...Is It an E-e-evil Box? ((Open!))

[Guest]

"No, no, no no not AGAIN! Gosh darn son of a heck and toast!" In the world of Zoe Viddy Bourciquot, words like that were harsh and only to be used when one was really really frustrated or really really mad. Today, as she worked the latest of the the late and the gravest of the graveyard shifts, it was both.

Her head connected with the metal side of the coffee shop's only espresso machine, the Rancillo Classe 6. Or as the nervous red-headed boy had stutteringly confessed to Zoe on her third day there, Fiona was what it was affectionally called by all the employees. "Not a-a-a-a-again Fiona-a-a-a," Zoe moaned as she connected her forehead repeatedly with the metal facing. Fiona moaned right back, making guttural sounds and tinny whines that were not the pleasant rumbling of a well-oiled machine making well-frothed coffee.

Instead, Fiona was burping up sludge that looked like it had dropped straight of a swooping bird's bottom. Zoe didn't even have to turn to the really surly looking red-skinned and long-horned demon customer to know that what had spurted from the spout into the delicate ceramic cup was not what he ordered.

One more desperate smack of her head against Fiona, and the accident-prone girl knew it was time to rally her mental troops and give herself a pep talk. You can do this, Zoe Viddy Bourciquot! You can take a deep breath and you can buck right up and you can put on a big apologetic smile and you can make that sour-puss demon man turn his frown right upside down with a complimentary five cups of coffee card! As she bolstered herself right back up into her chipper chatty self Zoe drew her pint-size up so tall she might even look taller than just five feet, and she began to deliver the bad news in the best upbeat voice she had.

"Now I know that doesn't sound good, sir, but if you'd - " As Zoe turned around to face the demon that was supposed to be standing at the counter, she was just in time to see the back of him walking out the door. The eccentric seer deflated, sinking back against the back counter where the groaning coffee machine sat. She blew a blonde curl from her face before she finished her sentence in a tone very different than she'd started it with " - just walk away from me without even letting me apologize, I'm sure we'll find we'll just be the bestest of friends you big ole negative Nancy!" Zoe huffed and hung her head, shaking it back and forth as she turned back to face the machine. "Oh Zoe you know you don't mean that, you know you don't…"

And she was right. She didn't mean that, not even to a testy demon. It wasn't his fault that she'd broken the espresso machine for the third time since she started working here. Since it was so very late at night (nearly 3am) even the late-late night crowd had come and gone and she was officially in here alone. That meant she had plenty of time to remember the sort of elaborate five step trick the repairman had shown her the last time he was here. Normally he didn't share the trick with anyone since it'd mean less business, but he was willing to do anything to keep from having to deal with Zoe's bumbling never-ending apologies again.

"Alright Fiona. It's just you and me now, so there's no one else to see how I'm about to use my fist!" Zoe shook said fist at the coffee machine in an attempt to be intimidating, but the petite blonde was about as intimidating as she was graceful. Still, the over-acted charade bucked her resolve up enough that she was able to bang her fist against the bottom left corner of the machine's vent just like the repairman had shown her.

Or maybe it bucked her up too much. Not only did Zoe yelp at the top of her lungs, but the foot long grate popped right off the machine…

…and a small wooden box fell out.

[Rowan Fair]

Rowan needed a distraction, she couldn't sleep. She decided to take a walk through town to clear her head and saw a Starbucks. She stopped in front of the door. ~Now that sounds good....~

As she opened the door she heard a weird sound. She'd been in plenty of coffee shops before, but this didn't sound right. She looked towards the counter and saw one person behind the counter, a blond girl, and one demon at the counter. As the girl was trying to make a drink, the demon did not look too happy. From what she could see, the machine was not working correctly, that was where the sound was coming from. Rowan stood near the door watching and deciding what to order. After a minute or so, the demon turned around and, in a huff, walked out the door as the girl started to turn to talk to him. Rowan couldn't quite hear what the girl said, but she obviously was having trouble with the machine she was working with and started talking to it and to beat on it. It was obvious, also, that the girl didn't see her. As Rowan stepped out of the shadows to go to the counter, the girl yelled and Rowan heard something hit the floor. She cautiously walked up to the girl... Is everything ok?

