Ben POV:
"Alright Ben, you're good. You can go home."
"Thanks Randy!" I could finally go get some food! Today had been a very long day since Christmas was approaching and every parent seemed to want photos of their snot nosed crotch goblins sitting on the fat man's lap. We even had to wear these stupidly hot elf costumes too. Why long sleeves in summer? Just why?
If it wasn't obvious already, I take photos of children. Wait! Before twitter cancels me, the parents forced me to do it! They force me with the irresistible allure of monetary gain!
Anyway, I'm pretty fresh out of high school and now that it's December, I've been spending almost all my time dressed as an elf in a shopping centre constantly listening to Mariah Carey's hit song "all I want for Christmas is you" on loop. And I don't mean hit song as in popular. I mean hit song as in I WILL hit whoever put this only this song on for hours on end. We occasionally get to take a break from the crying kids and do wedding stuff but as it turns out, not many people want to get married around Christmas so no 'breaks' for me then.
Usually I would go home right after work but today, I'm going to treat myself to a bit of fast food in the shopping centre itself. I luckily didn't forget to change out of the elf costume beforehand (done before, wouldn't recommend) and ordered.
"I'll have the chicken burger and fries combo with nuggets and a coke please."
"Alright. Will that be all for today?"
"Yes, thanks."
As I wait for my order, I place my camera and lens case on the table and make sure I'm not missing anything. Nope, all good. By the time I'm done, my order is ready so I take it and go to a window seat.
The shopping centre is relatively new so it has large windows luckily facing the coast. Usually I would get my phone out and start reading a book online but something caught my attention this time.
Getting ready to dock at the naval base was an aircraft carrier as well as a few of its escort ships. Australia damn well doesn't own one and I can only guess from the American flag that it's from, and I really had to think hard here… America!
Once I'm done eating, I wipe my hands until I'm certain I don't have any grease on them, then I get out a camera as well as my 420-800mm lens and lock them together. I zoom in as much as possible but still can't make out any of the finer details so, for curiosity's sake, I snap a few pictures to look at later and just as I was about to put the camera away, I notice a long grey bar on the horizon.
"Must be a storm. "I mumble to myself. “It does look a bit weird for a storm though. I'll take a picture anyway.”
Since I planned on staying up fairly long into the night, I stopped by a café that was for some reason still open on the main boulevard that followed the beach. I walked into the pleasant, homey café and made my way to the counter. The café looked like it was going for a warm and comfortable feeling and it pulled it off without flaw.
When my eyes finally settled on the counter, I noticed probably the best looking thing here.
She was fairly short with good proportions, had wavy, red hair that went down to just above her shoulders and a pair of rounded, wire framed glasses.
"Hi, what could I get for you?" Her voice was soft and sweet.
"Could I please have a latte to go?"
"Sure! With or without sugar?"
"Without please."
"Ok. It'll be ready soon."
As I sit down, near the window again, I notice the storm that I saw earlier. It is much closer now. And for a second, I think I see a blue flash in the dark grey clouds and then it comes. A deafening CRACK echoes throughout the entire town, setting off car alarms all over, including mine. I got up off the floor as I definitely didn't get scared and fall off my chair. I almost got a new shade of brown on my camo shorts…
"Holy shit…" a small voice from behind me says.
"Yeah…" was all I could say.
"You alright?"
"Yea. You?"
"Yep. Though you might have to wait a little bit more for your latte since the floor's covered in coffee now."
"No, it's all good. I'm gonna go get something. I'll be right back."
I quickly get the car keys out of my pocket and unlock the car, letting me in and stopping the car alarm as well. I'm still in the building at this point and when I open the door… I get blasted with a strong wind that almost yanks the door out of my hand.
My pants are just as scared as I am at this point… ok. No more shit jokes. Sorry. But the point still stands, I got scared shitless… damn it.
Overused jokes aside, I grit my teeth and struggled to walk over to my car. Since it was already unlocked, I swung the door open (I was prepared for it this time) and once again, I grabbed my camera and lens cases and made my way back into the café. If I'm gonna be in a freak storm, I may as well film it.
My hands moved with practised efficiency and I had the camera up to my eye before I knew it. Actually, maybe I should put it on my tripod since my nerves clearly can't be trusted. Once the camera is secured on the tripod, I focus on the storm and start filming.
At this point, the counter girl is finished cleaning up and is almost done with my coffee again before…
CRACK! Another stupidly loud lightning strike and almost straight after, "Ah, fuck!" followed by a drawn out hiss. I immediately got up from my knees (I didn't end up on my ass this time) and rushed to look over the counter. There, counter girl sat on the ground with an almost boiling hot coffee puddle around her right thigh and a still steaming red mark on her skin itself.
I rushed around the counter and started to panic.
"Ahhh… what do I do? Running water! Where would I get that…"
But before I can do anything, A low, loud and continuous rumbling could be heard that resonated throughout my very being. I glanced outside and saw that the storm was finally here.
It was complete and utter chaos out there. The small trees planted just outside were being uprooted, any furniture that wasn’t bolted down had long fallen and before my very eyes, a bus driving down the road started to lean and lean and lean until it completely toppled over.
All sorts of junk was flying around out there, so much that I was surprised the windows hadn't been smashed yet.
Just as I was thinking this, something collides with one of the windows and I’m immediately crouching under the counter and I'm making eye contact with counter girl. We're both just as scared as each other.
It's so cold. At one point, it got so bad that we started hugging each other as the cold winds whipped at everything around us. Usually I would be happy about a girl being this close to me but my mind is just filled with pure terror.
This continued on for what felt like an eternity until it struck.
Pain. So so so much pain. At some point all of my body started to burn and it hurt so much. Everything from my skin, to my muscles and even my bones felt like they're on fire. My vision starts to get foggy and right before I pass out, I look over at counter girl, who is in my arms and seems to be in a similar situation herself. My last conscious thought at that moment is that I hope we can get through this.
My eyelids are heavy. I have no idea why but they simply don't want to open. As I lay there, I realise that something is locked in my arms. This encourages me to finally open my eyes and I'm greeted with curly striking red hair.
Eyes wide open now, I look around to see an absolute mess around us. Equipment and debris is strewn all over the floor and most importantly, there is a girl sleeping on my lap. And just like that, everything comes back to me. The storm, the multiple coffee spills, the coldness the wind left us and the mind splitting pain I felt all over my body. I look back down at the head of shining red hair and realise this probably wouldn’t look good from her perspective. I move to gently lift her off of me and find that it’s surprisingly easy to move her. Was she really this light?
Counter girl finally stirs as soon as I get her off my lap. Not sure what to do, I just sat there, still overwhelmed at what we just experienced. Then suddenly, my thoughts were interrupted.
There was a very loud SLAP followed by a particularly high pitched “OWWWWWWW!!!!!!”
Did her hand just teleport to her forehead, or was that just me? And why is there a literal dust cloud around where her arm used to be?
Unique start and seems promising