Incubus

Chapter 5

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that 

~ Martin Luther King Jr.

I woke up with the whispers of a distinctive name circling through my head, but the moment I awoke, it completely escaped me. I didn't know how I knew it was a name, but I felt on edge thinking about it. I couldn't see anything; I could only hear my alarm clock beeping loudly. I slowly reached out across the bedsheets and finally reached the alarm clock to pound down on the snooze button.

Rubbing my eyes, I could tell that there was something that was nagging on my mind. Something important that I should be remembering. 

I sat up in bed and thought; trying to pin it down was harder than I thought it would be. I felt like I knew what it was, and had been on the brink of discovering it before my alarm clock woke me from my cloudy mist of sleep. Perhaps my dreams from last night hinted at something that my subconscious was trying to get me to decipher. 

I sighed in defeat and frustration and decided to get up and go to work. The weekend had passed, which meant that today was another Monday and another slow day of work. It was nice to have a job during the school year that was so close to my college campus, but now it was only a reminder that school wasn't starting up for another few months. Twisting my hair into a quick bun, I put on the waitressing outfit and headed out, sans make-up. I wasn't one to believe in applying makeup on without a real need to, and going to work was not an exception to this belief.

I filed in with the rest of the crowd getting to work, those who didn't take their cars down the busy streets of New York. People were urgently talking on their Blackberries, shoving through the crowd and hitting people with their briefcases. I inserted some earbuds and turned on some music so that I wouldn't have to listen to the honking of impatient drivers. 

My college was only twenty-three minutes from my apartment in a car, so it was a nice walk to take once you got away from the hustle and bustle of the streets. I approached the campus to Columbia University and stopped to take it in quickly. It was quite beautiful, and you couldn't ever hear the city because of how big the campus was and how far away from the streets the actual school was. I remembered first looking at this school when I was fifteen years old and yearning to be a part of it. I never believed that it would one day become a reality.

I smiled, which was followed by a sigh, wishing that school was starting up again today and that I could go to school and learn. But it was summertime, and so I turned my back to the campus and walked steadily on.

The coffee shop was busy today. As I opened the door, I saw ten people impatiently waiting in line, as two people behind the booth tried to serve them all as quickly as possible. Their faces lit up with relief as they saw me come in.

"Corin!" Olivia called to me. I waved to them, and they anxiously waved back. "Get back here! We need all the help we can get!"

I nodded and swept my hair up into a ponytail. Weaving my way through the busy room, I threw on an apron and got behind the register. Olivia stepped back to the coffee machines and began serving orders. I looked up and smiled at my first customer of the day. "Hello, and welcome to City Market Cafe, how may I help you today?"

The customer quickly scanned the menu hung over our heads, and promptly said, "Twelve ounce Mocha Cookie Crumble, hold the whipped cream, two percent milk."

Jotting down the order, I called it out over my shoulder. "That'll be ten fifty, sir."

He grumbled something about over-pricing but handed me eleven dollars. I kept a smile on my face, determined to treat every customer well, no matter how they acted. Halfway through the day, I quickly took a five-minute break, knowing that they'd need me in there as soon as possible. Connor took my shift at the register, and I headed out the back door to the small terrace available to workers for their breaks. I sat down with a coffee and scone and looked at my wristwatch. I had about ten minutes until I had to be back in there and decided to make the best of it. I rubbed my head and swept the stray hair from my face that had fallen out of its ponytail. I broke the scone apart and listened as a bird chirped in the tree over my head. It was nice to see a little bit of wildlife in the city. Sometimes I missed living in the country, the acres of grass, all of the trees, animals, even the power outages during the winter time... sitting by the fireplace and snuggled up in blankets, sipping cocoa with-