Hostile Hospitality(Shawanna) Prologue
This is not how he planned on living his life. He was only trying to subdue the monster; not become one. “How did I let it get this far? How can I stop this? It has to stop. This just ain't right,” he said to himself. After what seemed like hours of weeping in the coat closet, Tion finally came to an epiphany. "That new girl, what's her... Shanea. Yeah, she could help me. I heard what she said to the managers. Her plan could work if I help her. The feeding, the devastation is just too much! We...I ... We have all gone to far and will definitely weep the consequences for this mess." Tion stood up from his pity spot, and started pacing around tryting to think of a way to approach Shanea. He knew he had to do it wisely without spooking her or setting off any alarms that the others would surely find.
He knew how to put an end to the monsters. However, in order to do so, he would have to convince the person he has betrayed the most. The one who has believed in him and the good, human part of him when he lost it himself. “Shanea. Shanea’s the only one that can stop them now. She has to be!”

Dressing the Part
Shanea had just accepted a position as a host, working for a high end hotel in its restaurants.
She was both nervous and excited all at once, as she had never done this type of hosting work before.
There was also the issue of obtaining the proper attire on her tight budget. Since the preferred uniform swallowed her whole, she had no other choice but to provide her own formal business clothing. The job required her to wear a nice suit, or at least nice slacks and a long sleeve white shirt (shorts sleeves outside). She had the slacks from working previous jobs. However, she has never worn a suit jacket before. The day before she started work, she went to all of the reasonably priced places around town. She searched for either a suit or just a suit jacket.
Shanea went to Ross Dress for Less, Walmart, Marshall’s and TJ Maxx. Nothing really fit her small frame, but she did find something reasonable in her tight budget at Ross. That was better than nothing. The suit she purchased was about half a size too big for her, but would work for the job. "If they have a problem with it, then tough. This is the best I can do. Once I get my first paycheck, I will be able to get it altered." Shanea said outload to herself.

First Day Jitters
The next morning she got up extra early, to make sure she was on time. Shanea took a quick shower, dressed and did her hair. Once she was ready, she ate some Fruit Loops, an orange, and drank some fruit punch for breakfast. Afterwards, she grabbed her coat and headed out the door. Placing her bag in the car, she turned the ignition and pulled out of the parking
lot of her apartment complex. “Open up the Floodgates” playing in the background.
As she was driving along Richland Rd, she hummed along to the song, in an attempt to calm her nerves.
Once she neared the grounds of the Inn, she struggled trying to remember where her boss told her to park. Shanea had yet to receive her parking pass nor her employee identification card. Therefore, she knew she would have some difficulty entering through the employee entrance, once she parked.
No matter how hard she tried to recall the lot she had been shown a few days earlier, she just couldn’t remember. So, she wandered around until she found the, or a sign indicating employee parking. From the looks of the well manicured shrubbery, she knew this was not the same area. However, she was about to be late, so she went with the flow.
Despite her near tardiness, Shanea sat in her car for awhile longer. She sat there until she could muster up enough courage to go inside. Once she felt confident enough, she got out of her car, and began walking towards the building. As she neared the entrance door down a set of steps, she held her breath and pulled on the door. This was it, the terrifying moment she had been preparing herself for.
However, once she attempted to pull on the handle, the door didn’t budge. Shanea looked at the sign aboveground to verify that this was an employee entrance and then she turned back to the door. After a few moments, she looked to her right and saw a box scanner. This meant that the door required a key card in order for someone to enter. Therefore, she went back up the stairs, and followed the sign to another employee entrance. This one also required a key card. Fortunately enough for Shanea, there was another employee in front of her, who had a key card, and she just followed behind her.
Once inside, Shanea had no idea where she was going. Her sense of direction was askew from the maze-like hallways. Her gut told her to continue to follow the female employee from outside. As she followed the woman through the maze of hallways, and up a flight of stairs, she started to recognize where she was going. They were both headed to the same place, the kitchen.
Coincidentally, by the time they had turned the corner to the second set of hallways, things really started to click for Shanea. She no longer felt like a stalker following behind this woman, but rather like a fellow employee who just so happened to be going to the same place.
Once they had reached the main level, Shanea and the young woman split, with Shanea going directly to the kitchen, and the woman going into a locker room just off of the kitchen. After several moments of looking around the area, an old grey-haired man with a peppered mustache and leathery skin, and pork belly, asked her in a scratchy smoker's voice, “Are you lost?” Shanea gave the man a once-over, and determined by the way he was dressed (long sleeved white buttoned up shirt, blueish grey tie with matching vest and navy pants) that he must be a server. She responded with a child-like yet sturdy tone of voice, “No, I am right where I need to be.”
The man spread his stance like a cowboy ready for a standoff. “ What area are you working in and who are you here to see?” He asked with a curious look. “ I’m the new hostess and I’m supposed to meet up with someone named Jackie?” Shanea responded.
He put his hands in his vest pocket leaned back on the galley counter as if in an old western. “Oh, well in that case, follow me, and I will show you where she is.” Shanea respectfully followed the server to meet with Jackie, the person who was to train her this week. “Here you go. Jackie this little lady says she is training with you today?” Shanea looked at Jackie, as Jackie turn toward her, from doing some paperwork.
Jackie turned on this fake smile that she had obviously been practicing for several years, but Shanea had not caught onto it and said with confidence, “Hi, how are you? Nice to meet you.” Jackie outstretched her hand and Shanea, who was not fond of touching, reluctantly took it.“Nervous, OK but nervous.” Jackie laughed with an ominous toned chuckle. “There’s nothing to be nervous about. It is easy, I promise.” With that brief introduction, the cowboy retreated back to the kitchen.
“Yeah right, Shanea thought to herself,”as if Jackie’s words of encouragement were going to make Shanea feel any better. Shanea just nodded and smiled at Jackie, but said nothing to the contrary. “ All right, so come over here with me and we can get started on the paperwork for the morning.” Jackie informed Shanea.
They went to the hall coat room for all of the front of house paperwork and materials along with the coats resided. “All right, so this is where we keep all of our supplies. This notebook,” Jackie Grab a black notebook from the top of a small filing cabinet next to the armoire filled with menus. “This notebook is sectioned off into different restaurant areas and by number of servers. So, for instance, this morning's breakfast restaurant was the Godfrey Room. In the afternoon, we moved over to the Tucker room, and for reservations at night we use the Rochester room. It makes sense?” Jackie asked, handing the folder to Shanea. “Just let me know if I lost you.” Jackie had most definitely lost Shanea. However, Shanea wasn’t going to tell her that. “Got it. I understand.” Shanea mumbled out loud.“I’ll just have to read through them all myself to actually understand.” Jackie continued on,“ Now we are going to have three servers for today, so we use the three server sheets.” Shanea wanted to ask how Jackie knew how many servers there were, but she kept quiet.

