As night began to blanket the sky, and the two business owners worked on closing duties, Sonja couldn’t help but glance at the statue of the leprechaun sitting near the front door. In fact, she couldn’t take her eyes off the darn thing.
She thought of a low-budget horror movie she had seen on TV back when she was twelve years old, where a leprechaun ran around murdering people. It had been a ridiculous and laughable movie at best—but right now the memory of it was starting to creep her out.
Ever since Cass had said that her aunt believed the statue could come to life, Sonja just felt like the leprechaun was staring at her. Its beady little green eyes seemed to follow her everywhere she went.
Her imagination was beginning to run away while she worked, and she had images of the statue chasing her down with a butcher knife.
Shivering, she tried to shake that harrowing thought from her mind.
That was it, she decided, she would return the statue the next morning when she went to talk to Pan at the shop. The last thing she needed was another evil entity chasing after her, not with a whole new murder case on her hands.
I’ll just load him . . . it . . . into the back of the van tonight, she told herself, and that’ll be that.
“Well, I’m outta here,” Ally sighed, removing her apron and hanging it on the peg in the kitchen. “You’ll lock up?”
Sonja didn’t respond, her eyes still affixed on the little green man standing by the front door. She ran a dish towel over the same mixing bowl in her hand for about the twentieth time without realizing it.
“Earth to Sonja,” her friend called, waving her hands.
“Oh,” she blinked away the haze of thought. Only glancing at her friend for a second she asked, “What was that?”
“Are you okay locking up on your own? I’m heading home.”
“Sure thing,” Sonja nodded, putting the dish away in the large oak cabinet.
Alison looked from Sonja to the statue, and back again. “Are you all right?”
Sonja nodded again, not looking her friend directly in the eye. “Fine.”
“Are you sure?”
“Really,” Sonja iterated, finally looking at Ally. “Go on. Get out of here.” Turning, she began running the cloth over the metal counter, which had already been wiped down twice, narrowing her gaze back on the statue through the service window.
“Maybe we should get rid of that thing,” Alison commented, nodding toward the statue. “You haven’t taken your eyes off it all night.”
“I’m sorry,” Sonja sighed, hanging the damp towel over the drying rack. “I’ve been a little distracted.”
Alison folded her arms. “No kidding. You’ve barely said a word to me all evening. You just seem a little fixated.”
Sonja shook her head. “Don’t worry. I’m taking the statue back tomorrow morning, first thing.”
“Good.” She smiled. “Honestly, I didn’t want to say anything on Monday when you brought it in, but that thing gives me the creeps.”
“Me, too,” Sonja agreed. “I’m loading it up in the van tonight.”
“Need any help?” Alison asked.
“I’ve got it,” she insisted, walking through the swinging kitchen door. Squatting down, she gripped the base of the statue and attempted to lift it. She managed to get it a few inches off the ground before she dropped it again.
“You need help,” Ally noted, walking out of the kitchen and squatting down next to Sonja.
“I don’t remember it weighing this much,” Sonja admitted. “Weird.”
“Well, let’s just lift it and get it out of here.”
Both girls threw their strength into lifting the statue and managed to raise it off the floor. “Maybe we should have propped the back door open first,” Ally strained.
“Just move it,” Sonja ordered through her teeth, trying not to lose her grip. The women shifted their feet quickly across the floor, looking like a pair of ducks, until they reached the back door.
“Set it down, set it down,” Sonja begged.
They slowly lowered it and then let it thud onto the floor.
“What the heck is this thing made of? Lead?”
“I swear it wasn’t this heavy before.” Sonja put both hands up defensively. “I carried it in myself.”
“Well, you must have been a lot stronger that day,” Alison joked.
“Whatever.” She rolled her eyes. “I’ll bring the van as close to the door as possible. Prop the door open while I do that.”
“Aye, aye, Ma’am.” Ally saluted.
Dashing across the dirt lot, Sonja opened the driver side door of the van and started to climb in, inserting the keys into the ignition.
Suddenly, Sonja stopped cold as a horrifying noise filled the night air.
The diner’s back door was closed shut, but Ally’s screams of terror could still be heard from inside.
CHAPTER 10
* * *
“Ally! Ally! I’m coming,” Sonja shouted, bolting as fast as her feet would carry her toward the back door of the diner. Pulling on the handle, she realized it was locked. “No,” she shouted, pulling on the door again, harder.
Alison’s screams were only getting louder, pleading for help.
Feeling around in her jeans pockets, she remembered she had left the keys in the van. “Shoot,” she cried, running back toward the van and ripping the keys from the ignition.
When she made it back to the door, the screams had stopped.
Images of Alison laying on the floor and bleeding, all while a strange little leprechaun of a man stood over her with a kitchen knife, ran through Sonja’s mind.
It seemed so ridiculous and so horrifically real all at the same time, it made her sick to her stomach. After everything that had happened that day, and what Cass said, she should have known better than to leave Ally alone with the statue.
“I’m coming,” she shouted. Jamming the key into the door, Sonja unlocked it and swung the door open. “Alison?”