[Guest]

Rowan thought right, Zoe didn't see her at all! The eccentric girl was staring with slack-jawed awe at the small square wooden box that had taken a tumble out of the machine, rolled off the counter, and came to a cushioned halt when it fell into a large cardboard box that was filled with nothing but brown paper napkins with the green Starbucks logo.

If curiosity killed the cat, it was a very very good thing that Zoe didn't even have a teeny bit of feline in her! Because already the clumsy blonde was hunching down and leaning forward, peering into the cardboard box at the simple unpainted treasure. "Did you just roll out of Fiona, little box?" Normally Zoe was a talker, an on-and-on-and-on-and-on kind of talker, but when she was caught off guard her words actually slowed down to small handfuls. And she sure was caught off-guard now!

Which is why when Rowan spoke to her, Zoe mistook it as the wooden box answering her and she nearly jumped out of her own shoes and her head hit the underside of the counter with a big loud smack. "OW!" She bellowed as she backed out, nearly banging her head a second time in the process. To make this first impression only better still, Zoe was babbling to herself the whole time. "Oh ow really ow, I really wish I didn't take the last of the aspirin from the first aid kit last night after I smashing my finger in the dish washer, because this really smarts and I think it's going to - "

Cue Zoe turning around to face the customer counter. "Oh! Hello! How're you?" She beamed amicably at the woman, not quite remembering what she was supposed to do with her. After a few hard blinks, her head fog cleared and it clicked: she was at work, and the woman at the counter was a customer. "OH! I mean, welcome to Starbucks! I don't think the cookies have gone hard yet and we have lots of coffee, want some? Just not from there."

As the bubbly blonde turned to point at Fiona with the hand that wasn't rubbing the rapidly swelling bump on the back of her head, her gaze drifted downward to the cardboard box underneath. She couldn't see the wooden box inside from where she was standing, but she could've sworen she heard something banging on the side of the larger cardboard box.

Very slowly Zoe turn back to Rowan, saying with held breath. "…did you hear that?" Didn't that just inspire confidence in the budding barista!

[Rowan Fair]

As soon as Rowan spoke, the girl yelled again, this time hitting her head on the counter. Rowan winced and mumbled..."Sorry..." She stood and watched the girl stammer and ramble on a bit before turning around to speak to her.

After Zoe spoke she looked at her and smiled. "I didn't mean to startle you, I hope you're ok. But as far as coffee goes...I'll just take a black coffee." She watched as Zoe rubbed the back of her head and glanced downward.

As Rowan reached into her pocket for money, she heard a sound and Zoe asked if she heard something. Rowan stopped, looked up slowly at Zoe and nodded.

[Guest]

"I really really heard that, I really really did wooden box..." Zoe was mumbling softly to herself as she slowly lowered her pointing finger, blue eyes peering warily inside the cardboard box that was the current home of the strange wooden box. She said it like she was trying to reassure herself, the way a person does when they're home alone on a very windy night and they hear their house creak in a way it's never creaked before.

The eccentric little blonde was about to creep carefully closer when Rowan very rightfully placed her order. Hearing the magic word Zoe shot up straight like a bullet, though this time she didn't smack or clonk any part of her body in the process. "Coffee?!" she sputtered turning back to Rowan with a vacant look that said maybe this girl would be best suited for a nice day off. "Coffee!" She repeated as it dawned on her for the second time that yes she was at work and yes that's where coffee pouring happened. "And black coffee, black coffee's good black coffee's actually perfect, Fiona has nothing to do at all with making coffee that's black!"

Wasn't that a relief?

What was probably an even bigger relief - to Rowan, at least - was that Zoe actually pulled a paper cup and was heading over to the coffee pot. This meant that there was actually a fifty percent chance that Rowan would have her cup of coffee by the time dawn rolled around! This fact was a miracle, as some of Zoe's former customers would attest to if they were here. But they weren't. Because quite a few of them Zoe probably scared off from coming back ever again.

Grabbing up the coffee pot and pouring, as Zoe poured she chatted. "Did you say you heard it too? What I heard? Because if you heard it and I heard it that means that the chances are higher that there was actually something to be heard!" The clumsy seer seemed very animated about this concept, sticking her free hand up in the air in an emphatic victory gesture as she started back to the counter with Rowan's coffee. "You know sometimes how it's late at night and you think you hears som - " However that sentence was going to end, the end was stolen from Zoe as she yelped.

