Revenant Dreams - Anthology

The Waitress

         It had been a pleasant vacation for Jack. He'd decided to go to the beach side restaurant he'd gone to every morning since his week long trip. It was one of those outdoor decks with a bit of a drop down to the sandbar. His favorite waitress Cindy came up to his table with a smile. She was a strawberry blonde with purple highlights and icy blue-grey eyes. She claimed the eyes were natural, but then he'd only known her a week. After his initial flirting and ordering food he told her, "so today's my last day in town. If you were gonna take advantage of me this is your last chance."

        Cindy let out a cute chuckle and turned her face away shyly. A trickle of blood ran down her forehead and she excused herself to the kitchen. Jack hastened up to the hostess near the kitchen door to ask her if Cindy was alright. She gave him an offended look with a raised eyebrow.

       "Excuse me?"

       "Cindy? She just ran by, she was bleeding."

       "Cindy died last month, she was pushed off the peer by some asshole," she pointed over to the table Jack had sat at all week.

        Jack had a strange sinking feeling on the drive back to his hotel and a long 8 hours before he had to leave for home. With his vacation all but ruined and nothing to tear his mind away from the matter, he stepped outside for some fresh air. The view off of the balcony was spectacular enough to settle his mind. The sunset reflected off of the clear blue sea. The silloettes of ocean critters swimming all around. The broken body on the beach spilling a crown of blood and hair all around.

       "Hey cutie."

        Jack turned to see Cindy standing in the shadow of the doorway, "What the... how'd you... ?"

       "You said 'come by if you want to take advantage of me.' well I do," there was a steady stream of blood sticking her multi-colored hair to her face and streaming over one of her blue-grey eyes as she stepped into the balcony light and pushed the tourist to his death. The police arrived on scene to find two bodies, one was an inexplicable match to Cindy's corpse in the morgue. More and more doplegangers are found every year, most with another dead stranger close by. They say she haunts every place a new corpse shows up. And so the curse only grows stronger.

Many of the reports claim to have multiple incidents on the same balcony. One report stated they found eighteen Cindy's at the bottom. Business has shut down entirely in some of these places so hopefully things are contained.