6

I take 10 deep breaths and close my eyes. The bell dings as I take one grueling step after step. The place is empty, looking the same amount ethereal as it did yesterday — I don’t see the girl anywhere. I feel like a creep or some kind of burglar, lurking around the empty shop.

“Are you stalking me or something?” The girl adjusts a nametag on her shirt so it doesn’t cover Iron Maiden in a big bold font across the front of it.

“No, today is my first day of work here,” I explain, but she doesn’t stop raising her eyebrow suspiciously until Murray greets me and tells me to “come on back here.”

“I want you to meet Nessa,” Murray smiles.

“Grandpa! I told you not to call me Nessa anymore!” she grabs a feather duster from a shelf and huffs back into the main room.

“Right, sorry!” Murray calls after her, “Anyway, Cass — she’s Vanessa, your only coworker other than myself.” I force a smile in a pathetic attempt to hide how uncomfortable this situation is.

Am I secretly being filmed? Is this part of a movie or something? It feels like too much of a coincidence to be real.

Murray limps to the chair he sat in yesterday, that’s my cue to start officially working.

I walk around the store until I’m forced to confront the fact that I have no idea what to do. I never got training or anything like that — and what does one even do in a store with no customers?

Oh shit — In a normal “new job” situation, the new hire shadows a more experienced worker, right? Wow! I’m so lucky that my only other coworker is nice and approachable and definitely won’t bury me in a field if I look at her the wrong way.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

I slink over to her side, maintaining a comfortable yet uncomfortable distance, and I watch. There’s not much to learn, she’s just dusting — and last I checked, I only saw one duster.

“Can I help you?” Vanessa gives me a cold glare that sends shivers down my spine.

“Uhh, yeah, actually,” I offer an awkward giggle in hopes that she won’t murder me with her eyes in return, “I don’t know what to do… I’m not trained or anything.”

“There’s not much to do,” you fucker — I saw you roll your eyes — don’t even bother hiding it, “dust in the morning, then do whatever the fuck you want.”

Okay, Rudey McRude-Pants, you can go fuck yourself. She could’ve at least said it a bit nicer.

I begin to walk over to the front desk but stop in my tracks. A beautiful — what I assume is handmade — pot is on a little electric plate, turning in circles so the nonexistent customers can see the whole thing. There’s a painting of some kind of fairy-looking thing on a leaf, holding a ball of light that’s actually a battery-powered LED.

“Hey, do you know who made this?” I ask no one. Surprisingly, I get an answer, “Grandpa only buys the antiques, I don’t think we actually know the creators.”

I want to touch it, it looks so smooth, almost unreal.

“Stop!” Vanessa grabs my arm before I can feel the professionally crafted porcelain, “we’re not supposed to touch the antiques, it’s Grandpa’s only rule!”

“Why? I just want to touch it for a moment, it’s not a big deal,” I tug my arm away and my finger gently brushes along the flower pot.

“Shit!” Vanessa pulls my arm back and we both fall to the floor.

“Ow!” I cry, “What’s wrong with you? I barely touched it — don’t get your knickers in a knot. Wait-”

The floor feels different. It’s not the same hard white tile that it was a second ago. I run my fingers through the thin delicate blades of grass beneath me. At least, I think it’s grass… if you ignore the dark blue colour, it looks a lot like grass.

We look up and in place of the store’s ceiling, is a sky — a bright lilac sky surrounding the shining orange sun. There isn’t a building in sight, just the flower pot. It sits right next to me, on a cliff where we can hear the crashing waves beneath us.

“I don’t think we’re in the store anymore,” I say, pointing out the obvious.

“No shit, Sherlock,” Vanessa glares at me as she stands up, “the only way to get back is to touch the antique again.”

“Wait wait wait!” I grab her hand, “this has happened before?”

“I touched one once accidentally…” she tries to avoid my gaze, “I was stuck for a week or something like that. Time passes weirdly here. The reason I got out was because of some strange voice.” she blows a few strands of hair out of her face, “when I got back, half an hour had passed.”

“How intriguing…” I snicker. I think back to the letter and the postcard, maybe they led me here for some reason, “let’s explore!” I say.

“Are you insane?” Vanessa snatched her hand back, “there’s no way I’m spending another second in here.”

“Come on! It’ll be exciting, like an adventure. We’ll explore uncharted territory!”

“You’re too into this,” she rolls her eyes and walks past me, “it’s off-putting”

“So, that’s a yes?”

“Come on before I change my mind.”