Confused and Glittered
Afterwards, they left the coat room and headed back into the hall of the Godfrey Dining Room. Jackie pulled out a little butler serving table with gold trim at the top with a gold border surrounding it. The table was a smooth blend of mahogany and tan. “This is the breakfast host stand,” announced Jackie, pulling Shanea out of her thoughts. “Uh, OK.” that was all Shanea was able to say. “ Now Dell, the older guy you met, Daniel, and Jessica will be the servers today. We usually go on rotation from when the servers were last working the shift to know where to put them. This way it is fair for everyone.” Shanea gave a relieved smile. “Now that makes sense.” She blurted out with confidence. “Here, let’s go over to the desk over here in the Tucker Room where we keep the completed forms from the past few days.” Jackie said as she let the way across the hall and Shaina followed. On a corner wall in the front left of the Tucker room entrance, another buffet table was placed. This one was mahogany all around with ornate floral carvings on the handles. Jackie opened the left drawer and pulled out a small stack of papers that were stapled together.


Jackie brought the stack over to Shanea, “So it looks like Dell, Jennifer, and Daniel were all working breakfast yesterday morning. So this is going to make rotating them easy. There are three sections where there are only three servers, and affection or based on the seating chart. So the server chart goes in a straight line horizontally. Before we get to the seating chart, let me tell you the seating numbers.” Jackie walked back across the hall to the Godfrey Room alongside Shanea. Jackie extended her left hand palms open, and pointed towards the back wall. “So going from back to front, left to right, there is 35 through 36, 43, 53.
On the second row there are 25 through 26, 42, 52, 62. In this third row we have tables 15th through 16th, 41, 51, 61. Please let me know if I have lost you somewhere.” This time Shanea did ask a question. “So is this set up always going to have the same numbers?” Jackie looked down at her and smiled, “Yes.” Said Jackie in an unnerving motherly way. “OK, it will take some time remembering them all.” Shanea informed Jackie. Jackie looked at Shaina with that fake smile again and said, “ No problem,Here’s a seating chart to help you. I will also go ahead and give you one for the Tucker room too.” Shanea took both charts and started reading over them.
She placed the Godfrey room chart in the direction of the seating orientation, and set out to memorize as much as she could that day. “All right, we should be heading to the lineup.” Jackie said, of course she and I had no idea what she was referring to. But, as the train went, she followed along. She soon came to find out once she got into the kitchen, what the lineup was. The lineup was the head chef of the day or section of the day and forming servers, and possibly host, although they do not need to be a part of it, about the day’s specials such as main entrées, wines, and finishing off with grooming habits and standards for the week.


