Christmas on Rüget: Rüget Prequel Series, #0.5

By S.L. Greyback

Trying to fit in just isn't something Sarah is very keen on. She ends up alone, broke, and on the verge of a meltdown. What she doesn't expect is the unearthly creature that appears in her bedroom one night that promises her safety and a new world to disappear into. Will Sarah be able to come to terms with what this creature is offering her? How will she overcome the intense need she has for the creature that seems to go against every rational thought she has?

 

Sarah will soon find that it's the shadows that protect her from the traumas of her past.

The darkness consumes her and on Rüget she'll find power. For this is only the beginning of her villain era...

 

This novella is the first in the main universe but can be read as a standalone as it is a backstory for a character within the other series.

 

This novella contains content that may be triggering to some and is not intended for anyone under the age of 18. It mentions mental health and PTSD, along with other topics that may be too heavy for some. 

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Primordial Raven Publishing Co.
• Release date: Jan 10, 2023
• ISBN: 9781955109673

Book preview

Part One

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Fuck Christmas, I hissed under my breath as I shoved the two-dollar tip from table nine into my pocket. A thirty-dollar tab, and they tip two bucks? Seriously? Where the hell was all this holiday spirit or whatever bullshit people were always on about? 

Taking my frustration out on the table, I run the wet rag–excuse me, towel–across the wooden surface, scrubbing the splattered remnants of coffee and cream the older couple so delightfully left behind.

Third day in a row I’d be lucky to walk out with close to fifty dollars. What a fucking joke. How was anyone supposed to live off such meager earnings? Did no one in society understand the whole tipping process? Was it some sort of secret held under lock and key, and customers–fuck, guests–had to guess off the top of their pea-sized brains what to tip? Maybe they wholeheartedly believed the two dollars was a fantastic tip. Like I should be grateful. Yeah, no. Try triple that. Six. Six dollars would have been the suggested tip and a way for me to pay my rent. Especially as my hourly wage, a whopping four dollars and some cents an hour, barely covered my groceries every month. Much less being able to afford rent.

Careful, Sarah, you might end up breaking that table into two with how much elbow grease you’re putting into it. Jack, one of the only male servers in this area of town, grinned at me as he leaned against the wall of the booth.

I knew he meant well. His humor was one of his great qualities that won over almost every table we had, but right now, I wanted to scream. Punch something. Throw this towel right at his head. 

No, no, that wouldn’t really be nice at all. Ugh, I’m ready to be done with this shit.

Apparently, my expression showed my exact emotions running rampant because Jack’s brow raised a fraction.

You know I’m just joking, right?

Yeah, yeah. I huffed and pushed off the table, moving to the server-side station and tossed the rag–fuck, towel–in the sanitizer bucket.

Do you have any plans for the holidays? Jack continued, simply pretending I hadn’t acted rude a second ago. That was another characteristic of his that sometimes just rubbed me the wrong way. It probably was also due to the fact I got irritated at every little thing. From almost everyone.

Nope. 

There was no reason to make plans. I had no one to celebrate with anyway.

No family in town? He inquired once more.

Nope, I repeated. 

Suddenly hit with a wave of exhaustion, memories from a time I’d blocked out scratched at the edges of my mind. I needed to forget, no way could I let them in. I ran from them for a reason. Ran far, far away.

My vision darkened, but I blinked and focused on entering my tips into the computer system in order to keep my thoughts busy.

Dang, well, you’re definitely welcome over at our house if you have nowhere else to go. Jack leaned against the partition separating our server station from the rest of the restaurant.

I remained quiet for a time, not wanting to outright turn him down. Jack was one of the nicer servers here, and I could get along with him well enough. It helped that he was just so damn happy all of the frickin’ time. But I knew he was only inviting me to be nice and thoughtful. He would prefer I wasn’t there. I knew that. It was the way most of my coworkers reacted when I info-dumped onto them everything about my life. When the loneliness and depression got too overwhelming, and I had to tell someone, anyone. Jack was too nice to shrug me off, but that didn’t mean he had to go out of his way to talk to me. He usually didn’t, either. 

I tended to stick to myself at work, when there were multiple other servers there. I let them all talk and laugh together while I stuck to my tables and did my side work so I could go home right away.

But Jack and I were alone tonight. Except for Allison, the new bartender. He didn’t really have another option but to talk to me. Though I knew I was being a bit harsh toward him, I tended to distance myself from others by being a straight-up bitch. It was easier that way—less of a chance that they’d