I stomped my way through the Lucky Cat. My hair and outfit were wet, the water dripped off my clothes and onto the wooden floor. It was a slow afternoon, there was only one of two groups sitting in the booths.

     Chiyoko stood at one of the booths talking to one of the cookers, her white hair was pulled up into a bun, she smiled when she saw me, “Hello, Edith. How was school? Why are you all wet, dear?” she asked me, observing my wet clothes.

    “School went fine. It all went fine. Until I tripped into the water fountain in front of the school.” I grumbled.

    “You fell into the fountain?” I could hear the laughter in her voice and my mood darkened.

     “I’m going up stairs.” I mumbled, turning away from the laughing old woman and kitchen worker.

     “You do that Edith than come back down. You have a shift for tonight.” Chiyoko called to me.

     I dropped my wet bag on the ground before peeling off my school uniform and throwing it into my hamper. Before pulling on an old pair of jeans and a paint stained baby blue shirt. Hanging onto the back of my door was a Luck Cat apron and I pulled it on before making my way back down into the restaurant.

     It had slowly accumulated more people and Chiyoko was quick to show me what to do and how to do it. And I was quick to take up the work she gave me, greeting and seating people, along with taking orders if everyone else was unable too.

     By the time the Lucky Cat had closed, I was stuck mopping, sweeping the floor and cleaning the tables. Some kid seemed to have dumped the entire bottle of soy sauce all over the table, so I had to clean all of that up.

     I was all alone down in the Lucky Cat and I felt a little creeped out by how silent it was in the shop. The whole place seemed to creak and crack around me and I jumped whenever I would hear the foundation settle. I rechecked the restaurant twice, making sure that everything was spotless, before leaning back against the giant golden dragon, impressed by my work. Something warm brushed the nape of my neck and I leapt away from the statue as fast as possibly could. I whipped around and stared at the dragon in shock and uncertainty. It felt like someone had just breathed down my back and I wiped the back of neck as if to wipe away the feeling. I eyed the dragon warily as I walked around it’s golden length and its eyes seemed to follow mine, freaking me out a little bit more.

   I grabbed the mop from the mop bucket and started scrubbing in the kitchen, but I never took my eyes off the dragon. I didn’t like it. In the day time, the dragon seemed unthreatening but as soon as the sun went down it seemed to grow darker and more predatory. I kept my eyes trained on the dragon as I worked.

Once my work was finished, I was quick to untie the apron from around my waist and headed for the upstairs. I took one last look at the dragon, whose back was now to, before moving to my bedroom.