Nightmare Cafe

[Maid of Marvels]

Fay Petulia Peronivic

Fay struggled against the man who had grabbed her around the waist and dragged her into the bushes. Arms and legs flailing uselessly, she cried out ineffectively. Or tried to.

"Let me... mmrmph." Bret's meaty paw clamped over her mouth as he shushed her and hissed something about zombies in her ear. ZOMBIES! What the hell was this guy smoking?

Fay twisted and turned her body, trying to wriggle loose when she smelled it. Like bad meat on a hot day. Fay's stomach lurched and her eyes grew wide as she stared at the sight in front of her. What the hell are those?? She shook her head and closed her eyes, reopening them to see that nothing had changed.

Slowly shuffling and murmuring... corpses were making their way down the main street like a clip from Michael Jackson's Thriller. Dance dammit! Sing! She willed them but deep down she knew that this was not a video. It wasn't even a dream.

The title of the book she had thrown back at Blackie in the Cafe came back to haunt her. That bastard! She could almost hear him chuckling as he hid behind his newspaper and sipped at his cup of coffee. What in the world was going on here??

 

[Ravenloft]

Bret:

"There..." Bret said as he let go of Fay. "I think we're safe n-OW!" Suddenly another zombie lept out of nowhere and sank its teeth into Bret's shoulder, ripping a peice of his flesh from his body, right through his checkered button down. He grunted, taking action as swiftly as he could with a 150 lbs body on his back. Whiping an elbow around, he nailed the thing in its jaw, making it snap with a sickening sound. The thing fell off his back, landing on its own, and in one swift motion, Bret whipped out a bowie knifed from his boot, JABBING it through its throat, and into the ground. the thing reached up to claw Bret but he slashed its hands away, severing a finger as he did. "Damnable varment!" Bret took another stab at the things throat before it would stop moving.

Breathing heavilly, he reached a hand back to touch the bite wound and hissed, jerking his hand away. He looked at his blood coated finger tips and growled. It looked as though he were about to kick the zombie, but thought better of it as he looked up for Fay.

 

[Maid of Marvels]

Fay Petulia Peronivic

Bret eased her down and spoke those famous last words: "I think we're safe n-OW!" just as one of those creatures jumped onto his back.

A scream froze in her throat and turned into a low whimper as Fay stumbled and fell in her haste to get away. Too scared to try to stand, she scrambled backwards, pushing herself along like a crab along the ground.

It was over almost as fast as it began. Walking toward Fay, Bret reached down helping her to her feet. Her legs felt like Jell-O and she was certain her heart was going to pound itself right out of her chest. "What in the hell is going on here??" she demanded in a shaky voice.

A patch of red was slowly spreading over Bret's shirt. Blood! Gods he'd been bitten. Images of Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things and The Night of the Living Dead danced through her head. No. Those were just movies. This is... Right. This is what... real life??

This wasn't happening. Impossible. "Just tell me what is going on. Please?" Fay repeated as she tried to move the blood-sodden shirt aside without hurting him any further. "Let me see that."

 

[Ravenloft]

Bret:

"Oh, its real enough Ma'am..." He let Fay look at the wound and hissed in pain, his muscles tencing as he did. "Its the curse of a mighty pissed off injun, thats what it is. And ya might as well not bother. I'm dead already, its just a matter of days, if not hours..." He turned around and took Fay by the shoulders to look her square in the eyes. "But before that happens I got to get you somewhere safe..." Looking over toward the sign, Bret scoffed. "Might as well make that 464 pardnar..." He said, a hint of bitterness in his tone.

 

[Maid of Marvels]

Fay

Holding her arm at the elbow, Bret led Fay through the side streets and back alleys of town. They stopped often to to listen and hid in the shadows when groups of fetid smelling zombies passed nearby.

It seemed ages before they finally climbed a rickety flight of stairs that led to an apartment above the general store. Bret looked around before motioning for Fay to follow him inside. Striking a lucifer against his pant leg, Bret lifted the chimney on a lamp and lit it.

Fay looked around the sparsely furnished room before turning her gaze back to this man who had befriended her. His shirt was almost completely soaked with blood now, and even in the flickering lamplight, she could see that his face had taken on a waxy pallor.

"Sit down. I'll clean that out for you. We've got to stop that bleeding somehow."

 

[Ravenloft]

Bret:

The moment Fay came toward him to clean his wound, Bret snapped at her. "NO! Don't you understand? Im as good as dead! No matter how clean the wound is. Im just another corpse..." His hands were shaking as he reached into a pocket and took out a hand rolled cigarette, using the last of the match he'd struck to light it. He pinched it out with a sigh. Taking a long drag, he looked up at Fay. "How bad do I look?" He said, seeming to find this whole situation humorous somehow...

 

[Maid of Marvels]

Fay

"How bad do I look?"

Fay blinked and opened her mouth then closed it again. How bad did he look? Like death warmed over, she thought. However, she couldn't say that to him, even though it was pretty obvious Bret was quite aware of his condition.

Crossing her fingers behind her back. He didn't have to know she was talking about the room they were standing in "Nothing that a little cleaning up won't fix. But hey... You really should let me try to stop that bleeding anyhow or I'll be heaving. The smell of blood just doesn't do it for me."

Fay waited for him to take his shirt off while she went over to the stove and put a pot of water on to boil. You were supposed to boil the water, weren't you? Hell. It would give her something to do in the meantime anyway.

Looking around, she picked up a tin coffee pot from the counter near the sink. "Hey, Bret. You have coffee?"

He nodded and pointed to an open cupboard.

"Great. Now while I'm making coffee, tell me about this Indian curse you mentioned earlier."

