Chapter 99 Alone

Chapter 99 Alone
Quillan shifted his bag on his shoulder and rolled his mom's bags, leaving his grandpa to roll his out of the old man's sheet stubborness. Now wasn't the time to fight. They had just gotten to Fortuna and had to navigate how to get either to where she was staying to the Blue Kudu. 
His mom bounced on her toes. "She's going to scream."
"I think Lyd' is a little calmer than you, Mom," Quillan said, throwing an arm around her, relaxing at the real solidness of her body against his. As soon as he and grandpa could both follow her to California permanently, he was going to spend the rest of his life hugging his family. 
"She's not picking up," his mom said. 
"Call her roommate?"
A few moments later, she was on the line. "Hi, Reign. Yes we just got off the midnight ferry. Has she already...she should still be closing?  Perfect! Maybe we can get some late night food. And thank you again for helping us with this surprise!"
She hung up and waved them toward a bus stop. "Apparently, the Blue Kudu is in the central area, and if we get to an Island Escort pole and tell them that we're family of an Aegis student we can give them her school ID and they'll take us there!"
"Rich schools, got to love the convenience."
"And... we do have her student ID, don't we?"
She blinked, still before she hit the button. "I... think she gave it to me at some point…”
Quillan chuckled and turned into the ocean wind. The horizon sparked with light just beyond his vision and a sense of danger pricked at his spine, like waiting for someone to come up behind him with a shank. 

"Order up!" 
Lydia headed back to the shelf as dish after dish was pushed out. 
The male waiter who started sometime while she was gone gave her a tight smile as they sorted the dishes together.
He glanced around and leaned close. "I know we don't know each other, but I figure we should stick together."
Lydia frowned. "Something wrong?"
"Jason is in a mood."
Lydia dissed, waiting for the next dish to come out. "Oh God, when did it start?"
"Probably all day. He came in a little after you did."
Shit. In a mood and late, he was probably losing his shit. She hadn't noticed. She'd been so focused on getting through the shift. There had been times since she'd worked there that Jason would come in under the influence of something. He didn't smell like weed or alcohol, so she assumed it was some cocktail of drugs. With the college campus and so many wealthy families around, access to just about anything was easy. Whatever Jason's drug of choice was, but whenever he was high, he got erratic and mean, leering with a violence that turned her stomach and dredged up every memory she liked to keep buried. 
If it was a bit later in the year, the Bar would be packed with hockey fans. As it stood, there was nothing but preseason football on. The Bar was busy for now, but it wouldn't last. She'd need to be quick about it, too busy, and too quick on her feet. She could do that. She'd done it before. 
Except fortune wasn't with her tonight. 
The new waiter had hustled his tables to wrap up their tabs and clocked out a full half hour early, before they had even finished signing the bill. The bartender was always out by closing, and the other waiters hadn't touched a dish since Jason's new rule. 
A heap of dishes piled into the sinks greeted her when she opened the door of the wash room, and there were still people on the floor.
“To hell with this.”
She loaded every rack faster and faster and ran them through one by one. It was enough to start the morning rush. Whoever opened could handle the fucking rest if she couldn’t run it by the time the last person left.
Water sloshed over the floor. Dishes were cleaned as she stuffed her cash in her bra. No time to count it. 
The last cook stumbled and grumbled around in the kitchen, prepping things for the next day or whatever was on the kitchen's closing checklist. With all that noise, if Jason was asleep, he wouldn't be much longer, but that was fine so long as she clocked out and got out about the time the cook did. He headed into the freezer, she headed out to the floor and started flipping chairs and barstools and collecting receipts and cashed, smiling and wishing people a good night.
Fuck the new waiter. Bailing on her like that.
She entered the ticket totals, scanned them and started flipping chairs onto the tables, working her way through her section and no further.
Fuck him. 
Fuck these people. 
Fuck this job.
She didn’t think she’d ever come back if this schedule stayed this way, if Jason stayed the manager. 
She flipped another chair and dialed her mom, turning on the recorder on her watch and pushed the busing cart toward the back, buckets full of rags and soapy water.
The camera caught her eye and her heart kicked hard against her ribcage. The little blue light was on.
She had time, but how much?
Half way through the end of her sections, while running the manual vacuum over every crumb, her mom called her back. 
"Are you a bit freer now, dear?"
"Yes, I am. What's this big news?" Wind rushed on the other side. "Are you outside? At this time of night? Mom!"
"I am not alone, I promise. Now, tell me how your day went."
Lydia glanced back at the hallway leading to the office. "I could be better, but it's much better hearing from you."
She shoved the manual vacuum in the closet. No time to mop. No time. No time. No. Time.
The back door banged closed. The light of the camera flicked on for just a moment, then off. 
Fuck. He was awake. She dropped her rag in the bucket, phone pressed to her ear.
"Well, hopefully things will get better. Are you going out after work?"
"Probably not. Need to call an escort and all that, and I'm dead tired."
And scared, and freaking the fuck out. 
It was half past closing when she realized that she was alone, and the only hope she had was that Jason was too uncoordinated to try anything before she could escape. 
Shoving the bus carts into the dishwashing room, she turned to cut out and froze.  
Water splashed around her feet, making her shoes soggy. Dish racks crammed their way out of the end. The machine beeped say that it needed more soap soon, but it kept chugging. 
Standing in the doorway was Jason with a leering smirk, blocking the exit. 
"I don't think those are clean at all..." He tilted his head, animalistic and a little unnatural. "You’re going to have to start from the beginning by hand since we’re out of soap."