Black Jack's

Chapter 7: Is This A Date?

Shayna didn't want to stick around when Silvester showed up in the morning, but after what had happened that night, she knew it was best to talk to him at some point.

"Could we talk?" She asked as he walked into the office.

"Of course," he replied. "What's on your mind?"

"Uhm... hot dogs?" Shayna wasn't good at communicating with handsome men.

"You want to talk about hot dogs?" Silvester was confused to say the least.

"Yes... I mean, no. Would you like to go for hot dogs in the park tomorrow?" Oh my God I sound like an idiot, she thought.

Silvester tilted his head as he squinted and considered his answer carefully. As he looked toward the monitors he decided.

"Hot dogs it is," he confirmed. "At Regional Park?"

"Yes, that's near my apartment."

"Great, at what time?"

Shayna wanted to sleep for a little bit, so she blurted out the first number that came to mind.

"Six."

"Six o'clock it is. I will see you then." Silvester stepped to the side to let Shayna leave.

She didn't move immediately, which triggered Silvester's eyebrows to raise out of curiosity.

Forcing a quick smile, Shayna finally darted out of the office and down the hall. She pushed the front door open and then got into the awaiting cab.

Shayna didn't want to think about what had happened at work last night, and with Silvester agreeing to meet her for hot dogs in the park to talk about it, she focused on getting some rest. Flopping down on the bed face first, she closed her eyes and gradually fell asleep.

She awoke from a dream about Wildcard where he was dragging a boy's body down a hallway. The image stuck in her mind as she checked the time and went for a shower.

When she finished drying her hair and getting ready to meet Silvester, she couldn't help but wonder what had happened. She wanted to know everything, but there was no guarantee that her boss knew all the details.

Arriving at quarter to six, she sat on a park bench several feet away from the hot dog stand. She chose to wear a long, yellow summer dress, which was out of character for her since it was the only one she had and hated it for that reason.

Silvester arrived a few minutes later in black pants and teal dress shirt, the sleeves rolled up. He walked over to her as she stood up.

"Hi," she greeted.

"Hello Shayna," he replied back with a smile.

As much as Shayna wanted to eat to settle her grumbling stomach, she wanted to get the awkward question out of the way that had been bouncing around in her head while she waited.

"Is this a date?"

Raised eyebrows said it all. Silvester clearly wasn't expecting the question.

"Would you like it to be a date?"

"I've never been on one before," she admitted.

"Well, then consider this your first ever date. Shall we?"

Shayna felt guilty about Silvester paying, but he insisted as they walked down the paved path to a bench in the middle of the park.

"So what is it that you would really like to talk about?" He asked as they both unwrapped their hot dogs.

Silvester bit into his dinner as Shayna finished unwrapping hers and sat in silence. She wasn't sure where to begin considering all the events that had occurred would make her sound crazy.

"What happened at Black Jack's?" She finally asked, disregarding the fear building up inside her.

Once he finished chewing, Silvester turned his head and asked, "What do you mean?"

"Why did it get shut down?"

A smile crept across the man's face as he took another bite of his hot dog.

"You already know why, I can tell. You met Wildcard, didn't you?"

His response caught her off guard. Shayna had kept quiet about the encounters with the animatronic.

"Is he dangerous?" She inquired, glancing over at Silvester as she refrained from taking a bite of her hot dog.

"He was," Silvester divulged. "And he could very well still be dangerous. You need to stay away from him."

"Did he kill someone?"

Silvester was chewing on his hot dog excessively as if trying to avoid answering the question. Eventually he swallowed and sighed.

"Something went wrong a few years ago," he began to confess in a lowered tone. His head tilted toward Shayna, but his eyes stared at her lap. "Someone attacked Black Jack's system with a virus that affected anything with electronics in it, which included the animatronics. Little Red Riding Hood was the only show active when it happened, which proved fatal for a young boy and nearly his girlfriend too. He got ripped to pieces in front of the crowd while she was tossed into a support beam."

Inhaling and then exhaling, Silvester paused as if having difficulty recalling what happened.

"They never found the boy's body and the girl has been in a coma ever since." He looked away as he slowly bit into his hot dog and fell silent.

"Why couldn't I find anything online about it?"

"My father and my uncle sued the news companies for defamation. They didn't win the initial case, but eventually everything was removed from the internet. I'm sure there are a few websites kicking around that still have some information pertaining to the incident and maybe even some newspaper articles people have stashed away as well." Silvester paused briefly before continuing. "My father killed himself after my mom left him. She was in denial about an animatronic coming to life and blamed my dad for letting a murderer come into the fun center. My uncle drank himself into debt and ended up homeless. I don't even know if he's alive anymore."

"I'm sorry," Shayna consoled.

Silvester slowly made eye contact as he assured her, "It's not your fault."