme for being alone and cramped, that being said there were some spaces fit more people, granted not that many. He didn't see her there so he didn't go any further than that. Maybe she went to the bathroom Arthur thought.

Going to the corner of the room, he found the bathroom which, to his dismay wasn't occupied, though it was in surprisingly good condition, it was so clean that you could even eat off the floor if you wanted. The floor and the toilet were shockingly clean that the bathroom didnt even need a mirror because the wall was so shiny. There were some bottles of unused soap under the sink, Arthur thought about taking one so he could use it to clean his toilet although that would be stealing. He made a mental note to ask the lady for that product.

Arthur slumped back on his chair and waited for the lady. More time passed and his stomach was practically eating itself now. Its been about thirty minutes and he cant take it, he was already on the brink of passing out when he came here. More time passes and Arthur thinks it's been more than an hour since she left him here. He tried to leave the restaurant but when he tried to turn the door knob to leave he found out that she locked him inside, he tried kicking the door but it was no use. He was way too weak. Arthur got thirsty multiple times and had to resort to drinking water from the bathroom tap using a cup he took from the bar area. He got bored while waiting and explored even more parts of the restaurant. He tried to find an explanation for the wind that blasted him when he opened the door at first. The closest thing that could've explained it was the air condintioner and a ceiling fan although neither could've possibly made the same wind. He then tries to see if anything else besides the sign was making the shadow from before but he couldn't see very far behind the restaurant through the window. Arthur eventually sits down and looks out the window to distract himself with the scenery, that was when he spots a lady in a thick coat enter the doorway. It must be her coming back, Arthur hopes Its her coming back.

The door opens quietly and a young man steps in. He's wearing the same red striped button up as the lady before but instead of brown pants he's wearing black. He takes off his coat and throws it onto a chair next to him without even checking to see if anybody was sitting there. The coat is different than the the one Arthur entering the doorway, it was thinner and looked more like a jacket. This man looks healthy, he's shorter than Arthur by about a few centimetres, the young man taps his shoes on the ground to get something out and looks around the dining area, he notices Arthur sitting at the window seat. The young man slaps his face and looks at Arthur again now with a surprised expression.

“Woah! I can't believe it! a customer is really here!” the young man says loudly.

“Yes a very hungry customer” Arthur weakly reminds him. Arthur tries not smile and his lips quiver, truth is he's really happy that theres another worker here other than that lady.

“That's right! I'm sorry for making you wait sir. I wasn't at the restaurant earlier because we usually don't get any customers at this time. Not to worry, I'll make your order very soon! And what was it that you ordered by the way?” The young man looks at Arthur, eagerly waiting for his response. Arthur thinks about it briefly before responding to him. The young man shifts closer to Arthur's table.

“I think I wanted to order the, Uhm”

Arthur frowns his brows, what was he was going to order again? He takes the menu off the table. As he brought his eyes down to look at the menu he realized that there was something strangely different about it. The menu Arthur was holding in his hands had black lines all over the menu options, like it was censoring them. The scribbles were moving all over the place too they kept blocking Arthurs view of the items. He flips over the menu to check the other side. It also had the scribbles covering the options, in fact the entire page was covered in black lines.

“I'm sorry but, I think theres something wrong with my menu?” Arthur gives the menu to the young man and he takes one look at the menu before replying to Arthur with an oddly calm face.

“This is fine Sir, that happens all the time here. I'll just cook one of my favourite dishes for you! Please be patient while I prepare your meal” The young man turns around and walks towards the kitchen. Theres a red hand mark on the man's cheek and Arthur tries to tell him but by the time he opened his mouth, the young man had already left the room

“Looks like I’ll have to wait a little bit more huh” Arthur sighs and his stomach growls.

As he says that, he catches a whiff of something nice coming from the kitchen.