Page 78 of Haunt the Mall
“I don’t see the pirate king in a medium,” a girl in overalls said.
“I’ll check our system; give me one second.” I’d barely unlocked the dressing room before someone was sighing at the cash register.
The first person in line dumped all their stuff on the counter and slid it into two piles. “Hi. I want to buy these and return these. You’ll have to look up the receipt.”
“Sure. One minute.” My fingers flew across the keyboard. Pirate king, pirate king…
The pace kept up well into the afternoon. I kept an eye on the clock for a moment of reprieve. Bree was late. Again. Only by five minutes, so far, but I needed her help ASAP.
A group of guys strolled in. They had baggy clothing and hunched shoulders. One lurked by the door and eyed me at the counter. They checked off every shoplifter stereotype. They even fiddled with our displays. I had no one to stand at the front to even pretend to ward off trouble. Would mall security do anything to back me up? To top it off, a lanky teen slunk in, picking at his face and peeking at me through the racks. Just what I needed: a creep smearing grease on my merchandise.
A scene kid dropped some hardware-covered pants in front of the cash register.
“The dressing room is pretty full, by the way,” they said.
“Right. I’ll get on that as soon as I’m done with this,” I said.
Fucking hell. I loved that we were busy, but I could only do so many things at once.
Heels clunked toward the back of the cashier’s desk. “What’s up, witch?” That had to be Bree.
“Thank god you’re here,” I said, trying to ignore the glimpse of her giant coffee cup. “Can you empty the dressing rooms and—”
“Yeah, yeah. I got it.” She set her cup into a cubby. A few minutes later, she dumped the pile of discarded costumes onto the counter.
I sighed. By empty, I’d meant put back.
“I’m going to sort it,” she said defensively. Leaning on the counter, she eyed the hunchback-posed posse. “Are those the same guys who were stalking our Halloween party?”
I frowned. “I don’t know, but the one by the door is throwing me.”
“I’ll see if they need anything.” She sauntered off toward them.
Well, that was one way of approaching things. I guessed we’d sort the clothes later. Halfway through removing a clothing sensor, I realized someone was staring at me.
The pin jammed into my thumb. “Fuck,” I muttered, trying to shake off the pain. A pinprick of red bloomed. I sucked the sting out, hoping I wouldn’t get any blood on the costume.
My would-be creeper’s eyes went round and he backed up, tugging his black pants.
Without any racks in the way, I recognized the teen’s fidgety gestures.
“You work at the theater,” I said.
Squirrel-boy raised his eyebrows. “Y-yeah. You know who I am?”
I shrugged. Not like I knew Victor, but yes. “I’m there often enough.”
“Cool. I noticed you too.” He flashed a twitchy smile and pulled his pockets. “My name’s Sam.”
“Hi, Sam. Did you need help?” Otherwise, he needed to stop lurking in our aisles.
“No. No. Well, I don’t know.” He tried to prop his arm on a jewelry roundabout, but it kept sliding off, throwing him off-balance. “I wanted to be something cool for Halloween, and I was wondering if you had, like, a suggestion. Your favorite look for men or whatever.”
“Vampire,” I said.
Well, Victor.
Hot, brooding, biter, Victor.