RIGO

One

"You know Rigo, you could actually try to show up on time for work..." my boss, Kale, said as he lifted up some mugs and placed them in a cabinet overhead.

"You know Kale, you could actually hear my excuses sometimes," I say, hiding my grin. I turn away from him to wipe down the counters. It was finally the weird moment between breakfast and lunch and things were quite calm. The windows brought in sunlight and it was late fall. The heat was finally on.

Kale always has this thing where he sees how long he can last before turning on the heat in the diner before winter. At first you think it's funny because it's a stupid game. But by the end, you're begging him to turn it on.

"Alright, what happened?" Kale says as he turns to me. His hair flops up and down at the vicious head turn.

"Okay, so last night, I went to bed at 12:34 and at 12:35, a beautiful beam of light came down on me. I started to lift up into the air and-"

"Aliens? Is it aliens?" Kale sighs exasperatedly.

"You didn't even let me finish," I pout. He just shakes his head and moves to the backroom, leaving me out to grab customers that started to come in. I turn towards the counter.

"Hey, can I have a mocha..."

By the time my shift was over, I was exhausted. It was late at night and I grabbed my keys, ready to walk to the car.

I lived in a pretty safe neighborhood. Not many things happened here, well, not the conventional kind. People did dissappear from time to time but people from this town were used to it. This town wasn't the type a person would move to but move away from. I'm 20 and dreamed of getting away from this town. It never happened for college but I was hoping that after I graduated, I could move to a different town which wasn't known for a serial killer.

The Johnathan Killer was a serial killer that used to target this town before he was caught. Another famous killer was the Black Bandit, who had a warped perception of criminals. He was called the Black Bandit because he was dressed like a bandit. He basically killed innocents. He was never caught but his last kill was years ago and it almost seemed like a dream, not a memory.

There were many serial killers that targeted these places over history. But for the past 20 years, the town had been quiet as a mouse.

I walked over to my car and clicked it open. When I went to open the door, the door wouldn't open. Maybe I clicked the lock instead. I swear I heard the opening of the locks...

I tried clicking it again and I heard the sounds and went to go open it. The door wouldn't budge. I would've thought it was jammed but my car wasn't that old. It was made about six years ago and I bought it used four years ago.

I sighed and looked up in exasperation, leaning against my car. I spotted a figure standing by some trees at the end of the parking lot. The figure seemed to have a long black coat on and a hat. I couldn't see his face. His entire self was like a silhouette.

My whole body ran cold. All I could think about in that moment were the serial killers that haunted this town and built its reputation. People never realize it's a serial killer until a later victim. No one suspects with the first. What if I'm the first victim? What if, later, my picture is hung on the board of some police investigation?

I whipped around to head back inside, with the full intent to get Kale to help me with my car. Hell, I'd probably ask Kale to escort me to my car every night from now on.

As I turned around, I came face to face with a man. All I could seem to spot was this ugly scar that went across his left eye where his eyeball seemed to be missing before his hands grabbed onto my hair and pulled.