SHC: Bad review, worse situation

"My friends and I went to this restaurant, had a terrible experience. Despite it not being busy, our server acted like we were constantly a bother to him. Food was definitely not worth the price nor the amount of time it took. Food also did not come out as ordered. We all ordered a T bone steak, medium rare, mashed potatoes, broccoli, and a bread basket. Steak was well done, bread was hard as rock, the rest was either cold or soggy. Ultimately, we decided NOT to wait for another dish and to just leave without leaving so much as a tip. Manager was even worse than the server, shouting unpleasant phrases. We ignored him and kept walking out. 0/10. Will not come back and will not suggest if ever asked for a recommendation."

That's all we said as we dropped the review paper in the basket. By now, you're probably wondering what this was about, right? Well...

Greta told me she was planning a girl's night out. She then asked me to go with them, much to my surprise. I asked her if she was sure, and she immediately said, "Yes". She apparently looked as if she was not going to take "no" for an answer. I don't know if was because of helping her with work or stuff and was trying to show her grattitude or she just didn't want me to be home alone. Greta did have a motherly attitude towards me ever since I started living with her. I didn't mind, really. So I accepted, much to her excitement.

She then told me to wash up, brush my hair, put on nicer clothes, ect. Like I said, motherly attitude! I did so, got on Greta's back and she took off while I held on tight.

It was a bit of a flight, but we made it. Greta met up with the girls. One of them, of course was Alexis. Two more girls were the ones from the beach, Patricia and Raine. Then there were two more girls. One was Clawdia, the anthro werewolf from my last case. The other, I have yet to meet.

She was a minotaur. Taller than everyone here, sharp horns, orange fur, brown hair in a pony tail. Her name was Stacy. The way she was dressed told me she wanted to be a model.

Anyway, we said our hellos:

"Hey girls!" I said.
"Hi" Greta said
"What's up girl and rookie? Alexis said to me and Greta
" Hiyeee!" Patricia said in her usual happy tone
"Hey." Raine said in her soft tone
"Hello handsome." Clawdia said to me in her sultry tone while others giggled.
Finally, Stacy and I were both introduced to each other. When she got a good look at me, she grinned and squealed loud, "OH MY GOSH!" She then turned to Patricia, still grinning and said, "You were right! He IS cute!" To which Patricia replied, "I told ya!" Wow...

Stacy asked to hold me for minute and I obliged, jumping on her hand. My first impression on her was pretty much the only gentleman way I know how. Telling her how lovely she is. She responded, "Thanks! I like to look like this so I could one day be model!" Wow again! I just thought of that. She then showed me a pose and was showing off how she wore her long loincloth and bra...which was straining against her large bust that I somehow didn't notice until now! I was staring for a good 10 seconds, my face burning up, and mouth drooling. Then, Alexis spoke up, "Ok you little peeper, that's enough staring!" as she put her large claw in front of me, blocking my view. I shook my head out of a daze like a wet dog and said, "Uhh sorry. Didn't know what I was thinking." Alexis replied sarcastically, "Sure you didn't!" while picking me up and placing me on her shoulder, hearing more giggling from the girls as we finally got our night going.

Patricia told us about a restaurant that she heard was awesome, and was given directions to it. When we arrived, we stood in front of a building called, "Bistro". A bit on the nose if you ask me. Looking at it, it looked...dated. No one was outside, so it was easier to just walk right in. When we did, there was hardly anyone here. Probably a slow day. Afterwards, that was when the brutally honest but also bad review came in and that was it.

Now, I can forgive a lot of things, but there was simply no excuse for the lackluster experience we all had. I have my share of bad diner times, and I hoped that because I was in a new world that the results would be different. Alas, that wasn't the case. I felt bad for the girls getting their hopes up for nothing, so I secretly planned something to make up for it. I'll touch more on that later...

Fast toward to later that same night. Something stirred me awake at around 3am, but I couldn't figure out what. I then decided to get a drink of water. I keep a cold cup on the table that I can jump to, so I don't disturb Greta while she's asleep. I dipped my head a bit, sucked up a lot of water, gave a satisfied, " Ahh" and went back. But then I froze and saw something outside a window.

It was a shadow! It was moving too. I looked at it for a few minutes. I blinked and it was gone. I didn't get a closer look because I thought it was just the wind blowing something passed our way. So I shrugged it off and went back to bed.

4 hours later, the sun was rising and Greta and I were both waking up. We did our usual routine of cleaning ourselves and eating a quick bite before work. As we headed out the door we noticed something strange.

Paper, and lots of it! There were words on them too. They all said what we wrote about that terrible restaurant, like someone made copies of them. Then, we noticed a smaller piece of paper. Written on it were three words. Three words that gave both me and Greta a huge chill down our spines. They said...



"YOU WILL PAY!"


We both looked at each other with worry. We wanted to chalk this down as some kind of sick prank, but we felt that we should bring this to our workforce. Hopefully, they'll have an answer for this.


At the prison, we showed our boss Manny the papers and explained everything. He then ordered a few guards to go to the restaurant in question and talk with everyone who works there. Until then, we had to go about our jobs.


After our shifts ended, Manny gave us an update, and, unfortunately the staff all had verifiable alibis for their whereabouts the night our house was violated and unless we somehow catch the crook in the act, there was really not a lot that they could do.