As the chef was going over regular menu items, he would ask the servers to describe each dish and its ingredients. “Huh?” Shanea thought. “How in the world do they know all these things?” The servers were naming the ingredients in the foods and how they and wines are made. The morning manager broke her out of her self-questioning by answering her question, “ So where do we find all this information?” Everyone answered almost simultaneously, “On the board in the hallway leading into the kitchen.”
Shana made a mental note to look at that board. “So, now that the daily lineup is over, has everyone had a chance to introduce herself to our newest hostess in training, miss Shanea?” The morning manager, Montell asked aloud. Shayna was not a fan of feminine or masculine pronouns, but for the sake of today, she kept her mouth shut, and gave stiff not to everyone with a tight lip. Everyone around her said hello and congrats, before splitting off to do their start-up duties. Shanea followed Jackie to the room service office where she met the running room service server and the room service lady who answered the phone; she couldn’t remember their names at the time. For Jackie, it was more of a social call where some of her true exterior came out. For Shanea, it was annoying. She was here to learn about her job, not gossip about other coworkers. She felt so awkward not knowing whether to stay with Jackie or go back to the Godfrey room.
She decided to stay and endure the gossiping trio. After five minutes or so, Jackie and the room service gals finally finished and it was back to business, and Jackie was training Shaina again. They went back into the Godfrey room through an automatic door that awed Shanea. She had never seen doors that open that way before. Automatic sliding glass doors sure. But, all black mad at entryway with hidden black doors? Not so much.
On the other side of the doors was another passage to the Godfrey room. From this viewpoint, the room looked older than she first Thought. The carpet seemed old and the walls had somewhere to them. Shanea chalked it up to age. But, she thought that The hiring manager had informed her that the hotel had undergone recent renovations? “So now that we have done the seating chart and went to the morning lineup, it’s time to go to the front desk and get the morning roster of gas thank you for the day. We use this so we know who has a ride to breakfast that is at the hotel. Those that are staying here, we put their room numbers on this paper right here.” Jackie showed Shanea the breakfast form from the large black binder. “We don’t have to ask for the room numbers, only the last names and how many are in the party.” She lead the way to the front desk and the receptionist was prepared to hand off the list upon their arrival.
Jackie thanked the receptionist, informed her that Shanea was a new host, and they headed back to the dining area with rooms list in hand. “OK, so this road to the left.” Jackie pointed to the first row. “Will be the guest room number then the next row will be the guest names. Then this last round will be how they book their stay online, through an agency, VIP, etc.” By this time they had already made it back to the dining area and were arranging paperwork. “Now if they are not guests, we just put an X in the row that has the room number.” Jackie informed Shanea. Shanea gave a blank stare and then quickly started to plunder through her small notepad she brought with her so that she could take notes.
“ For such a no-brainer job, this requires too much thinking.” She mumbled to herself as she jotted down the information. “So what if there are more people than table space?” Shanea asked Jackie. “ That’s not a problem, we just move tables and chairs together. If it’s a six top coming in and we have a four top table available and a two top table available beside each other, we can put them together.” Shannon not an absolutely but had no idea what a top was. She tried to focus on what was being told to her but the nerves in the words were all so daunting. Instead of sounding stupid, she kept your mouth shut. After years of saying the wrong things, Shanea also learn how and when to be quiet and that this can get her results also.
“ Now while the servers and the server assistant, are setting up we can go get some newspapers from the bell room to put on the table beside the Godfrey.We will get the Wall Street, New York Times, Washington post. We get these after 7:30am, to give the Bellman enough time to deliver them to the guest rooms, then we can get some of the leftovers. We should take three Wall Street, three times, and we don’t have a lot of post so if there are only two or three just leave them.” “Makes sense.” Shanea said to Jackie. “What do we do with the extra papers? Do they go back to the bell room or...?” Shanea asked. “We usually don’t have any left over, but if we do they go back to the bell room.” Jackie answered.
Breakfast started promptly at 7am. The servers and Jerome had finished setting up and we’re ready for guests to arrive. Jackie was going over seating with Shanea when the first guest arrive 15 minutes in to their opening. “Good morning. How are you?” Ask Jackie with a wide fake smile that Shaina had still not picked up on yet. “Good.” So the man in the cargo shorts, flip-flops, and one navy blue shirt. Shanea found it very odd that the rich would dress like this for breakfast in a fancy hotel, but she kept it to herself. “How many will be in your party this morning?” Jackie asked the guest. “There will be two of us. My wife will be down shortly.” Responded the guest. “Right this way, please.” Jackie responded. As the guest came closer, she picked up a menu from the host stand, and lead the way to a table on the far right corner of the room.
Shanea observed what Jackie was doing from the host stand and took mental notes. After Jackie set the gentleman, she removed the additional two place settings. Shanea was worried that she could never actually do these things. If her clumsiness was any indication, she would smash everything in sight. No, there was no possible way she could pull off, removing several glasses of water, tea cups, and breakable plates all at once. Then there was the reset now that in itself was a doozy. She has never set a table for something so classy. She didn’t know where the dining fork and spoon went and where to place a teaspoon versus the knife. So, she observed from afar, and decided she would wait on them to tell her what and when to do things. That way she could avoid the embarrassment
As the morning went on Jackie would let Shaina do small things like ask for guest names when they arrive, and seat them. Shanea struggled trying to remember How to sit where which was daunting for her. She would constantly refer back to the seating chart and go over the last person’s table she sat. There were times she still got the order wrong. Seating a two top on a larger for top square table just felt wrong. In her mind and instinctually, the guest would not feel comfortable sitting in such a bulky space in the center of the room. Especially when they were open table by the window or wall that were smaller and felt more private.
However, Shaina made every effort to seek to guess according to the seating order, and not her instincts. By the time breakfast was over, she had only sat guest in the wrong section 4 times, said the wrong thing like “follow me” 10 times and chocked altogether twice! The breakfast shift was daunting and Shaina was glad it was over. Thought she would get the chance to go home now, with the rest of the serving staff, but was thrown for a loop when Jackie told her it was time to set up for lunch.
Shanea’s heart sank and she felt a world of fatigue. As she looked around at everyone else, no one appeared even half as worried as she did. Those fellow team members who, most of them, were twice her age we’re still peppy and chatting to each other, like a bunch of teenagers. As she looked around at the remaining guess, they seemed about the same, if not a little slower from their food consumption.
Knowing that she had to continue working throughout the day for God only knew how many hours, has Shanea on edge. “So, um how often do the um host stay over to work? I mean how long?” She rapidly, but sloppily asked Jackie as they were setting up for lunch. Jackie to smile from the corner of her mouth, and said in the most sweet, yet sinister way, “Child, we ain’t anywhere close to being done.”
Shayna frozen with an acute sense of fear and even larger sense of anxiety, came to the realization of having to continue an already four-and-a-half hour shift into the next few hours. Say the ground and say partially to her self into the universe, “Why?” She tried to behind Jackie over to the main host stand to start the grieving process over again, but for lunch. Lunch had its own set of rules and problems. The seating chart for one, with both harder and easier for Shanea to grasp. The numbers all lined up to corresponding tables, and the computer system that was not available for breakfast kept Shanea on track.
They were collaborating in a nice way. Everything seem to be going as planned. There’s a bump, a hiccup if he will, happened that we sign up for an egregious loop. I large group of sickly looking guesting for lunch. There were seven total, four adults and three children. At first I thought nothing other appearance, only that this was a large party. She didn’t know how to proceed with seeing them. Therefore, she only said the initial greeting, as she was giving Up to ask for the guest last name, Jackie stepped in it with a sinister chuckle and squeaky voice said, “Welcome back Florez family.”
What the flip up her right hand and the sound of her voice made all stand at an unrealistic, almost immediate attention. With overly enthusiastic smiles saying, “Hello, thank you.” The entire sequence had Shanea standing at attention and her heart rate jumping with bewilderment. “ Right this way.” Jackie informed and lead them to the Tucker Room. Shanea followed them with her eyes still stunned from the past moments' outlandish call and response greeting. “What was that?” She whispered to herself. As Jackie made her return to the host stand, Shanea took a few deep breaths, and tried to steady herself.
She plastered on a big grin and Jackie acknowledged and kind. “Those were the Florez’s , as you heard. They are a very sweet family.” The sweet was a bit over exaggerated and seemed literal to Shanea. After a moment of pondering, Shanea cautiously glanced over into the Tucker Room, at the guests again, and noticed something seemed very odd. The guest were not conversing the way the gas this morning at breakfast had been. There was the occasional look at one another and a solemn say or agreement of enjoyment. Nothing was truly genuine about what they did. To Shanea, things were not on the up and up. What was she to do or say? She tried to reason with the situation, saying to herself that she was seeing things; it was all in her imagination.The stress of doing this was getting to her.
She was just plain tired. Later after these guest finished their meals, they simultaneously pushed their plates away, and were once again at attention. The servers and their assistants came by to pick up the dishes. As the servers were doing so, each leaned over the guess they were attending and inhaled deeply before handing over the dishes to the server assistant.
Shaina noticed a light blue mist coming off of the guest, to the servers, and a bit being transferred to the assistant as each dish was being passed between the two.As this was happening, the guess I seem to droop as if their life force were being drained from them. That’s when Shanea knew, all of her wishful thinking and denial about things being too strange, went away.
She plastered herself against the outside wall of the room and close her eyes for a break from the situation. “Oh my! That... this can’t be real.” She gasped and looked frantically around the hall to see if anyone else had witnessed this out of this world phenomenon. No one else blinked and I. Jackie simply looks down her nose at her and smiled a wide all-toothed smile. “Everything all right?” She squeaked. “Huh? What...What was that?! Shanea exclaimed. “Just lunch,” Jackie said nonchalantly. “Lunch? Lunch involves people feeding on food. Not. People. Feeding on people!”Shanea said hysterically. “People can be…” Jackie pause looking onto Shanea’s stark face. “Well, yes.” She decided to say. “That’s what I meant. People in there, they guess I mean, are having lunch.” Shaina turn quickly to peer into the dining room. “I mean, the staff. What were they doing?” She said any hushed tone. “Feeding on, I mean feeding them.” Jackie quickly answered. Her response was off putting.
Shanea tried to wrap her head around what she just heard. “I… Can you repeat that?” Jackie lane to the right, placed her hands together and said and I nearly snarky voice, “the staff was serving them their food.”She did placed her hand on her hips and said, “you know, like their job says they’re supposed to do?” Shanea took a sweet breath and said, “Right, of course.”

