Quinn stood in front of the cafe with the ‘Help Wanted’ flyer clutched tightly in her hand. She was nervous about getting this job. The flyer had appeared in her mailbox only a few days ago and it had taken her just as long to work up enough courage to walk in and ask about it. She had had bad experiences with getting jobs, she could never keep one for more than a few weeks. She needed this job though, She didn’t want to burden her dad with taking care of her anymore. She was almost an adult, she had to learn how to start taking care of herself. The building she stood before was lined with plants of all different shapes and sizes. There were large front windows and an overhang above the door that cast shade over the few tables and chairs that stood outside the cafe. The chalkboard sign standing at the door showed the daily specials and even had cute little faces drawn on them.

She could do this. She just had to walk in and ask about the job that wasn’t hard. Taking a deep breath she opens the door. The bell at the top of the door rang, alerting the man behind the counter. He looked up from the glasses he was drying. Suddenly Quinn was even more nervous than she was before which is impressive. She walks up to counter and put the flyer on the wooden surface, hands shaking slightly.

“I saw that there was a job opening here and I was wondering if I could apply.” Her voice was much smaller than she had meant it to be. She has always had a hard time talking to people. The man behind the counter was well built with short, messy, dark brown, hair and an almost cinnamon color complexion. He looked fairly intimidating As he stared at her. Of all sudden, his face lit up with a bright smile.

“You’re hired!” He said. Quinn was sure she heard him wrong.

“Huh? Just like that?”

“Yeah, no one else has come in asking about it and I could use all the help I can get so voila, you’re hired.” The man said as he put the glass down and crossed his arms. “The name is Juniper, by the way, but you can call me Jun.”

Quinn was still reeling from all of this as he leaves the counter and comes back with a folded maid outfit.

“Here, try this one. I’m pretty sure it fits you so you should have much trouble with it.”

Taking the outfit Quinn could only nod and stand there for a second before quickly going to the clearly labeled bathroom to put the outfit on. 10 minutes and a frilly mess later she comes back out of the bathroom. Jun is standing there with his hands on his hips as he looks her up and down much to Quinn’s embarrassment.

“It looks perfect! I’m glad we don't have to fit it at all, Ren already has enough on his plate.”

The mention of the name Ren makes Quinn curious.

“Ren? Who is that?”

Almost immediately after she asked that there is a loud crash in the back room and someone yelping. Jun sighed.

“That would be Ren, he is my only helper so it can be a lot for him.”

He walks to the back room where the sound came from and Quinn follows closely behind him, uncomfortable with being alone in any part of the cafe. They find a boy laying on the ground with his face down. He was covered in boxes and he wasn’t moving except for his foot twitching. Jun leaned down and grabbed the back of the boy’s shirt. He lifts him up to his feet with surprising strength.

“Ren. What have we said about talking everything down at once?”

The boy laughed nervously. He was a small boy but he looked to be about Quinn’s age, 17 or 18. He had sandy blonde hair that was kept out of his face with an array of different colored barrettes that had stars and various other shapes on them. He also had dark freckles that lined his nose and cheeks.

“You said to take it one step at a time or I might have it all collapse on me like an avalanche. Which is kind of what just happened.” Jun let go of his shirt and shook his head.

“Next time ask for help. This is…..?” gestures for Quinn to say her name.

“Quinn! I uh, my name is Quinn.”

“Quinn,” He finished, “She will be our new helper so make sure you show her the ropes of how everything is done.” The boy salutes Jun as he walks back to the counter.

“Roger that sir!”

It took some time but eventually, Quinn figured out how to interpret Ren’s fast and long rambling. He dragged her all over the cafe and explained each thing that needed to be done. It was extremely overwhelming and Quinn began to feel dizzy with all the information he was giving her.

“Is there anything simple I can start off with? Just for today?” She asked, hoping to stop the boy from going on another long story about how Jun spilled a coffee on a customer. SHe had already heard three of those stories.

Ren stops and thinks for a minute. “I guess you can start with the dishes. It’s easy and it’s what Jun had me start off with when I first starting working here.” Quinn sighed in relief. She could do dishes, she does them every night while her dad works.

“Alright, that sounds simple enough.”

“Great!” He grabs her wrist and drags her behind the counter. He shows her exactly what she needs to do and she lets him talk. He is obviously excited to have someone else work here and watching him do everything with so much energy makes her smile to herself.

It was the start of the morning and people were starting to trickle in looking for their ritual morning cup of coffee. A lot of them were college level kids but there were some older men reading the newspaper while drinking black coffee. What she could only assume were writers or bloggers were sitting at window seats with their laptops open tapping away at whatever they were working on. She got to work on washing and drying the dishes. There weren’t a lot of people and most of them drank coffee or tea so she didn’t have to deal with touching other people’s food too much. It was relaxing almost.

Soon the morning rush was over and only the writers and students who needed to study stayed in their seats. Because there were so little people Jun told her it was alright for her to try serving them. One of the writers waved her down and she walked over with the cute little notebook that Ren gave her. It was covered in the same faces that were on the outside sign. She stood in front of the table and smiled.

“Hi, I’m Quinn. How can I help you?” Her voice shook a little and cut off a little too abruptly at the end however that didn’t seem to faze the woman sitting in front of her computer.

“Yes, I would like a mocha cappuccino please.” As the woman spoke Quinn couldn’t help but notice her teeth. The incisor teeth were sharper than the other teeth. They looked a lot like bat teeth or vampires. She realizes her is staring and apologizes quickly.

“O-Of course. One Mocha Cappuccino coming right up.” She jots it down quickly in her notebook. She was just seeing things, she had to be. There was a nagging voice in the back of her head though that told her the last time she told herself that she couldn’t be more wrong. Quickly going over to the counter and gives Jun the order.

“Are you alright? You look a little frazzled,” he asked as he started on the order.

“I’m fine.” No one believes her when she talks about things like this anyway so why should this guy be any different. He’ll probably fire her as soon as she starts rambling about it just like all her other jobs and she can’t have that happen. She stared at the faces on her notebook until a cup was placed in front of her snapping her out of her head. She took the cup and gave it to the woman at the computer who gave her a thank you and turned back to her work.

The rest of the day went by without else weird happening. She took more orders and during the lunch hour it was too crowded and she had to go back to doing dishes. Finally, the day was over and she changed back into her regular clothes. It was only 8 but Ren was already asleep in one of the booths. It wasn’t much of a surprise to her, the boy ran around non-stop all day, he had to run out of steam at some point. Jun was finishing up putting things away as she walked over to the door.

“Make sure you're careful on the way home Quinn. There are a lot of undesirable things that lurk around in the darkness.”

“I’ll be careful.” That was an odd way of phrasing it. She knows there are tons of creeps and perverts out there but that’s why her dad stocked her up on pepper spray that she carries around everywhere. She said goodbye to Jun and good night to Ren and stepped out onto the dark street. There was only one lamp and it was in front of the cafe. It the rest of the street though was so dark so could barely see two feet in front of her.

She started walking down the street hugging herself tightly. She hated the dark. It was filled with awful things. As she walked she started to notice the footsteps behind her. She felt ice run through her veins and froze. The footsteps stopped as well. She reached into her pocket and closed her hand around the pepper spray. She took a deep breath and spun around aiming the can at the person behind her.

“Oh, it’s you.”