Thrift Store Find

All events, people and places are fictional. Copyright 2011 Plot Roach and the infernal rebellion writers group.

Thrift Store Find

By Plot Roach

Amanda looked at the mask hanging on the wall in Toni’s Antique & Thrift store. It looked to her like a combination of a tiger and a goblin, green with stripes, saber teeth and pointed ears. Shadows were created with crosshatched black lines and highlights were emphasized with gilt. The eyes leered from the wall as the fangs threatened to devour those who wandered too near to the piece.

“Need help finding anything?” the Old woman asked, her hair pulled back in a bun, making her face seem more severe than her age ever could.

“I was wondering about that mask.” Amanda said, pointing to the green goblin thing.

“Oh, dear” The woman said, looking surprised. “I forgot that it was there.”

“So it’s for sale?”

“I don’t see why not. I just forgot how much it is.” The old woman said as she grabbed a step ladder from behind the front counter to retrieve the mask. “Hmm… It doesn’t have a price on it.”

“Oh… Okay then.”

“Wait! It says here… How much do you have in your pocket?”

“What?”

“How much do you have in your pocket?” The woman asked again.

Amanda fished out a small wad of bills, what had been leftover from buying lunch down at a local restaurant before she decided to wander through the store. “Four dollars” she announced, unfolding the bills and showing them to the woman.

“Sold!”

A few minutes later, Amanda wandered out of the shop, smiling as she clutched her new found prize. She put it p on the wall just above her front door as soon as she got home. It just covers us the crack in the wall leftover from the last earthquake, she thought. She admired it for a moment longer before the phone rang and disrupted her attention.

A few friends were going out that night and wanted to know if she would like to tag along. “Someone will have to float me a loan” she told her friend Jennifer over the phone. “I spent my last four dollars on this really neat mask I have hanging just above my door.”

A few hours later, Amanda headed out the door with Jennifer, on their way to a local nightclub. “Pretty scary mask.” Jennifer remarked as they were leaving.

“I wonder what it’s supposed to do.” Amanda mused.

“Probably something for protection, with an ugly mug like that.” Jennifer said, giggling. The girls headed out into the night and Amanda locked the door behind then, feeling like her place was now even more secure, what with her new protector above the door. It’s silly, she thought. But with the neighborhood break-ins lately…

It was almost two in the morning when Amanda returned home. She was buzzing both from the liquor and from the attention she had received from friends and perspectives dates that night. She glowed like a light bulb at the excitement of being surrounded by people as energetic as herself and decided to check her answering machine to see if any of her prospective suitors had called yet.

On her way to the phone, she tripped in the dark and barely caught herself form falling down entirely. She flipped on the light switch on the living room wall and was aghast at what she saw.

There on the floor before her was a black duffle bag filled with DVD players, jewelry and other assorted items of value. Scattered around it was a small metal tool and various bits she recognized as a lock pick gun with assorted extra pieces.

Quickly she dashed out of the living room and checked the rest of the apartment, in case the intruder was still on the premises. But no one was there.

She picked up the phone and dialed the police, telling them of what she had found. As she waited for the authorities, she headed for the kitchen, just off the living room, in order to make herself some tea to calm her nerves. On the way, she passed the front door and looked up at the green goblin mask. She nearly slipped on the tile as her foot slid out from underneath her. Checking the sole of her shoe, she found it to be a dark liquid. She wiped it off with a tissue and was surprised by the results.

She checked the mask that hung above her door, taking a closer look at the smile that seemed even wider than she remembered it when she found the goblin thing in the store. She swore that the teeth were tinged with blood.