Decompressing
Once lunch time ended, Shanea was told by Jackie that their shift was over. “I hope you were swept away by all you have a learned today? See you tomorrow.” Shanea stealthily went into the coat room and grabbed her things. Jackie came in shortly after and gathered her things. Shanea was half expecting her to pin her to the wall and feed on her. Instead Jackie turned around and left the room.
Shanea cautiously followed behind her in order to remember the way out. “I’m going to the room service office. You can take a right and go down the stairs over there.“ Jackie informs Shanea, after they were in the kitchen. “OK. Thanks.” Said Shanea hesitantly. She did as she was told and followed the stairway. On the way home, Shanea felt on edge. there was something in the air that made her feel like she was being stalked.
She didn’t know what to do or what it was. Shanea swore she saw a ghostly figure in the passenger side of her vehicle. She swerved a few times and a smart attempt of getting the figure out of her ride. After several moments, the ghostly figure went away.“How? What? I’m losing it today.” Shanea gasped frantically.
Her first day on the job, and it seemed that the pressure was already getting to her. As Shanea made her way into her apartment parking lot, she felt at ease, as if something that had been attached to her, had been yanked off. Once she parked, she gathered her things and got out of her car.
The moment she stood up, she faltered and her knees gave out. She nearly landed face first to the ground. She grabbed The driver side door, and balanced herself. “I guess I was heavier than I thought.” She said jokingly to her self. After a few moments, she stood up, and proceeded into the apartment.
Upon entering, Shanea took off her jacket and placed it on the chair beside the door. She sat in the same chair and removed her shoes. Then, she proceeded to take her shoes and back to her room and place them and respectable places in the closet. “Man, I’m tired. I don’t want to cook, but I am just as hungry as I am sleepy, and if I don’t eat I don’t sleep, errrr!”
Finally, she went to the kitchen, reached into the cupboard and pulled out a packet of pork-flavored ramen. “You have to do for now.“ She said reluctantly to the noodles. After putting them in a bowl of water, she placed them in the microwave, and set it for five minutes. Upon seasoning the Ramen, she took it to the living room with a fork and turn on the TV. Shanea flipped through the channels until she came upon a show she enjoyed: Puppy Dog Pals on Disney Junior.
Why was she a fan of a show for kids? She wasn’t truly sure to be honest. All she knew was that there was something truly honest about Disney Jr. shows. This reminded her of her childhood watching shows on Disney Channel. Once she finished her dinner, she went up to bed and instantly went to sleep.

