I coughed, choking on the cloud of noxious air freshener. I had been spraying down old shoes for the past two hours and I was reaching my limit. I had forgotten all other smells in the world aside from aggressive floral fakeness of this scent. 

It seemed strangely mundane to be back at the thrift store, spraying down old smelly shoes for minimum wage...especially with what was waiting for me after I was done my shift.

Luc's next attempt to contact the ghostly girls was happening tonight. And, finally, he was letting get involved. The hiking boot in my hand shook when I thought of it.

Once I was done work, I was supposed to meet him back the shop and then...

I wasn't sure, honestly. He hadn't given me many details. And that only made my nerves worse. I couldn't stop picturing the scene in my head, my imagination conjuring crazier and crazier ideas of how this night would go. Would Luc use the spirit board? Would Tory act as medium, channeling the girls through himself?

Or would Luc expect me to channel them, because I was the one they wanted?

My mind lost itself down darker and darker paths—

"Rachel!"

I yelped and dropped the the boot I was holding. It landed on my own foot, and I yelped again.

"Oh, I'm so sorry dear!" It was just Rosa, leaning into the aisle. "I didn't mean to scare you."

"It's okay," I said, fighting the warmth that spread out across my cheeks as I picked up the boot again. "I was just a little... over-focussed."

"Over-focussed? On second hand shoes?" Rosa laughed again as she made her way down the aisle towards me. Her nose wrinkled as she entered the nauseating floral cloud. "Well, I appreciate the effort. Once the smell clears, it'll actually looking pretty good over here. As good as second-hand shoes can look, I mean."

"Thanks," I said, smiling at the strange compliment. Rosa was always so kind to me, and I couldn't help but feel like she as overdoing it. Overcompensating, maybe, for the demeanour of my other coworker...

"Anyway, I didn't come over to praise your shoe-stacking skills, impressive as they are," Rosa continued with another chuckle. "I'm just letting you know that Anne's here now, so you can head out whenever."

"Really? Already?" I said, shocked.

"What do you mean 'already?'" Rosa echoed with a tilt of her head. "I thought you'd be excited to get some fresh air! Do you really like arranging old shoes that much?"

My face flared again. "No, I... I guess I must've lost track of time. It doesn't feel like it's been four hours."

"Then good thing I came to find you," Rosa said, smiling. "Otherwise you'd be here all night and choke to death on these fumes." She attempted to fan the stench of fake flowers away with her hand. "And then you'd haunt the place and we'd have to get an exorcist..."

I forced a laugh, shaking my head at her joke. If only she knew... "What do you want me to do with the rest of the shoes?"

"Just drop the box off behind the counter," Rosa said, turning and walking back down the aisle. "And thanks for your work today! Remember to write your hours in the book before you go!"

"I will!" I called after her. "See you later!"

Rosa just waved over her shoulder before disappearing around the corner of the shelves.

Glad to be rid of it for the day, I dropped the canister of off-brand air freshener into the box of shoes and picked it up, following after her down the aisle. Rosa was nowhere in sight—probably returned to her office in the back—but as she had said, Anne was there, sitting on a stool behind the glass display case at the front.

Anne looked up at me as I approached, but said nothing.

"Hey Anne," I said, trying to sound friendly. "How's it going?"

Her face was blank. "Fine," she muttered in her sullen monotone.

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at the chilly welcome. I was used to it by now, but I still didn't understand why she seemed to dislike me so much.

"Good to hear," I said, fighting to keep the sarcasm out of my voice. Be the better person, I reminded myself. "I'm just dropping off the rest of the shoes, and then I'll be heading out."

"Cool," she replied, her voice still devoid of emotion.

"Yep, cool indeed," I said as I stepped behind the counter.

I expected Anne to go right back to pretending I didn't exist, like she usually did, but this time her eyes followed me as I walked past her. They stayed on me as went about my business, placing the box on top of a stack and putting the air freshener back on the shelf of cleaning supplies.

I gave her a stiff smile to let her know that I noticed her watching me. What, did she think I was going to steal or something?

If she did, she didn't care for subtlety. She just kept staring.

I did my best to ignore her as I pulled out the time book from its drawer and wrote in the hours I worked that day. All the while, I could feel her gaze boring into my back like a drill.

A few more minutes and you're out of here, I told myself, trying to focus on filling in the confusing timesheet properly despite the growing painful buzz in my writing hand.

Once I was finished, I put the time book away and breezed past her, eager to leave. "Well, see you later Anne. Have a lovely day!" I said, letting a little sarcasm slip in.

"Wait!"

I froze, and then turned back, my brow already in knots.

She was leaning across the counter, her hands splayed across the glass top. For the first time since I had met her, she was looking at me with something other than disdain. Her eyes were tense. "Come here for a sec."

Now it was my turn to stare. "Why?"

Anne shot a look over her shoulder, then waved me over. "Just come here, okay?"

I paused, but headed over, lingering just out of her reach. She was giving me seriously creepy vibes. "What?"

