Lettuce Bacon Burger

"Overcast again, what's with this weather?" thought Kei as he navigated his bicycle through the droves of sedans and garbage trucks occupying the roads on his way to work at the paper store. "What gives? Did the whole world decide to move to the city at once?" Kei continued to consider this as he weaved past a woman, howling at her husband in front of a small bread shop on the corner of the intersection. He quickly managed to avoid trampling their small dog, in the process, losing hold of the brown paper bag carrying his meticulously, but thoughtfully, prepared lunch. "Dammit!!" he said, frustrated as the bag broke open and scattered over the sidewalk below. Turning back to see the damage, Kei saw the small dog, quite happily nibbling away at his delicately prepared meal, much to the amusement of the women he had just so narrowly avoided a collision with. "Well...I suppose I should grab something else on my way to work then...damn dog.." he muttered to himself as he continued on his way to the paper store. The sky ahead seemed even more overcast than before, there was a foreboding tension in the air.

Speeding his bike down the road, dodging cars and avoiding dogs (and loud women), Kei veered into an alleyway he's taken on countless occasions to work. The usual alleyway scenery, a few oversized rats pleasuring themselves on the left overs of the overflowing garbage bins, the incoherent sprayings on the peeling brick walls, the unforgiving smell from the inhabitants that find their way back to the alley at nightfall, and the Burger Shop. "Wait?!" said Kei as he brought his bicycle to a screeching halt. "When...did this get here? It wasn't here the other day? Is it new?" he continued as he slowly walked his bike back to the entrance he had just passed. The entrance had all the usual signs and trimmings of a typical restaurant, however, no customers, and there was something else, something Kei just couldn't place, an uneasy feeling that exuded a more primordial instinct to turn around and go back. "Well, it's convenient and there's no sense in being afraid of a restaurant" he reasoned as he turned the doorknob and entered in. Kei was not a naïve person, nor one to be easily fooled, but he did at times show signs of...bad judgement.

The bell above the door rang as Kei pushed open and entered the restaurant. He paused and scanned the room for an employee or any sign of life, really. Nothing. Over by the counter he could see a white cooking hat, brimming out over the top of a stack of food trays. The hat started to shuffle towards the register. A girl's face popped out from behind (she was disproportionally small for the hat she was wearing, but maybe it was some foreign trend, perhaps French?). "Hey there! Come on over!" said the girl excitedly as she waved at Kei. He noticed that there were no tables or chairs in the restaurant, no sign of a restroom either, rather peculiar overall, but he thought, "must be one of those take-out only places, or something? That explains why there's no one else here but me at this hour". The girl smiled, she was cute in a restaurant-in-an-alley sort of way and she was about his age. He shook his head and got back to the task at hand.

"Hey I need to grab some lunch, a dog ate mine, and I'm a little late, what do you recommend?"

The girl laughed under her breath, "Sure, but that's a pretty old line. A dog ate it? Like your homework or something?".

"Something like that.." he said as he smiled and scratched the back of his head.

"Okay, well, you don't seem to be particularly daring, but you have a bit of a bold side, almost like a mystery hero or something". She squinted her eyes to get a better look at him.

"This place keeps getting more strange. I thought the ally way entrance was a dead give away, the lack of furniture, also the fact no one else is here at noon on a Monday, and now, this weird girl. What gives?" he thought as he stared questionably at the girl.

"Okay, try this one. It's called a Lettuce Bacon Burger. Not many people order it, well I guess you would be the first, because it has no bread. You wrap everything up between the lettuce. There's no ketchup or mayo, it's just the bacon and burger. BUT (she enthusiastically proclaimed). They are cooked special, y'know?" she ended, confidently looking at Kei, excited to hear his decision.

"What's so special about it? You just cook it on a stove right? It's not that hard" he said with a look of skepticism.

The girls spirit, was not deterred.

She continued with the same excited enthusiasm, "First, it’s special because I make them all myself. Second, our customers always leave a note saying how much they enjoy all of our meals and that they'll be back. Third, we've never had any complaints!" she finished and folded her arms with confidence.

"Well, I can't argue with that. Here's my card. That was quite the sales pitch, you must have done this before!" said Kei, as he handed over the card. The girl smiled, "A few times, I'll start cooking, just a sec'!" as she hurried off to the kitchen. Kei walked around the room, there were all sorts of retro diner signs and clocks, some of the items seemed a little cheesy, but it was quaint and had a nice vibe. That feeling he had earlier, the menacing one that was out of place, was almost entirely gone at this point, except for a weird pulling he felt as he got closer to the far corner of the room. There was a small jar on a shelf with a lid securely latched down. It was very ordinary and not out of place. Just, another feeling that was faint, but indescribable. He got closer and reached out slowly to take the lid off, his hand hesitant and slightly trembling.

