Coffeeeee

Time for another short story! I need a coffee..... badly....

I'm not used to being up this early!

Ok, this went surprisingly better than I expected. I also like the kind of dark insinuations of the establishments past.


Linoleum Floors

The bell chimed as it admitted a women with a fur coat into the internet cafe.

"We're closed!" cried a voice from the back.

"That's ok" Said the woman "I'm not here for the computers anyway."

The owner of the internet cafe, Derek Kraemer, came out from the back. He looked more than disgruntled and less than happy to see the woman standing before him. "What do you want, Ms. O'Donnel?"

"Oh Derek, I told you, call me Christine." She smiled wickedly. She walked up to the counter that Derek stood behind, heels clicking on the linoleum floor. She plopped her fur coat down on the desk. Derek eyed the coat before looking at Christine again.

"You're here for your money aren't you."

"Only unless you want another romantic rendezvous, honey."

"Don't call me that" came Derek's quick chiding response.

"Not in the mood to play tonight?" Christine leaned on the counter and reached out with a hand gently brushing Derek's cheek. Derek flinched. "I guess it's all business tonight."

"How much this time." Derek opened the lock box and started to count twenties.

"Make it Four and a half"

"$450?! This is extortion!"

"Exactly, honey. And if you don't want Mrs. Kraemer to find out you'll pay."

"What could you possibly need $450 for? Wasn't the 375 I gave you last week enough!"

"I want a new coat." Christine prodded her fur coat. "This one is too..." She paused to think of the right word. "Poofy."

Derek counted out all the twenties from the lock box. He was a 130 short. "Give me a minute, I have to go to the back and get the rest." Derek shoved the $320 at Christine and quickly disappeared into the back.

Christine sat on the counter and counted her newly acquired stack of cash. Between Derek and Morris Thompson up the street she was making quiet a bit of money for herself.

"I've got the rest of it" came Derek's voice. Christine turned around to see a pistol pointed at her.

"What are you doing?"

"I made a mistake when I slept with you, I know that. I thought if I just paid you off you'd go away and eventually leave me alone. But you're not going away are you. So I just have to make you leave."

"You're crazy! You can't shoot me! You'll got o jail!"

"Crimes happen around here all the time. The last owners of this internet cafe were murdered right here. No one caught them either. I guess this place is just cursed."

"You don't know that!" Christine looked around frantically for a place to run and hide.

"If they had caught them, I wouldn't be here right now." Derek smiled and he took aim and fired his gun.

Christine's body crumpled to the floor, twenty dollar bills splayed out everywhere. Derek put the gun down and quickly went to work. He put the body in a garbage back and left it in the dumpster behind old Morris Thompson's pawnshop. He cleaned the linoleum floor and put the money back in the lock box.

He locked the gun in his work locker and was about to leave the shop when he stopped. Christine's fur coat still lay on the counter. He smiled and grabbed it.

"A nice gift, for Mrs. Kraemer." He slung coat over his shoulder and hit the lights.