All In Her Head
When she got up for work the next morning, she thought she had during the entire ordeal. There was no way anything that had happened to her first day of work, was remotely real. “Just first day jitters was all it was. I mean, yeah?” She said to herself in the bathroom mirror. “Who feeds off of other peoples souls for crying out loud?!” She covered her mouth with both hands as she realize she was possibly loud enough for the entire neighborhood to hear her.
“Sorry!” She whisper shouted to no one in particular. She proceeded to get ready for work when I thought came to her. “Are there such thing as a soul sucking vampires? Nah!” She quickly put that thought out of her head, however the notion still lingered. Upon leaving the parking lot she gave herself a pep talk, “today will be a better day today I will not screw up, as much as yesterday.” She continued her pep talk by saying, “Today I will not see soul sucking alien/vampire beings.” Shana repeated this mantra to herself as she drove to work.
Once she arrived at the job site with a new found confidence, she decided to brief herself for safe measures. She did a quick moment of silence to reflect on everything that needed to be done today.“OK, so. I go in and clock in, then go upstairs put my stuff in the coat closet, so who’s working this morning, take out the appropriate seating chart, make sure to go get guest list, newspapers, and phone. Do you line up, start seating guests, In the appropriate table area. Rinse and repeat for lunch.”
Afterwords, Shaina was golden and ready For the day, or so she thought. Everything seem to be going along as planned, until the guest started arriving. Shanna, Jackie, and the rest of the staff seem to be.
hitting it off, and there was no weird anomalies throughout the set up and lineup. However, once the third set of guests came into the Godfrey room, Shanea started seeing a trend. For every two sets of guests that would come into the room for breakfast, all bushy eyed and perky, came a single group of guests that would come in not as enthusiastic or happy. In fact missing drain, as if they didn’t get a good nights sleep with a sleep they did have wasn’t enough to request them this morning. These areas were not only adults, but children, elderly and on the rare occasion, a dog!
“What in the world have they all been doing to be so worn out?” Shaina ask Jackie. “Who knows child? These folks can be crazy sometimes.” Jackie responded.Shanea agreed slightly, But she kept worrying about all those people for the rest of her shift.
No matter who she saw, it seems that every other or every two groups of guests were physically and or mentally drained. At one point there seem to be nothing but drain guess that she came in contact with. For the last two hours of her shift, she thought everyone was either really tired or just woke up on the wrong side of the bed. She would speak to them what are required greetings, “Hello, how may I help you?” or “Good afternoon, Will you be joining us for lunch?” Or “Greetings my name is Shanea, will you be dining with us today?”
However, no matter her greeting all she received in terms of a response was. “We are here for feeding. There are…” The guest would say how many and smile and a natural smile, all in unison. For those that had babies and or pets, the pets and the babies all seem to answer the same way; in their own gibberish language. “How bizarre.” Shanea would say quietly while looking at each in turn for more confirmation or something.


When no one else said anything she asked for a name. Sometimes they would respond with the name, and more Often than not repeat the same thing over again.Jackie would eventually tell her to just go see them, when they did this. “? OK? Right this way please.” With last glimpse at the gas, she did go to a table and without so much as a blinking I, but guess what follow, sit at the table, get the menus from Shanea, place them on the table, and just stare into space. Once a server came to their table, to take their order, they would say what they wanted; without even a glance at the menus. As if on cue, they turn to the server and said “steak Frites please.”


The server, Lillian smiled at that and said to the table, “How nice!” Before walking away licking her lips over her Ebony mouth. Shaina give Jackie a questionable glance, yet Jackie just smiled a similar toothy grin. Fifteen minutes later the tables’ food arrived and Jackie assisted Lily in distributing the dishes.
Shanea watched in fascination and a irritation at how flawlessly they served the guests. Her anxiety started to kick in to overdrive. How would she ever be able to execute such a flawless technique, without dumping food on to guess? What type of drinks and food to be served from? All of these alluring questions or concerns and doubt keep pondering in her mind.
The pondering was so intense that she failed to see the next group of zombie-fied guests, standing behind her. Allowed they came from the host stand as a zombie guest was attempting to get her attention. “What the what?!” She shrieked. After quickly gaining her composer, she fixed her expression, straightened her suit and said as professionally as she could.
“Good afternoon. How can I help you?” Once again these guys do the same thing as the previous guest, “we are here for feeding. We are 3 guests.” Shanea gave a quizzical glance towards the guests before writing down the number and us going down to the table the way she had seen Jackie perform so many times throughout the day. “I hope this is suitable table, right by the window?” Shanea asked the guests as they sat around the window table. “Yes.” The family setting unison, giving Shanea a reason to pause her task without warrant.
Very quickly she escaped her concerned thoughts and laid out the menus. “We shall bring you water in just a few minutes, and then your server... uh, will be with you.” Her uncertain break in speech was due to the fact that she had not come to remember the names of the month service just yet. Just before departing from the table she gave a quick smile without showing peep about awkwardly, and thundered away. With all of her intense focus on the new guests, she missed the other dining session happening on the opposite side of the room.
Jackie and Lillian were feasting on the essences of the previous table. Both women had a glowing magenta eyes and suction shaped mouth with tiny dog down teeth. What a shame I had a ride back at her house to stay in, the two inside were tidying up from their meal by wiping there now human shaped mouth and proceeding to remove finished dishes from the table. Her uncertain break in speech was due to the fact that she had not yet come to remember the names of the morning servers. Just before departing from the table she gave a quick smile without showing peep bowed awkwardly, and thundered away. And all of her intense focus on the new guess, she missed the odd dining session happening on the opposite side of the room. Jackie and Lillian were feasting on the essences of the previous table. Both women had a glowing magenta eyes and suction shaped mouths with tiny dulled down teeth.


