"W-Wait, Rhea-" Iris was yanked off her feet by her excited friend.
"Exploring, exploring~" Rhea opened the door to the store, making it creak loudly. "Holy fudge-nuggets! Rii-chan, look, look!" Rhea darted into the store, laughing like a mad man while passing by shelves full of odd trinkets.
Iris followed, half cautious, half exhausted.
"Ooh, lookie here~! Bwahaha, score!" Rhea lifted and dropped several objects before settling on something. Dashing back to Iris, she held it out proudly.
Iris looked down at the box in Rhea's hand. It was black velvet and small. Inside was a black ribbon and bead choker, laying on a purple silk pillow. How elegant, she thought. Then, something caught her eye. On the choker was a small charm in the shape of a scythe. It glowed slightly, mesmerizing her.
"Hey, Iiiriiis..." Iris was jolted out of the trance, and glanced up at her pouting friend.
"Yes?"
Rhea huffed. "Aren't you going to try it on?" Iris made an "oh" sound as Rhea went behind her to hook on the necklace. Latching it on, she looked around and grabbed a mirror. Rhea handed it to her friend, grinning smugly.
"Take a look." Iris touched the charm while gazing in the mirror.
"It's really pretty."
"Of course! I know what looks good on my best friend." Iris was touched.
"Rhea-"
"Well, well~ look what we have here~" A creepy voice spoke behind the two girls.
"Yeep!" Iris and Rhea jumped, whirling around.
There was a strange… person behind them, giggling under their breath. They were wearing a long, robe like outfit that swallowed their form, as well as having long grey hair.
(A/N-lolitazilla: This is not Undertaker, I swear. Just some creepy old person modeled after him… that acts just like him… I'm sorry.)
"Helloo, girls~ what brings you to my shop?" The person's face was mostly covered by the long hair, but the two could still see the insane smile directed at them. It didn't look human.
"U-Uh, nothing kind person who hopefully won't eat us…" Rhea looked scared, holding Iris out in front of her.
"Why are you pushing me?" Iris hissed.
"Well, if it's a cannibal I would rather feed it a chewier meal."
"It's not like I want to get close either!" The two girls struggled, trying to use each other as shields.
Apparently, the crazy shopkeeper thought this was hilarious, and cackled. "Hahaha, what interesting guests~ since you are so entertaining, I will let you each pick an item from my collection~"
The two friends gaped. "Wait, so you won't eat us," Iris asked cautiously. "Or kill us and chop us into little pieces?"Rhea poked out her head from behind her friend, trembling.
The… person cackled crazily. "Of course not~! Take your time~"It pranced away into the shadows of the store.
"…" The two girls just stood there, looking at the place the deranged person had stood.
"…Well, that was interesting." Iris shook her head and shuddered. "At least their gone.."
Rhea still looked a little scared, flicking her head from side to side. "You never know, it could still try to drug us and sell us to dirty old men…"
Iris just sighed. "Only you..."
"Ha, ha…" Rhea shakily turned and walked between the shelves again. "Well, it said we could have one free thing, huh? I guess you want that choker."
Iris was startled. She had completely forgotten the choker in all the commotion. She looked down, and, seeing the mirror broken on the floor, lifted up a shard to look at the choker again.
"Yeah, I think I'll choose this…" She stared absently at the necklace.
Rhea laughed again. "Oookay…" She and Iris kept looking around. Soon, Iris found something interesting.
"Hey, Rhea, come here a sec." She waved her over to a shelf to the left of the entrance. Rhea sidled up to the other girl and looked at what she found. It was a pair of gloves. They were white palms-up, and black palms-down, only going up to the wrist, with little cross buckles.
Woow, Rhea thought. "These are cool…"
Iris turned toward her friend. "Try them on."
"Huh? Oh, sure…" Rhea had spaced out just like Iris, staring at the gloves. Iris smiled a bit as she watched her friend put them on. Clicking the buckles into place, Rhea stared at her hands, turning them. She looked up when she heard a giggle.
"See? I know what looks good on my friends, too!" Iris grinned. Rhea grinned back. Iris then sighed.
"Okay, let's go before that person comes back for our kidneys."
"Haha, you made a funny," Rhea chuckled. The two walked up to the front door, but found it was locked.
"That's weird…" Iris looked around for a key, or maybe a brick.
"Hey, Iris, here's a way out!" Iris heard Rhea's call from the back of the store. How does she move so fast, she thought. Walking back, she saw Rhea standing next to a small door with a glowing 'EXIT' sign above it. The door was ornamental, with handles that looked like two halves of a heart.
"So weird… is this safe," Iris muttered.
"Well, we made it this far; and it does say exit, so it must lead somewhere out."Rhea pointed at the sign for emphasis.
"Okay, okay…" She opened the door, revealing a candlelit stairwell going down. "I better not regret this, 'cause it will be all your fault if something happens."
"I can handle that." Rhea grinned, and bounced down the stairs. Iris reluctantly followed. As they made their way down, the door slowly closed behind them, and disappeared.
The two girls made their way steadily down the stairs; and kept going; and going…
"Aaarg, do these things ever end?" Rhea looked ready to pull out her hair, while Iris's previous exhaustion slowly came back with each step.
"We're going to die on an endless staircase…" Iris mumbled.
"We are not going to die! I won't allow my awesomeness to be snuffed out by a petty group of stairs!" Rhea stalked down the stairs with a new vigor, while Iris got slower and slower.
"An endless, continuing, unfinished, unknown, tiresome group of stairs…"
"Hang in there, Iris! Don't give up yet. I think I see something ahead."
"Probably another candle…" Iris swayed on the steps.
Rhea let out a whoop of triumph. It was a door! She dashed down the last few steps and nearly collided face first with it. She frantically searched for a knob. "Where's the stupid handle?! Claustrophobia sucks!" She banged on the door with her foot, stubbing her toe.
Iris saw through hazy eyes her friend jumping up and down, holding her foot, but was too tired to ask why. She looked at the door and, gathering all her remaining strength, kicked it down. The door splintered, and opened, letting in a freezing cold wind.
"Oh, Holy Jesus, that's COLD!" Rhea immediately started shivering. She turned toward her friend, only to see that she had passed out from exhaustion. "Oh, come on!"
...
Lolitazilla wrote this chapter so hoorays to her for doing an awesome job. I apologies for any mistakes with paragraphs because for some reason when I copy and paste the indents disappear. I did my best to replicate the original copy.
Anyway R&R because every review, even the bad ones make us want to write more. Even just a "keep going" or "I like it" or "interesting" helps. Thanks for reading!