Skepticlusion

freaking out

So for whatever reason, I saved going to the bookstore for Saturday night. I tried to call all day long but never seemed to get the owner on the phone. Since the editor said I had to have the story in by Monday afternoon, I figured I'd try things the old-fashioned way: stopping by.

Shouldn't have done it. I'm way fucking freaked out, but I'll get to that. Forgive me if I write this out the long way. I'm trying to remember it all.

The place sat tucked in between antique stores and smelled of insence. When I opened the door, a chime made out of hollowed bones clanked together. Dark wood shelves lined the walls, floor to ceiling and wound through the store like a literary maze. I noticed about a dozen different backed copies of The Book of Thoth and Moonchild as I walked through.

Here and there dried skulls of different species kept the books from falling over, and jars of all kinds, one with eyeballs floating in some milky suspension, were stacked at random intervals. Everything had little white price tags with hand-written numbers attached with thin twine. Place reminded me a lot of Esoterica in the French Quarter, only creepier, colder. I had the chills when I finally got to the back counter.

A girl with short black hair sat behind it reading a book, chin in her hands.

"Hi, I'm looking for Elise?"

She looked up at me and man, she had the brightest green eyes I've ever seen. It's like they glowed green, even behind the thick-rimmed black glasses. I think my jaw dropped open. It didn't help that she had a really tight black t-shirt on with the word "Nympho" across her breasts in thick white letters. I focused on maintaining eye contact, but it was like I had nowhere safe to look. Maybe my shoes. Down is always good.

She slipped backward off the stool and leaned behind a thick black curtain.

"Elise, someone's here for you," she said, her voice low. She stepped back from the curtain, caught me checking her out, then walked out from around the counter, watching me the whole time. Usually, I look away when a cute girl stares me down, but I didn't. She walked toward me, then behind me. I turned my head to follow her and she looked back once before vanishing into the aisles.

"Can I help you?"

I think I jumped.

"Are you Elise?"

The woman behind the counter nodded and I introduced myself. I'd go on about what she looked like, but I can't freaking remember. She had long brown hair and a long thin nose and a silver pentacle earring hanging from her right earlobe, but other than that...

We talked for an hour or so in the small room behind the black curtain. Aside from a computer and a couple of worn wooden banker's chairs, it pretty much looked like a more cluttered version of the front of the bookstore, all shelves and strange debris. At some point, it became dark outside. I kept trying to slip a glance at my watch, but she never looked at anything but me. It's like she didn't want me checking out the store. It was about then, I think, I began hearing the bones clacking together. I kept scribbling her answers to my questions in my notebook, but I couldn't concentrate.

You know how you feel when you really need to go to the bathroom, but for whatever reason, you can't get up and go? It's like you're all jittery and jumpy and you don't want anyone to touch you lest you lose it? That's how I felt. Like people were watching me. Something was telling me to get up and run, but I can't put a finger on what it was. There was just me and the lady.

I remember shaking her hand and asking if I could call if I had any more questions, then turning toward the door.

Hell if I could find it. It was like the aisles got longer every time I walked down one and what I thought would be the turn to lead me to the front door ended in another bookcase.

I started to call from help when the girl from the counter stepped out from around the corner. I almost yelled (scared the shit out of me), but her hand was over my mouth. She looked at me and placed a finger over her lips, motioning me to be quiet. I heard the bones rattle again somewhere to my left.

I began to speak but she shook her head, never taking her eyes from mine. At that point, you could've called me officially freaked out, save for the fact that I was standing there holding the hand of maybe the most strangely beautiful woman I've ever seen.

I heard heavy footsteps and men's voices, but couldn't make anything out. She turned and pulled me down the next aisle, around a corner, through a narrow space between two shelves and right to the door, which had been locked.

She looked over my shoulder as she unlocked the door and shoved me out onto the sidewalk. When I turned back to the door, she watched me for a moment, then backed into the darkness of the store.

And hell if I know why, but I had the distinct feeling she was crying.

What... the... hell? And man, when can I see her again. I think I'm going back tonight.

posted by Skept @ 8:38 AM