"So this is where a Witch works?" It was the third time that Ash had asked it since she had walked into the employee's room.

She had decided, some time ago, that it was time to make a sustained effort to ignore the creature. She was, after all, back in tight quarters. Netta had finished taking her coat off and had pulled her logoed cloth visor on when she heard It speaking indignantly.

"This is what you do?"  He scoffed. "You have a body. Strip."  Leaning so that Its arm was dangling on top of her opened locker door, Ash stared at her as she walked away from her locker.  "Anything - it's better than this."

As though in answer to her unspoken question, It followed up, adding, "It's all customer service. Do you know what that is? You take the undeserved derision of one of those - those Humans.." It scoffed, the rough-edge burr of Its voice sounding like sandpaper rubbing against itself. "At least as a stripper you'd have the ability to, I don't know, hone a craft that would come of use to you in the future." Its voice dropped in what could be described as some wild cat's purr. "For me."

Netta sighed and readjusted the collar on her polo. How had she dealt with the Monster, previously, in those last twenty-four hour periods? How had she coped with this in-between period before she could banish It?

It was the presence of someone in the doorway that derailed her train of thought.

Netta leaped, the nonsensical fear that someone else could somehow see her tormentor overwhelming her.

Regaining control of herself, Netta turned, then recognized the slumped posture of her boss.

"Did someone call off already?" She asked, knowing before she did what the answer would be.

Goddess, Netta thought, as she saw the people streaming in through the entrance. who would have thought that everyone on the subway ride this morning was coming here to eat?

It was a thought that might not have been off from the truth. The line seemed to never end, with every person that she took in seeming to only make space for two more people after them.

Still, Netta worked, the lone person on the register. When she had the chance to look out of the windows, blocked often by the snake-like line of people as well as those who sat at tables with their meals, she saw evidence of the worsening cold and snow outside.

Despite the weather outside, with the heat of the kitchen only separate from her by the counter that was a left-over from its days before as a diner, she felt hot, almost boilingly so. When she had a moment free, it was all she could do to not pull at the ugly collar of her uniform's polo, unsticking it from the sweat caking it to her neck.

Taking the money from a haggard-looking man, Netta shoved the money into the drawer and flinched, feeling the spreading, icy fingers of a headache beginning on her right temple.

Netta knew that she had ignored the obvious signs of her Human allergies and was due at any time to suffer the deeper effects of it.  She shuddered.  Just a bit longer.  Someone could always come in, could just be late because of the weather -

"Feeling sick, aren't you?" Ash was there, behind the counter. It had been watching her at the register, far too closely for comfort.  The Monster continued to speak. "It's this close proximity to this many humans." It snorted.

The disgust in Its voice something that even Netta could not disagree with. How could she? Netta was an hour deep into this unceasing flow of people through the doors.

She knew that, increasingly, she was showing her fatigue from being trapped with more and more of these people's energy beating at her. How much like a corpse did she look like, to these thankfully oblivious-as-always Humans?

Even she had to admit, in fleeting moments, that this all seemed an awful lot like she was avoiding an obviously much more important thing. And the register was as though she was pre-emptively punishing herself for it.

Netta continued to ignore the creature that only she could see - and hear. She pretended to work as though her mind was focused on the people who approached the register.  It had been hard to ignore It at first, when the creature was only five feet away behind the counter next to her.

The dull throb of the headache ("People Hangover" as she had heard it referred to many a time) managed to give her an effect almost of blinders.

Through the dull haze of people, the creature's voice, with a quality that It always had possessed, somehow managed to steam roll over the almost comforting dulling of the robotic script that she spoke to the customers in.

Ash had taken to sitting on the drink tray of one of the two soda dispenser, Its tall form sat on its edge so that the creature's right leg dangled carelessly.  Whenever Netta had to fill a customer's drink order, she had to use the twin to the one he was sat in front of, came dangerously close to touching as she did it.

"Why are you doing this?" When Netta did not answer, It scoffed. "What need could you possibly have -"

She kept her eyes trained on the customer in front of her, wanted to smile but found it impossible to. "That'll be eleven fifty-nine."

"Okay," Ash chuckled. "you've been working like this. Don't understand it, but you can't possibly think that you're going to keep this going..."

"Young lady?" The woman who had arrived sat her big purse down on the counter, unopened. Her mouth hung open in a limp upside-down crescent. "Do you know when the snow is going to let up?"

For a moment, all Netta could do was stare at the woman.  Finally, she gathered herself and, forcing a smile that even she could feel straining, she said, "I don't really know, ma'am."

The woman reached up to grasp at the seemingly too-tight collar of her winter coat. "I'm so worried that this snow will never let up, you know? What's going to happen to all of us if the storm never ends? I need - I want -"

She felt the script, for how to deal with these people who somehow managed to find themselves in the restaurant, coming to her.  "Oh-gee-ma'am, is there anything that you'd like to order to eat?" When the woman blinked, almost in disbelief, Netta cleared her throat and motioned for her to move.

When the woman did not, Netta clenched her jaw.

Oh, but her head was throbbing, and it felt as though it was taking everything to not tell this woman to fucking move.  "I need to know if there's anything that you'd like to order."

When that did not provoke any response, Netta turned around and fetched a paper cup. She shot it full of water, purposefully ignoring Ash as she closed a lid on it and grabbed a red paper-wrapped straw. In one movement, she handed the woman the drink and the straw and motioned stiffly to the side.

Slowly, painfully so, the woman slid her purse onto her shoulder and took her drink before she hobbled out of the restaurant.

"These people are helpless," Ash's voice rose up from almost directly behind her. "you don't even want to be here. Don't you think that if you're going to ignore me, then you at least have that card that your family sent for you to consider?"

Perhaps it was something in the way that the woman from before had acted, but Netta found herself addressing the man - no, creature - behind her. "Shut up."

The next woman, a youthful woman prone to blinking, smiled in a stupid manner reminiscent of a farm animal after it had been slapped. "Excuse me?"

Netta felt the blush creeping up her face. "Oh - sorry, I just - I didn't mean to say that to you."

The sweat that had started at the edge of her hairline began to ripple down her face. She swabbed at it and was immediately aware of how grotesque she must look.  All around her, the air smelled, overwhelmingly, of the greasy food being assembled in the kitchen as well as a collage of the perfumes of some of the Humans in the line. She could gag on the combination of the smell.

Once the woman ordered her meal, Netta spun around mechanically and took a bag of food that had been rested near her. She read off of the receipt taped to the bag who the food belonged to  Calling out, no one came forward. Netta sighed, then placed it on the counter.

Ash spoke up, was now standing next to her.  "You have to leave. Watching you do this is something that I can hardly compare to anything worse that I've ever witnessed before. Netta," It sighed. "I know I'm not your favorite person right now, and you don't want to hear this -"

And then something broke in Netta's facade as a shot of pain arced through her head.  It felt like she had, finally, had enough.

"Sh-shut the fuck up, you don't know what you're talking about!"  It came out as a scream, and even in the packed restaurant, she heard how her voice had reverberated from the walls.

The dead silence that followed her outburst was the first warning that she had done something, fundamentally, absolutely, wrong.  She looked up - could see what was about to happen written on the creased, disgusted expression in the customer at the register.

If she had any thought that her regression would be looked past, the look on the wife of the male customer only damned her.

Somewhere, Ash was saying, "Well, that's that, then."