Instantly, she spotted her best friend sprawled out on the tile floor. Ally leaned on her elbows and stared at the statue—which appeared as if it had never once moved from the same static position.
“Are you okay?” Sonja asked, squatting down near her friend to help her up.
Alison kept her eyes on the statue. “It-It grabbed me, Sonja,” she sputtered. “I-I swear it did.”
Sonja slipped her arm under Ally’s and pulled her to her feet. “It grabbed you?”
“It did. I’m not lying.”
Sonja kept her eyes trained on the short figure, on its little emerald colored eyes. It was almost as if it were silently laughing at her, mocking her with its sinister smile.
“I-I think I’m going crazy,” she muttered.
Sonja took her friend by the shoulders and looked her in the eye. “You’re not going crazy.”
“B-but, it grabbed me. I know it grabbed me.” Her eyes were wide with confusion and fear. “But that isn’t possible. I know it isn’t.”
“Just calm down,” Sonja insisted. “You aren’t crazy. Now, just take a deep breath.”
“A d-deep breath?”
“That’s right. Breath in deeply,” she instructed.
Ally obeyed, filling her chest to capacity with air.
“Now let it out slowly.”
Carefully, her friend let the air out of her lungs until they were completely empty.
“Feel better?”
Ally nodded nervously. “A little, yeah.”
“Okay. Tell me exactly what happened.”
Ally’s eyes darted for a second toward the statue and then back to her friend.
“It’s okay,” Sonja comforted her. “I don’t think you’re crazy, and I won’t think you’re crazy after you tell me what happened.” She looked directly into her friend’s eyes. “Got it?”
Nodding, Ally began to tell the story. “I just let the door close for a second, just a second, so I could find something to prop it open with. But,
when I turned to look around the kitchen, I felt a small hand grab my wrist.” She shrugged. “Of course, I screamed. I swore that it was the leprechaun grabbing me.” Her eyes shifted nervously again. “His grip was so strong.”
“Did you see it actually grab you?”
“N-no. I was just so scared and surprised that I tried to pull away. When I did, it let go of me and I fell onto the floor. By the time I got a good look at it again, it was just like that.” She nodded toward the leprechaun, indicating that it was in the same position it had always been in.
However, Sonja knew something was different. Whether it was the way it smiled or the evil twinkle in its eye, she was now positive that the statue was haunted.
“You think I’m confused, don’t you?” Alison shouted. “You think I just imagined it.”
Sonja shook her head. “Not at all,” she insisted. “Let me see your wrist.”
“You think I’m crazy.”
“No I don’t, Alison,” she tried to calm her friend down. “Now let me see your wrist.”
Reluctantly holding out her arm, she let her friend examine her wrist.
Just as Sonja had suspected, and just as she had feared, there were red marks—just like fingers—imprinted into her friend’s skin. “I believe you,” Sonja affirmed.
“You do?” Ally’s jaw dropped.
“I believe a lot more things than you know,” she admitted, hoping she wasn’t making herself sound nuts.
“You really think that thing came to life?” Her face grew pale. She was clearly more frightened by the idea that the statue might actually be alive, rather than she just had a brief lapse of sanity.
“All the more reason for us to get this thing out of here, tonight.”
“I’m really scared,” her friend admitted.
“I know it,” Sonja whispered. “You have every right to be. There are so many things we have no idea about in the world. Why not a haunted statue?”
She shook her head and shut her eyes tight. “Let’s just get this freaking thing out of here so I never have to see it again,” Ally pleaded.
“I couldn’t agree with you more.”
CHAPTER 11
* * *
Both women were on edge as they went to work, keeping an eye on the freaky little figure, expecting it to spring to life and attack them at any moment.
There was no time to lose.
Not leaving Ally behind again, Sonja helped prop the door open. Then the two walked together out to the van. Now that Sonja was ninety-nine percent sure that the statue was, in fact, alive, she refused to leave her friend alone with it even for a second.
She considered that perhaps the statue and the little man who questioned Pan were the same person. However implausible that may be, Sonja wasn’t leaving it out as a possibility.
For all she knew, the statue was also the one who murdered Dobb Blake—which made things significantly more complicated.
“Okay, lift,” Sonja instructed once they’d gotten the van pulled up right next to the door.
To the surprise of both women, the statue lifted easily, as if a heavy weight had been taken off it.
“That’s odd,” Alison wondered aloud.
“Just get it into the van.”
Hauling it up, they dropped it in the back of the van.
“You’re seriously going to drive home with this sitting in the back behind you?” Alison asked, pale worry infecting her complexion.
“Good point,” Sonja added. “Let’s lock it in one of those dish cages.”
The back of the van was equipped with harnesses, shelves, and safety cages to hold trays of food as well as dishes while the vehicle was in motion. Now, they were going to come in handy as constraints for the statue.
Working together, the women shoved it inside the cage and shut the door. Sonja twisted the latch. “There, that should do it.”
“I’ll feel better once I know it’s back at The Lucky Leprechaun for good.”
“Me, too,” Sonja agreed, closing the back doors on the van. “Let me walk you to your car.”
“Thanks,” Alison accepted. “You’re a good friend.”
