In silent agony Ashburn leaned against the wall in the break-room, the painted brick supporting his lean six foot frame. His long black hair was plastered to his skin from the heat. His joints protested as he pulled out a bottle of aspirin and took four pills without even thinking.

The pain seemed to be getting worse every day and it was getting harder to hide it from his bosses, especially the head chef. She had eyes that seemed to glare right through him, and he knew she would have no sympathy for a 21 year old with growing pains.

'I thought I was supposed to stop growing years ago' he thought with some humor

He knew he could only hide back there for a few minutes before his tables would start asking for him, so he savored the support the wall offered him. As his watch chimed the hour he knew he could no longer escape, and must again confront the reality of working. With a sigh and a groan he hauled his body, all 135 pounds of it into the kitchen to pick up his table's food. The long bar for pick ups was already full and he could hear the head chef cussing about the hold up.

"Oh goody" he said softly "She noticed"

Hoping to sneak by he quickly grabbed the plates for his table, balancing them precariously on every part of his body that he could. It was an awkward feat and he was sure it looked quite funny, but despite that he managed to get 4 plates of food, 2 appetizer plates and 8 cups into position and walk out of the kitchen. Other than some complaints from his second table it appeared the diners had not noticed his absence to much, a relief for the fatigued student.

Walking back to the kitchen he opened the door to chaos central. The stainless steel kitchen was an absolute mess, with dishes piling up on all sides and enough dirty pots to bring tears to any dishwasher's eyes. Before he had time to remember why he had come in here his lungs suddenly seemed to seize. A panicked gasp escaped his lips as his breathing became labored and stiff, his lungs burning as if on fire. Ash's panicked hands shook violently as he tried to pull his inhaler out from his pocket, but without warning his hands dropped it sending it sliding to the feet of the dishwasher as stars darted across his eyes. Falling against the door frame he tried to call out to the dishwasher over the noise to give him the inhailer but could only manage a panicked and loud squeak as his lungs stopped taking in air.

Eric arrived late for his shift that day. Another doctors appointment to discuss his heart and lung problems. The doctor also had something nice to say about his anxiety attacks but lets leave that one alone. As Eric got out of his car he headed into the shabby diner. There was a female hostess at the front who greeted him. Eric always wondered how she could be so fake, that girl hated her job and talked about hating it every break they had together. He pushed the question down and continued on to the kitchen so that he could start his day. When he walked through the door Ash was on the floor. He knew Ash because they worked together, and he thought they were decent friends, one of his few at the job. There was a crowd around him, some looked confused and others looked worried. He rushed over and began looking for his his inhaler.

"Where is his inhaler anybody know?" Eric asked in a American-German accent the onlookers, they all shook their heads but the dishwasher came forward with it in his hands. He gave Ash three pumps and he awoke in a coughing fit.

"Are you Okay?" Eric asked and Ash just continued to cough and shake his head no.

He led them back to the break room were things calmed down and Eric pondered one question that was meant for both of them.

"It's getting worse, huh."

Zachary, having done his good deed for the day by passing whatshisface the inhaler, went back to ignoring the commotion. Some waiter - Ash, that was his name! - having an asthma fit was fun and all, but it was no reason to put his job on hold. He went back to the still-large stack of plates that needed cleaning and started scrubbing them one by one. He silently wondered why they hadn't invested in an electric dishwasher, but he supposed that if the bosses had he wouldn't have this job.

Not that it was a very good job. He'd only gotten this because it was the only one with work hours that worked for him, as a student in the nearby community college, and he wasn't getting a particularly large paycheck for it either. It fortunately wasn't a job with inhumane working conditions - he'd heard horror stories about those sorts of places - but it wasn't exactly accommodating to its employees either.

Scrub, scrub, scrub went the plate. Inhale, exhale, cough went Ash the Waiter. Eventually they left - taking those distracting coughs with them - to what he figured was the break room, and Zachary was rather happy about that. Coughing was almost as annoying as the sound of styrofoam rubbing styrofoam, and though it wasn't like there was much to distract him from, he still found himself irate when he worked while Ash coughed like that.

