The pressure is growing
What happened so far:
Mia Novak works at the restaurant “Frost & Flamme,” where the scent of butter, garlic, and red wine clings to her even after work. During a charity dinner organized by her boss, she observes the tense atmosphere and notices two men disappearing behind the stage before a scream rings out. The next morning, the dining room is cordoned off by the police, and Mia is questioned about the incident that happened during the night. She recalls the events, which play out like fragmented scenes in her mind, and struggles with the knowledge of what she saw and what she would rather forget.
The days that followed lay on top of each other like layers of glass. From the outside, everything looked the same: service, orders, reservations. Inside, every movement was heavier, as if she were carrying something invisible around with her.
Mia continued to work because she had been told that the restaurant had to work. "Right now," someone had stressed, "we can't afford any weakness." She didn't know exactly who "we" was. She only felt that she was meant when it came to "functioning".
The police had been there again, had supplemented their statement, clarified it, followed up. There had been small questions: Where exactly was she standing when the song was last played? Who had operated the system? Had she heard voices, seen scraps of words, seen movements? Every sentence she answered pushed the evening into a form she hardly recognized.
One evening she found a note in her locker. No sender, no salutation. Just one line, in scrawled writing: "Songs can be turned off. Witnesses too."
She stared at the sentence for a long time until the letters blurred. Maybe it was a stupid joke from the kitchen. Maybe something else. She put the note in her pocket anyway instead of throwing it away.
Later, as she walked through the dining room, soft background music was playing. Not the jingle, not this one chorus. And yet she heard him in every pause, in every wrong note, like an echo that someone had deliberately put underneath.
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