Stumbling and sloshing some of the hot black coffee on the tiled floor Zoe looked down to see what it was she'd just tripped over. That's right, tripped. And for once it wasn't over her own feet, because lo and behold sitting about two inches away from her right shoe was the creepy wooden box. Pointing down at it, she shrieked, "Do you see that! That wasn't there before. Tell me you know that wasn't there before!"

[Rowan Fair]

Rowan watched as this odd girl rushed around the counter area getting the coffee that she ordered. She was muttering something about coffee and blankly staring at first. She assumed that the girl was a bit preoccupied about the box that had appeared from the machine.

The girl grabbed a cup to pour the coffee into and then on her way back to the counter, she was jabbering on and then she tripped. Rowan jumped back a bit, not wanting to get hot coffee on her. When she decided that she was safe to move to the counter again, Rowan looked over the counter at what the girl tripped over. It looked like the wooden box had moved somehow. Rowan wasn't certain if that was what happened or not. This was going to be an interesting evening.

[Alexis]

Coffee, coffee, coffee!! Alexis Stari needed coffee and needed it now! It was 3 am and she was NOT about to loose the buzz that took all day to achieve. Enter Starbucks: HEAVEN!!!!!

With a wild yelp the petite blonde flung the door to heaven wide open and practically bounded inside. Oh yeaaaaaaaah this girl needed coffee like she needed an extra arm. Those poor unsuspecting people. They had no idea what was coming at them.

The girl radiated energy like the sun and was dressed to match. With a blinding neon yellow running shorts, black sneaks, a black tank top, and lace up fish-net arm warmers the girl was so not looking the part for the time of night that it was.

Bouncing her way over to the counter she hopped in line behind the woman who was already there. That's when she heard IT. The worker woman behind the counter was suddenly shrieking and pointing at something on the floor and Alexis was outta there!! The hyper girl lunged for the nearest table and scrambled onto the top of it. "What???? What!?! What is it!?"

[Guest]

It was way, way, way too late at night for Zoe to be dealing with something as bizarre as this! If it were early morning, or half past noon, or even just after sunset, the bubbly blonde girl would would have her head on much straighter, but the fact of the matter was that once it was past ten pm, the only thing Zoe was good for was sprawling on her bed and reading one of the many books on her nightstand.

So Zoe was lethargically brained, bleary-eyed, and back to dumbly staring at the wooden box which was now at her feet. The customer hadn't confirmed or denied that the box had been there the entire time, and it was late enough that Zoe was starting to question herself. She was starting to question this whole thing, even - if she sat up in bed and this was all a dream Zoe decided she wouldn't be surprised at all, not one bit. In fact? She was kind of hoping for it.

But until she woke up (which sadly would never happen since she was already awake) she knew she had to do something about this box. Do something, Zoe, you've got to do something, is what she was repeating to herself when she picked her head up languidly and noticed that wait a minute, there was a new customer. Shrieking and standing one of the tables. How long has THAT been going on, she wondered, because that's no good, no that's no good at all. Standing up on tables was actually featured in the Starbucks Employee Manual, with the words 'strictly forbidden' at the tail end of it and the rest of the long list of things that should not be done with tables.

Yes, Zoe told herself with all the firmness her mental voice could manage, I've got to do something.

So she laughed. A very silly, loud, nothing-weird-is-going-on-here-really-I-promise kind of laugh. And she included a huge wave of her one arm too in a 'forget about it!' gesture. "Oh it's just a BOX," she told the new customer. Trying to make the concept of a box sound like the bestest most reassuring thing in the world. "A very special box too! So clap your hands and come on down there from that table before the eyes see you, because this box goes to the one-hundredth customer of the day!"

It did? Well it did now! Which is why after Zoe put the lid on Rowan's cup of black coffee, she grabbed a pair of very long metal tongs and picked the wooden box up very, very carefully. Walking it over to the counter like it was the most fragile piece of matter in the entire Starbucks universe, she set the box down gently very very gently next to Rowan's cup of coffee. Giving Rowan the biggest smile she could manage at 3am she added some clapping for good measure and a bubbly, "Congratulations, you're the one hundredth customer of the day! And if you accept the box, I am obligated to give you your coffee for free!"

