Smile Protocol

Mara Ellis just wants a job that pays the bills. At nineteen, she's already had enough of difficult managers, lousy pay, and watching her plans for college slip further away. Super Maid Café seems like a decent place to start over. The uniforms are a little embarrassing, the cartoon mascots are everywhere, and the employee handbook has more rules than she can remember. But the pay is good, and she needs the money. There's just one rule she can't get used to. Every employee wears a small silver pin that monitors their emotions. When someone gets angry or upset, they're told to smile for three seconds. Somehow, it works. The feeling simply disappears. Mara doesn't like it, but everyone else acts as though it's perfectly normal. Then she notices a woman standing near the restroom hallway. She's dressed like one of the café's maids, except her uniform looks years out of date. Half her face is hidden in darkness, and one of her eyes glows red. Nobody seems to notice her. And when Mara asks about her, the answers only make things worse. By closing time, Mara is ready to forget the whole strange day and go home. Then the lights go out. The doors won't open. The arcade screens start displaying instructions. And when one of her coworkers refuses to smile, he disappears right in front of them. Suddenly, all those ridiculous employee rules don't seem so ridiculous anymore. With no way to call for help and a manager who clearly knows more than she's saying, Mara has to figure out what's happening inside the café before someone else vanishes. And somewhere in the building, that strange woman is still watching. Mara thought the hardest part of her new job would be dealing with customers. She was very wrong.