Below the Restaurant

Your footsteps echo hollowly in the vast hall, doors on parallel walls growing with each step. Curiosity grabs you by the hand and brings it to touch a handle, swinging one of the doors open. You squint, ambushed by blinding light. As you walk inside, the tan ceiling disappears to make way for the sky's brilliant blues. Under the stark whites of clouds stand cows, peacefully munching on verdant strands that seem to continue for miles. Below, a valley sits, nestled between lush hills and further snowy mountains. A nearby woodpecker beats a steady rhythm, broken only by the occasional crow's rattle and songbird's solo. A faint scratching, like a creature's claws against bark, begins. It grows and intensifies, morphing from low rumbling into metallic shrieks that shove you to the ground and make birds take flight. A tube descends from the sky, toward a cow just feet away. With a satisfying slurp, the cow disappears through the tube, moaning as it clunks and thunks the animal upward. You spit grass from your mouth and get back to your feet, the door slamming behind you. Your feet smack against hard floor, wind whooshing in your ears, until the doors fade behind. Forks appear and you take a sharp right, then left, then right again, until you come to the rusty ladder - delicately creaking as each hurried footstep draws you closer and closer to the ceiling. With the sharp hiss of a hatch, you're back to where you began: a narrow space, toilet in corner, fluorescent lights buzzing above. The stall door swings open, water splashing over your face as you tell yourself to ignore what you just saw, to go back into the restaurant like nothing happened. Then, you're returned to light jazz, uproarious laughs and hushed conversation, clinking and clattering of plates, and a waiter, as he stands by your table, asking, "What can I get for you today?"

"I'll take a hamburger," you respond, anticipation growing with each fingerprint on an iPad, each of the waiter's types and swipes. As he vanishes to another table, you strain your ears until you hear it: from somewhere deep within, a faint rattle sounds, accompanied by a muffled yelp. Then, silence.