He wondered, idly, who would pick up the slack while Ash was sick. It was a rather busy day today, and they needed every hand available. He just hoped he wouldn't be asked to wait people. He probably wouldn't be - he wasn't trained in waiting (waitering, he wondered?) and he wasn't exactly ideal, being so asocial. Still, the plate stack was small enough that it could be left alone for a few minutes, and he wouldn't be surprised if his boss came up with the bright idea to delegate jobs to those without much to do.

Ashburn
__________________________________
Lying down on the worn out sofa Ash felt his bones and joints gratefully relax. His breathing was still labored, but had evened out greatly. He couldn't help but chuckle at the thought. His doctor, Dr. Christianson, swore up an down he didn't have asthma. Even after years of tests not a single doctor could figure out why he was having these problems, as every lab came back healthy.

"Well that was fun. I'm sorry to be a bother" Ash said with a weak chuckle, that quickly turned into a coughing fit. His burning lungs protested at the disturbance and he gave up on talking.

Before anything could be said in reply the break room door slammed open, hitting the metal remnants of a door stop hard. In came the beautiful, but frightening head chef.

"What the hell Ashburn?!" She shouted like a drill sergeant "If your going to die don't do it on my watch! That's twice this month!"

Mrs. Mabel, the head chef, was a very intimidating figure. She drove the staff like a marine corps, well most of the staff. For some reason she ignored the dish-washers and janitors, as evidenced by the poor sanitation of the place as a whole. Ash found her to be scary to say the least and made a habit out of ignoring her. For some reason she was the only leader figure he ever saw, the owners never stopped by and thus far a manager only showed up on Mrs. Mabel's rare off days. If it weren't for the generously tipping patrons he would have left long ago.

"Eric the only reason your ass isn't fried for being late is you actually did something. Those idiots were watching Ashburn like he was a f*cking carnival show." She fumed angrily "You both are going to stay here for now, if he falls out I need someone to recover him."

Grabbing an apron from the pegs next to the door she left in a huff she marched down the hall, heels clicking on the cheap tile, back to the kitchen. She had a busy dining area and she was h*ll bent on making sure everyone was served. Eyeing the kitchen staff she saw that the dishwasher was almost done with his dishes.

"Zack!" She shouted, shoving the apron into his still wet hands "Conrats you've been temporarily promoted. Get your ass out on the floor and take care of Ashburn's tables." She gestured with her thumb at the direction of the floor. "And don't f*ck up because I don't have time to fix it"

Storming to the cooking area of the kitchen she began directing the cooks in the same manner, much to the chagrin of the cooks, leaving Zack with an apron, still emblazoned with a cheap plastic name tag saying "Daisy".

Mabel
________________________________________
After getting the chefs and staff into shape Mabel stood at parade rest at the edge of the kitchen, taking a moment to reflect on current affairs. She had initially taken this job three years ago to take advantage of a rare opportunity, working at a place that caters primarily to demons. The owners, a sweet couple of ghoul class demons, had been only to happy to hire a fellow demon. Since demons were such a small and spread out group it had been very hard for them to hire any demons, much less one that was actually qualified to work in a kitchen. The human employees were very good at keeping silent about things, part of their briefing was that they did not ask questions of their patrons.

She couldn't help but sigh as she thought about three of her questionable employees. Ashburn, a perfect waiter by nature, had been an easy hire. His customers always left good reviews and even a few sensed what she did, that we was more than human. Despite his attempts to hide his failing health her Mabel's demon instincts could sense the soul inside of him. It was hard for her to stay mad at him, and she was honestly worried for his health, as well as the others.

Eric, another recent hire, was a more questionable hire. She had been concerned about his ability to wait tables, being as reserved as he was. Much less the fact that they had many clients that looked very frightening, wearing large cloaks and other articles to hide their forms. But she had been pleasantly surprised at the boy's adaptations thus far. Eager to please he had even more happy customers than those of the chatterbox Ashburn.

