[ WP ] The new coffee shop you 've been frequenting has always seemed off to you . But you never would have guessed-

`` Cofee'' was the name of a tiny mobile coffee shop. The kind that sells lattes out of a VW bus. It rolled into my town last fall, set out its misspelled sign and waited. The parking lot where the green van was set up was n't far from my work. In fact, it was on the way. When I went there, I thought that it might have been closed because it was so dark inside. Just before I drove away, the modified side window slid open. There was a girl close to my age on the other side, smiling. 
 
 `` Hi, can I get a-?'' I started, but realized that they did n't have a menu anywhere. 
 
 Slowly, the girl squeezed her head and shoulders out of the window. For a split second, I thought she was going to climb straight into my car, but after her shoulders were clear and she pulled her hands through, she handed me a cardboard cup with a picture of a wagon wheel on the side and a white plastic lid. The whole time her face never changed. She withdrew from the window back into the dark and closed the window. I never even paid for it. 
 
 It was the most delicious thing I've ever tasted, or maybe will taste again. It was perfect in every way. It made me god damn *joyous*. I wanted to share the beautiful way it made me feel with the rest of the world, I mean it was just that fucking good. 
 
 So what that the girl inside had been acting weird? Maybe she'd been dared, or lost a bet. Maybe I was lucky she had n't called me a `` chicken fucker'' instead. 
 
 I parked my car and started walking toward the front door of work. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a shadow moving between the other cars in the lot. I spun around, to check behind me, but no one else was anywhere around. As soon as I took another step toward work, a huge dog cut between the cars in front of me. I thought it might have been part wolf - the thing was huge and its black fur was matted and wild. It started growling and slowly walking toward me. 
 
 I backed away, but the dog advanced faster. I did n't know what else to do, so I dropped everything I'd been carrying and took off through another row of cars, hoping that it would give up the chase. It must have worked because I made it to the front doors alive. 
 
 The next morning, I slept through my alarm and woke up with a terrible hangover. My efforts to get out of bed transitioned into a wild sprint for the toilet as everything I'd eaten the day before fought its way up. I was going to be late for work, so I skipped the coffee stop. As I was driving by, the memory of the smell and taste of that coffee from the day before washed over me. There was a short line in front of the little bus, and the same girl who I'd seen the day before was leaning out the window again. Only instead of looking into the car at the window, she was looking at me. 
 
 And she was n't smiling. 
 
 Being late for work meant that I was twice as busy as usual. I probably would have caught up sooner if I had n't been fixated on getting another coffee at lunch. Every few minutes I was checking the clock. It did n't matter if it took my whole lunch break, I had to go back. 
 
 Finally, my lunch break came. The afternoon sun was up, but just as before, the bus looked abandoned. Only this time, the window never opened. I waited my whole half-hour lunch break and the window never opened. 
 
 When I got back to work, I went to see my boss and told her that I was sick ( which was actually still true ) and needed to go home and sleep it off. She did n't seem to have a problem with it. As I was cleaning my area to leave, my friend Dan came and asked me what was up. 
 
 I should never have told him or anyone else about that coffee. He thought I was joking when I told him that the real reason I was n't able to focus was because of a cup of coffee I had the day before. Maybe I *was* sick. I went home and tried to relax. 
 
 The next day was Friday, and I woke up feeling back to normal. I made breakfast and coffee at home, and while it was n't as good as the one from Cofee, it did the job. On my drive to work, I thought that today would be no problem. When I passed the lot where the Volkswagen was parked, I saw that it was gone. I felt an unjustified panic seize my chest. 
 
 At work, I started noticing that several people had coffee cups with the unique wagon wheel design. Everyone seemed to love it as much as I had. When I left that night, I saw why - the green van was now parked in the back of our parking lot. 
 
 On Monday, I arrived at work to find an empty parking lot. The doors to work were still locked. I waited around for almost an hour but finally left when I saw a familiar green Volkswagen bus slowly pass by. 
 
 The police would n't listen when I told them that it was the coffee that killed them. They said that it was some kind of poisonous gas leak under the building that would n't show up in an autopsy. They never even tried to find `` Cofee'' or the strange girl who worked there. 
 
 As I said, this all happened last Fall; almost a year ago. The reason I wanted to tell you this is because I just saw the same black dog on my way to work yesterday, and I'm worried that fall is coming again.
