The Dead of Night

Adventure One!

Chapter Four: Adventure One!

** My hands began to tremble again as Jack stole the bottle from me and hurried out of the kitchen; I walked to my station and leaned on it, staring at my reflection in the mirror-like metal counter top. I was attempting to process what I had just seen, Donna-Marie had to be right. If this is correct, that means....Jack is the liar. I sighed and glanced up to see most of the sous chefs not even touching the tickets which were piling up like legos; I, not seeing any real competition, lunged forwards and grasped most of the tickets, laying them out before me and making one dish at a time, as fast as I could. I glanced around when I got the chance to and wondered about the other sous chef's strange behavior, then, it hit me, Chef Pippino wasn't in the kitchen!

Chef was out, speaking to the wealthy customers/performers! And the sous chefs saw this as break time! Oh, the absolute laziness within those men disturbed me! However, despite their lack of motivation, I cooked on; and, through the entirety of dinner service, Jack never walked back into the kitchen again.

** I was dead tired after dinner service ended; I laid upon the small couch which was set back in the kitchen with a cold, wet rag laying upon my forehead. I closed my eyes and sighed, allowing my arms to dangle at my sides; I heard laughter and opened my eyes to see Jack leaning on the side of the couch. "You're tired already? It's only your first day!" He cried, grinning.

"Yeah, I'm tired already! Because the other cooks won't work when you and Chef Pippino aren't around!" I cried, sitting up and taking the cold rag off of my head, Jack smiled.

"They're only breaking 'ya in, they do that to every new chef that comes along." Said he, he sighed and pushed my feet off of the couch, sliding and sitting beside me. "So" he said, stretching out and groaning as his limbs poped. "Why were you in the cellar so long?" He asked, stretching his arms over his head; an unearthly odor escaped from his armpits and I nearly gagged!

I pushed him away and he laughed, pulling his arms down and resting his elbows on the back of the couch. "One wine bottle is hard to find out of a few thousand, Jack" I said, smiling, then, the memory of those fiery yellow eyes resurfaced in my brain. "Jack, remember when you said that there wasn't a vampire?" I asked.  Jack shifted uncomfortably.

"Yes"

"You lied" I growled. "I saw him! I saw him, down there, in the cellar; his eyes, Jack, they're flaming yellow! I...I mistook him for you...and that's how I ended up in the cellar--"

"You sound like the ballet girls" Jack hissed, standing from the couch and walking back into the kitchen. I stood and hurriedly followed after him.

"No, Jack! But, just, listen--!"

"No, Junie" He growled, turning to face me. "Listen" he said, placing down his water and gently grasping my shoulders. "There is no vampire here, vampires do not exist, Donna-Marie just tricked your mind into thinking there was. As for the yellow eyes you saw, that could've been the glare of light off of a wine bottle! You said yourself it was pitch dark down there, and, you could've saw my shadow on the wall when I ran past you again and thought it was a cloak."

He explained. "Now do you remember why I don't let you hear or watch scary things? Your mind runs away with the concept and you become scared for no reason; it's alright, Junie, there's no vampire here, I sware upon it." Said he, embracing me and laying his cheek on my head.

**I walked back to my room in Donna-Marie's company, but, I said nothing to her of my adventure down in the cellars; she told me of a boy she fancied who was in the male chorus, but, he also fancied ballet and she said she saw him watching her dance. She was tickled pink, literally! Her cheeks flushed the color pink as she told me of the boy; I smiled, I had never been in a relationship before, not because people didn't find me pretty, because I didn't have time for one. I had been asked to court a few times, but I had both not the time or fancy for my suitors; besides, Jack would've attempted to scare them, had I accepted their offers. When we reached my rooms I invited Donna-Marie inside, to which she joyfully bounded in and began looking about the rooms, inspecting them for me.