Yet another sigh escaped her lips as she thought of the last hire, and one that frankly wouldn't have been around this long if it weren't for her suspicions, Zack. The boy was a hard worker, she had to give him that. The kid seemed to eat dishes and spit them out clean, but even still he was not the best for customer service. Reserved to the point of hostility to others he seemed to be hell bent on ignoring the world outside of his sink. This was part of the reason she had sent him to the floor, to get him to open himself up a little. He had not shown any indications of poor health, unlike the Ashburn and Eric, but she knew her senses told her he was also a demon. She was worried about scaring him off, and as such had been a little nicer to him than others.

Though Mabel would never admit it she was a loss as to what she should do about the boys. Demon culture had very few rules, but one of the big ones was that the father of a demon child was obligated to help them transition. It was a sacred rite, and something held dear. Most demon fathers were actively engaged in their child's life as they grew up, with or without the human mother's involvement. It was uncommon for a father (or grandfather) to simply abandon their own children (grandchildren), especially since their rarity made them so prized.

Since demon females were infertile the men would have to mate with humans females to procreate, but even then it could take years for a child to actually form. Many men spent centuries trying with different women before a child was actually conceived. When one was born, especially a male, it was cause for great joy in the family. Mabel had no idea why these boys had not been contacted yet and it worried her greatly, especially the oldest of them (Ashburn).

She had no friends to confide with and she was worried that if she spread the word many fakes hoping to "adopt" them would show up, and she had no way to test who was the real father or grandfather. But time was clearly not on her side, some demons could make it to middle aged without a ceremony but it was obvious they were not part of this group. It was not unheard of for non-family to do the ceremony and guide a demon child into the demon world, but those were in cases where the father/grandfather had died or, rarely, disowned the child. And even then it was almost always a single child, not a group of three. And NEVER had it been someone from a different class of demon.

"This whole situation is just f*cked up" she muttered to herself angrily

Eric
_______________________________________
"You shouldn't talk for a few minutes." Eric said to Ash after getting his name tag on and sitting on the sofa across from him.

He jumped a little when Ms. Mabel came and and cut both of them a little deep but it pasted. Now all he could do is and wait with Ashburn until he got better. As he waited he leaned back on the couch and looked at the ceiling. He thought about what had got him to this point. He cam back to America to go to college but was only getting enough to pay tuition. His heath took a turn for the worst so his parents had to pay for his hospital bills. Eric felt bad enough asking them for money for college and health he would make his won spending money.

After weeks of looking for a job he found one here. Although he applied as a chief, he was grateful for Ms. Mabel form the waiter job. This job also helped with his shyness. If he did't want to lose this job he was going to have to talk to others. His first week on the job he had a lot of screw ups; serving the food to the wrong tables, mixing up orders in the kitchen, breaking a few dishes. It was tough but with a little guidance and some positive reinforcement (Mabel) he got his act in order.

Now he sat in front of Ashburn wondering if he was ok. Eric had seen him fall out once before, but not like this.

"Well if your feeling better maybe we should go save Zachary, before he breaks a plate and Ms. Mabel takes it out of our pay checks." Eric said to Ashburn in his heavy German accent. It always got heavy when he tried to be friendly.

Zachary Pinton

Zachary missed his hat. He really wished he was allowed to wear it at work, but apparently there were sanitary concerns. That may have been true (the thing hadn't been washed in a month, and he wasn't about to clean it now) but at least if he had that hat he could throw it to the ground in frustration. The plates were too fragile, and not his property.

"Yeah, alright!" A slew of descriptive expletives came to his throat, but Zach forced them down. No need to piss off the bosslady. He walked over to a nearby waiter that hadn't been left a coughing mess. "Okay, what the hell am I doing?"

---

He didn't spill the drinks, at least.

The woman had been sitting on her chair, waiting with waning patience for a waiter to arrive with her food. Opposite her was a young boy - her son, presumably. They both had the same brown hair, at least, though he had seemed very preoccupied with his iPad and not at all impatient.

Then Zachary arrived, placed the drinks - two orange juices - on the table, and then somehow tripped on something. Food - fries, ketchup, Caesar salad and some weird pasta he didn't recognize - coated the woman, whose obvious impatience had turned into shock.

"Oh my God!" she'd said, standing up wide-eyed. "Oh my God!" Her son, who'd noticed his mother's predicament, seemed to be taking a video. He was trying - and failing - to contain his mirth. "Oh my God!" the woman repeated.

