Bonus Short Story: Shelf-Bound
Alicia’s hands crinkled the envelope. Her heart beat faster as she reached for the door knob. Sweat puddled on her palms. Anxiety swelled in her chest like a puff of smoke, clouding her resolve. She retracted and rested on the wall. “Coward,” she whispered.
“Alicia?” Deborah called.
Alicia shoved the envelope into her pockets and entered Deborah’s office, adorned with Christian crosses and pictures of the sports cars she won from some beauty pageant. “Where are those documents I asked for twenty minutes ago? Did you have lunch or something?” Deborah knew that Alicia ran the habit of skipping lunch to meet all her demands.
Alicia stared at the gold U-hooped earrings and the silver necklace lavished with three round diamonds. She gritted her teeth. How could she do something like this? How could her friend, her mentor do what she did? Alicia threw a newspaper on the desk. “Why?”
Deborah glanced at the headline and then reclined in her chair. Alicia was hoping Deborah would show remorse or explain why she needed to take money from the charity they worked so hard to build. Alicia fell in love with Deborah’s passion for helping orphans; it’s how she ended up working for her. But, this was the best time. She should grab her resignation letter, slam it on the desk, and leave.
Deborah nodded. “I can see the press has already turned this thing ugly.”
Alicia narrowed her eyes. “This what?”
“Misunderstanding.” The word pulled Alicia in like the seduction of a vampire. Deborah opened a drawer and revealed a framed picture; Alicia ‘s eyes dropped to the floor. “You remember this?”
Alicia dragged her eyes to face the freshman college girl who was desperate for love, having lost her mother to cancer at an early age. Her hair was flat-ironed; she was dressed in a cute, black and white dress for the first foster youth charity gala Deborah and Alicia organized together. Young, foolish Alicia stared back at older Alicia like a doll. “Yes.”
Deborah nodded and pasted a smile. “We’ve been through a lot together. You’ve become like a daughter to me. You’ve blossomed so much.” The warmth of her voice sucked every bit of resolve out of Alicia’s body. “You don’t want to let this misunderstanding get between us, right?”
Her shoulders lowered. “Um-”
“Good. Now please get me those documents.” Deborah ushered Alicia out the door, and Alicia’s stomach felt like a pile of rocks.
Later that day, Alicia sighed as Houston’s sunny smog glared down on her. Her feet ached from running around all day, but she was glad the day was finally over. Her cell phone beeped. A text message from Daniella read that the rent prices had gone up for the next year, squeezing their budget tighter than it already was. There was no way she could quit working for Deborah right now. She did the right thing by not turning in her resignation letter, except, she still felt like a coward. She just had to keep her head down, bide her time, and look for something else, but she always came home too exhausted to job search. Decisions. Decisions.
How long was she and Daniella going to be able to afford living here? A heaviness settled on her heart when she thought about leaving. She sat at the bus stop and savored the things that made Houston home like the smells of barbeque, indie coffee shops, and metaphysical stores- the sights of random murals over abandoned building walls, poles, and billboards. Oh! She realized she hadn’t put her ring back on after leaving the office. She pulled out her wedding ring and lost herself in admiring the intertwine of golden flowers and diamonds.
A flash of gray swiped her ring. Alicia’s eyes darted to the creature that landed next to her. A cat with a smoky coat ran off with her ring. If she lost her wedding ring, her wife was going to be so mad. “Hey! Come back here!”
Alicia chased the strange cat around the corner and then down a long alleyway. Where one would expect a bricked dead end, she arrived at a quaint bookstore. Why would anyone put up a shop so far down this way?
The creature, which she already named Bambi, sat inside with her wedding ring in its mouth. Alicia knelt and extended her hand. Bambi tiled its head. It scurried further into the bookstore. Alicia sighed. She thought of her wife’s anger. She had no choice. Plus, she was curious. And who didn’t love a new bookstore?
Alicia walked past a desk where one would expect a cashier. The smell of old print swallowed her as she explored deeper. She clicked her tongue against her teeth.“Bambi?” Her voice echoed. She listened for little feet scurrying against the floorboards. Instead, she heard whispers. “Hello?” She checked around the shelves, but the table and chairs were empty. Maybe people were on the second floor. She checked her phone, but there was no signal.
She gasped. Her eyes widened. Her ring. She ran, picked it up, and placed it right where it belonged. She set a hand on her chest and took a deep breath. Now to go home. But first. Alicia searched for the romance section or the how-to-find-a-new-job section or the how-to-stand-up-to-your-boss section, except there were no labels anywhere. What kinds of books were these? She pulled one and opened it. There was no print. The pages were blank. When she turned one of the pages, a fingerless hand reached out to her. The stench of sulfur and blood drowned her nose. She gasped and threw the book.
The pages turned and turned- a piercing, awful groan erupting from the turning of the pages, and then the book snapped shut. Alicia’s heart hammered, and she couldn’t catch her breath; her anxiety spiked to an uncomfortable level. She performed her progressive relaxation techniques and tamed it- for now. She needed to get out of here. She ran to where she thought she had walked. However, the further she walked, the more the shelves mazed her, but shelves couldn’t move, right?