We got back home after a tougher day than usual. I asked Greta what we should do about our problem, and she was at a loss. As was I. After some thinking, we decided that until bedtime, we could take turns looking out for any more suspicious activity. Greta went first for an hour; nothing happened. I took the second hour; again nothing. We decided to call it a night and went to bed. Greta made sure I was extra safe with her in case this creep tried to break in and do God knows what.


Surprisingly, we managed to get plenty of sleep that night, but it ended abruptly in the morning by rapid knocking on our door. I got up, stretched and looked out the window to see who it was.


It was Patricia! She looked troubled. Greta opened the door and Patricia quickly spoke, "Oh good! You're still here!" I asked her, "What's wrong?" and she spoke again, "You guys might want to look at this!". She then motioned her wing to her left, we followed her direction and was beyond shocked at what we saw.


There was writing on the house wall! From the looks of it, someone must've wrote it in a hurry. Upon getting a closer look, the material used for this heinous act appeared to be some kind of slime. It was green, sticky and smelled like vomit! Reading the words on the house, we got the same chill down our spines from before. This time, it said:


"YOU HAD THIS COMING!"

Patricia then told us that someone did this to her place as well and that's why she was here in the first place. I asked her if any of her neighbors got the same thing and she said "no". This was seriously messed up! Immediately, we headed to the prison and told Patricia to come with us and she followed.


We talked to Manny about what happened this time, with Patricia backing up our story. Seeing how dire our situation is, Manny decides it's time to call in some extra help. I was then introduced to Owen. He was anthropomorphic owl whom Manny says does an excellent job during the night shift. He ordered him to do lookout to catch any suspicious crooks wandering around at night. It makes sense cuz apparently these activities seem to happen while we're asleep. This brought some relief to us all and we thanked him. Of course Owen needed some sleep first before doing his job at night, such is the nature of your typical owls. In the meantime, Manny ordered other guards to question the restaurant again. So we had to go about our days as usual.

Later in the evening, Manny gave us another update and much to our dismay, everyone who was questioned had maintained their innocence, so we headed home without any answers...again! I guess it was up to Owen now to find something. Anything, really.


We headed back home later in the evening. As we were closing in, we saw that something was wrong with it. It was still to far to tell, so Greta zoomed in closer until we saw with horror and disgust.


Greta's house was splattered with what we could assume was old and rotten food! We could tell because of the smell. It hit our nostrils like a boxer hitting another boxer. Despite us being exhausted from another long day, we had some cleaning to do.

After what seemed like an hour, the house was good as new, saved for little odor, but at least we couldn't smell it from the inside. We saw that the sun was completely out of sight when we heard flapping. It was Owen coming to do a lookout like he agreed to. We told him about what happened when we got here and Owen said, "Don't worry folks. I'm well rested, so I'll be keeping wide eyes all over!" while showing us his wide eyes. Little creepy if you ask me but we were still thankful. Anyway, we went inside for some much needed rest and left Owen to his job.


The next morning was, surprisingly enough, the same; woke up well rested to the sound of knocking at the front door. Here's hoping for good news this time. I looked out the window...

This time it was Raine. She still had her usual blank expression, but I still had a feeling about what she wanted. Greta opened the door and Raine spoke, "Hey. You guys got pranked just like me." She then motioned with her right hand and showed us what could very well be another psychotic attempt to torment us.


There was a closed up trash bag just sitting outside. I ran over to it and opened it and was met with that familiar stench. Inside was bones. Apparently enough to make up a creature of some kind as there were several different bones, as well as rotten bread and vegetables! I asked Raine if she really did get the same stuff like this and she said she did.

It was becoming clear that Greta and I weren't the only victims of what first seemed like a harmless prank that came with threatening notes then vandalism and now rotting garbage. This was the final straw, and I knew we had to react somehow.

We went to the prison for another update. Thankfully, Owen got a lead. Well, sort of. Here's how his lookout from last night went:


He explained that he saw suspicious activity going on, but despite his night vision, he didn't see who was involved. He claims that he saw the exact same garbage bag that we found this morning just being dragged on it's own. What's even more strange was the part where he mentioned evil laughter being sounded yet there was still nobody out there. He then noticed a strange cart parked a little ways from our home. Then, out of nowhere, it started moving on it's own. He followed it while at the same time trying to hide in plain sight. He followed it until it approached what he claims was where Raine lived and saw another garbage bag being dragged and just left there to rot. He continued following and, lo and behold, the same thing happened with the other girls homes. He saw nothing else that night.


*Present time*

After hearing Owen's report, I then thought of a theory as to what's going on. Who ever this sick crook was, must have powers of invisibility and has decided to use these powers for their own sick gains. Now that I know that magic is a thing here, it would make sense. We still have more questions that need answers: Who's behind all this and why? How do we catch them? What kind of creature are we dealing with exactly? After a bit of brainstorming, I've decided on a plan that hopefully will work and that it was time to take action. Thankfully, it was our day off, so this would be the best time. I've told Greta about me having an idea and asked to gather all the ladies who went out with us, and she agreed.

With all of us working together, we might just have a chance to end this nightmare!


To be continued...