Marcy Flick hated working in the creepy old shop.
Especially at night, when shadows bared imaginary fangs and the silence was thick and eerie.
Innocent-looking dolls leered at her from the shelves and animatronic corpses with wide life-like eyes seemed to follow her every movement as she settled new inventory on the intentionally dusty and cob-webbed shelves.
Working in the family Halloween store was something that she did only because she had college to pay for. Unlike her younger sister Hannah, she didn’t enjoy being thrilled by things that go bump in the night.
Which was odd, she was part of a family that took special pride in their spectacular and disturbing halloween display every year. And she lived in a town where everyone and their grandmothers believe that werewolves live in the forest and ghosts haunt every old house.
Not for long though, as soon as she got her Bachelors degree in engineering, she would be off. Where? She hadn’t a clue. How? Using the meager funds that she had saved up over eight years.
It wasn’t a good plan, but it was better than working late night shifts at the family Halloween store and being stared at by plastic things that were meant to frighten people.
One particular animatronic woman had been bugging her since she walked in. A customer had returned it, claiming that it had whispered grotesque things in one of her guest’s ears.
Marcy had rolled her eyes and set aside the doll for further inspection.
The doll—dubbed Psycho Leena—was admittedly life-like.
Her father, John Flick, had gotten the rights to sell it a few weeks back. It was from a line of leftover props from a famous horror movie. Supposedly, the people who had carved it had brought in a high dollar model so they could first make sure the woman would be unmistakably beautiful before they turned her into something that would give nightmares nightmares.
The painted green eyes seemed to follow her as she moved her cart to another shelf. Shuddering, Marcy could have sworn fingers tipped with manicured claws twitched as she shoved a gory gnome onto a shelf.
She turned her back on Psycho Leena and reprimanded herself for being so silly, only Hannah would be scared by a completely inanimate, electronically powered doll.
Unfortunately, turning her back meant that she completely missed Leena’s brilliant green eyes blink.
***
John Flick woke up with a start as his wife gave a gasping sob, her fingers clutching the phone so hard her hand had gone completely white.
So. First offical story. Boom, it’s out in the internet. Please comment how you liked it–or disliked it, I’m cool with either.