Cursed Lineage

Chapter 1: To Change One's Life at Such a Rate, is Surely From Entwining Fate

It was eight o'clock at night but, instead of beginning to wind-down as usual, the tavern seemed to be getting busier. 

"One Parmi, T-bone - chips and veg, large Caesar - with bacon, no tomato, and kids fish and chips!" shouted the waitress.

She jammed the order into the automatic clip with just enough force not to crumple the paper. The waitress expertly carried some completed dishes out of the kitchen and, almost as soon as she left, a waiter entered with a new order. 

With the number of customers, I was sidelined to side-dishes. Tonight, I was in charge of frying chips and wedges, reheating vegetables and potato mash and, if things got a little quieter, plating up and dishwashing. 

Though I liked being busy, not able to think about how tired I really was, I preferred it when I could actually use my chef training. I'd almost completed my apprenticeship but was still treated like a beginner. Opposed to the old-hands here, I suppose I still was. 

Countless order receipts passed while I moved to where I was needed. I was washing up when one of the waitresses returned. After calling out the new order, she grabbed some paper towel and began cleaning a bench that didn't need it.

"Looks like it's finally beginning to calm down," she said.

"Sounds good," I replied, wearily. "That was getting pretty rough." 

"You mean your plating up was getting pretty rough?" she teased.

"Ha ha," I said in a sarcastic tone. "At least you didn't drop my sub-par plating this time."

The waitress, Zoe, smiled. She had a gorgeous smile; no wonder so many customers loved her, some for all the wrong reasons. Zoe's smile was intriguing because she looked so bitter without it. I'd seen her turn her frown on people before and it was not pretty. 

Zoe probably wore too much make-up for my liking; she was naturally beautiful with her auburn hair and toned skin, all that eyeshadow was just unnecessary. 

"Oh, Alex, the coolest family just came in!"

She wasn't even bothering to pretend to clean anymore. 

"Cool how?" I asked, unpleasant images in mind.

"You're into all that supernatural stuff, right?" She didn't wait for an answer. "Well, there's this man and two girls, his daughters probably, and they're all wearing black clothes with, like, those really big, witchy kind-of sleeves."

I couldn't stop her now; she'd descended into waitress-chatter.

"Oh, and get this: they've all got pentagram necklaces! Do you think they're devil-worshipers or something?"

I couldn't help smiling at her unusual curiosity.

"I'm pretty sure that's not what the pentagram means."

Zoe actually looked disappointed with that. I'm sure she was hoping I'd say that the customers were definitely evil. 

"Well..." she began, "what does it mean then?"

"I think it's some sort of protection thing."

She was thoughtful.

"That doesn't change the fact that they look -"

Zoe's sentence was drowned out by a shrieking of metal just outside the tavern. 

Without thinking, I rushed outside, followed by several staff and customers. The night was lit with red, training my eyes to the car that was wrapped around a telephone pole. It had just caught fire.

The group from the restaurant stopped nearby. I could almost feel our hearts thundering like a stampede as we tried to figure out what to do. 

A loud thud echoed over the crackling flames. It happened again and, watching closely, I could see the driver's door shifting slightly in its twisted frame... as if it had been kicked from within. 

There's someone alive in there!

Hello to anyone who got through Chapter 1! This has been a story in my head for years now, I just decided to finally write it down.

There's probably a heap of errors here and some clunky writing, so please either ignore that or let me know. I'd appreciate any constructive criticism, thoughts, likes, dislikes etc so feel free to leave me a message. 

Sorry this chapter was pretty... normal? I plan for things to get a fair bit more magical as it goes on (particularly chapter 2).

I hope this was an enjoyable read and I'll try to keep up with writing and get Chapter 2 out soon.