Chapter 4 - The Blow
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“Your problem,” Derek spat, leaning into Amelia’s personal space, his breath smelling of stale cigarettes and cheap mints, “is that you forgot your place, sweetheart. You’re just a waitress.”
Angela was already moving from behind the cash register, grabbing a heavy wooden rolling pin from beneath the counter. Tony burst out of the swinging kitchen doors, his apron stained with grease, a heavy metal spatula gripped tightly in his massive fist. At the far end of the diner, Mr. Del Monaco reached toward the rotary telephone on the wall with trembling, aged hands.
But Derek moved faster than all of them.
Amelia saw his shoulder turn. It was the exact same physical tell Raymond used to have. Her brain recognized the danger a fraction of a second before her body could react.
Then, blinding pain flashed across the left side of her face.
The impact was explosive, a heavy, sickening thud of bone against bone. The world tilted violently on its axis. The checkered linoleum floor struck Amelia’s shoulder and head before she even understood that she had fallen.
The diner instantly broke into a chaotic symphony of sound.
“Amelia!” Angela screamed, her voice cracking with terror.
A metal chair scraped violently against the floor as Tiny the trucker stood up. Someone in the background was yelling for an ambulance.
Amelia lay on the cold floor, trying to open her eyes, but the diner lights scattered strangely into blinding white streaks. The voices around her seemed muffled, as if they were coming from the other end of a long, underwater hallway. She tasted copper in her mouth.
Above the chaos, Derek laughed. It was a cold, arrogant sound that cut through the panic.
“Anybody else want to tell me to leave?” Derek shouted, cracking his knuckles.
No one answered quickly enough. The sudden, brutal violence had paralyzed the ordinary people in the room.
Derek looked around the diner, sneering at the terrified faces, completely mistaking their shock for submission and agreement.
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“That’s what I thought,” Derek gloated, turning back toward his friends. “Let’s get out of this dump.”
But his friend Nikki wasn't looking at him. Nikki had gone completely pale, his eyes wide with a terror that had nothing to do with the bleeding waitress on the floor.