Once Shanea had arrived back at the hostess stand, the two inside were tidying up from their meal by wiping their now human shaped mouths and proceeding to remove finished dishes from the table. As Shanea regained her composure from her odd encounter, she turned just in time to see Jackie and her well wishes to the guest as Lillian refilled their water glasses.
Jackie came swaying back to the hostess stand, Lillian can be her telling her table, “Now drink up. You must be hydrated. Then I will bring you some dessert!” She explained in a more upbeat youthful enthusiasm that she did not appear to have when the guest first arrived.
As soon as Jackie had entered into the hallway, another server, Tion came to service the guests' their water as they had just sat. Tion was much younger and approachable than Lillian. He had court hair that was a faded shame on either side, and on the back of his head. He approached everyone with an air of coolness that did not necessarily fit the environment, but went well for the casual lunch crowd. “What can I start you off with?” Tion asked the table by the window. “Steak Frites, please.”
The family said in unison. “Cool, all right. Would that be all? Do you want something to drink besides water?” Tion asked the guests. As a compelled to respond the father said to Tion, “I will have a blueberry cocktail with gin.” And immediately after him, the mother responded with the same, but with strawberries instead.
After each adult had given time and I drink water, they immediately turn back to base in the center of the table; unwavering ,unblinkingly. “Nice choices, I will be back with your drinks in a few minutes, just relax and I will take care of you.” Tion said just before giving a smooth glisten to his lips and swaggering off towards the kitchen. This reaction didn’t phase Shanea as Tion’s personality seemed to be a normal wave length.

Human?
Although Tion seemed to be human, he was in fact only half human. When he turned away from his table, to go to the bar, his eyes glowed a lighter version of purple than the rest. Tion was having a personal battle within himself. His human half didn’t want to feed off of the guest. Yet, his alien half was telling him he needed to eat.He had been battling with us for inside for weeks. He was able to maintain his wild side by stating it with an enormous amount of food (non-human) And it hasn’t worked for a while.
Yet, the monstrous side of himself was no longer satisfied with the mirror substances, and wanted more, much more. The opportunity arose for Tion to pick up an additional shift from a server who had called out due to personal matters. Therefore, it’s basically side took over and answer the call.
Tired due to being half human, because it made him lenient towards the guests, so much so, that at times he could not bring himself to feed off of them.
He tried to bargain with himself. “I tell you what, if you leave the guest alone. I will find you a group of pompous troublemakers to feed on tonight. How does that sound?” The alien brethren just scoffed at his proposal. “How dare you try to bargain with me!” His brethren barked! “You have hid me from my one source of true substance for weeks! It is time to feed!” His alien half roared in his mind. And with that declaration, they went off to the bar to get their meal something to ease their minds and flavor their spirits.
The bartender, Rick, it’s not like the others. He had just started working for the hotel amendments before Shaina started. Therefore, he begin human and off to the side of the dining area, never saw the servers feeding off of the guests. Rick just assume they were all pretentious due to their years of services at such an elaborate location. Rick was himself, a bit of a snob. He would always have a story lined up for how great his bartending skills were, and the accolades he’s received from past positions, because of it. Once he saw a Tion coming around the corner, he was already thinking of his next venture a story. Yet, Tion cut him off abruptly, after saying his hellos and ordered the guest drinks. Rick paused, taken aback, as tired had become his “homie”.
“Hey man, you good?” Rick asked Tion. “Yeah, just got a lot on my mind is all.” Tion adverted without actually saying what was really bothering him. “You know you came to the right place. That is one of my specialties; listening and giving advice. It kind of comes with the space.” Rick said displaying his arms towards himself and then to the bar area. “No, I’m good. Can I just get them drinks bro?” Tion asked in a rushed tone. “Oh, yeah sure. Coming right up.” Rick said after a brief moment. Once the drinks were prepared to peak perfection, Rick handed them over to Tion, who carefully placed them on his serving tray. “Thanks.” He said before rushing off, back to his table. “No problem. Let me know if you want to talk.” Rick said to Tion’s retreating form.

