Page 43 of Stalked By Shadows
“Partially, and partially because some of them remember Micah’s disappearance. There are a few who regularly come by to bother him. Ask him if he remembered something or if he knows some other random person who went missing. Now with last night, it brings them around to start bothering him again.”
“Because he somehow controls the universe? Dictates who dies and goes missing? Seems like a lot for one small Asian dude.”
Sky nodded. “Read your cards earlier,” Sky said. “They said not to go chasing shadows into the darkness.”
I paused and glanced at her before saying, “Thank you. That’s insightful. I’ll keep that in mind this evening as I walk around in a dark haunted city with a paranormally sensitive tour guide. I’m sure there won’t be shadows anywhere. If I do see any, I’ll tiptoe past them instead of running.”
Sky giggled. “Oh, sarcasm, I do like you.” She rushed past me to disappear into the large unisex bathroom and likely change into her dress.
I made my way to check on Micah. In the storeroom, Micah angrily sorted through all the stock he’d had Tim and Brad deliver, and a few other boxes that appeared to have been dropped off by UPS. He picked up boxes, dumped them out and then began dropping stuff into piles. It was a reckless sort of movement I hadn’t seen from him yet, but knew enough about body language to recognize. Anger had to be better than tears, right? I couldn’t make the world leave him alone and stop reminding him of a time he wished had never happened. I knew that better than most, but I could remind him there was more to life than living in the past.
“Are you mad at me for giving her the dress?”
“No,” he said, and it sounded like the truth.
Still his movements were tense and angry. Warning bells went off in my head. He was angry, probably more at himself than anyone else. It was that loss of control that made me mad at myself often. Like somehow, I should be able to lay all the cards right in the universe. Only we didn’t have that sort of power, and I knew how frustrating it was to stand in the middle of the storm.
Reporters who made him feel like things were his fault sort of pissed me off too. He had already been blaming himself. I wondered if I hugged him again if he’d fall apart. Maybe he needed the break. I wasn’t yet sure what he needed, so I thought to maybe try a bit of humor.
“Can I help or do you need a few minutes?” I asked. “I can go stand at the register and look pretty if you’d like, or you can vent and then we can put some of this weird shit out to sell to some quirky tourists. Too bad I didn’t bring the coat. I could have stood out on the sidewalk and proclaimed my nerdiness to the world to draw in more business.” I thought about that a minute. “Okay that might have scared people away…”
A smile cracked the seriousness of Micah’s face. “Jerk. You are a giant nerd.”
“Guilty,” I agreed. “We could move the Holy Fuck out front and see if any Karens clutch their pearls and cry ‘Well, I never…’”
He looked at me, fighting a full grin.
“Of course you never, Karen. That’s why you’re so uptight. Let me show you our collection of vibrators, I’m sure we have something to help you loosen up that tight ass and show you lots of things ‘you never’. Straight people butt fuck too, right? Never mind, gross. Image in my head now. Sorry I asked and commented.”
“Stop,” Micah grumbled, trying hard not to laugh.
“Anyway, back to Karen, I do the bait and switch, showing her some alien impregnators which she’ll have to buy, and then she will write some steamy chick romance that will make the best seller list like Fifty Shades only instead of some rich white dude, the Dom in this story is a giant alien dick. Oh, Narwal Dickmaster, my alien overlord, take me to heaven.”
Micah laughed. “You’re a total jerk,” he remarked.
“For making you laugh? I’ll own that. Better than serious, angry Micah any day, right?” I picked up an unopened box and began to pull away the tape. “Any more alien impregnators in here I should be looking for? Maybe a box of anal probes?”
“I already have a whole selection of those on display. Do you need another tour?” Micah asked with a devious smile.
“Did I miss those? Well, butter my buns and call me a biscuit, I’ll have to do a full inventory on them later so I can recommend them to the tightest of assholes who enter the store. I’m sure there’s plenty of lube to ease their transition to the dark side. We might not have cookies, but we have sex toys and I’ll be damned if that isn’t even better.”
Micah was full out laughing now. “Oh my god, stop. Apparently put beans in you and you become some sort of sarcasm jukebox.” He shook his head. “I need to write some of that down and put it on T-shirts.”
“I’m a thirty-two-ounce refillable fountain glass of sass,” I affirmed.
“You are,” Micah agreed.
“So, no alien impregnators?”
“Tim and Brad bought all three,” Sky called from the bathroom. “I told them it wasn’t fair, but Tim said you’d have to order more.”
I opened my mouth to spit out a reply to that but couldn’t. Alien egg impregnators… Yeah, that was a bit out of my comfort zone. But maybe I had to start slow with small anal probes or cute androgynous boy toys who happened to make my winky stand up and wave.
Micah’s eyes narrowed on me. “Are you thinking sexy thoughts about me again?”
“Um… maybe? I can’t help that certain words in context with the idea of you and my memory of some old videos conjure up physical reactions I haven’t had much of in the past few years.”
“I have some alien dildos at home, fun shapes and all, but I don’t like the egg idea thing,” Micah confided. “I know they sell the idea of them being safe and that your body heat melts them down to liquid, but I don’t want blue goo coming out of my ass.”