Chapter 12: Reasons to Quit

Everett came through to retrieve the food for the patrons as usual, his eyes were the working mode dull kind as he opened the door wide for other waiters to pass through and retrieve the carts, rolling them out while his eyes scanned the room until they landed on Noemie. She waved to him, and he waved back, he noticed the arms wrapped around her waist. When the waiters rolled all the carts out, cheering and surprised noises being made in the red room, Everett gave a lingering side eye glance to Noemie as he closed the door behind him, going back to help the waiters. 

"Something wrong?" Gavin asked her, breathing in the scent of her hair. He hid a smile as he taunted and teased Roman from afar. 

"No, I'm simply tired." Noemie let herself slightly lean into him. 

Noemie sometimes had a naturally upset looking face, so she didn't think much of his expression, too focused on executing the plan, but first, she was compelled to go check on Alonzo. 

While the other experienced chefs have already left, and the two silent dishwashers went to collect the pots and tools for cleaning, he was still sitting doubled over, curling his body forward and his arms holding him together, head staring down at the floor. The woman pulled herself out of Gavin's arms, something he seemed to expect as he looked over at the man sitting pale in the corner and made no resistance as she left his arms. 

"Go home." She said gently to the sickly man. 

She lifted him up by one of his arms and let him use her as a support to head to the locker room, Roman moved to take her place by his arm. 

"Let me help you." He said as he stood between them, putting Elias' arm over his shoulder.

"Are you sure?" Noemie inquired with a surprised face.

"Of course, he's light."

In the locker room, Elias was sitting down on a bench, Noemie had a handkerchief she used to dab on his forehead. Roman helped him out of his chef coat and is currently hanging it draped over his arm.

"Alonzo, you need to be stronger than this." He said as he shook his head. 

The lady gave a pained expression while Elias looked regretful. 

"I know, I'm sorry for causing a scene." 

"Don't apologize, you didn't cause any scene." The lady put her hand on his forehead, carding his hair back as she checked his temperature and tilted his face up at her. 

"Just go home as soon as you can, it'll help with the sick feeling. Otherwise, you'll have to explain your condition to your wife." 

He nodded, taking his items in his pockets and shoving the coat away, leaving the room. 

"You seem comfortable with Gavin." Roman said quietly. 

"Jealous?" Gavin entered the room. 

Roman flinched at his appearance, becoming upset at his and Noemie's interrupted alone time. The night butcher had finished putting the rest of the pots and tools into the sink, the rest were stacked up beside the silent dishwashers. 

Noemie went to her locker and unbuttoned her coat, starting from the neck while the two stared at each other, Roman was cautious while Gavin was simply smiling. Those two never really talked much to each other, the redheaded man mostly avoided him. 

"Well, we've always been close, we just decided to be open about it now." 

"Do you honestly not feel anything strange from him?" Roman ignored him and looked over to Noemie, who simply slinged on her purse, unwrinkled some parts of her close, and walked back over to the kitchen door. 

Her brows knitted together, just as she tossed him a soft glance. 

"No, why? Do you?" The woman lightly interrogated just before she presses on the kitchen door.

"He might think I'm similar to him." Gavin shrugged, undoing his coat. 

The coat slipped open, and the edges fell to his sides, his hands pushed them back further to find and rest in the side pockets of his pants.

"Don't worry, I'm gonna get anyone in trouble, my head deserves a nice globe to sit in, not a freezer." 

"You sick little-" 

Noemie left as they talked, shaking her head. She waited for Everett to come and pay a visit as usual, or to stay in case of another bite or fight, either way, another part of her routine to keep up until the last moment. 

The two quiet ladies doing the dishes ignored her presence, like professionals at minding their own business, never conversing with anyone in the kitchen since they got here. It was just clinking noises, from the pots and pans to the glass items and utensils against plates and bowls outside the door. Boisterous laughter, louder than all the other nights, along with squelching sounds of tonight's meal.

She looked out the window and saw all the patrons for the night gorging themselves, turning away quickly before any could feel someone staring at them. There were probably four that night, each eating from their chosen intestine pile, the fifth they might fight over later. 