The rest of the restaurant seemed to have gone silent, watching the debacle in what was probably anticipation.

Zachary filled the air, in this almost-silence, with one word.

"Fuck."

The kid gave up any pretense of calm, bursting into full-blown laughter.

Ashburn
__________________________

"I guess you're right." Ash groaned in a southern accent, than only appeared when he was stressed "I could hear Mrs. Mabel in here and she didn't sound like she was keen on us staying in here."

In truth Ash only felt slightly better, and still was light headed but tried his best not to show it. His breathing was calm now so he knew he had to get back to work, despite his bones protesting the thought. Slowly, so as not to make himself any more light headed, Ash coaxed his creaking body into a standing position.

A scream from the dining area pulled his attention. And gave him a bad feeling in his stomach.

"What did Murphy's law say again?" He asked rhetorically

With a sigh he walked slowly to the dining area, just hoping that whatever it was didn't happen in his section. After all he'd had just about all the excitement he could handle, as he turned the corner he let out a groan. There was Zack, standing next to a woman covered in pasta salad and fries across from a laughing kid.

"Oh shoot me." He muttered in his now thick southern accent adding in several more choice words as he walked across the dining area to his section.

"I am so sorry about this ma'am." He said politely "He is new here and I was supposed to be training him."

"Look at my blouse!" She shrieked standing

"No worries ma'am" Ash replied with a warm smile and a confident, though winded, tone "I always end up looking like that by the end of the shift. The stains actually come right out with some warm water and white vinegar. Just leave them to soak overnight in a 50-50 ratio and then wash like normal" He gestured at his white apron to make a point of how effective it was."

"Look here you twig I did not come here for you to question my cleaning abilities." She replied angrily

"My sincere apologies ma'am, this is indeed a great inconvenience and I shall be more than happy to make it up to you. As it is my fault the meal will be free and I can offer you a coupon for a free romantic dinner for two on Valentines day"

The coupons he was referring to was actually just a promotion they had to give the diners anyway. Apparently the owners thought this hole in the wall would be romantic and was trying to start a new valentines tradition. Ash thought it was stupid, after all they had the same customers every single day and a back ally diner was not someplace that got a lot of walk in traffic but right now he was very grateful for it.

"Fine" She said bitterly

"I'm certain that you and your partner will love it, there's even live singing" He groaned in his head because the "singing" would be done by the hostess, and Ash thought it was terrible but hadn't said a word since he didn't want to offend her. Or even worse get volunteered himself.

Reaching into his pocket he pulled out one of the coupons and handed it to her, again apologizing and assuring her she would love the dinner. Before Ash could offer to get her any towels she grabbed her son and left in a huff. Leaving a very messy table and a very unhappy waiter.

"I guess I'll clean it up" Ash groaned, looking at the clock to see the time. He still had 50 minutes on his shift and was obviously going to spend it cleaning up the table, and be paying $14 to Mrs. Mabel for the meal. Pulling a dirty cloth from his apron he started cleaning the table, using the edge for support.

Eric
_____________________________

After everything cooled down Eric went back to severing his tables. This was a normal occurrence in the diner, someone has a mistake, everyone pays for it. Now he was waiting a table with three men.

"Is that all for you today." Eric asked with a smile. He always felt like he had to make sure the customer was happy with his services.

"Yes and some water for all of us." One of the elderly men answered back.

While he walked back to the kitchen Eric looked around and assessed his work place. It always dark in the dinner, the curtains kept it so that you could barley tell wither it was night or day. But it seems that the customers like that. They come here and Eric always feels like he is serving dolls. They all come in and look the same, Eric can never seem to get a read on them. Plus it always smells of smoke. Its a wonder that they never had asthma fits with all the smoke in the air.

After getting the food he returned to the table. The at the table guest looked highly agitated.

"Here are your orders." He said to the four men.

"What happened over there with that lady?" One of the younger looking ones asked.

He was referring to the incident with Zack, but why? They seemed really upset about the food spilling, and Eric didn't know how to handle it. He had handled unhappy customers before but never angry ones.