Safe Space for Dining
Back inside Shanea was still fighting with her self in regards to the events that have been happening, or not happening in front of her all day. She wanted to believe it was all in her head. A trick of light in the room, and the sun‘s rays. From outside, however she knew better. Her subconscious wouldn’t let her ignore the events her own eyes had witnessed. “There has to be more to the story. Maybe they are just hazing me? Yeah! That’s it. He’s a new person; the rookie. They are just trying to get me to crack.” She had half-convinced herself that this was the truth. “There is no such thing as monsters. There is no such thing as aliens. There is no such thing as soul sucking alien monsters.” She repeated this mantra to herself for a few minutes until she was once again brought out of her thoughts by a smiling face couple.
“Good day, darling. We would like to get a table for two for lunch, Iffin’ you got some room available?” Said the older gentleman in a charming how-do-you-do southern accent. “Yes, yes of course.” Shanea said getting back into host mode.
“Are you guest here?”She asked out of pure curiosity. “Oh, no ma’am. We were just out for a stroll around the area and decided to stop by for a quick bite. Is that all right? Or do we need reservations?” The gentleman ask Shanea, who sighed in relief and said, “No, of course not. Reservations are not required for lunch. I just wanted to know for documentation purposes. Will it be just the two of you?” She reiterated in a form of a question. “Yes, ma’am.“ The woman responded. “All right this way please.“ Shanea directed the couple, before leading them into the dining area. As she was making her way to the correct section, she paused hoping that these lovely people would not be the next on the servers’ menu. She had come to see Lillian as a bit of a spitfire and didn’t want her to feed on these two. “You, OK?“ The couple asked simultaneously. Shanea took a moment to think before answering. After her pause became too long the couple could not ignore it. They went to ask the same question again. Only to get a rapid response from Shanea. “Oh, yes. Sorry.” She led them to Tion’s side of the room as a last minute decision. She did this in hopes he wouldn’t make lunch of them. Jackie noticed the abrupt change in direction from her spot on the other side of the room, next to the opposite hallway. She sauntered over to the host stand to await Shanea’s return.
When Shanea arrive back at the hostess stand, Jackie stared down her nose at her from the wall the stand was adjacent to. “So…, Why did you seat that couple and Tion’s section?” Jackie asked in a freaking voice. “Huh? Oh they uh, seemed to like the view on that side of the room better.” Shanea said turning her head to the ground and tilting it ever so slightly. “Oh, really? I didn’t hear them say anything about a view. You sure that is what they wanted?” Jackie proceeded to interrogate Shanea. “Because it seemed to me that they were fine with anything. They just wanted a quick bite after walking around seeing the sites.” Jackie started pressing and closer to Shanea as she spoke. “You were going directly to Lillian’s section, as you should have, then out of nowhere you just made a U-turn why is that?” Jackie stop directly in front of Shanea. “Well. Well, it just seemed like a better spot. I mean, since they are sightseeing at all. Right?” Shana ass nervously. “Wrong! I mean, no that is not how we seat that is not how it works.” Jackie quickly corrected herself after a quick unhinged outburst. Straightening her suit in the process Jackie plastered on a quick fake smile to Shanea who had jumped at Jackie’s outburst.
“Well sorry, I will work on it. It just felt better to put them there.” Sheena said defensively, and then she again put her head down and tilted it ever so slightly. Jackie how do you in on this being seen as tail but kept it to yourself with future reference. “Um, OK. Just make sure to go with the facts. Not the feelings.” Jackie said nonchalantly before swing away and back to her spot on the other side of the dining room. “That was scary, very scary.” She said to herself out loud. She continued the rest of her shift by the book and did not notice any more apparent feedings happening with the guest. At least none that she could bear to witness. As the day progressed, their shift was coming to an end, and it was nearly time to go home. Shanea and Jackie began clearing off their stations and completing the last of their paperwork. By 3:05pm, the evening hostess still had not arrived. No one had heard from her, so Jackie and Shanea were standing around. “You can go on home, I will stay here and wait on Titi.” Jackie said to Shanea. “Are you sure? I mean I don’t mind staying.” Shanea responded. “No, go on. I need to let her know about some stuff for tonight, anyways.” Jackie informed. “Oh, OK. Well see you tomorrow I guess?” Shaina responded more like a question and a statement. “Yeah, see you tomorrow.” Jackie said not really paying attention to her. With that, Shanea hesitantly walked away from the hostess area, and went to the coat closet and retrieved her things.

Thought Process
That night, while sleeping soundly in her bed, Shanea became troubled by a hunting dream. No, not a dream, more like a troubling nightmare. She was at the hostess stand speaking to some guests, yet she wasn’t speaking for herself or by herself. Jackie was standing just off of her left shoulder speaking through her. As Jackie spoke, Shanea would speak, as the Jackie with a puppeteer pulling Shanea’s strings. The guests just smiled all the while as if nothing were missed, and happening right in front of their eyes. Once she had finished her greetings, Jackie had infused herself deeper into Shanea’s brain, forcing her to lead the guests to their seats. As she took each unwilling step tears began to swell in her eyes. Even though she had a smile plastered on to her face. She was hurting and highly upset on the inside.
Shanea awoke with actual tears flowing from her eyes and down her cheeks. She wiped them away with her hands, and started shaking. When she took three deep breaths, she sniffed away the remaining string from her nose. After a few moments of pondering; just to make sure she was awake, and under no on else’s control; she removed her covers and went to her bathroom. When she open the door and turn on the light of the bathroom, she looked directly into the mirror. The person reflected back at her looking exhausted and half crazed. Her eyes were bloodshot, her braids were coming out from her silk headscarf from several different directions, and her face was stained with tears and drying snot.
Shanea looked at how much the nightmare had affected her physical as well as her mental state, and wanted to erase all traces of it. She walk to the sink, turn on the water as hot as it could go, and took her washcloth from the bag to run over her face. After a few rubs over her face, and a refreshing of her ponytail into her scarf, Shanea looked like a sane person what’s more. Feeling satisfied with her parents, Shanea gave herself a chance to evaluate the nightmare. Why would she dream of such things in the first place? What’s the job that difficult or complex for her to grasp?Did she invite Jackie and her flawless hosting skills? “No, the job is more than she assumed it would be, but not that difficult.” She answered herself. Yes, she did have an unhealthy Indy of Jackie’s protection. “But that is not why I had that particular type of dream, no nightmare.” She said out loud. “Jackie is why, she has this… This spellbinding hold she is trapped in the end. I almost feel like one of those zombie-fied guests she seems to have control over. But, I will not let her or anyone else fuck out my soul, my essence!”Shana declared slamming her left face upon the counter, at the same time looking back at her determined face.Sarah briskly turn to leave the bathroom, turning off the light, as he exited. She made her way to the side table in her small living room, and open the door. She pulled out a notepad and pen, then got to work devising a plan of action to avoid spellbinding action of the others on the steps going to the possession.
When Shanea was dressed and ready for work, she looked at herself in the mirror and said “you’ve got this, today you will stop the monsters!” With that said, she pulled upon her jacket lapels, left her bedroom, gathered her backpack and thermos, if you’re walking out of her apartment with the new sense of purpose. Today she was going to play the monster way. As she drove, she wrote out her plans from earlier in her head. Firstly, she would need to find a way to have a one-on-one with each of the four managers. She needed to see if they were alien monsters. Secondly, she would either deploy the assistance of these non-alien monster people, if her thoughts on them being human were best proven. She would have to gather Intel on these monsters weaknesses and strengths.
Lastly, lastly was a three-step process all on its own. Lastly, she would have to get all of these creatures into one room together — with the assistance of the non-alien stuff. Then she would stop all of them all at once! Well, the managers would have to schedule them all at once with a meeting of some sort. Then they would have to separate the gift, infected and not from the monsters, who at this point should be locked away. Then once the guests were all safely removed, she would use whatever weakness the aliens are prone to them: without being drawn in by their magic. Shanea kept going over the steps and even some probable scenarios of what to do should, any of her plans go out awry.
She knew that in order to make any of these work, she would need the managers to be on her side — with their efforts and support, nothing could be done to start the soul sucking alien monsters.

