Hell's Messenger

Levi dropped the wet rag on the table and wedged his large black bucket on the booth’s seat. Taking a second to survey the mountain range of dirty dishes on the table, he reached forward and began carefully putting the dirty plates and forks into his bucket. The half-eaten cheeseburgers and remaining fries jutted out of the sides of stacks of dirty eating utensils.

After clearing the table he grabbed the damp wash rag and began to wipe the table top but was interrupted by the heckling of kids his age in the booth behind him.

“Hey, Levi!” The voice of an overgrown child broke the pleasant classic rock that played on the diner's speakers. At first, he ignored the voice, but it persisted longer than his patience.

Levi spun around just in time to see a boy turn his cup over and pour his drink all over the table, “Clean up on aisle three, bus boy!” His ugly laugh complimented his crooked teeth.

“Freddy cut it out. I’m just trying to do my job,” Levi pleaded with the boy. They went to school together, and Freddy made Levi’s life as much of a hell there as he did here. Freddy had crammed his bloated body into a booth with three of his friends who were doing nothing but egging him on.

“I know you are, so come do your job, janitor,” He jabbed his words at Levi, emphasizing the word janitor.

Levi reluctantly picked up his rag and brought it to Freddy’s table with an unwilling hand. Crouching over the table, Levi began scrubbing the sticky soda off of the table but wasn’t fast enough to evade the trap they had planned for him. Immediately, a tray full of ketchup made contact with the top of Levi's head. The table erupted with laughter as he backed away and the ketchup dripped down Levi's face. Where they got this much ketchup, Levi had no clue.

“Get lost Freddy,” Levi said under my breath as he picked up his rag and began to leave.

“You’d like that wouldn’t you Levy,”

“Go take your ugly boy’s club somewhere else, I’m not interested,” Levi turned his back to them to continue cleaning the table he was working on before. Ketchup dripped from Levi's brown hair onto the table.

The table slid across the floor as Freddy struggled to his feet and approached Levi, “What did you say to me?” A firm hand landed on Levi’s shoulder and pulled Levi towards Freddy with a yank.

Levi was turned to face Freddy as his friends exited the booth and stood beside the bully. Battling a dry mouth, Levi squeaked the next words out, “I didn’t say anything.”

Freddy loosened his grip and shrugged, looking back at his boys, “Well, I must be hearing something then,” Freddy reared his right fist back and delivered a sturdy punch to Levi's nose, “Because it sounded like you were making fun of us!” Freddy pushed Levi's stunned body into the table and he fell to the floor.

As the boys filed out of the diner Levi held his nose and began to pick himself off the floor. The diner's manager walked around the corner and looked at the waiter now sprawled on the ground. His glare was distracted by the empty table with soda poured all over it.

“You got their payment right?” He looked at Levi with wild eyes.

“What do you mean? They punched me in the face!” he protested desperately.

The manager squared his shoulders with Levi and pointed a stern finger towards the waiter's chest, “I would take a bullet before I opened a cash register for a thief. I would hope my employees share that same work ethic. Their meal is coming out of your tips,” He backed up and surveyed his domain like a proud lion, “Clean this place up, and lock up when you’re done.”

--=|=--

An hour and a half later, Levi slid the rusty key into an even rustier lock, separating the world from the crappy seventies-style diner. Pocketing the jangling key ring he hefted his backpack on his sore shoulder and began walking home.

“Guess what I found today,” A voice appeared behind him. This voice, however, he had been waiting to hear all day.

He turned around and basked in the presence of a pale-skinned girl who radiated under the red neon. Her dark, straight black hair fell to her shoulders on the sides. Her eyes burned with a secret, and her tight smile confirmed it.

Her excitement was infectious and Levi couldn’t help but smile back, “What did you find?”

“A hole in the fence at the DeCather’s place,” She grinned wider than a sly fox.

“The DeCather’s place? Why would you want to go into that dump?” Levi chuckled as he realized she was much more proud of herself than she was letting on.

“Who wouldn’t be infatuated with the horrifying tale of the DeCather’s place,” Her voice adopted a cinematic quality, “A grief-stricken father who gives into a rage upon the news of his wife leaving him for another man. One fateful diner, he laces his family’s mashed potato with rat poisoning and offs his children and his beloved wife, only to finish the job by ending his own life.”

“And you think you’ll find them?” Levi turned towards his house and we both began walking.

“I don’t think, I know,” She said matter-of-factly, “A place with that type of negativity is almost guaranteed to have a spirit or two. And I am going to help them pass on,” She paused, but he could tell her sentence wasn’t over.

“Why does it feel like there is more?” Levi prodded.

She retracted her words and began again, “And I am going to help them pass on, with your help,” She winced with a goofy smile as she anticipated the boy's reaction.

“Lavender, I’m not going to do it. You know I don’t believe in that type of stuff,” Levi gave her a polite smile to soften the blow, “Why do you need my help anyways?”

“Well I may have found a hole in the fence,” She turned away from me for a brief second, “with the help of bolt cutters.”

Levi's head spun towards her, “You what?”

“And all the doors on the ground level are locked, however, I noticed that a second-floor window is open. All I need you to do is lift me up to that window tomorrow, and then you can walk away! Just think about it, won’t you?”

“I don’t know, that place gives me the creeps,”

“It’s just an empty house, isn’t it? You said you didn’t believe in that type of stuff,” She mocked him with her voice.

The truth is he really wanted to be there, creepy house and all, but he was scheduled for an extra shift at the diner tomorrow night. Levi weighed the decisions in his head silently. Go to work and clean old fries from underneath tables, or go ghost hunting with a childhood friend?

“Fine, I’ll go with you. But I’m not going inside!”

Lavender did a little spin with glee. The golden light from the street lamp above outlined her perfect qualities and flashed a glimmer from the bolt cutters poking out of the open zipper on her backpack.

Before Levi knew it they were on the sidewalk in front of his house, which meant the night had to be cut short. He turned to Lavender one last time, “Tomorrow? Ghost hunting?”

“It’s not ghost hunting. I am going to the house to communicate with the spirits and ease them through the veil,” She stuck her pinky between them, “Promise you’ll help me out?”

Levi sheepishly looked around to see if anyone was around them before interlocking his pinky with hers, “Whatever you want to call it.”

This is a rough draft and is subject to revisions and edits