"Ummmm...We are training a new waiter and he spilled some food, but it was all taken care of." Eric said with some fear in his voice.

After being lectured about proper service by the four Eric went off to check on another table of his. But right before he could reach it he froze. His chest started to pound and sweat touched his brow. Fear crept up his spine and he fell to his knees. Eric was having one of his panic attacks.

Ashburn
_______________________________

Ash sadly finished cleaning up the table and gestured at the hostess that the table was now ready. Cleaning the cheap vinyl had been fairly easy, but the table was another story. The wood table had gouges in it that were the bane of his existence and they had been filled with the dressing from the pasta salad. That had taken a full ten minutes to get clean and his hands now smelled strongly of cheap vinegar dressing.

With a sigh he looked up at the clock and saw that he still had 50 minutes left on his shift. The thick smoke was making his breathing even more harsh and his joints were up in arms over being used, especially his back. He stuffed the soiled clothe back into his apron pocket, and started walking towards his other tables. Before he made it to his next table he saw Eric, and he didn't look good at all. Sweat had begun to creep on his brow and his eyes were open with fear.

Ash's heart began to race as he recognized what was happening, as he had seen it before. Slowly, trying to hide his own fear he gently approached Eric with a gentle smile. Gently he wrapped his arms around Eric in a soft hug.

"Just focus on the present your fine." He said in a calm measured tone, wavering slightly from his own worry "You are at work like always. And everything is calm. You're doing great. Just focus on the present."

Ash repeated the mantra "Everything is fine. You're alright. You're doing great Eric. Just focus on the present." A soft southern accent revealing the concern he had for his friend.

He felt a little awkward standing there hugging a guy in the middle of the diner and speaking like that. He wasn't ever sure if he was doing something right. All he knew was that a book he had read said someone close to him should do something like this when someone was panicking. Ash definitely didn't feel like they were close, work friends at best, but he was very concerned about him none the less.

His gentle heart and desire to help people had earned him a nickname when he was little. His mother would always call him "Mon Ange", French for "My Angel". The thought of this brought a tear to his eye, as he remembered his mother. About a month ago she had died in the hospital, a painful death that no doctors could figure out. Her nickname for him seemed somehow tragic, since he had not been able to do anything to save her.

Zachary

That boy - the woman's son? He was a complete and utter bastard.
Zachary could bet a hundred bucks - a thousand, if he had the money - that the kid tripped him! And on purpose! He was videoing the entire thing on his stupid ipad, and he was giggling like a stupid madman! "I swear to shit, if I get my hands on him..."
He looked at the clock. Fifty minutes until the end of the shift. Zachary had made his way back to the kitchen five minutes ago. His boss was being a bitch to him once more, apparently blaming him for her stupid mismanagement of her personnel. Zachary bit back his retorts - he would have been perfectly fine losing it and calling her out on her stupidity but for one problem:
Zachary needed to take a shit.
He couldn't argue while he needed to take a shit! The more tense a situation, the harder it was to hold it in! Zachary contemplated going to the bathroom; he'd been having a boatload of stomach problems involving blood ending up in his stool. He didn't think holding it in and waiting fifty whole minutes would help the situation any - it might lead to even more intestinal problems. That said, one glare from his boss (the cu-) sent him right back to clean more stupid dishes.
"It wasn't my fault, it was that damn asshat's," He muttered. "God damn it, fifty minutes, fifty minutes, fifty goddamn minutes, hurry the hell up you stupid clock..." Something was going on in the diner, but Zachary didn't notice. He was just waiting for his shift to end.

He was tired.

Eric
_________________________________________

Having a panic attack sucked. Eric's always seemed to take him to another place and it hurt like hell. His chest would tense up and t felt like someone was squeezing his heart. The world around him froze, everyone became a blur in this state of euphoria. But then the quiets whisper becomes a yell and a stomp shakes the earth. In truth Eric's attacks were out of this world.

Eric's mother has always told him he needs to adopt a slogan that should help him, something catchy. Well he tried everything and nothing works. He just had to settle with riding them out and hoping for the best. But this time he felt different.