[Rowan Fair]

After looking at the box on the floor, Rowan heard the door open and another person came yelling into Starbucks. Then the other girl apparently heard the sound the box made, jumped on a table and started yelling again. She thought to herself...what in the world have I gotten myself into now??? It was late, and maybe this is when the crazies came out around here. She shook her head a bit, reached for the coffee that Zoe had put on the counter for her and stopped when Zoe picked up the box and put it on the counter next to her cup. Oh no.....not gonna happen...

After hearing what Zoe had to say about it... Rowan shook her head slowly, took out some money and put it on the counter.... "I can't take that, I don't even know what that is..." Rowan was certain that Zoe just didn't want whatever that was around....and neither did she..... She'd had enough surprises lately. "Thank you, but I will just leave that there and take my coffee......" She left it at that and walked to a table and sat down.

[Alexis]

Alexis hated to tell the woman behind the counter but all reassurance she may have garnered with the laugh and the clap went totally out of the door when she used TONGS to pick the box up. If it was just a BOX then why not pick it up by hand? Something was definitely fishy and Alexis Stari smelled a rotten one.

See! See! The other customer didn't want it either so that just proved something was wrong with that box! Well there was no way she was going to take it. Nu-uh, no siree bob! She was here after coffee not strange boxes that made people shriek and had to be picked up with tongs!!

Hey, the woman behind the counter should be happy though. The girl clambered off the table when the shrieking had ended but she hadn't made a move since then. The BOX was on the counter and she wasn't going annnnnnnnnnywhere near it if she had a say in matters even if there was free coffee involved! So she was gonna do her ordering right from the spot she had rooted on - about three feet away from the counter. "I want a Caffè Misto, TO GO."

[Guest]

Well shoot! "B-but but you can't!" Zoe lurched forward and bumped into the counter as she watched the woman she'd named the one hundredth customer walk away. The seer's shoulders slumped along with the rest of her as her sapphire blue eyes looked around wildly to see if there was something, anything she could use as - yes!! "Your change, you need change, I can't let you leave here without your change!" Zoe said that with bubbly triumph, ringing up the cup of coffee and putting the money the woman gave into the register. While Zoe was a useless mess when it came to coffee, she was a wizard at the register.

Usually. The pint-sized blonde was a hopeless klutz. Luckily today was one of the 'usually' days and Zoe had the woman's correct change in hand and the register drawer shut in no time. But there was one teeny tiny problem.

By the time the blonde barista looked up from the register, the small wooden box was nowhere in sight. At least not Zoe's line of sight.

"Oh! Good!" A soft exclamation of surprise. Very pleased, relieved, surprise as she glanced at the seated Rowan with a smile. "You changed your - " Zoe stopped herself right there because looking at Rowan's table all she saw was the coffee. She didn't see a box at all. The smile from Zoe's face fell, the change dropped from her hand and hit the counter in little clatters, and she bit her bottom lip as worry filled up her eyes. "Ummm. You changed your mind, right, about the wooden box that was sitting right here right here a minute ago when I picked your money up from the counter, you took that right?" She decided that maybe if she said it to Rowan convincingly enough, pleadingly enough, that maybe it would be true?

While she waited for what felt like horrible gut wrenching ages for Rowan's answer, Zoe had no choice but to do her job. Trying not to bite a hole into her own lip with nervousness she turned to the other customer, giving the girl a shaky smile. "A….a Misto?" The normally wordy Zoe was still being wordy, but it was in the safety of her own mind as she was currently trying to review all the drinks she'd made so far in order to figure out of a Misto was one of them. She decided finally, "I think I've made one of those before…" And by think, she really meant that she had no darn clue!

But she couldn't help it! She was distracted. Entirely preoccupied. Maybe they'd be able to tell by her steps. They were teeny tiny, and Zoe's eyes were locked on the tiled floor behind the counter. If that box had a mind of its own, she did not want to bump into it. Not even with her tiny pinky toe!

[Rowan Fair]

Rowan sat down, shaking her head slightly. This was turning into an interesting night, who knew that things could get this exciting at 3 am? As she sat she heard the other customer got down off the table and said her order, well away from the counter and the box.

As Rowan sipped her coffee she heard Zoe sputter a bit about her not picking up the box and then something about needing to give her change. Rowan was about to stand up and say keep whatever change there was when she, and apparently Zoe, noticed the box was not on the counter. She looked around the cafe. "Uhhh...no, I didn't pick up the box." She looked, uneasily, around the cafe again before settling back in her chair...putting her feet up on another as she did so.

