The Diner in the Middle of Nowhere

No one believes me, but this really happened to me. I was about twenty-six at the time, it was summer vacation for teenagers and teachers. I happened to work at a small store in my town of Red Deer, it is a quiet work environment with not too many customers coming in. It was enough to pay my rent and to buy the occasional dress or clothing item that I have been wanting for months. Anyways, it was nice working there because anyone could take my shift, and luckily or unluckily (you might say) someone did. My best friend Stella and I decided to take a camping trip, we have gone on many before together, but we like to go to different places all the time. We decided on a bit of a road trip, it was an eight-hour drive for a week's worth of vacation. I grew up camping, so things like peeing in the woods did not scare me or make me nervous. Stella on the other hand, grew up glamping where she was still able to put on her make-up. We were both pretty excited about this trip. We packed the car and at six am we were already on the road.

"Change the song," I told Stella.

"What do you wanna listen to? I've got some Rihanna, Britney Spears, Avril Levigne and uh...Taylor Swift," she told me as she scrolled through her IPod listing off the artists.

"Anything but Justin Bieber please," I responded and I reached down with my right hand into the chip bag and pulled out a few chips and shoved them into my mouth.

"Uh-oh.." said Stella.

"What's uh-oh?" I asked.

"I have to pee..." she said looking at me worried.

"Why didn't you say anything an hour ago, when we were at the rest stop," I whined.

"I didn't have to go then," she said.

"We are in the middle of nowhere, there isn't gonna be a rest stop for miles," I responded. "Pull out the map, what does it say?" I asked her.

Stella reached into the glove compartment and pulled out a folded map, she stretched it out and looked at it intently for a few minutes she was quiet.

"Aww man, you're right."

"You're gonna have to do it in the bushes," I told her.

"Eww... I'm no animal," she said and I wanted to respond with "well technically you are" but I was not about to start a fight with a person who had to pee.

"What's that?" she asked me.

"Where?"

"Straight ahead I see a sign...oh it says The Great Breakfast diner open 24/7. We are in luck!" she squealed. "Turn off next exit," she read from the sign.

Just like the sign said there was an exit, we got onto the gravel road and the tires under the car shook us as it rolled over the gravel. We kept driving and driving.

"I really have to go!" she said just as we saw the diner. There were no other cars parked in front of it, a sign that was blinking read open. I parked the car in front of the run-down looking place. Stella basically ripped out of her seat and disappeared into the diner. I followed her in. The place was deserted there was only a woman with tattoos all up her arms wearing a red bandana, she had a septum piercing and large stretchers in her ears, her eyebrow was pierced twice and she had a medusa piercing as well. Her hair was black with purple streaks.

"Are you part of the party this afternoon?" she asked me as she chewed on some gum.

"No, I am just waiting for my friend," I responded.

"The one that had to pee?" she asked.

"Yup that's the one," I responded.

"You girls better move on quickly though, how did you find this place anyway?"

"The road sign," I replied as I sat down on the stool.

"What road sign?"

"The one on highway eighteen."

"Sweetheart, are you one of us?" she asked me.

"One of..."

"You know... one of us?" she asked and she rotated her wrist around to reveal a tattoo of a bat, and in the middle of its chest was a large V.

"No. I am not a gang member" I said quietly. Gosh, I really wished that Stella would hurry up, what on earth was taking her so long?

"Gang member what are you talking about...wait how did you see the sign then?" she asked me.

"My friend pointed it out," I said and I shifted uncomfortably in my chair.

"Is she a vampire too?" she asked me. I laughed. But the diner lady's face remained stone cold...was she serious? and then a group of cars rolled up at the window. She was definitely serious, there were all pale and had tattoos of the same bat somewhere on their bodies. I saw a group of them laugh and that's when I saw their teeth...some of them had subtle fangs and others it looked like they grew fangs as a hobby. The fangs were sticking out of their mouth so much it was like in a Halloween movie.

"Get behind the counter now," instructed the diner woman.

"Why?"

"Magical barrier they can't bite you, I used to be one, until a witch cursed me," she said with disdain. "My god, you could be one of them your face is so pale," she said and just then the group of them walked in and the diner woman pulled out two glasses and she reached for the sprout to start pouring a drink and as soon as she let out the liquid I recognized it as blood, the smell was overpowering of blood. Where the hell was Stella? I wondered as I leaned on the back counter to support myself. A vampire reached for the glass and drank it a bit of blood dripped from his mouth and who I assumed was his partner licked it up, but her tongue was shaped like a serpent's and she laughed hysterically.

"Who's the new blood?" asked one of them.

"Off limits," she said and the vampire made a face of disgust.

"Bring out the victims!!" They all cried at once and a door swung open from the back and there were old men chained up and a large beefy guy pulled on the chain.

"These are convicted felons from texas," he reported. What was going to happen? They were not going to feed on them were they? the men were lined up, but something was wrong with their eyes, they were all murky as if they all had cataracts, but their looks were dazed. They lined them up and then it happened all at once, there was a rush of cold air and I felt something warm spatter on me. I looked down and I was covered in spots of blood. I looked up and blood was gushing everywhere, teeth were sinking into the skin as if it were made of cheese and from the skin came bursts of blood, but it was soon sucked up by the vampires that were on the men's necks. One of them reached for clean air and blood dripped down his neck as he rolled his eyes back in blood lust and he licked his lips and dove into the neck once more and man's skin was turning bluer and bluer as the minutes wore on. I could not look away I was too mesmerized or shocked and then, the man's head made a gruesome ripping noise and it rolled off his body.

I turned around and I felt those chips start to come back up.

"Go!" shouted the diner woman and I sprinted for the bathroom where I threw up and I heard moans coming from the bathroom stall.

"Stella?" I asked and a weird sound came out of the stall...it was almost like a cat's meow. I cleaned my face up and I kicked the door down and there was a black cat in the stall and Stella was petting it.

"What's wrong? food poisoning?" she asked me casually and that made me throw up again, but this time on the floor.

"We have to get out of here," I told her. Stella got up and started to head for the door when I grabbed her purse.

"Not that way!" I shouted and she opened the door and closed it, she ran for the garbage can and threw up, she retreated into the empty stall where I did not throw up in.

"Let's go!" I urged her as I stood on top of the toilet and pushed the window open.

I grabbed her by the arm and pushed her up, she grabbed onto the window sill and I pushed her, she fell with a thud and I pushed myself up on the sill and I closed my eyes and fell forwards. Stella was already tugging on the car door. I got up and clicked the remote of my car and it popped open without hesitating, she got in and I followed her. I shut the door closed and with a racing heartbeat turned on my car and sped out of the parking lot and onto the dusty road, without speaking to one another I turned around back the way we came. There was no way I was going camping after that. No way in hell.