Coffee Please! || Rf Wally x Reader ||

004: GRINDER

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The day stretched on, and I was still as lost as I was when I first came here. I felt like I was in sixth grade and it was my first day of middle school, not something I would want to feel at this age. I needed multiple people to direct me to multiple places, for example, I asked a man in the color stations where the bathrooms were. Spoiler alert, they were right next to us. But it's only my first day in the factory, how can I blame myself for something that's not in my control?

I had to go back to look at the map in the entrance of the factory several times from what someone had counted, but I felt like I was doing better now. I had gotten way better, like I have memorized where my bosses office was! I was so proud of that, like I don't go there almost every few minutes, but I was happy I was remembering something.

I walked downstairs from the laboratory, carrying folders of paperwork that was meant to be given to my boss, and others that I was going to be keeping for my own good. It was busy. Workers were coming down and up from where they came from and places they were stopping from. Meanwhile, I just really needed to get downstairs to print something, of course, I run into somebody because I wasn't looking where I was going. I bump into them, and I drop almost all of my papers from my folder.

They all drop on the stairs, and the man didn't acknowledge me as he went up the stairs not even noticing he bumped into me first. I groaned, crouching down and grabbing the papers near each other and far, but people kept stepping on them and cursing at me for not picking them up sooner. I had almost grabbed most of the papers and I soon heard a voice from a person I haven't met yet. I looked up slowly, grabbing my last paper and my folder from behind me and stood up to see an large bird with colorful wings, wearing a beautiful necklace.

She had rainbow wings, just like her feathers and her rainbow tail which I seemed to acknowledge first. A yellow beak, and a name tag on her shirt that said 'Poppy.'

"Dear, are you alright?" she asked in a hurry, lifting up her feathers. I nodded. "Yeah, I'm alright, ma'am." I lie, even though I was having the most toughest day ever. "Are you sure? You sure don't seem alright. You look like you're in a rush." she said in a soothing mother voice. "Well— kind of. But I don't wanna ramble, I can reassure you I've had worst days." I scoffed rolling my eyes at the thoughts from almost years ago.

"Well, I just wanted to make sure. I must say, dear, I haven't seen you around here before, and I know everybody in this factory from heart." she told me. "Oh! That might be because this is my first day here, I'm still trying to get to know everybody. I'm an assistant, from upstairs." I smile at the large bird. Her eyes widen, like she's surprised. "Don't tell me you're one of Walden's assistants! I told that man not to— why, I might be just rambling myself." she chuckled.

"So, I'm assuming you know Walden too?" I asked. "Yes, why I do. Everybody here does. He's good friends with my boy, Barnaby." she admits. She lifted up her large rainbow wings and looked around the factory. "Barnaby is your son? I just met him today, at the entrance of the factory." I chuckle. "Yes, yes I'm sure you have. He's been everywhere this morning, I didn't even get to see him today. I suppose the grinders just acting up once again like every morning," she sighed, shaking her head.

I raise a eyebrow, the grinder? Why would one of those be here? "Uh, I'm sorry, grinder? Like in the kitchen?" I asked. She laughed, smiling and giggling at my response while I stood there, watching her laughing, thinking I said something wrong. "No, no my dear. Not like in those cafeterias. You'll find out soon enough, neighbor." she tilted her head, looking down at me. "But, I don't und—" I heard footsteps behind me from the top of the stairs, the person coming down next to us.

"Uh, the hell is going on?" Wally asked. I stood in shock as I turned my head slowly towards my boss. I froze, staring at him as he turned his head away from Poppy over towards mine. "Are those my papers?" he snatched my folder and opened it before I could even explain. He looked through them going through each paper without even reading, maybe he was looking for his name. "Oh! Uh— some of them. But I was actually going to give them to you tomorrow becau—"

"I'll take them today." he closed the folder and gave it back to me gently. I took it softly from his hands, making sure all of the papers was still stayed inside. "O-okay, yeah, I'll give them to you soon, I guess." I chuckled. Poppy continued up the stairs without saying a word when Wally and I spoke, but I didn't really seem to notice, and neither did him. "Oh, uh, I was going to mention this earlier, but I couldn't find you. I ordered new cups, you were right, there wasn't any more.. but, whatever. You're right I'm wrong." he rolled his eyes, like he's never been told wrong before.

"Oh, cool. You could've used my Stanley if you wanted." I smiled softly. He looked at me confused. "Like a girl? Yeah, I'll pass, thank you." he replied. I laughed, trying not to be loud because we were still in the factory, and people were still coming down and up the stairs. "No— anybody can use a Stanley," I explain. "Get to work." he went up the stairs without even smiling at my joke. I nodded, and my smile faded away from my face, knowing this was kind of a bad situation.

I seriously don't understand how a man like him doesn't smile, I've only seen him smile a few times, but that was before I started work. Maybe he's just a lot nicer to people he doesn't know, which is honestly understandable.

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I was exploring the factory for a little while since my shift was just about to end. Wally hasn't called me for anything in his office and I had no papers to print or papers to give. It wasn't that busy in the hallways, so I had plenty of time to go back without any trouble like on the stairs with Poppy. Finally, I had to come to a room with double doors that said on the side 'GRINDER,' in bold letters.

I looked at it for a moment, thinking about what Poppy had said, not kitchen kind. Walden hadn't told me about the grinder, but I guess I've never noticed it while I walked past it multiple times. Maybe that's because I was working at the time, but I felt like I would notice it, considering how many times I've walked down this hallway just today.

I walked inside to a huge room, beside me was stairs that lead up to what seemed like a office or an station to do something, like the colors. I went up it, obviously nobody was really up there. Everybody was probably gone at the clock out station, since it was technically time to go, but I was still inside the factory, just looking around. I notice an railing the time I got up the stairs.

I went towards it and looked around before looking below me, my eyes widen in surprise to see an huge grinder just like it said in bold letters outside. It was bloody, and I could swear I saw a corpse and a leg deep inside. And just before I thought that was it, I could see an head. The one that bumped into me, dead, shredded into pieces. That leg and the corpse might've been his, but what did he do to deserve that? I shook my head noticing his eyes opened and they were staring at me the more I looked and started walking by the end of the railing and back.

His eyes stared at me. I shook my head and look back down at the grinder, but I couldn't find his head that time. Just leg and the corpse.

Am I seeing ghost?

I ran down the stairs without looking back at the grinder or back at the station, now realizing what Poppy had meant. I opened the double doors, and had my head down as I slipped. I could hear footsteps in front of me, luckily, it was just my boss. I stood up slowly, kind of disappointed he didn't even extend a hand, or ask why I ran. "You alright?" he tilted his head while I got myself situated. I looked at him. "Yeah, yeah. Totally." I said, shocked from the corpse and the head inside of the grinder. I looked around, left to right multiple times before I realized I was out of that death room.

Wally looked me up and down. "You sure? You look like you saw a ghost." Wally said concerned, I wasn't expecting him to be so concerned about me at the moment. I nodded slowly. "Yeah, I'm fine, seriously." I chuckled. He looked like he obviously didn't believe me. "Okay.. good talk." he nodded and sighed. He walked off to the exit of the doors. "See you tomorrow, assistant." he yelled before I could hear the exit door slam shut.

See you tomorrow, boss.