13 The Lady

Ava and Noah stared at the door fearing for what was to come. They slowly paced towards the door and carefully opened the door peeking into the new surroundings. As they entered the shop, they were welcomed by an ear-splitting bell sound. Their faces squeezed as the bell rang in their ears. They stood at the door eyeing the shelves. Antiques crowded the warm little shop, a glorious hopscotch of cultures and fashions through the ages. There was everything from ancient China to early Islam. There were English teapots and Russian dolls, all of them covered in a fine layer of dust.

Ava and Noah walked around the shop running their fingers through all the dust. Both parted ways, each of them at each corner of the shop. Ava walked until she came upon a unique mirror. It was framed with what looked like rotting leaves from a burnt willow tree. At the top of the mirror, also in a dusty black, was an unburdened skull. Ava stared into the mirror and to her astonishment, she saw the impossible.

She looked closer to the mirror and she saw a horrifying creature standing next to her. The zombie had one ear missing and both its lips had been bitten off, that was its death-kiss from the zombie that turned it into one of the undead. One hand had been mangled and its right bicep was chewed away exposing the white humerus beneath. It's snake-like brown-grey intestines flowing out of its stomach. Its blood had turned in to a thick turbid brown and how its stomach slowly digested the flesh that was their own.

She quickly spun around and looked to her side to see nothing. She twisted and turned to see whether the zombie was still there, but everything seemed normal. She shook off the weird feeling and walked away from the mirror, looking back at it with a curious face. She went to where Noah was and saw him touching some vases.

"Hey, Noah? Have you seen the shop keeper?"

"No. Let's go check at the till."

Ava nodded and they both walked towards the counter. They stood in front of it and waited for a few minutes. Ava noticed a bell situated near on the table, so she rang the bell a few times hoping somebody came. When no-one appeared, Ava continuously rang the bell. She kept on ringing it as she was getting annoyed.

"Ava calm down. Let us just wait a little while," Noah stated.

"I didn't come to this deranged town just to not be able to get answers," Ava whispered shouted.

Ava put his arms up in surrender and continued waiting as Ava desperately rang the bell.

"I'm coming, I'm coming." a voice shouted behind the back door as they chuckled.

Ava and Noah looked at each other with confusion and curiosity. The back door slammed open and a middle-aged lady walked out from it. The lady had bloodshot eyes which twitched uncontrollably. Her eyes were mostly wide open, and she had irregular linking patterns. She had a dark eye shadow and a black mascara making her eyes pop out in a weird way. Her air was a mahogany brown with purple highlights which suited her personality. She had a wide, forced smile which made her look like a stalker. Her voice was high, intimidating voice, booming without a flinch. A baleful cackle suppresses from behind chipped teeth that bend in like broken piano keys. Ava and Noah stood awkwardly as they stared at the lady.

"Welcome to Timeless Treasures!" She laughed.

Ava forcefully laughed and muttered some words underneath her breath. Noah heard what he said and smirked nudging her shoulder.

"My name is Rina. What brings you to my shop?" She cried.

"Well actually we didn't come here to buy anything," Ava answered.

"Oh okay. Well then, what do you need?"

"I heard that you deal with people seeing ghosts and those supernatural things, so I wanted to know if that is actually what you do?"

Rina intimidatingly stared at them. She clenched her hands scratching her skin with her abnormally long nails.

"And... where did you hear that?"

"Umm... I was looking up on websites."

"Why do you ask anyway?"

"I have been seeing some...ghosts. I seem to be the only one who can see them, so I just assumed. I just want to see if there's anything wrong that's all." Ava explained.

"Okay. So, I'm guessing this is your boyfriend?" he questioned

"Oh. No, no, no. We're just friends.

"Right... Just friends." She mocked raising her eyebrows.

Rina looked up and down at Noah staring deep into his soul, then she winked at him. Ava saw what she was doing and frowned. Noah could see from the corner of his eye that Ava was getting annoyed.

"So...Are you going to help her?" Noah asked.

"Yeah sure. But you can't tell anyone about this. Deal?"

"Okay, sure," Ava quickly replied.

"Great. You guys wait here, and I will be out in a few minutes."

"Okay." They both said together.

When Rina left again through the back-door Ava put her arms to her chest and looked out the window.

"She seems kind of crazy right?" Noah forcefully laughed.

Ava simply ignored his comment and kept looking at her surroundings.

"What's wrong?" Noah questioned.

"You think I didn't see that?"

"See what?" Noah replied.

"You and Rina."

"How was that my fault? She's the one who was looking at me like that." Noah whisper shouted

"Yeah, sure."

"Why do you care so much anyway?"

"I don't...I just think it's a bad idea to be so involved with her."

Noah disappointingly sighed.

"There isn't anything going on and there won't be, okay?" Noah reassured her.

"Okay."

They heard some banging and things falling. Ava worriedly looked at the door, thinking to herself if she was making the right decision.