[ WP ] You 're sitting in a coffee shop watching a man type on his computer . He types the words , `` It begins raining outside '' , and it instantly starts raining .

Maybe I was spacing out a little too much. Maybe I just let myself get too lost in thought. Either way, when the rain started, it was so sudden and loud, I half jumped out of my seat, bumping my table and making the chair legs screech unpleasantly against the floor. An elderly lady a few tables away gave me a disapproving look, and a couple people in line glanced my way at the sound, but no one else seemed terribly disturbed. I glanced outside. The downpour was already flooding the cracks in the sidewalks and creating streams along the curb running downhill. I rubbed my eyes. Maybe I just needed more coffee. 
 
 Slowly, I sat back down, gratefully realizing that my half-full mug had n't spilled as a result of my oh-so-graceful reaction. The man at the table beside me had n't moved. His long, pale fingers hovered over the keyboard, almost skeletal in appearance. I'd only just been refocusing my eyes from zoning out when the rain started, so I quickly scanned the lit-up screen over his shoulder to confirm what I thought I'd read moments before: `` It begins raining outside.'' 
 
 He started typing again. Curiosity got the better of my sense of proper etiquette, so I watched. `` The rain softens to a drizzle.'' The moment the period blinked onto the screen, the deafening roar on the roof faded to a light pitter-patter, and out of the corner of my eye I could see that it had happened. Something was n't right. This could n't be coincidence, could it? This.... seemed dangerous. I opened my mouth to speak, preparing to stand, when he started typing the next sentence. I do n't know, maybe I'm an idiot, but curiosity took hold once again and I delayed saying anything until I read what appeared on the screen next. 
 
 `` Jennifer Elliot now finds she can neither speak, nor stand from the chair where she sits.'' I was already in a half-squatting position, but as I slowly realized I was reading my own name, my knees felt weak, and I plopped back onto the hard wooden seat, my eyes glued to the screen. Who was this man? His black - no, red - suit was pristine and unwrinkled, but hard to make my eyes focus on for some reason. His dark hair was slicked back like some kind of sleazy salesman, but his posture was much more stately than that. And the laptop.... it was well-worn, to be sure. Many of the letters had faded off the keys, and a couple dents around the frame told me it had been around for a while. But it, too, was somehow pristine, with a sleek shape and a nice, clean screen. So lost was I in my study of the machine and its owner, I nearly jumped again when he spoke. 
 
 `` That's more like it. Makes a better atmosphere, do n't you think?'' He did n't turn, but I knew the words were meant for me. That golden voice seemed so out of place in this dirty, ramshackle cafe I could n't even remember the name of. I wanted to answer, but no words formed when I tried. `` Now, just watch.'' Again he began typing, and as my eyes jumped from the screen to the cafe around us, I started pulling together the puzzle pieces. 
 
 `` Jennifer Elliot can now see the demons.'' It was n't like they popped into existence or anything - instead, I slowly began to notice them, and it seemed to me as if they had always been there and I had just overlooked them. They were everywhere - big ones, small ones, some following one person in particular, others wandering aimlessly about. Demons... that was the word I had used. I needed to free dad from his demons. Drinking smoking, gambling that left us eating cheap takeout every night and threatening letters from anyone who figured we owed them money. I guess I could n't blame him - his heart broke the day mom died. But something needed to be done. 
 
 A woman in the corner looked agitatedly out the window, her hand drifting toward her purse where I could see the corner of a pack of cigarettes peeking out. She gave no mind to the grayish brown creature floating near her shoulder, whispering in her ear with a devilish grin. Two girls in shorts sipping iced lattes sneered and giggled at whatever was on their phone screens, with such malice that I knew if their glance had been directed my way, I'd have wanted to hide under my hood and pretend I was n't there. Dancing around their feet were three ugly little beetle-like creatures, three inches in height, with spiked tridents like you see in all the paintings. A clearly overweight woman bit into a chocolate chip muffin, unaware of the greenish jelly-smoke surrounding her torso, weighing down the folds of skin and slowing her every movement. After the first bite, she hesitated, eyeing the muffin as if it were something suspicious, and she frowned. As I watched, a slimy arm of the green demon reached up to encircle her hand, seeming to push it forward without moving it at all. After another moment, the woman's face seemed to drop in defeat, and she began to eat again. 
 
 `` What is this?'' I asked, surprising myself, but when my eyes reached the screen again, the first sentence with my name in it had been deleted entirely. Finally the man turned to face me. Something about him did n't seem right, but I could n't place what. Not a hair was out of place, and his smooth skin was unmarred, though pale, as if he spent every day indoors. His eyes were a deep purple, which for some reason struck me as funny, but I suppressed the laugh. 
 
 `` This is the Crossroads Cafe, my dear, and I believe I have a deal that may interest you....''