The lady breathed a heavy sigh, tense in the shoulders.

A small reminder, there were different fridges in the kitchen, some for the humanely normal ingredients, and some for liquids. Noemie went to the one that normally holds all the humanely acceptable drinks like juice, water, milk, maybe even nectar but that was rare. A patron normally has to make a reservation, along with an order, and if that order is special, time is needed to hunt down all the requested ingredients and accessories to the meal, not just the meat of a target.

There were bottles without labels, filled with a lemony, honey-smelling liquid, it smelled sweet as well, though the color looked like the typical wine. She pulled out the only one with a label 'reserved', likely for the patrons this night. 

Everett finally came through the door, one of the patrons could be heard shouting 'I paid extra for some good drinks to go with this!', he clicked his tongue as soon as the door closed behind him. His face brightened up at the sight of Noemie.

The woman also lightened up just a bit, going over and handing him the bottle. 

"Do think they will start fighting too?" 

"I don't know, I might feel safe knowing you'll stay a bit longer to patch us up, just in case." He grabbed the bottle. 

While there were no labels, the bottle did have a special looking symbol on the top of the cork. The manager orders the base wine from a specific vineyard as part of a deal, using that to mix it with others.

The woman suddenly turned her head to the side, hand coming up to cover her yawn. 

"I hope this night doesn't last too long." 

"Might not be long," He leaned in closer to whisper in her ear. "Those pigs are swallowing more than chewing." 

The woman huffed a bit with a smile, giving him an amused look as he retracted himself from her. He gave her a smile and went back to the dining area. 

Soon noises could be heard as the patrons began fighting over the fifth plate. The only ones hurt that night were the patrons, none of the waiters dared to interfere, simply stepping away from the ones clawing at each other on the floor or dodging the blood. To some of the waiters, it was something for them to laugh about, to the new ones however, it wasn't. 

One of the dishwashers squinted her eyes shut and started scrubbing louder and faster, seething out a pained noise and frowning, trying to cover up the noise. 

Despite the chaos, one patron wanted a drink to go along with watching the fight, crashing glass was getting more frequent. When the night was finally over, Noemie used the last bit of her courage to peek through the window again, seeing three corpses and one insane one eating the fifth plate, quietly, savoring it. Insanity in his eyes, he looked a bit like the customer from last night, who was eating brain meat with some others.

Everett was alright, he came into the kitchen once more assure her as worry was written all over her face. One of the guests threw a fancy glass cup and almost hit him, so the woman had him sit down in the stool she pulled over, brushing through his hair for glass shards.

"It's a wonder that none of them have managed to murder me yet, but then again, they do have terrible aim." He told her. 

"Please don't talk like that. There's some glass crumbs sticking to your vest." She used a rag to brush them off his back.

"Good! Maybe then I won't have to wear this stupid corset vest!" 

From the locker room, Roman came in with a seething atmosphere, Gavin trailed behind him, giggling to himself as the red head asked Noemie- 

"You're staying the night here?! And with this person of all people?!"

Noemie's eyes widened, and so did Everett's, the woman looked between Roman and Gavin as she finished sweeping the waiter's hair over for glass pieces. 

"You told him?" she gave a disappointing look to Gavin. 

The man with the glasses just smiled to himself, shrugging his shoulders. 

"It's not every night I hear him talk, I just said whatever would keep him yapping. Plus, he sounds so funny when he's trying to insult me."

Noemie facepalmed. Then, she turned to respond to Roman, holding her hands out to try to signal him to calm down. 

"It's nothing like what you're thinking, I've just been exhausted lately and tonight I didn't feel like bothering to go all the way home. He agreed to keep me company." She lied through her teeth. 

"I'll drive you home, or better yet, you can stay over at my place, anything but falling asleep here." Roman strongly objected. 

"Wait, you were really going to book a night here?" Everett asked from beside her, he was still sitting down and listening to the whole thing. 

"It was a last-minute decision." The woman rubbed the space in-between her closed eyes.

"And I honestly don't care, I just want to get some more hours of sleep, instead of spending one to get home and another contemplating on whether I should do my laundry." She lied again, partially. 

