ZENOVIA

5-Lancelot

*Excuse any typos and grammatical errors*

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I pushed open the door of the diner and the bell above rang announcing my arrival. I was greeted by an empty diner. It was as quiet as a graveyard. I went on to hop on one of the stools by the bar/counter. A few minutes later Noah, one of the workers here walked out of the kitchen drying his hands with a hand towel. I don't think he was aware of my presence since he was facing the floor.

When he raised his head and noticed me, he was taken back for a while but then his face lit up with a beaming smile that reached his eyes. He moved closer to where I sat before saying "Good morning Mbali"

"Morning" I mumbled smiling at him, "I didn't expect to see you here this early"

"Yea, me too I was expecting to be asleep by now but" I faked a laugh and continued with "Here I am"

He chuckled at my sarcasm "would you like a coffee?"

"Is that a question?" he blinked with a blank stare, "I would kill for a coffee right now" I continued with a flat tone "On top of that it's free" I added.

He laughed turning around to place a coffee mug under the coffee machine. I turned around to look around the empty diner, "I didn't expect it to be this empty" I stated, "Ah, it's always this slow before 9 to 9:30"

"You call this slow?" I asked raising a brow, "All I see is a graveyard, what do you mean slow?"

He cracked a laugh removing the mug from the coffee machine and placing it in front of me "Well you should see how dead it is after 3 to 9 am"

"Well, am I not seeing it?" I said raising the mug to my lips, "No, you are here now"

I opened my mouth in the slightest O shape blowing the smoke from the coffee before taking a sip of the hot bitter liquid. I released a sigh when it slowly slid down my throat giving me a small portion of life.

"What would you like for breakfast?" He asked taking his notebook out, I nodded taking more sips from the bittersweet liquid. It felt as if it was washing away the horrible feeling of tiredness that was stained inside of me. I sighted with ease closing my tired eyes.

"What would you like to have?" Noah pumped up a question making me open my eyes focusing on him.

"Surprise me?" I uttered placing my mug down, it came out as a question. He stared at me for a few minutes and said "Okay" he closed his notebook and left.

I stayed alone in the diner and the silence filled the place making it difficult for me to escape my drowning thoughts. Now that tiny voice in my head wouldn't shut up about the dream, I had this morning.

But what kind of creature would that have been? I claimed it was a beast but if I were to think about it deeply which I do not attend to do but was about to do it looked more like a giant dog. Like a massive aggressive dog that didn't have proper training and let's not forget the blood-red eyes.

In my 18 years of existing, living, breathing and suffering, and seeing the dead. I never had expected that I would dream of something that petrifying, that I wake up trembling in fear and couldn't sleep anymore.

I was so exhausted that I deserved to sleep last night.

This was unfortunate indeed.

I placed the mug on the tip of my lips taking a big sip in hopes that this coffee, this bittersweet liquid would at least help me to keep going and push though out the day.