Death Count

Introduction

It was a nice day, for autumn, if nothing else. Each tree's leaves were rippling in the wind in a rainbow of crimson, orange, brown, and yellow. I paced along the sidewalk, the sun just beginning to rise and shine moderately on my back.

After some minutes, I arrived at Tally's Café, a cute little place I work at ran by a nice old lady (you probably can guess her name is Tally). She wasn't here today. Glancing at the clock, it read 6:58. Two more minutes till it opens. I scanned the small, cozy café for Jade, my coworker and best friend. She's 21, older than me by a bit, but we got along just fine.

She was sitting at one of the small, round tables for two, scrolling mindlessly through her phone. She looked up and I smiled at her, but then I stopped instantly. Hovering above her head, fiery-red, blurry letters were moving. I couldn't quite make them out, but for goodness' sake, it scared the hell out of me.

"Why are you looking at me like that, is there- wait is my eyeliner smudged again?" Jade pointed at her perfect eyeliner that could cut a man and an entire nation.

"Oh, no no." I almost rolled my eyes at Eyeliner Goddess asking me such an unreasonable question. "I thought I saw something but... it's probably just because I barely slept last night..." I laughed uneasily.

"Tsk tsk tsk, going to work high aren't ya?" Jade joked.

"Nah, not today."

It was slightly past 7, and a small family had come and seated themselves at a table. I went over to take their order.

Notepad in hand, I asked, "What would you like?" I looked up at the father. This time, blue characters were shining in the air above his head, slightly resembling numbers, but they were still too faint for me to make out. Oh my god, why am I seeing shit?

"A croissant please," he requested, "and a side of fruit." I could have fainted. Apparently, no one had any idea of what I was seeing, but all I could do was smile and write it down. I took the rest of the family's orders and went to the kitchen.

And that's how the day went. Each time I went to a table, whoever I was looking at had the luminous jumble of characters above their heads, but I tried to ignore it. By the end of the day, I could finally make out the numbers of a person:

14 yrs. || 28 days || 9:53:13

At least, that's what the numbers were for an elderly lady. Each person had different numbers, ranging from 10 to 75. But what worried me was that Jade was the only person who had red characters above her head.

It was finally the end of the day, after a nerve-wracking 7 hours. Quite willingly, I walked out the café (instead of working overtime as usual), said a quick goodbye to Jade, and left without looking back. But the unbelievable wasn't over yet.