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Part two: Connor
“And that’ll be fourteen ninety-five. Out of fifteen?” The register dinged and the cashier handed back a nickel. “Five cents change, and here’s your receipt. Have a nice day, sir.”
The queue moved up, and Connor sighed. He was the ninth person in line, and from the way things were going at the single counter, he would be there a while yet. He wiggled his left foot, which was falling asleep, then wiggled his right, which was starting to doze as well. He stared blankly at the pigtails of the little girl in front of him, until he felt the girl’s father glaring back at him, and Connor quickly looked away.
A boy behind him poked Connor in the back, making him turn.
“Why’re you getting a doll?” the boy asked with a crinkled nose.
Connor cleared his throat and lowered his voice, in the hope that the boy would catch his meaning. “Um, this isn’t for me.”
The boy tilted his head. “You like dolls?” he said scathingly, and unfortunately in a loud voice.
“No, this is for my sister. It’s her birthday next week.”
The boy studied Connor intently. “How old are you? Aren’t you too old to play with toys?”
“Sixteen, and I’m getting this for my sister.”
“I don’t like dolls.”
Connor cast a pleading look at the boy’s mother, but she was busy laughing at something someone on her phone said, and wasn’t paying any attention in the least.
“Hey, want to see what I do like playing with?” the little boy was now tugging on the edge of Connor’s T-shirt. “C’mon, I’ll show you!”
“Um.”
“Come on.”
The mother had enough presence of mind to hold a hand over the phone’s mouthpiece and whisper encouragingly at Connor, “Don’t worry, I’ll hold your place in line,” before returning to her conversation.
With a begrudging sigh, Connor let himself get dragged along by the bundle of energy.
“They’re all this way, I have a full set and I’m wanting to get the new one.”
The boy stopped in front of a shelf in the back where rows of tin soldiers stood. A sign informed Connor that they were The Complete Set of the Undead Army™ (Now With Even More Gruesomeness!).
“See that new one?” The boy pointed at a soldier with a deep red jacket and a very fierce expression on his shrunken, desiccated face. “That’s Colonel Cadaver, and he’s the leader of them all!”
“That’s nice,” Connor said halfheartedly. To be frank, the soldiers all looked extremely pale, skinny, and quite shockingly ghastly. Not something he’d want to have in his room, let alone play with. In fact, he had the nastiest feeling that they were watching him intently, studying him with those entirely black eyes now…
“Bobby!”
The little boy whipped around. “Oh, that’s my mom. Bye!” He dashed off, arms flailing, and knocked Colonel Cadaver and Brigadier Bones off the shelf and onto the floor, where they fell with a loud clanging sound.
Connor glanced after the boy with part of a word on his lips, then decided it would be easier to just pick them up himself. He turned back and knelt down—then frowned.
Either he had seen wrong, or Colonel Cadaver had scooted himself further away from where he had originally landed, towards the back wall. The colonel had landed so that his face was staring at Connor, his eyes deep and dark.
Connor shook his head and picked up the brigadier, taking care not to touch the bony ribs peeking out of the blue uniform. He placed the soldier on the shelf, then crouched down again to replace the colonel.
Only, Colonel Cadaver was nowhere to be seen.
A very chilly feeling ran up Connor’s back and he shook his head again. You’re playing mind tricks here. You’re tired and hallucinating. You’re just imagining this. It’s there, you just didn’t see it. In fact, when you open your eyes again, it’ll be right where you saw it and then you can put it back.
Connor opened his eyes; Colonel Cadaver was there, but he wasn’t laying on his side underneath the lowest shelf’s lip. Instead, he was standing straight before Connor, black eyes boring into the boy’s face, and one hand pointing to the shelves behind him.
A yelp very nearly left Connor’s mouth, but for some reason it got choked back, as if something had crammed it down his throat again before it could get out.
Colonel Cadaver’s eye twinkled, and Connor stared back in paralyzed horror. The sounds of the store were fading in his mind; all he could hear was his own heart slamming against his ribcage.
A cold breeze brushed against Connor’s face, and he noticed with some bemusement that the shelf had faded and instead there was a large black doorway in front of him, gaining definition with every second. Colonel Cadaver was pointing at the blackness with a very stern look.
Go in.
Connor shook his head slowly. He was feeling like his mind was losing control of this hallucination, and it was not a pleasant feeling.
IN.
Something that felt very much like a small boot kicked him in the bottom from behind, and he lurched forward with a little cry of surprise. The doll left his grasp and landed on the edge of the doorway—it seemed to Connor that she had an unusually aggrieved expression on her face—but this was all seen in no more than a second, and then he was falling onto something cold and hard and very stone-like, and the next thing he heard was a clattery click of satisfaction and the voice saying, Got another one.
Then the doorway closed and Connor was left in the blackness.