After she walked for what felt like ten minutes, she arrived at the door. Finally, she could go home and put this whole bizarre experience behind her. It slammed shut. Her stomach fell. She ran to the door and pulled and pulled.
A hand gripped her shoulder. Alicia screamed. She backed against the door and closed her eyes. She was going to die. This was how horror movies went, right? Either something was going to kill her or her anxiety was going to.
When Alicia opened her eyes, a black woman with curly, grayed hair and black lipstick covered her ears. A name tag sat neatly on her black blazer and read ‘Agatha’. When Alicia stopped screaming, Agatha asked, “Do you need help?”
“The door won’t open. I want to leave,” she said through her progressive muscle relaxation ritual.
Agatha nodded. “I see,” she said. “There is another way out, but you must help me with something first.”
Alicia frowned. She didn’t like to raise her voice, but this was all too crazy. She clenched her fingers, jaw taut. “No, let me out of here right now. This is not right. What is this place? Let me out. Someone help me.” Agatha merely turned away and walked down one of the aisles of books.
Alicia banged on the door. She screamed. She cried. She hugged her knees to her chest and slid down. She buried her face. Will she ever see her wife again? “Fine,” she whispered.
“Good.” Alicia’s breath hitched as Agatha stared down at her with vacant, brown eyes. Most peculiar was the tattoo of a tree under her right eye. “Follow me.”
Alicia dragged her feet behind Agatha and followed her like a shadow. Agatha walked up and down the aisles, picking out books. She stacked them in Alicia’s arms. Then, she followed her down a long hallway and down the steps of a basement. In the middle of the basement was a gaping hole that looked like a mouth. Alicia gasped, almost dropping the books. Her eyes widened. She needed to leave.
Agatha grabbed Alicia’s shoulders, her fingers like ice. Alicia tried to wrestle free, but the books weighed her down as if pinning her to the spot. She shouldn’t have followed this lady. Now she was going to be eaten by a monster. Agatha shoved Alcia into the mouth of whatever this thing was; Alicia thought of Daniella.
She glimpsed Agatha manically laughing and shouting to nothing that Alicia could see. “I’m finally free!” Then, she burst into a collection of skin and bones like falling debris.
Alicia fell and fell. She was surrounded by the sound of swallowing and the stench of decay. The darkness devoured the bottom and the top. Was she going to die here? Her boss got to steal money from a charity she started and the most she got was a day in jail. All she wanted to do was save up enough money to pay off her student loans and escape the south with her wife to expand their years. None of this was fair. None of this was right. If she ever saw her boss again, she wasn’t going to hesitate. She was going to do everything in her power to make things right. Her anger spread like fire inside. She felt hot. She felt angry. Then, she felt nothing. It was as if a fever had knocked her asleep.
When she woke up, she awoke face down on the ground in the alleyway. She glanced at the end, but a brick wall stood in place of the bookstore. Her head throbbed. What happened?
She stood and exited the alleyway. She checked her phone and swore. She hopped on the next bus and hurried home.
When her wife answered the door, she frowned. “Why are you late? And why do you look like you work at Hot Topic?”
Alicia blinked and dashed to the mirror. She gawked at her loose curls that had turned a deep blue and the tree tattoo- she had a tree tattoo just like Agatha. What happened? When her wife tapped her shoulder, she jumped. She backed against the wall and slid down, covering her eyes.
“Baby, what’s going on?” She didn’t want to tell her about the bookstore incident because she didn’t quite believe it herself. Maybe the day got to her; maybe she went out for happy hour and had way too much to drink, but she didn’t remember entering any bar.
“I-I don’t want to talk about it.”
“No no no, don’t you go shutting down on me. What’s going on?”
“Can we- can we talk about it tomorrow, please?”
Daniella crossed her arms and arched a brow. “What time?”
“How about five after work?”
“I’m putting it on the calendar.”
She marched off. They had one of the quietest dinners since their last argument. Agatha’s manic laughter haunted Alicia’s dreams. When she woke up, cradled in Daniella’s arms, she stared at the ceiling and rubbed over the tree tattoo. She googled where to get laser tattoo removal and where to get her hair dyed. But she wasn’t going to be able to do anything before she would have to face her boss. Deborah will never approve.
When Alicia showed up to work the next day. Deborah’s mouth dropped, and she squinted. “Well, you look different.”
Alicia scratched the back of her head and pasted a smile. “Just thought I would try something new.” The words came out of her mouth smoother than she thought.
“Huh.”
Alicia pulled up her notebook and pen. “You wanted to talk about the centerpieces.”
As Deborah droned on about how she wanted to decorate the tables for their annual charity gala, Alicia flashed back to her body suspended in a dark cocoon- the emotions, the thoughts, the sensations- all flooded back to her senses. Her head throbbed. Deborah snapped her fingers in Alicia’s face. “Are you listening to me?”