The room was silent again, Everett stood up first, patting her on the shoulder and giving her a sympathetic look. 

"I'm going to help the others clean up, but I'll finish quickly and come back to you. If you really want to stay a night here, let me accompany you." 

And he left to help the others. Roman had his hands on his hips, still frowning at a cheekily smiling Gavin, Noemie took the stool and finally let her long-standing legs rest. 

"Let me stay with you." Roman suggested. 

Both Gavin and Noemie gave him a surprised look, though one was smiling while the other was blank faced. 

"You're tired, so I won't argue with you, but there is no way I'm letting you be alone with this man." 

"Well, that's a little too late, I was already alone with her last night." Gavin purred, crossing his arms and giving Noemie a smile. 

The lady lightly scolded him.

"Gavin, please don't just share something like that with others."

The two ladies who were cleaning all the things managed to finish as one scrubbed very fast, they both turned to leave, their bodies rushing past the others, like a knife cutting the tension. Both oozed this feeling, of not wanting anything to do with the conversation. 

"That was fast, might need to clean some of my own knives tomorrow." Gavin mumbled. 

Roman gave him a side-eye glance. 

Everett came back at last, no longer in the corset vest, he was still wearing his white button up and suit pants. He had his hands in his pockets as he stared at the other two men awkwardly, walking behind Noemie, rubbing one of her shoulders. 

"Ready to go?" He asked her gently, noticing her tired posture. 

"Yes. But, you really don't have to keep me company. I know you're uncomfortable here, I'll be more than fine with Gavin." 

The man smirked behind his glasses, standing casually as the other two eyed him suspiciously. Everett unintentionally gripped her shoulder hard, and she flinched, letting out a yelp in the midst of their protest, he mumbled several apologies as he quickly let go. 

The lady stood up as she massaged the sore spot, walking over to the door that led to the locker room, and turning around to analyze the three men in the room. 

The lady had good eyes, not just for being behind the camera but also for observing people, not just models. 

Wonder what she could be reading about those three.

Noemie blinked slowly and used one hand to massage the little area right by the side of her head, behind her eye. 

"Let's just go see if they have rooms available for four people. Thank you for keeping me company for the night, even though I only needed one."

Four sets of footsteps went up the dark corridor of stairs, how very rare, and very interesting for the guy at the desk to see as they all exited out the employees only door. 

Noemie was about to go up and ask him for any available rooms.

"Tired, right?" He blurted out, slightly bothering them. Probably wouldn't be so eerie if he wasn't smiling, a soft smile but it wouldn't fool them.

"... Yes-" 

"Good timing actually, I was holding two rooms for tonight's patrons, but they never showed up, so they're free if you want to use them." He told them casually.

Noemie cocked her head to the side and put a fist up to cover her mouth, eyeing him suspiciously.

"Well, three of them did die tonight, I think the other one was taken by a guard." Everett casually blurted out to him, nonchalantly. 

The person at the desk gave a surprised reaction, and asked him to elaborate on it, while Noemie stepped back from the desk, elbow resting in her hand as she kept a curved finger up to her lip, thinking and looking down at the ground. Roman looked over at her in concern whilst Gavin listened intently to Everett's description, like he was mentally studying a lecture.

One would think that this building wouldn't be so busy, being hidden away, but there is a funny detail about this place; nearly all the time, most or all of the rooms are occupied.

"Is something the matter?" Roman asked her. 

"I feel as though I should be worried about something."

"If you change your mind, we can stay at my place, we can get there quickly by car." He caressed her shoulders with his hands, holding her from behind as he spoke over her shoulder.

He still had not caught on what she was trying to do. The lady shook her head. 

"Thank you, really, but it's just one night. She wouldn't kill us just for spending one night here." 

"You never know what a serial killer is thinking." Roman quietly claimed, rubbing her arms up and down. 

"Just take the rooms for tonight! I don't wanna have to retype on the system that they were unused or whatever." The person at the desk waved off as he almost urgently shoved the room keys into Everett's hands, making the European man cock his head to the side in suspicion, raising an eyebrow. 

The person continued to wave them off as he looked back to the computer screen on the desk.