[Alexis]

She thought she'd made one of those before. Thought. One jasper green eye of one Alexis Stari twitched as the other watched the teeny tiny steps of the woman behind the counter. Doom was on the immediate horizon for her drink and her coffee buzz. She could just see it now.

And that's why she was turning tail and getting the heck outta there. Yes it was three in the morning but this was Rhy'Din and somewhere in this town there had to be another place to get a buzz before the night was over. Soooo... she was backing for the doorway when she heard the other woman say she hadn't picked up the box. Cue the shrieking again, though thankfully this time she didn't hop on another table. "That thing's on the loose!?"

[Guest]

A very long time ago, back in a strange land called high school, Zoe had volunteered to be a peer counselor, and all of the students who volunteered for that brave and noble position were trained with a series of seminars. During one very informative and wise seminar on crisis management sweet little Zoe had been carefully instructed on how to behave in a crisis in order to give all persons involved a sense of calm, and more importantly a sense of self-empowerment and confidence that a logical, practical solution was right around the corner.

As soon as the small wooden box had disappeared, all that training bolted around said corner on its way to fly right out the window. Calm? Try panic. Self-empowerment? Try a trembling blonde who had just grabbed the nearest clean coffee pot to hold it up like she was Professor Plum with the candlestick in the Conservatory. Logic? Rhymes with Shmogic! And practical? Ha! Nothing about how Zoe was trying to crumple the rest of already pint-sized frame inward like she was a turtle without a shell was practical. On the contrary, her panicked instincts told her that the tinier she made herself, the better the chances were that the box would pick one of the two others to do its evil business with.

Still, she was the barista on duty. Letting one of her customers get eaten by a nefarious wooden box would be very poor customer service. When Zoe needed this job in order to stay in Rhy'din like the tea leaves told her she had to, she just couldn't afford a bad customer service demerit in her employee file.

She had to do something. Well, maybe not do something, because doing something would mean she'd have to - eureka! "Don't move!" As Zoe shrieked as shrilly as she could to get the life or death urgency of her point across, her right hand pointed frantically at Rowan. "Don't move!" Also shrieked, and her left hand pointed wildly at Alexis. "Don't anybody move until it comes back because you have no idea, YOU HAVE NO IDEA what it's capable of!" And neither did Zoe, which really was exactly why the poor exhausted and obviously eccentric barista was plum freaking out! "If we all just stand still, maybe we'll hear it breathing."

…breathing?

[Rowan Fair]

Rowan sat at her table watching events unfold before her. She shook her head and chuckled softly watching the barista and the other customer. The customer looked worried and the barista, well, she looked like she was about to come undone at any moment.

Since the box had disappeared, that made Zoe even more anxious. The customer was backing towards the door, when she realized that that the box was gone and stopped. Rowan couldn't do anything but sit there, she had no idea what was going on. Zoe then yelled at both of them to not move, that they didn't know what the box was capable of. Rowan thought that was an odd statement, considering, she assumed, that Zoe hadn't known about the box earlier...maybe she was just being cautious. Rowan shrugged..she didn't have anything else to do at the moment. She wasn't going anywhere.

[Alexis]

All she wanted was a cup of coffee! Was that too much to ask? Was it??? The shriek turned somewhere to a sob and Zoe suddenly wasn't the only one trying to shrink into herself like a turtle cause Alexis wasn't too far behind her! In fact she was actually doing it better than Zoe was if one wanted to get technical about it - in the space before she was being shrieked at Alexis had managed to curl herself into a little ball on the floor.

Don't move? No problem! There was nooooooo way she was going anywhere until that creepy box was found!

[Guest]

Zoe would be the first to admit she didn't know what the box was capable of either. She'd also be the first to admit that she never ever ever wanted to know, even if the way she found out was by cracking open a nice safe book in a well-protected spot in broad bright daylight while her own personal body guard held her hand.

Not that she had a personal bodyguard. Right now she was seriously reconsidering her already tight budget to figure out if she could afford to get one. Working at this Starbucks was turning into no laughing matter, and the big bad evils always tended to pick on the runts of any bunch!

