Prologue

The night was dark, enhanced by an unowned pair of sunglasses the store clerk, Jayden, wore in the two a.m. hour. The price tag dangled from the bridge and danced around the clerk’s nose. Each breath through his nostrils caused the tassel to flap carelessly in the brief gale.

At thirty bucks, the sunglasses were not affordable at his pay grade. Even with a nightshift differential, he was barely cracking the minimum wage, and bills don’t allow a respite for unbridled luxury. They were still worth trying out, and the lull in customers, once beer sales ceased for the night, gave Jayden plenty of time to feel like their owner.

The Chapmanville General Store operated at all hours, but the number of customers who appeared in the dead of night could usually be counted on one hand. It was a newer storefront looking to get a foothold in the high-traffic section of town and used a 24/7 strategy to gain ground on the other stores that yielded to the night. But it had not been the success they had hoped. The night hours generally accumulated only a few hundred dollars before the five a.m. workday crowd’s morning gears began to grind. It was even worse during winter’s doldrums, with rarely a soul making an appearance once the alcohol tap was cut at two o’clock.

It then came as a surprise to Jayden when the door emitted an electronic chime. The clerk whipped his head to see who had entered and was smacked in the temple by the price tag for his effort.

Jayden’s shaded view could make out a young blonde stomping through the door as flurries of snow whipped chaotically behind her. It was a slap in the temple by the price tag that reminded him that he was mishandling goods.

“Good evening. Night, rather,” Jayden greeted as he returned the pricey shades to their rightful place, but the woman had already disappeared into the rear of the store.

“We stop selling beer at two a.m.” The clerk stared at the locked glass doors of the beer cave but could no longer detect the woman’s presence.

Concerned, Jayden craned his neck while he scanned the visible areas but saw nothing. More concernedly, he heard nothing either. Jayden debated calling out, but before he could, the sound of a plastic jug slamming on the counter popped behind him.

He jolted, turned, and tried to hide the fact he had been visibly startled. The woman had placed a gallon of bleach in front of him and had already disappeared back into the store's grocery section.

After a shuffling commotion, she returned with a scrub brush.

The woman pointed to a darkened section of the store. “Is the hardware area still open?”

“Sure, I can turn the lights up if you need.”

The young lady wrinkled her nose and shook off the offer. “Nah, I can see plenty fine.”

For the instant she was in front of him, Jayden noticed bright red lipstick smeared on her face, but not around her lips so much as splotched along her right cheekbone.

Before Jayden could glean much more, the lady disappeared behind the tall shelving of the hardware area. Her steps were so light that it was almost like she was hovering. The oft-creaky hardwood floor remained silent, as distant clanks of metal and wood came from the area.

Jayden stared at the items on the counter and deduced their intent. A scrub brush and bleach. Someone must have made an awful mess. Likely an unfortunate soul who took to puking his guts out on expensive furniture or bedding. The woman’s final items shuffled the possibilities.

Duct tape, black plastic sheeting, and a shovel clanged on the hard counter as it landed barcode-first toward the clerk.

“That should do it. Oh!” The woman hurried to a nearby cooler and retrieved a Mountain Dew.

“We’re good now,” she said as she tucked the bottle onto the crowded surface.

Jayden scanned the bottle first and handed it back to her. She retrieved it and quickly unscrewed the cap for an inaugural sip.

“Gee,” Jayden started jokingly as he scanned the plastic sheeting. “Need me to help you bury the body?”

Once he placed the plastic sheeting into a bag, he looked up at the woman. She stood wide-eyed and stupefied at the edge of the partition. A look of fear and shock cemented on her face, which matched her body’s stillness.

“What?” she gasped.

Jayden read the expression and quickly concluded what it meant.

“What?” he returned.

Her eyes began to dart around the room. Jayden considered taking a step backward, but before he could, the woman threw the open bottle of soda at him. The mouth of the bottle struck him in the sternum, and he staggered backward a few steps as the sticky fluid permeated his shirt.

While he was stunned, the woman scooped all the items she could hold and crab-walked through the exit as quickly as she could scuttle.

Jayden composed himself and watched the woman flee without paying. The store was silent again except for Mountain Dew dripping from his soaked shirt.

Return to the Top