Walking around to the front of the building, Ally confided how she still felt a little crazy. “I mean, there’s got to be a logical explanation, right?” she shrugged. “Statues can’t come to life. It isn’t possible.”
Sonja felt sick to her stomach, wishing and hoping she could just tell her friend that things like cursed statues, ghosts, demons, and possession were all too possible, but she chose not to say anything.
“I’m sure I’m just tired,” Ally continued. “I’m probably overworked and was just a little freaked out by the statue already.”
“That must be it,” Sonja lied.
Getting to the car, Ally opened the door. “Thanks for your help tonight.”
“No problem.”
“Don’t tell anyone about this?” Ally asked, a half smile on her face, and rubbing her hurt wrist.
Sonja wondered how her friend could doubt the statue was alive when she had the marks on her arm to prove it, but she just let it go.
“Not a peep,” Sonja agreed.
“Great. Have a safe rest of your night.” Climbing into her car, Alison drove off into the darkness, leaving Sonja standing there listening to her own breath.
She instantly felt more creeped out being alone. The evil little creature was just sitting there in the back of the van, waiting for her. Could she really drive home with him in there?
What if he escaped from the cage while she was driving and tried to strangle her? A nightmarish vision of the van toppling off the road and down a cliff flashed in her brain.
Can’t think about that now, she told herself, just get home and worry about the statue in the morning.
She was about to turn and head back toward the van when a strange noise drew her attention. Turning to face the road, she saw a woman she didn’t recognize stumble onto the pavement. She wore a white blouse and sweater with a short black skirt. Unfortunately, her nice clothes were marred with patches of dirt, as if she had fallen down several times already.
In one hand, she held a glass bottle. In the other hand, she carried a large black purse which was covered in more dirt and grime than even she was.
Pushing herself back up off the pavement, she took a large swig from the bottle.
Sonja trotted over. “Ma’am? Are you okay?”
Glancing up at the diner owner, the woman looked a little cross-eyed. “I-I’m fine,” she slurred. “Jus’ need another drink.” She tossed the bottle back again, gulping the clear liquid inside.
Wobbling a little, the woman looked as if she might topple over a second time, and Sonja caught her before she fell.
“Why don’t I help you get home?” Sonja offered, smelling the scent of alcohol coming off the woman’s clothing. It seemed as if she’d spilled a considerable amount on herself—at least as much as she’d already had to drink.
“S-sure thing, dear.”
“Where do you live?”
“Next to that weeeeird little shop,” she sputtered. “The Leprechaun or somethin’.”
Sonja tilted her head inquisitively. “What is your name, ma’am?”
‘M-me? Why I’m Anna Blake.” She spread her arms out in a grandiose style. “The penniless widow.” Instantly, the woman broke down in tears.
CHAPTER 12
* * *
Sonja held the passenger side door of the van open for the woman and attempted to help her in. Stumbling, the woman couldn’t seem to get a grip on the van to climb in, since both hands were full.
“Why don’t you let me take the bottle from you?” Sonja offered, going to grab the liquor.
“No,” Anna shouted, taking another deep swallow. “Is mine.” She cuddled the bottle against her chest.
Sighing, Sonja held out her hand. “At least let me hold your purse while you get in.”
“No,” the woman snapped. “I don’t know you. Yo
u’re tryn’ rob me.”
Holding back her head, Sonja groaned. “Please. How can we get you home if you can’t get in the van?”
“I do it myself,” the woman demanded, turning back toward the open passenger side door.
“Wait,” Sonja called.
However, the woman—after a few struggled attempts and without ever dropping the bottle or the purse—managed to drag herself into the seat, losing one of her black flats as she did.
Picking up the shoe and placing it on the floor at the woman’s feet, Sonja shut the van door.
Even though Frank had told her not to, she had been tempted to seek out Anna Blake and ask her a few questions about her husband. However, this time Anna had come to Sonja.
The only issue was that the widow was stinking drunk, probably a result of hearing about her husband’s death, and would likely not be able to share any viable information with the amateur sleuth.
“So, you live next door to The Lucky Leprechaun?” Sonja asked.
“Leprechauns,” she muttered. “Such funny little creatures. Why would you have a whole shop of them?”
“You live next door, correct?” Sonja repeated.
“I live next to leprechauns?” the woman responded. Going to take another drink from the bottle that was nearly empty, the woman didn’t quite make it, instead falling asleep. Like a child with a teddy bear, she snuggled close to the bottle, her grip never releasing from the purse either.
Just as I thought,” Sonja whispered. She wasn’t going to get any viable information from Anna when she was like this.
* * *
Pulling up just outside The Lucky Leprechaun, Sonja gently shook Anna awake.
“W-what?” the woman muttered. “Was I dreaming?”
“We’re at your apartment,” Sonja informed her. “Let me help you get inside.” Getting out, she walked around the van and opened the passenger side door.
The woman, red-eyed and drowsy, took in her surroundings. “No, no, no, no,” she shouted. “It wasn’t a dream.”
“Come on,” Sonja pressed, taking her by the arm and helping her down from the vehicle.
Eerie Irish Waffle (The Diner of the Dead Series Book 10) Page 4