Post by CLEA GIVENS on Sept 30, 2023 20:42:33 GMT
The place had started to empty out early tonight. Clea glanced down the bar at the scatter of people occupying stools. Some of the regulars were still there and would likely be until she announced closing and they shuffled them out the door. There were still about a dozen tables filled too, but they hadn’t had anybody new come in the door in the last half an hour. With the storm brewing there probably wouldn’t be any more now either.
She swiped the cloth over the bar, resisting the urge to drift to the door and look up at the sky like it was about burst open before her eyes. Weather in the town had been pretty bad the last couple of months. Forget global warming, it was like summer had decided to hand over the rains to a soggy fall. There’d been no pretty fall foliage in the woods, what had turned on the trees was washed down into a soggy mess on the ground that she wasn’t crazy enough to go stomping around in. She’d stick to the slick concrete and blacktop of the town and save herself the coating of mud and frozen toes.
If she was lucky she’d be able to close up half an hour early and get home before the rain came chucking it down. It was always far prettier when you weren’t out in it. Get the fire burning, make a pot of good tea and curl up with a book – or with company if Damien paid a visit. She could forget the tea then, maybe break out the brandy instead and curl up with him instead of the book.
Clea started to close up the tubs of sliced limes and other garnishes, slipping them back into the fridges in the anticipation of not having to break them out again tonight. The cold rolled out of the under counter refrigerators as they were opened, sending a chill rolling down her spine. It had been cold in her dreams last night – and the handful of nights before that too. Breath plumed in the night air, the rain that shot through the air like needles soaking everything around her. It hadn’t kept the slender figure off of the street, or the thing that seemed to be slinking through the shadows in pursuit of her. Given how often it had rained it could’ve been any night in the next couple of weeks, or in the last half dozen. If the storms were supposed to move on after this one she’d have given in to the anxiety that had clung to her when she’d woken, but it was like they were stuck over the town, almost as though that dome thing from the Stephen King book she’d read had arrived to plague Mystic Falls.
Five minutes later the bar was cleared, wiped down, two of the tables now empty as the people who’d been sitting at them had paid up and headed out. Clea waved to the second couple and was heading over to their table to clear it when the door opened again, someone coming in. Apparently she’d been wrong. Catching sight of Braeden she swallowed hard. She’d seen the woman here a handful of times with Derek Hale, and was familiar enough that she’d have maybe stopped for a chat if she’d seen her outside. Now a chill ran down her spine. The leather jacket she wore looked far too much like the one she’d seen in her dream.
Trying to draw herself together, Clea stopped in her tracks and nodded back towards the bar. ”Bar’s still open if you want to sit up there, or can I grab you a menu for table service?” she asked, her throat tight. If she had company coming it would likely have been a table – and it would’ve been far less likely that tonight was the night her vision was likely to come true.
hope to see you in the discord! 
