Alluring Masquerade

Chapter 02 - A Random Date?

          "Story of our lives, in't it?" Anglina said, biting her sweets loudly. Crunch! – Crunch! – Crunch! "Don't worry, Hira. I believe in miracles." She fixed her black sleeveless top and brushed away the tiny crumbs.

          Someone screamed from the back of the storeroom, "Arrrgghhhhh! How did you get in here?!"

          "I'll go," Hira offered. She rose from her seat. Better make myself busy, she advised herself and headed over to the back of the room.

          "I'll join you!" Angelina added and followed suit and pocketed her bag of sweets.

          The double doors didn't have any windows and were painted in white. When Hira pushed through the entrance, followed by Angelina, and was met with the usual the gloomy storeroom. She nearly bumped into her manager who was holding a cricket bat threateningly. "What's the matter, Karla?" she asked.

          "We have mice!" Karla, their manager, screamed incredulously in a stage whisper. Her beady eyes scanned the ground.

          Angelina and Hira shared the same look of shock and disgust.

          "Shoot my life, I just had some bread from the kitchen!" Angelina confessed. She felt wretched and gagged.

          "They haven't gotten to the kitchen!"

          Hira tried her best not to step on any shards of glass with her black ballerina pumps, but was unsuccessful. Karla had accidentally smashed a spare frosted-glass of the tables.

          "Are you sure about that, Karla?" Angelina queried quizzically, gingerly stepping over the broken wreck of transparent glass. Her four inch heels made a scrunching noise.

          "Of course I'm sure!" Karla squeaked, glancing over at the two girls momentarily. "I saw one scurrying a long right there, under the stacks of – argh! – there it is again!"

          Hira and Angelina both jumped in unison when their manager began screaming at the tiny scuffling and squealing sounds.

          "Will we be closing down now?" Hira asked cautiously.

          "Don't you even think that, Hira!" The manager cut her off. "This café is my whole life, my everything, my life's work!"

          "Karla –"

          "No, no, no, no!" The manager threw the bat on the floor.

          Hira set her lips in a thin line. She silently watched the manager walk past them and close the doors behind them before checking for possible intrusions. "I think you should call the pest control people" she said.

          "I made an appointment with to come and take care of the little demons. They can be here be here anytime in an hour. Please don't tell anyone," she asked in a very quiet voice, yet firm. "I don't want our business to shut down!"

          "People are not stupid out there," Angelina scoffed and jabbed her thumb behind her at the closed doors. They'll figure it out. Mice squeak, y'know. They make noise. They," she paused to stop herself to stop herself from vomiting, "...excrete."

          "That's what I was thinking," Hira added, looking at her friend and back at their employer. "It can be dangerous as well, health wise and lawfully." She made a revolted expression at another squeak.

          "Girls, I'll take care of it." Karla clasped her hands as if to confirm her words. "Don't create such a racket. NO NEED TO PANIC." She seemed to grow more panicky than Hira and Angelina put together.