The Uncanny Valley - Corey Taylor FF (Slipknot/Stone Sour)

6

My shift was nearly done and I was more than grateful for that. I had been stuck in our Café for several hours now and had worked my ass off, though I felt pretty sick. I assumed that I just ate something bad though, since the pizza that Mason, Lia and I had ordered the other days tasted pretty odd. I cleaned the tables and tried not to vomit from the strong smell of chastener. I had already set up the tables for the next morning, just like I always did. When I finished I went back to the counter and seated myself onto one of the stools there, watching Lia talking and laughing with her new favorite customer gang. She always insisted on serving those four dudes who recently started to visit us. They came in around late afternoon every two days and always stayed late. Again, they were the last customers here. Lia was laughing and talking to them every free minute she had and I had the weird feeling that one of them had woken her interest or something. Boy was I wrong.
Eventually, she came over and got the bill for these guys. I watched her grinning widely for no particular reason, typing in the latest drinks, with a glass of water in my hand.
"So, which one is it?" I finally asked and her head shot in my direction, a confused look on her face.
"Pardon me?" she asked back and I gave her a matching smile to the one she still wore without realising it.
"Which one of them is your new love interest?" I mocked her and she stared me down, shaking her head while her grin faltered.
"None of them," she stated and shrugged. "They're just pretty nice and I like nice customers."
"Oh, yeah, and I am Santa Clause. C'mon, what are you guys scheming if none of them is catching your interest?" I joked, still grinning. But now her grin disappeared completely and her eyes widened a bit. She hastily took the bill that had been printed, gave me a last look and went back to her customers, giving them said bill. Baffled, I watched how she spoke some more words to them, looking like she was giving orders or something, and them turning their heads to me. The hell was wrong now? I decided to ignore all of them and grabbed my purse and jacket from behind the counter.
"Lia, are you closing? I'm gonna meet up with Mase for one hour or so," I spoke to her and the guys gave me some more looks, then her.
She nodded at me.
"Sure thing, girl. See you later."
I gave her another questioning look, but she was back talking to the guys, gesturing around like she did when she was upset. It was weird. Whenever I mentioned Mason now, she did not give me any reaction. Just a 'have fun' or 'whatever' instead of teasing me with how he had the hots for me or with how she would not believe me that we were just talking about some things according to the buildings we rented. I did not get it, really, but something was going on. Definitely.
"Ya. Laters," I retorted when I walked past her and her new mates, not giving any of them a second look. Thing is, I know her as much as she knows me. So it was obvious that, if she ever wanted to talk, she would come to me and do so. Maybe she was insecure about what was going on, I mean, after everything that had happened with her ex. I shrugged to myself and crossed the dark street, went towards the bus stop. Mason had said he would get me from work, but I needed some rest before I had to do more business talk and decided to take the bus to his place. I was not far away, either way. When I came home this evening I did not see any sign of Lia, she already was in bed. The next week, she barely talked to me and was always busy or out, quite unlikely for her. If she saw me she acted weirdly and grinned at me even weirdlier, though. One morning, a car horn going off woke me and I heard the bang of the house's front door about two seconds after this.
"What. Ever." I grumbled and turned around, covering my head with my pillow and trying to go back to sleep, but it was impossible. The first free day I've had after over a month and I could not even sleep in late. God hated me, right? Yeah, absolutely. I groaned and slowly peeled myself out of bed, stalked into the shower and let the warm water wake me up a little bit. Still tired I stepped out, dressed and went down into the kitchen, making myself a coffee. After that I chilled for the rest of the day, waiting for anything to happen. But nothing. Nobody called me nor messaged me nor did anything happen in any way, so I just spent my day on the couch, watching movies and fangirling actors.
I eventually recognized how late it got when I looked up and the clock displayed 8 PM. Not bothered to cook anything I decided to order something. Just when I reached for my phone, the front door burst open and Lia stepped inside. She greeted me with a yawn, walked around the couch and signalized me to make some space for her. As soon as I did, she let herself fall onto the spot my legs had been moments ago. Glad that she did not crush them beneath her, I raised an eyebrow to her and she gave me a funny look.
"Don't."
"I did not say a thing," I replied and she rolled her eyes at me.
"But you want to. Stop. Don't act as my mom. I have one and she is perfectly fine."
I raised my hands up in defense and shrugged, my eyebrow still raised.
"No need to tell me. I just want to order some food and watch my movie, girl. Calm yourself."
I shrugged again and grabbed my phone."You want something?"
"Nah, I'm fine, thanks," she replied and I nodded in response, already dialing the number of the Asian take away down the street. I placed my order, some noodles, and duck breast and resumed the movie I was watching. From Hell with Johnny Depp, there was this scene where you finally got who the murderer was and though I already knew the movie by heart I still loved to watch it. We sat in silence - well, not silence, the movie was playing - until Lia broke said silence quite suddenly.
"So, I've got an idea," she stated and gave me another funny look which I returned.
"Idea? What kind of idea?" I honestly thought she was talking about the café or something.
"Well, I wanna see more stuff in this city. We're living in L.A., but have we seen one single thing here? No, we've only been in the café or here, refurbishing our asses. On our next free day, let's do something, you know?" she explained and gestured around wildly. I shrugged and concentrated back on the TV, taking my time before answering.
"Well, what do you want to do, then?" I asked and knew that she was planning something. Or at least, she already knew what she wanted to do and just wanted me to tag along so she was not alone or so.
"Well, you've ever heard of Houdini Mansion?" she asked back and I gave her another questioning look.
"What, that Mansion they say Harry Houdini lived in? The haunted Mansion? The one that's owned by some record label and probably strictly off limits to any normal human being who is not part of a famous band? That Houdini Mansion?" I said, wondering what exactly she was thinking. She could not be serious about that. Or well, as much as I knew her - she probably just wanted to do some photo outside and go back home right after.
"Exactly. Let's pay it a visit and see whether these rumors are real."

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I know it's been a while and please forgive me for not updating and letting you wait for far too long. I've had private issues and struggled a lot, both physically and mentally. According to that I lost my motivation on writing this story, better said I totally lost track of updating or writing. It just wasn't a thing I could concentrate on and I hope you don't mind too much. But; I am back now and the story is developing further and quicker, not long 'til our little cinnamon roll will reappear [approx. 1-3 Chapters or so].  :D
So don't forget to comment or / and vote, have a nice day and see you in the next chapter. Stay tuned!
love ~