Today’s Chef Special

There is a restaurant at the end of the road that I never found to be any good. It’s not like I don’t like its food, the fact is that I never even ate anything of that restaurant.

I want to describe to you how the restaurant looks so that you can stop yourself from going even near it. In fact, I don’t even want you even to find it.

The area was filled with small shops that never seem to do well in business. The entire street looked dirty and eerily quiet.

I had to walk that street every once in a while, but I never looked around much.

An incident happened with me several weeks ago. I was walking on that street, ignoring everything but suddenly I noticed the window of the restaurant. It was lit, and I could see tablecloths swaying, which meant that the air-conditioner or the fan was on the inside. I imagined maybe some idiots decided to eat there only to regret it later.

When I tried to peak in, I could only see one person sitting, and all the chairs were empty. The person was sitting in the center, and the table had a clean tablecloth. The table was filled with a lot of food, which was again visibly too much for one person. The man was skinny and was wearing clothes that are loose and clearly not of his size. He looked starved and homeless. His eyes were only on the food.

He shoveled deep into the food and took out a heaped spoon to put inside his mouth. I still don’t know why I kept looking as he was eating. All these made me hungry, and I tried to find the entrance. There was a steel door that I assumed to be the main entrance door, and that was locked from inside. I tried for some time and then came back to the window again.

I eventually gave up the idea of eating there and started to walk towards my home. I almost forgot about it and carried on with my life.

A week later, as I walked past that window of the restaurant, I felt like looking inside again. The man was still sitting there. He looked the same, and he had the same lavish kind of meal in front of him.

This time I observed the man closely. He was sweating, and the muscles in his skinny neck tighten and twitch in a weird way every time he swallowed. I also noticed that the food served seemed more expensive than the last one. He was eating just like before – eating as if he won’t get to eat again. He was eating so vigorously that I thought he would choke on the food. It felt as if he was just stuffing himself.

I wasn’t going to try to get in this time as I searched for the entrance enough last time. The delicious food in the restaurant somehow made me hungry. I went home and cooked myself some good food.

The next time I did not come near that restaurant by chance but by choice. This time I wanted to see if the same customer was still eating or not. But, this time I couldn’t see anything as someone had put a board on the table near the window that blocked most of my view inside. I still tried to see through the small gaps and make out if the same person was still there. I saw someone sitting at the same table.

I wondered how is it even possible for a man to sit in the same place for two weeks and do nothing but eat. I couldn’t tell for sure as I couldn’t see properly. I was curious, but I had to return home as it was getting late.

The next day I again took the same road and saw the window blocked again. I visited the restaurant every night for the next couple of weeks. Few weeks I could get the full view, and I saw the same skinny person sitting there and stuffing himself. The only thing that changed was the skinny man was no longer skinny. He visibly gained some weight. But, he seemed to be in pain, and every bite he takes seemed to be a struggle to him. His eating looked forced now, but he was still eating like before.

Honestly, I didn’t notice the man much; the delicious food was all I wanted to see. The food seemed exotic and, of course, alien to me. Oddly shaped jelly, fishes, eggs that were the size of my hands, and noodles that looked like thick hair – almost everything looked strange yet delicious. I started to marvel at the creativity of the chef, and soon I was stopping by only to see what absurd food the man was being served that night. I even saw a roasted chicken, except it had several limbs.

In a bizarre way, these alien foods always made me hungry, and no matter how good I cook I was always unsatisfied. Gradually, the window started to cover, and with each day, the visibility decreased. Sometimes, I would squeeze and press my head against the glass just to have a glance at the day’s special food items.

Today, I shudder thinking how I never found the food items strange – a strange blood-like liquid that seemed to be moving inside a bowl, roasted items that looked similar to a human head but with teeth of some rare animal, drinks that looked part liquid and part gas, and many bizarre things. Back then, I remember telling myself that these are normal food cooked by the special chef, and that’s why they looked so exotic and different yet delicious.

But this lie could only help me get this far, and this is when things started to become scary.

Last week, as I was walking towards the window, I felt something was terribly wrong with the place, something so evil that my mind would never be able even to understand.

As I told you, for few weeks I couldn’t get a clear view of the restaurant’s inside. I could only see through the gaps of the board that blocked the view, and that was hardly anything. That day the board was removed, and the view was clear again. As I approached it, my joy turned to a strange horror.

This time there was just only one item on the table, and it seemed to be a carcass at first. It seemed to have four legs, a little fur, and antlers. But when I looked closely, I understood that it’s unnatural. Something tried to alter its body and made it look like that.

I looked closely and began to see the changes. There were hands in place of the hooves, the face was not of any deer or stag, but it had a thin flat nose and mouth that seemed to have human lips, the skin was hairless, the ribs looked as if they were broken out by some force or accident, and there was a wound that was covered by blackish-red blood.

There was a man leaning over the body, and his lips also had the same blackish-red blood on it. He looked as if he was eating it.

He was the skinny man. His body was no longer how it used to be – he had layers of fat all over his body, his eyes were black and appeared to be fixed on his skull with no forehead, his clothes torn in several places, and his skin looked greasy and pale. I looked closely and realized that he no longer looked human; instead, he looked like a giant maggot.

His neck and shoulders were merged, his arms barely visible, and were sunk inside the fat surrounding his entire body. He looked away from the meal for the first time; he turned towards the window and looked straight at me.

His face was terrifying. He looked hungry; his saliva gathered in his mouth as he looked at me and gazed at me from head to toe. He licked his lips.

I turned away from the window and left. As I kept walking, I felt scared but just couldn’t run. I didn’t want to find reason anymore. I wanted to forget all of it or convince myself that I was imagining. I never wanted to go back there, but I had to. I just wanted to see the skinny man and make sure that he is not the giant maggot that I just saw.

But I shouldn’t have gone there again.

When I went there today, I found no one in the restaurant. The metal door was open, and it led to the main room. I entered the room, and I could smell the delicious smell of food floating around me. Despite everything that I saw, I went ahead.

Before I took another step, a sound startled me. I heard a dog scream, which was cut short. A second later, I heard sounds of cracking and chewing coming from buildings around. I ran out and fast.

I moved away from the street, the locality, and finally the city.

But the delicious smell that I experienced in that restaurant is still stuck with me. I can’t find any food that can satisfy my hunger now.