At least the two customers listened, and now none of them were moving. Except the girl that she hadn't served yet was making noise, and she wasn't going to be able to hear even herself breathing if the girl was going to carry on like that! "ShhhhhhhhhHHHH!" As Zoe's scolding became louder and more insistent so did the gesturing of her arms. By the end of the 'shhh' the eccentric short blonde looked like she was trying to flap like a bird and fly right out of there!

Boy, if only she could. She would fly away so fast that the district manager wouldn't be able to catch up with her to yell at her for giving unsatisfactory customer care and not notifying the regional headquarters that there was a - "I've got it!" Zoe threw her arms up over her head as she bellowed her eureka with a blend of triumph and relief, looking like she was ready to collapse into a heap with exhausted satisfaction. "I'll call the Starbucks Corporation Rhy'din Region Fifty-Seven Twenty-Four Hour Employee Crisis Help Desk!" Zoe swept one of her arms with grand confidence so she could point to the wall-mounted black telephone, and the sign underneath it with a phone number written in big black print.

And that's exactly what smart little Zoe Viddy Bourciquot would have done, too - if only the entire Starbucks didn't go completely dark. Only the dim glow from the street lamps shining through the windows lit the inside of the coffee house, providing all within with just enough light to see their hand if they waved it in front of their face and not much else.

"Who did that!" As Zoe cried into the darkness her voice lost the victorious self-assurance it had before. Mostly because even though she was still pointing in the direction of it, she could no longer see the telephone. Drawing herself up and squaring her shoulders with determination that she was determined to not let be shaken, she managed only a single step before the Starbucks was filled with her terrified wail:

"It touched me! Something TOUCHED me!" If only a deep nefarious laugh had followed right after, the horror movie moment would have been complete.

[Rowan Fair]

Rowan still sat at her table, feet up, trying to ignore the screeching and screaming of the two other women in the cafe. Zoe was yelling something about a Starbucks crisis hot line or some such stuff and the other was still looking extremely spooked and wasn't moving.

As she sipped her coffee and contemplated leaving to go back to the Inn to try go to sleep, the lights suddenly went out. She was startled at the sudden blackness that she almost dropped her cup. That was bad enough, but all of a sudden Zoe cried out that something touched her and then Rowan heard someone laugh and it wasn't one of the women in the cafe. Unable to do or see anything, she pulled her knees up on her chair and waited, this night wasn't going to end peacefully....

[Alexis]

If Zoe actually went as far as getting that personal bodyguard maybe she'd be willing to share him with Alexis cause the girl was seriously freaked out. Here she was trapped in a coffee shop by an evil box and a girl who didn't know what a misto was! Could the night get any worse? Could it!??

It could! Alexis was trying to stuffle her sobs when the power went out. So much for being quiet now! In a town full of freaks and gosh-knows-what-goes--bump-in-the-night Alexis HATED the complete dark. And now here she was trapped in a coffee shop with an evil box, a girl who didn't know how to make a misto, AND it was nearly pitch black! Call the bus and get the straightjacket ready because the girl just fell to pieces. Sniffling sobs turned into full blown ones that just grew louder when the girl started wailing that it had touched her! They were going to be eaten alive!!!!!

[Guest]

"Something TOUCHED me!"

Was the last thing that Zoe Viddy Bourciquot, reluctant late-night barista, had spoken. Well okay, maybe not spoken. Screamed? Shrieked? Wailed? Cut her a break, she had good reason!

When stuck in the pitch darkness with something brushing against an ankle, Zoe really had no idea what was the right thing to do. Her very informative and wise seminar on crisis management in high school had covered many things - even including very serious things like verbal abuse and suicidal behavior and eating disorders - but it had never covered a situation like this. It made her wish that she hadn't gone to school in Randolph, New Jersey back on plain ole Earth, but that she'd gone to New Haven High School, here on very unplain Rhy'din. Surely the very informative and wise crisis management seminars held at the local high school here dealt with situations like this?

Even if they did, that fact wouldn't help Zoe now. So, the clumsy seer had to help herself, even if she didn't seem to sure about that fact. Which is why her voice was trembling with uncertainty as she called out to both of the customers, which she presumed were still here. "Uhhhhmmm…. sure…. sure you guys just stay where you are that seems to be best, I think… Yes, yes I'm pretty sure I won't die or anything if no one comes to help me…. Did I mention that I'm only human? But that's okay, that's okay, the captain goes down with the ship so I'm just going to…. I'm going to…. I'm going to check it out."

