Young Writers Society

Finally, we arrived at our destination. It had big dark green letters standing tall on a one-story building. It read “dollar store”. Eden and I locked our bikes up to a tall silver pole and walked in. The transparent door jingled as I pushed it open. A small sign secured to the entrance read, “We’re hiring!”

A generous whiff of that… unique smell that dollar stores have rushed into my nose. I saw Zoe (the manager and worker of the store) sitting in the cashier’s desk straight ahead of us, typing furiously on her computer. She had wavy, streaked, dirty blonde hair. Her beautiful emerald green eyes were like that of a tiger’s. She was focused on her hard work that she didn’t seem to notice us entering the building, because when Eden greeted her, she almost jumped out of her skin. The click-clacking of her fingers against the keys halted abruptly.

“Sorry Zoe! We didn’t mean to scare you.” I apologized. Eden nodded in agreement.

“No, no. It’s fine.” She sighed, placing her hand over her heart, covering her silver name plate that was secured to her green pinafore.

“You’re jumpy today, Zoe.” Eden commented from behind me. I elbowed her in her ribs as a warning. She let out a humph.

“Heh. Yeah, I guess I am.” Zoe started drumming her fingers against her granite desk in nervousness. Eden shrugged then wandered off into the snack aisle. After a moment of silence, I heard Eden.

“WHAT! I didn’t know they sell this here! YUM-MY!!” Eden whooped vehemently. The ruffling of what sounded like a chip bag filled my ears. I chuckled. Zoe didn’t share my enthusiasm. She had that same fearful expression on her face.

“Hey. You okay?” The white/beige tiles gleamed under the dull light as I walked up to where she was sitting.

“Huh? What?” She blinked, as if she just woke up from a dream. That wasn’t very reassuring.

“I was just asking if you’re okay. It looks like you’ve seen a ghost.” I repeated sympathetically.

“Oh. Um. Sorry, I’m fine.” She replied, shivering at the word “ghost.” I wasn’t convinced. Her eyes darted back and forth, as if she was expecting something horrifying to happen. I gave her a look that said: you-can’t-seriously-expect-me-to-believe-that. She sighed once more.

“Okay. I’m not fine.” After several moments she admitted it.

“There we go. What’s wrong?”

“Well there- there was… um…” She drifted off. I raised an eyebrow to urge her on. She took down a big gulp, like she was trying to feed herself her own saliva.

“Look. I’ve been having a…” She continued,”…weird day. Okay?” She avoided meeting eyes with me.

“Okay…” I let off. I wasn’t about to force her to tell me what was wrong, but I could tell that something was really nagging at her. I went to find Eden. It shouldn’t have been hard, considering that the store was so small, but I couldn’t seem to find her. Scanning through each aisle, I got more and more worried as I past each empty one. Suddenly, I heard the chatter of voices outside of the dollar store. I tilted my head, wondering who it was. I started to head out of the store toward the noise, but suddenly I felt a strong hand on my shoulder.

“Gemma! Don’t go out there.” Zoe was standing right behind of me, her voice was shaky and filled with concern. Her eyes looked down on me, filled with disquietude.

“What do you…“ I couldn’t finish before I heard Eden’s voice.

“NO!!!” She screamed in a high pitched screech. My heart skipped a beat. Someone was messing with Eden. I couldn’t think of anything except getting to her. I pulled out of Zoe’s grasp and pushed open the ringing door.

“No don’t-“ I didn’t let her finish. My friend was in trouble. Slamming the door behind me, I scanned the area. There was our bikes still locked up to the pole, but Eden was nowhere in sight. There was just an asphalt parking lot with one red car I recognized as Zoe’s. I heard voices to my left. Lots of voices. At least five people. They were coming from behind a tall, towering brick wall. It was very old and vines were sprouting from in between each dull beige brick. I gulped, suddenly full of fear. I knew exactly what was waiting behind that wall, and I was not looking forward to meeting it.