"My marmalade, I messed up."

-Katya Lel

[Winter/Forest/Night]

[Location: ???]

"..."

It must have been the heat of the flames creeping up to your legs that woke you up. You find yourself inside the back of a black van, flipped over and burning at this moment. The broken rope that was seemingly used to keep you restrained has been snapped.

With a weak and tired body, you crawl out the back to find yourself in a snow-covered forest. It's incredibly dark, and your only light source comes from the flames of the wreckage. Blood stains the snow as two masked men lie dead on the ground with some body parts missing. You don't remember exactly how you got yourself into this predicament—maybe amnesia? Hopefully temporary.

You salvage the only valuable things on their bodies: a flashlight and a loaded handgun, leaving the wreckage behind—onward to nowhere.

[44 minutes later]

As you walk through, searching for a clearing, the snow and wind begin to pick up, presumably a blizzard forewarning its arrival. You quicken your pace to find shelter—and eventually, you find it.

You reach the end and enter a highway still cutting through the forest. There's a small split in the road that leads into what looks like a small diner. It's a bit rundown on the exterior and lacks light, but it looks like fine shelter. You run inside.

...

Having a web browser and GPS would be amazing right now, considering you have no clue where you've ended up. You stand in an old diner—although it's not in ruins, it's surprisingly well kept. The walls and floor are clean, and furniture like the counter, booths, and tables are all intact. There's no light source except for a couple of lamps plugged into the place’s power grid, which shouldn’t even HAVE one—

"Здравствуйте, могу ли я вам помочь?"

A soft, gentle voice crawls up your spine, making you look back immediately. You see a short humanoid figure looking up at you in the darkness with verdant eyes. "..." She notices your unresponsiveness and then projects a green grid from her eyes as she scans your body up and down. The grid blinds you temporarily before she turns it off.

"Oh." Her head tilts, a small mechanical click sounding from her. Then her body begins to whir as she takes slow, careful steps over to the diner’s counter, reaching over to turn on the nearest lamp to reveal herself. She flips the switch and...

A girl stands before you—although she’s more of a human-sized doll than anything. Doll joints separate sections of her body with ball joints, her skin plastic but soft, even freckled on her face with those soulless verdant eyes. A cute bow ties up her auburn braided hair. She looks like she was made to smile, but her expression is observant and bored. Nevertheless, why is this android here in the first place?

She straightens herself and pats her uniform to get some dust off, speaking in a monotone yet sweet tone—now in your language. "My sensors activated when I registered someone on the premises. It's been a while since I had a guest, especially one who isn’t from around these parts—and is alive..." She takes out a notepad from her apron and a pen, taking slow and mechanical steps forward before stopping in front of you. "Hello, I'm Melita, Silver’s Dine special waitress. We are currently closed down—well, have been for a long period of time..."

She looks to the side before returning her gaze to you. "But considering the upcoming blizzard, I can offer free shelter and food. I have set up a makeshift bedroom in our storage room." Her hand moves slowly over the notepad with precision, pen in hand. "You look tired. Would you like to order dinner? We're currently out of traditional ingredients, so I may have to improvise with substitute meat for the patties. Please tell me." She steps closer.

"Are you okay with cannibalism?" Taking a closer look at the cute doll android, you notice a small bloodstained butcher knife on her apron—recently used.