Alicia frowned. She had been through so much in the last twenty-four hours, and Deborah’s self-centered attitude was really getting on her nerves. Her eyes widened. When had she ever felt her anger so vividly before? “Sorry, I’ve had a rough evening.”
“You’ve had a rough evening?” She nodded, but Alicia knew she was ready to pounce. “I’m being dragged through the streets in the news, I’m getting hate mail from my students, and I still have a lot to plan for this gala. And then you come here with this get up.” Deborah set her forehead in the palm of her hand.
This would normally be the part where Alicia would try to quell Deborah. She would offer empathy and compassion to comfort her. Instead, something Alicia snapped. “I quit.”
“Excuse me?”
“As of today, I am submitting my two weeks notice.”
Deborah sighed. “Why are you quitting?”
“I just can’t do this anymore, and I can’t forgive you for what you’ve done.” Alica was shaking, but she never felt more liberated after sharing her true feelings.
“This again? I told you that was a misunderstanding.”
Alicia crossed her arms. “We both know the truth, but it’s time I act on mine.”
“Alicia, Alicia!” Deborah stood and followed after her. “You leave me now, I’ll make sure you never work in this town again.”
Alicia paused. She knew Deborah was still a powerful figure in this city. Something deep and instinctual budded in Alicia’s stomach that felt like hunger. The door knob under her fingertips glowed with specs of light. She turned and faced Deborah. “I’m not leaving; I’m just going to the bookshop; you want to come?”
The transition in topics jarred her boss. Deborah tilted her head and arched her brows. “Why on earth would I want to do-” When Deborah locked eyes with Alicia, the life in Deborah’s eyes faded.
“Let’s go to the bookstore.” Alicia’s voice was different this time. It was dark, guttural, and sinister.
“Yes.”
Alicia backed away from the glassy, blue eyes. She turned towards the door and tried to run away, but when she opened the door, the familiar smell of old print invited her inside. Deborah stalked behind. Before Alicia could realize where she had run to, the door slammed shut. No. Not again. Alicia’s heart pounded in her chest as she tried to pry the door open. She turned towards Deborah, but she had wandered off. She called after Deborah. “Don’t open any books.” Her voice echoed again. The hunger rumbled in her stomach as if gnawing at her from the inside.
A terrible scream responded. She ran towards the source and found Deborah cradling a book in her hands like a mirror. “Deborah!” Alicia dashed towards her, but the book cracked open as if it were unhinging of a jaw. The book swallowed her whole. Left behind was Deborah’s necklace. The book dropped to the ground at Alicia’s feet. Alicia tried to catch her breath and process what happened. Every one of her senses wanted to reject what she witnessed. She walked over to the book and dared herself to open it.
Deborah appeared on the page, etched in pencil. Alicia watched her walk across the page as if it were a moving picture. Alicia watched as half-formed children arose from tall grass, crawling and reaching towards Deborah who finally woke up too late. The creatures sank their nasty, ugly teeth into her flesh, ripping apart her arms and legs with inhuman strength. Alicia covered her mouth as tears spilled over her hand. Bile rose to the back of her throat.
The tattoo below her eye burned. The hunger subsided. Her stomach no longer hurt. She heard the creaking of the front door. She hurried over to it and saw that it had opened. On the desk, sat Bambi. It meowed at her. Despite herself, she approached the cat and petted it. Surprisingly, Bambi didn’t run away this time. It leaned into her hand. For a moment, Alicia felt relaxed.
Bambi trampled over an envelope that read ‘For Alicia.’ “Whatcha got there?” When she opened the envelope, she pulled out a check and a job contract.She read over the contract with so many questions whirling inside her head. She learned the name of the bookstore was Storybound. Someone- or something wanted her to be the manager for this place. But she didn’t apply for this. No. She couldn’t work here. Was she going to have to lure more people down here- to be eaten by these books?
There was a line on the contract where she could sign her name. “Absolutely not,” Alicia said to no one she could see. The pain in her stomach roared in protest. No. She couldn’t watch what happened to Deborah happen to anyone else- even if that meant she suffered.
Alicia set the check on the desk and turned to walk away. Except, that check amount was more than what Deborah ever paid her. She paused. But didn’t it feel good to have power for once? Alicia stared at her hands. Was she wrong that she liked to have control for once? Wasn’t she already a murderer or an accomplice? Should she turn herself in? What if she did become the manager? Maybe she could find out more about this thing while making a decent living and taking down crooked people? She could be like a superhero?
A man in a business suit entered the bookshop, cradling an iphone on his ear. “Yeah, I just increased the rent for my tenants, and I bought another property that’s gonna make bank. I’ll be making my first mil in no time.”
God, she hated landlords. She glanced over her shoulder at Bambi who was licking its paw and the paperwork she left behind. She reached into her purse and pulled out a pin. Well, now she could do something about that. Also, she had student loans to pay off.
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