When he felt like he was going to pass out someone came up and hugged him. This person began to coo him on and help him find his way back. If Eric had to guess he would say that this was Ashburn. He would be the only one who knew what to do in this situation. As he said kind things to Eric, he didn't know why but he began to cry.

After he calmed down he looked at Ash with watery eyes. Ash looked like he wanted to cry too.

"Thank you for that. I don't know what came over me." Eric said embarrassed.

Ashburn
_______________________________________________

Ash sighed in relief and gave a nervous laugh "Don't worry about it man." he said with a smile "I know what its like to be unable to breathe, and it ain't fun. I'm just glad you're feeling better."

Before anything else could be said Ash felt a strong cold hand grip his shoulder. A chill ran up his spine at the unnatural coldness, both of the hand and the voice that accompanied it "You two drama queens are making it very hard to do my job" Mrs. Mabel said coldly, though Ash swore there was some underlying feeling to it. Maybe worry? No it couldn't be, the woman was cold as ice.

"I'm sorry Mrs. Mabel" Ash started before she grip tightened, stopping him mid sentence. Grabbing them both by the ear she dragged them like children to the kitchen. Letting go of their ears she let loose

"What the f*cking hell!" She shouted "Between Ashburn nearly dieing, Eric's panic attacks and Zack trying to piss off my customers I'm at my wits end! I don't know when your shift was supposed to end but it ends now! Use this time to get all your shit together and Eric take a f*cking chill pill before you really get in some hot shit." Turning to the dishwashing station she shouted "That goes for you to Zackary! Get the hell out of here and I expect you all to have your sh*t together when you show up tomorrow!"

Without another word she grabbed all three of them and physically pushed them all into the hallway.

Ash looked at the floor ashamed. He hated getting yelled at and it left him feeling both mad and sad. Ash was visibly shaken but tried to hide if from the other two "Any of y'all need a ride?" He asked, his accent once again giving away his true feelings.

Eric
______________________________________________________

"I could use a ride home, if you don't mind." Eric said with a dry smile.

Being yelled at by Mrs. Mabel is the worst feeling ever. She was such a good woman and all Eric seemed to do is make her mad and screw up. But he could see something else in her eyes as she scolded them, not anger but something he had seen in is mother. Eric could not put his tough on it but it looked familiar.

He just wanted to go home and end this day. After having a attack he was drained of all life and needed sleep. But Eric was confused, what triggered his attack, usually he had someone or something trigger his attacks but this one just happened out of the blue. Eric also felt pretty weird around the other two boys. He just had a breakdown in the middle of his work place, all he wanted to do was go hide in a hole under a rock. But for now all he could do is suck it up and smile until he got home.

"Oh and thank you for that Ashburn, I don't know what came over me but I'm glad you were their." Eric said tiredly with his accent.

ZACHARY

A middle finger shot up at Zach's boss - one that she seemed to have, thankfully, missed. He then turned to his two colleagues. "Dumb bitch. Has she not heard of the concept of 'Delegation' and 'Training' and 'Not delegating people to jobs they are not trained for'?"

"Any of y'all need a ride?"

"When did you get an accent - ah, to hell with it. Yeah, I could use a ride." Zachary nodded at the two. "Name's Zachary, though with how Madam Bitch was screaming you probably heard ages ago. You're Ash, right? And... Rick?" He offered his hand. "Sorry you didn't catch me at my best. I'm really not good with customers." He shrugged. "I know what you're out for - asthma and stuff - but why're you out with us, Rick?"

Then, Zachary felt his stomach lurch. It wasn't painful, persay, but it was sure as shit uncomfortable, and was almost disorienting. He stumbled. "Ah, shit, stomach's acting up. I'm so glad the shift ended early, I would not want to freak in the middle of the workplace. Do either of you know where the nearest bathroom is before I -" another lurch, and Zachary found himself barfing up food, some yellow stuff, and bits of blood. "Never mind. Stomach problems have resolved themselves right outside the diner. I do not want to see the next customers' faces."

Ash gave a sigh of relief as he dropped off the last of his coworkers. His pickup, Reliable, as always sounded near death. But it had never once failed him since he had bought it so he didn't give it a second thought. He slowly put it in park and went up yo his small apartment to collapse into bed.