 

[Ravenloft]

Bret:

"Sure..." He patted a hand on the empty spot next to him as an offer for Fay to sit. "Make a long story short, the tribe was sent disease infested blankest and nothing but raw meat for months. And when the territory was needed, they were attacked, slaughtered is more like it. Only a hand full of them lived, but that was enough for them to have their revenge. One old indian came and did some sort of strange dance in the middle of the towns grave yard, and thats when the zombies started poping up... There were only a few of them at a time, but that was enough... It spread just as bad as the diseases we gave the indians, worse... And, well, you see me, this is whats been happening..."

He blinked then closed his eyes and rubbed at his temples. "Shit, its getting hard for me to think. did anything I said make sence?" He looked into Fay's eyes then and frowned.

 

[Maid of Marvels]

Fay

Filling a tin pan with water from the stove, Fay looked around for something that might pass for a bandage. Her search unsuccessful, she grabbed a knife and began to tear strips from the bottom of her dress. It was way too long to suit her taste anyway, she thought, all the while listening to Bret.

He invited her to sit and she did, setting the pan of water on the floor near her feet along with a bottle of whiskey she had found. He had removed his shirt while he spoke and the blood was now running freely down his arm and chest.

"Did anything I said make sense?" He asked, grimacing as she placed her hand near his wound.

"It did," she replied quietly. "And I'm thinking there has to be a way to make amends and put an end to what's happening here. Now lean toward me and let me clean you up a bit."

Fay's stomach was churning as she began to gently wipe away the excess blood before tending to his wound. It was a nasty gash, and she knew that he was right. Bret would not last much longer. Infection was sure to set in. If nothing else, he would die from the loss of blood alone.

Finally satisfied that she had done her best to clean him up, Fay handed Bret the bottle to take a swig. He readily complied, though was reluctant to give it back.

"Just give me that, will you?" she said grabbing it from his hand. "Now take a deep breath... this is what they always do in the movies. After all, you live in a town filled with zombies. Anything can happen, right?"

She tipped the bottle up and took a long swig herself before drizzling it over his wound. "Here goes nothing."

 

[Ravenloft]

Bret:

The moment since Fay took the whiskey back Bret had been looking at her legs. He continued even as she poored some of the whiskey over his wound, only tightening his jaw for a moment. "You have really pretty legs ma'am." He said absently as he lifted a hand, like he was about to reach out and touch one. IT flopped back to his side though as he looked up, into her face. There were bags under his eyes like he had not slept in a week.

 

[Maid of Marvels]

Fay

Fay was beginning to have an idea about what she was doing hundreds of years away from home and she didn't much like it. Even more, she disliked the fact that the only person she had met (or could possibly trust) was going to die and she couldn't do anything about it. When and IF she got back to the Cafe, she was going to ream Blackie a new one. Why her??

Fay reached over and placed her hand on the side of Bret's face. His skin was cool and clammy. Pastey white. Easing an arm around him, she pulled the dying man toward her, resting his head against her breast.

"Just relax," she cooed to him, not knowing what else to say. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath while absent-mindedly combing her fingers through his hair. There had to be something she could do. But what??

 

[Ravenloft]

Bret:

Laying complacently against Fay, Bret whispered. "You're such a beautiful woman, i'm sorry you had to get mixed up in all of this..." His hand fell upon her forearm and weakly. It was cold, and just as clammy as his forehead. "So beautiful... So... Delicious..." Bret began to hiss.

 

[Maid of Marvels]

Fay Petulia Peronivic

"So beautiful... So... Delicioussssssssss... "

It took Fay a second to realize what was happening when Bret started to raise himself and turned toward her. The look on his face made her heart stop beating as that line from one of the Dead movies flashed through her head. "If you loved me you'd let me eat your brains... "

"Nooooooooo!" Fay shoved Bret with every bit of strength she could muster. Scrambling to her feet, she ran for the door. This is not happening. This is so not happening!

"Blackie, you bastard! Get me the hell out of here!" she screamed as she stumbled her way down the stairs.

 

[Ravenloft]

At the bottom of the stairs there was a book laying out, its pages flapping in the breaze as though it waved to Fay with a hundred hands.

 

[Maid of Marvels]

Fay

Fay's eye caught something fluttering on the ground at the foot of the stairs as she ran down them.

"That bastard!" she exclaimed, stooping to pick it up. Yup. It was the same one. Mystic West: Zombie Boom Town and Other Tales. She looked around to see if Blackie was anywhere in sight.

"Blackie! Where the hell are you, dammit!"

"I'm right here, Fay. Where did you expect me to be?"

Fay spun to face him, mouth open and loaded for bear.

She blinked.

She blinked again.

She was back in the Cafe. Back in her waitress uniform. And there was Blackie. Sitting in his booth with his ever-present newspaper and a cup of coffee in hand.

 

[Ravenloft]

Blackie:

"So Fay, how was your little vacation?" Blackie said with a shit eating grin as he took a sip of coffee. He looked over to Felicity with a wink. "I think Fay can help you now Felicity... Can't ya Fay?"

 

[Maid of Marvels]

Fay

"Well I can think of better places to go on vacation... " Fay began and bit her tongue as it suddenly hit her like a bolt from the blue. She knew what this whole thing was about. She didn't like it, but she thought she had it figured out at least.

Fay looked from Blackie to Calamity Jane and back again. He was grinning and she felt the hackles rising but took a deep breath as she slammed the dog-eared book down on the table and slid into the booth next to him. Grabbing his coffee, she took a sip and mumbled "Get your own, I've got a story to tell."

"You see, it's like this. There was a tribe that lived where Desolation is now. The government screwed them over, see? Took their land and basically killed them off. That's when their medicine man did his thing. And that's why you have... zombies."

My voice trailed off as I began to question my sanity.