Devising a Plan
Upon arriving at the hotel, Shanea swiftly got out of her car, grabbed her backpack, and stopped outside of the car. She should have gave herself a mantra for self-assurance, because now she started to feel so much doubt flooding through herself. After applaud hesitation, she took a few deep breath‘s, shook away the Delta, and started repeating her plan out loud, as she made her way to the employee entrance. Going through the maze-like cooridor she made her way to the managers office doorway, took one last deep breath and knocked on the door. “Who is it?“ Came to voice on the other side. She wasn’t sure who it was, only that the voice was female. “It’s Shanea , may I come in?” Shanea I asked fervently. Five seconds later, the door open partially, and the face that went along with the boys better known as Fey; the director of food and beverage, popped her head out.“We are having a managers meeting right now. Can whatever you need to wait?“ she asked shortly to Shanea. “No, no it can’t!“ She responded back just as shortly. “This is of the utmost importance, Fey. We need to talk about, the serving staff.“ She said quieter than before, as if in hushed tones, So that no one other than Fey could hear her. The Director looked questionably at Shaina for a moment, hope to head out of the doorway, move so that she could look around the hallway to make sure no one else was around, then she quickly pulled Shanea inside.
Shanea was in conversation with Fay, Tion was breakfast shift, upstairs, prepping for breakfast. He barley worked a While as it was too early for him to be awake, and he was not a fan of the morning staff. Unlike the afternoon staff that were more easy-going, and weren’t teaming at times, the morning staff always had something stuck up their butts. They thought they were the top-tier servers/feeders. The breakfast staff also work the evening shift at the prestigious Rochester room.
Therefore they never fed on lowly walk-in guess or those not staying at the hotel. They only bother to feed on the platinum members, as if they had a higher quality of taste. Tion knew for certain that wasn’t true, as he had his share of everyone. But, there was no telling that to those servers. The only reason he was even working this morning, was because one of the servers Kremlin or children, if you would, wasn’t feeling well. Out of his sympathy for the little one, he agreed to cover their birth giver’s shift.
Having to rely on his human half to get his alien half to behave was starting to weigh on him. Today was especially hard for the hunger, the cravings to quiet down. It has been over twenty-four hours since he had fed on human essence.
That was ok, normal even for Tion. He was capable of going much longer. The record for not feeding for him was two weeks. However, today was special, as the new blue moon was coming to its apex, and it made everyone of his species have an insatiable appetite. Even Tion wasn’t able to ignore the calling to feed. Today was a great day for the blue moon feeding, as the hotel was having its annual founders day celebration. This event always brought an excess of visitors to the area. The 70 rooms in of the inn were filled to capacity. Over 250 people, young and old rooming throughout these halls. The only other time there was this many people in the hotel was during the annual holiday celebration.
The different smells and textures if the humans’ essence was enough to have the rest of the serving staff’s mouth water. Their over eager greetings to the guests were almost animalistic. If they weren’t careful and reign in their hunger, their actions would surely give them away. Tion was more in control than the others. Granted that wasn’t saying much, but he appeared to be overtly friendlier than usual. His sullen smile was very genuine, and the hunger behind his eyes was only recognizable to those with whom he worked with. His human half did afford him that much of a courtesy.
Jackie was standing at the host podium trying to hold in her salivating tendrils. With an overly dramatic greeting she lead the first group of breakfast guests to their seats, in the Godwin Room. They were led directly to Tion’s section. Jackie pulled out the chair for the male guest and Tion did the same for the female guest. The guests were very plump and refreshed from their arrival earlier the evening beforehand. Thus, they had not been fed upon. Tion and Jackie could smell the clean crisp untapped essence dripping off the guests. Tion and Jackie looked at each other with wide smiles. “I hope you enjoy your breakfast. I know we will... do.” Jackie said hungrier than usual, as she nearly let slip their plans. Tion quickly eyed her saying “What’s the heck!” Using facial expressions. Jackie just shrugged and went back to the podium to await the next guests. “Tion turned away from the table, took a quick breath and turned around with a placid grin on his face. “Good morning. Can I get you anything to drink aside from water?” As he said his greeting to the guests, the server assistant Togo, came swiftly to their table and began pouring the water.

---