He'd told Eric that he'd pick him up tomorrow at 6 am since they both opened. Ash fell into his bed, exhausted from the days events.

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=chevy+trucks+1990s+models&qs=IM&form=QBIR&pq=chevy+trucks+199&sc=8-16&sp=2&sk=IM1#view=detail&id=67E184C9F4079C73D5BB63F8AFD581CA75580862&selectedIndex=42

----------------------------------------------------

TIME JUMP!! JUMP TO 550 AM THE NEXT DAY

Eric
_______________________________________________

Eric woke up late the next day. It was already 5:50 and Ashburn must have been waiting on him. He ran around his little apartment, getting dressed. Right before he left he grabbed a chocolate milk and jumped out side. He ran down the steps and saw Ashburn parked there, he looked tired and sleepy. Eric guessed that was expected because they were up at 5 in the morning going to work for a lady who chewed them no more than yesterday. He got to the car door and got in.

"Hey sorry about being late, I slept in." He said hastily while he put his seat belt on. The day was going to be different but he would try to make the best of it.

"Don't even worry about it mate" Ash said with a yawn. Wiping sleep from his eyes he started the truck, the loud engine waking him up slightly. The gears groaned and grinded as the truck was put in gear. The sky also begun to rain.

The drive to work was fairly short, only two miles, but the ancient engine seemed to protest every foot. Ash casually took a sip from a mug of coffee in his cup holder. Truthfully Ash had not slept much last night, stressed about his job and school starting soon. Not to mention his concern about his friend and everything else. But even still he managed to get a couple hours of sleep.

He pulled down the alley that led to the employee parking. The road, if you could call it that, was thick and muddy. He ended up shifting into four wheel drive since the new rain was only making things worse. His transmission loudly squealed down the short path, until Ash stopped in the so called employee parking, which was basically packed dirt on a good day but today was ankle high mud. And not getting any better as the rain became a thunder storm and poured ever harder.

Ash shifted the truck into park and looked at the time, they still had 20 minutes. "Let's at least wait for Zack before we go in." He proposed "At least then we won't be stuck alone with her" he said gesturing at the diner "besides with some luck the rain will let up, the last thing I need is to walk in dripping wet onto those slick floors".

Ashburn (And borrowing everyone else. Again thank you)
________________________________________

Ash sighed as he saw Zack walking up the ally, trying vainly to stay on the narrow strip of dead grass on the edge. With another sigh both he and Eric stepped out of the truck and into the thick mud. The rain begun to poor harder and soon drenched all of them to the bone. Ash held the door to the break room open, as the other boys ran into the diner.

Now awake Ash and the others tried their best to rid their shoes (and pants) of the thick mud, dragging across a now thoroughly soiled entry mat. After the futility of their task was evident they went to getting ready for work. Not much talking happened during this time, Ash and Eric getting on their aprons, with Ash trying to wring out his long hair. Zack just ignored them all, hanging up his hat and grabbing a blue rubber apron and hair net from his peg.

Before any of them left the room the door swung open, revealing the boss they had all been hoping to avoid.

"Good morning Mrs. Mabel." Ash said with forced happiness

"Good morning" She replied flatly, though not meanly "I am glad that you guys seem to have recovered. Now today we have a special on buffalo burgers. So I need all of you to go down and get the meat from the fridge."

The fridge she was referring to was the large walk in downstairs. The upstairs only had room for a few normal sized appliances so the whole diner relied heavily on the basement for storage. The basement was a relic of a by-gone era, a cold war bunker from the 50's back when this had been a VA building (of all things). The basement was accessed from the bathroom (an odd feature that nobody could figure out. It made it very hard for them to get food during peak business hours), and was much smaller than the upstairs. It was dark, depressing and everyone hated climbing the steep stairs since there was no guard rail and a single trip would not end well.

But it was part of their jobs, and none of the boys was about to argue with a woman that was already in a bad mood about them. Offering various affirmations they walked past Mabel and towards the stairs. Zack was leading the way, followed by Eric and a still dripping Ash. The bathroom was just a tiny powder room with an ancient tile floor, and a toilet that never looked clean regardless of how much time was spent scrubbing its rusted hulk. Eric and Zack started down the stairs, Ash slowly walking across the tile, to avoid slipping.