She was?! Zoe eeped at herself in horror. What the heck was she thinking saying she was going to do that?! Whatever it was, the eccentric blonde felt she had to follow through with it now, because even though they were all stuck in the dark in the middle of the night with an evil box she didn't want the customers to think she was a liar! So the pint-sized barista crouched herself down on all fours very, very slowly behind the counter. Rowan and Alexis would hear her take a very deep, very shaky breath, and then they would hear her letting out that breath just as nervously as she inched her fingers back towards the ankle where she'd felt the -

"Oh. OH!" Her fingers felt the spongy object which was the farthest thing from a creepy wooden box, and then Zoe started to laugh. A high-pitched, trilling, incredibly relieved laugh. "It's just a muffin! I forgot that I dropped that, silly me that's not scary at - " But Zoe never finished. There was a gasp. And then?

The lights turned back on. And Zoe Viddy Bourciquot was gone.

[Rowan Fair]

Rowan sat with her feet up on the chair, coffee cup in hand, considering there was nothing else she could do at the moment. Other than, of course, listening to the other customer scream her head off, obviously panicking and the barista babble about checking out the box and keeping calm etc...

Rowan wanted to say something to the customer, but she couldn't see where she was and Rowan didn't think she'd listen anyway, at least not right now. So, she sat, actually enjoying the dark, for the moment. She could hear Zoe crawling around behind the counter and saying something about a dropped muffin and all of a sudden her voice stopped mid sentence. With that, the lights came on.

Rowan sat up as the light filled the room. She looked around the room, at the customer and then towards the counter. She listened, but didn't hear Zoe or any other sound coming from there. So she put the cup down, stood, and walked slowly to the counter. She put her hands on it and leaned forward. "Zoe.....?"

[Alexis]

The lights came back on! It was such a blessed relief that the flow of tears Alexis was putting down had slowed considerably. In fact they had stopped altogether and she had even uncurled herself from that ball to jump for joy in the sheer blessing of having the lights back on again. This feeling of happiness lasted for the space of exactly four seconds before she realized that the woman who'd been behind the counter was gone.

What the heck? The woman had taken off on them while the lights were off! Anger was replacing the relieved happiness that had been there as one Alexis Stari pulled herself up off the floor and headed towards the counter. "Come back here! You didn't get me my coffee!"

[Guest]

If the box could speak it might say, 'Zoe who? Nobody here but us boxes!'. But it couldn't speak, and actually it probably wouldn't say that to Rowan and Alexis if it could, for two very important reasons. One. It might not look it, but it really was an evil box in a nice wooden box's disguise. And Two? There was no way in hell the very well crafted, painstakingly sanded and laboriously carved box was going to liken itself to the other cheap cartons back here behind the employee counter. Flapping their flimsy cardboard all over the place? Psh.

Besides, as evil a box as this evil box was it was only programmed for silence. So it couldn't even say the obvious - look up, down, sideways, longways, creepways and hedgeways as the two customers might, Zoe was nowhere to be seen. And as the tick-tock of the clock passing seconds by might suggest, it didn't look like the bubbly blonde barista was coming back, either.

But hey! The box was still there!!! While they might not be able to tell, it was totally ready and willing to be picked up. Or touched. Or hmmm, maybe even tickled? The box interacting possibilities were endless! And maybe if they clicked their heels together while giving the box a little handshaking how-do-you-do it could be the key to bringing the only employee on the Starbucks' late shift back!

Because without Zoe, there wouldn't be a single Misto in sight. Didn't that just blow beans?

[Rowan Fair]

While Rowan was looking over the counter, Alexis was screaming about her coffee and walking towards the front of the store. Rowan really didn't want to go behind the counter, because, let's face it....she didn't want to vanish as Zoe had. So she sat up on the counter to lean over to get a better look behind the counter. She looked cautiously down at the floor, all the while ready to jump out front again, if needed. She saw cartons of the usual Starbucks variety, but then she saw a different box. It was just sitting on the floor. She didn't know what to expect, but this looked like a normal little box. She glanced back at Alexis and shrugged. "There is a box back here. Any suggestions?"

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