Anne just leaned further over the counter, her eyes darting around like she was afraid someone might walk in and see her talking to me. It was giving me serious high school flashbacks.

"Okay, listen," she began in a hushed tone. "You can't freak out or think I'm, like, crazy or anything, okay?"

"How could I ever think that you're crazy?" I said, my sarcasm on full blast now.

She shot me a glare. "I'm serious. Just listen, okay?"

"Fine, I'm listening. What?"

"Okay, so, you need to know that I would really prefer to never mention this, but I can't just ignore it anymore." She took a deep breath. "There's something wrong with your arm."

"My arm?" I echoed. I raised my right, scarred arm, that was still kind of tingling. "This arm?"

She nodded, her eyes deep and serious.

"Yeah," I drawled, cocking an eyebrow. "I've noticed. It's a burn. So?"

"No! No, there's..." She closed her eyes for a second. "It's something else."

I sighed. "Look, you gotta spit it out because I have somewhere to be—"

"It's this thing I've had since I was a little kid!" Anne rambled suddenly, catching me off guard.

I took a step back.

Anne didn't notice or didn't care. "I can... I can see, like, colours, people's colours. Y'know?"

I narrowed my eyes at her. What the hell is she talking about?

"Sometimes people call them, uh," her eyes darted around the room, "a-auras."

All I could do was gape at her.

"Don't look at me like that!" she hissed, her eyes sharpening into a glare. "Like I'm a psycho! I know how nuts this sounds, but I'm serious! There's something wrong with your arm and it's been getting worse."

A chill shot up my back and I felt the blood drain from my face. "Worse? How?"

"I-I don't know. I just know that there's something wrong. I've seen it before and—" She stopped and blinked rapidly for a moment, then cleared her throat before continuing. "I just know that I can't keep quiet about it again. You need to do something about it, okay? Get it checked out or something before it's too late and—"

A sharp snapping noise echoed through the store. Anne lurched forward. Her face went blank.

Then came the blood.

Lots of blood.

Anne's hand had somehow broken through the glass top of the counter, and the jagged edges had sliced deep into her arm. Strangely silent, she just stared at her wounds as the blood quickly spread, spilling all over the display underneath.

"Shit!" I cried, lunging for her. As carefully as I could, I pulled her arm out of the glass, yanked a scarf off a nearby display, and wrapped it around the gushing cuts.

It did little to stem the flow; red soaked through the patterned fabric, dripping over the counter, the register, the floor...

"Help!" I cried, my voice shaking.

"What is it?" Rosa shouted, rushing out from the back, followed closely by Zeke. They both looked ready to do battle with a clumsy customer. "Did someone break something? If you break it, you buy it—"

But their fighting faces quickly faded when they found us covered in blood.

"Anne!" Zeke said rushing at us. "What happened?!"

Anne didn't say anything; she just kept staring at her wounded hand as the blood flowed through the several scarves I frantically pressed against it.

I was babbling. "I-I don't know! T-The counter just broke and she, and she—"

"Jesus!" he breathed, wrapping his large hand around her wrist. "We need to get you to emergency. Come on." He all but lifted his sister into his arms and ushered her towards the back.

I wanted to follow, to make sure she was okay, but Rosa stopped me. "You should go home, Rachel."

"But the store—" I continued babbling. "Isn't there anything I can do? I-I can clean, or I can—"

"No, honey. It's okay. I'm just gonna lock up and follow after them. You should go home and clean yourself up."

I glanced down at myself. Anne's blood had spread all over my shirt, pants, and shoes. I looked like I had just done a really poor job of murdering someone.

"Oh."

"Here," she said, darting over to one of the racks and pulling a big black hoodie off a hanger. She passed it to me. "Throw this on and hurry home. I'll call later and let you know how she is, alright?"

"A-Alright," I said, pulling the hoodie on. I wiped the blood on my hands off onto it, the dark shade hiding the stains. "Please let me know if there's anything I can do."

"You've already done enough," Rosa said, leading me towards the door. She tried to give me a heartening smile. "Don't worry too much. Anne will be okay, I'm sure of it. Get home safe."

I gave a shaky nod before pushing through the door, onto the street. Rosa locked the door behind me, and yanked down the blinds, hiding the gory scene from passerbys. Fortunately the street was quiet and no one had noticed.

The sun seemed too bright, and it made my head ache. I could feel the heat radiating off the sidewalk, I could see the bright sun and blue sky above, but I wasn't there. I was far away, watching the blood gush out of Anne's arm again and again.

Then I was back in my tiny little basement apartment, so many months ago, back to the night when I first heard the Beast scream. The first time the Beast had put its claws to me as a warning not to get in its way...

The memory sent a chill through me, despite the heat, worsened by the weight of the black hoodie. I buried myself inside it and hurried down the sidewalk, eager to get home to Luc.

+ + +

First the board, and now Anne...
What do you think Anne's warning might mean?

I hope you enjoyed the chapter.
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As usual, I'll be posting the next chapter on Patreon next week, and then on Wattpad the week after that!