"Orders Up!" shouted the girl as she shuffled over from behind the counter. "Come and get it while it's hot!"

"Great, thanks and what about.." he hesitated, thinking about how he would sound like a crazy person to this cute girl he just met. "Nothing, it was nothing, never mind" he said and took the bag from the girl and smiled. "Thanks again, and I'll definitely come back!" he started towards the exit but was stopped when he heard the girl call back to him.

"I almost forgot, here take this, if you don't mind?" she said reaching under the counter. "It's a Little Black Book and we give it to first time customers to take home with them. We just ask that you fill it out with your honest opinion of our food and then give it back when you visit next! It's sort of a fun way for us to get feedback and you get to read all the entries from other customers!"

"But what if I don't come back? Then you'll lose your book right? And have to start all over?" he said with a puzzled and skeptical look. Not that he had any intention of stealing the book. What would he do with it? But it was worth noting and he was curious.

"Well, you have it now right? That means everyone we've ever given it to has come back. Because they loved the food. See for yourself, there are at least a few hundred entries in there. That should speak for itself...y'know?" she concluded with a sort of snarky grin.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Well until next time!" said Kei as he left the restaurant and mounted his bike. "Man that was something else. Today just gets weirder and weirder. Usually, I just get hurried through a line to get my food, but this, this was something else" he thought as he made his way out of the ally and back to the busy streetway as he continued to work. "The skies sure are overcast today. No chance the suns coming out" thinking as he sped along. Time was running out.

"Awesome!" Those were the only words Kei could muster to describe the burger he was having. The no bread thing was a bit odd at first, but just as the girl had described, the cooking set it apart from anything he had experienced. He quickly finished his meal and opened the Little Black Book, excited to enter his own review into the pages and read some of the other entries. If they are all positive because the book had been returned each time, were they just good Samaritans, or something else? He thumbed through the first few pages, all very typical he thought, "Delicious", "Would recommend", "The food was great and the girl was cute". "Agreed", said Kei out loud as he flipped to a random page in the middle of the book. "This is different" he thought. "I can't read what it says, but there's a number repeated in dark print and it's on the front of the book. "9-6-8-7-7-1. What the heck, seems random. I wonder what it means?" he shrugged it off, found an empty page and wrote his review. He closed the book and heard a buzzing from his phone. It was a message from his friend Kato. It was a link to a contest he had forwarded. "Okay sure, if he sent it then why not?" he clicked the link. A pop up display appeared. It was a game called 'Burger Jar'. "That's strange. I was at a burger place, but okay let’s play!". He geared up to play and read the main instructions:

1. Watch the Time Limit.

2. Grand Prize $20,000 dollars.

3. Don't Lose!

"Easy, I got this, after today there's no way I can lose!" He continued the rest of the instructions. The game consisted of catching and eating burgers as you traversed through a city (oddly specific, and oddly familiar he thought). He hit play. His character weaved through a busy metro area as burgers came flying towards him. The timer was counting up, which was a little strange. Normally it counts down, but he was doing pretty good. The time kept ticking up, it was now around 12 minutes and he hadn't missed a single burger. "In the bag, that moneys mine!" he said. 14 minutes passed and nothing. 15 minutes still nothing. Finally the screen flashed when he hit 16 minutes. "Oh man, somethings happening, maybe this is it!" He kept on going. 16:11, 16:12, 16:13....16:14. The screen stopped and went completely black, except for a message in orange writing. "You've won! Congrats! The $20,000 is yours! Click to redeem". Kei's heart was pounding out of his chest, "I won! No way!! Holy crap!!!" he turned to the phone and hit the winners link. Nothing happened. He waited. A message appeared on the screen, "did you leave a review in the Little Black Book?". He froze, terrified by words he just read. His heart pounding harder. "How did it know about the book, what was going on?" He panicked. He turned to the table where he had left the book. It was gone. He turned back to his phone, it was also gone. The overcast sky was now entirely black. Before he could realize the entire room had disappeared and there was nothing except a light above him. He frantically screamed up at the light, as he saw it slowly fading away. As it began to fade away entirely, he saw a familiar smile of a girl, as she was closing a lid of an old jar from above. She had a disproportionally tall white hat. She laughed under her breath and mouthed, "Orders Up". The lid, closed.