Suddenly, without warning, Ash's lungs seized as he stood in the threshold of the door. Ash jolted as the loss of oxygen caused his body to spaz, sending his body hurling down the stairs towards the other boys. His 135 pound body plummeted down, causing a chain reaction that sent the three screaming boys 14 feet down to the raw concrete below. Zack landed first, his face smashing into the cement, knocking him out cold as his shattered face came to rest. Eric landed right after, landing on his back his ribs and spine made a loud cracking sound as he ended his fall. Ash, landed on top of Zack, his left arm underneath him cracked as he smashed it into pieces. His lungs finally took in air just as Ash blacked out from the lack of oxygen.

Mabel
_______________________________

Mabel jumped as a loud crashing sound echoed throughout the empty diner. Her instincts kicking in she ran towards the noise's origin, the basement.

"What the h*ll did those a**hats do this time" She cussed, worry creeping into her stomach. More swears escaped her lips as she stood at the top of the stairs, viewing the mess. All three boys were in a crumpled heap at the base of the stairs, their blood mixing together and staining the raw concrete below. Her unbeating heart jumped into her throat at the morbid sight, as she ran down the stairs. Mabel reached down to check their pulses, silently praying to nobody in particular that they were still alive. All three had weak heart beats, but they still had them. But she also knew that there was no way to save them. Zack's whole face had been smashed in, Eric's broken ribs were sticking through his shirt and Ash's arm bone had gone through his skin and managed to impale his lungs of all the bad luck.

Mabel knew what she had to do, the only thing that could possibly save all three of the boys, she had to unseal their souls. An unsealed soul was a powerful thing, capable of keeping each and every cell alive regardless of physical damage of any type. She knew she had to do it, but she also knew it'd make her the enemy of whoever their families were.

Mabel ran to the blank wall behind the stairs, and pulled out a brick, reveling a door knob. Opening the door she reveled the rooms behind it. using the brick to jam the door open Mabel ran back to the boys. Bending down she lifted Ashburn up like a plank, taking full advantage of her demon strength and lay him down on the floor of the room behind the door, then repeating the process of the other two.

She closed the door and locked it behind her, so nobody could see what it was she was about to do. With great care she removed the shirts and aprons of the boys that she had lay side to side. The head chef then pulled a pocket knife from the pockets of her jeans. The knife was just a normal flip blade knife, but was very sharp and glinted in the dim electric lighting. Moving as quickly as she could she carved a symbol onto the upper right chest of each boy (https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=demonic+symbols&view=detailv2&&&id=FC805D9C47ACD8F797634FF2B46DE44C116A2C65&selectedIndex=256&ccid=D5J%2feV88&simid=608041248026067502&thid=JN.vSRz7u%2fatU7TOXjzoxhPPw&ajaxhist=0) just below the collar bone. She had never been a very good artist so she ended up taking fifteen minutes to carve the marks into their bodies.

Going first to Zack, who was in the worst condition, she leaned over and placed her two hands on his chest where the mark had been carved. Closing her eyes she began to chant "Untainted soul I summon you. You who are of nature and bonded to this earth. I offer unto the this mortal body, to use as you will to manifest yourself to me." This she repeated for five minutes, a melodic and haunting chant. Sweat cross Mabel's brow as her anxiety started to kick in. Without warning Zack's eyes opened, revealing a burning light behind them, before they closed again.

Mabel gave a sigh of relief, and repeated the process on the other two demons-to-be. Once all three had been dealt with Mabel leaned back against the wall, exhausted. And though she would never admit it to anyone, or ever speak about it, she began to cry tears of joy. She had just saved three demon children from an early death, and was over come with relief that the three students she had come to care about and worry about would live.

It took her ten minutes to regain her composure, and wipe away her tears. Opening a thick metal door that led into a side her she then lugged the three boys inside, placing them on barren cots within its confines. Her duty fulfilled, and knowledge that despite their blood still soaking the floor, they would live, she closed and locked the door behind them so she could start calling in people to cover their shifts.