Glad you're liking this short. I was supposed to post this last Halloween, but my posting schedule got screwed by how sick I got end of 2022/start of 2023.
I like how some of you are starting to explore the possibilities of what the men are after.
Updates for other stories are coming too; I'm posting what needs minor edits first.
Disclaimer: The Plum universe belongs to JE. Typos are my bad.
Stephanie's POV
"What a pathetic clown you are! Hahahaha!" The killer clown decorative door knocker blurted out as Gray Eyes dragged me past Home Décor, the robotic laughter still as eerie as ever.
"Who you calling a clown, loser?!" Gray Eyes punched the door knocker, only to get another preprogrammed line tossed back at him.
I held my laugh, because I've had some frustrated times with several animatronics in the store. I swear these things have a mind of their own and they love blurting out creepy lines at the most unexpected times.
"Talk shit now." Gray Eyes seethed, tossing the bane of my existence on the floor. Stomping on the decorative piece until it was a scattered pile of broken pieces left Gray Eyes feeling like he was the man.
Eye freaking roll.
Let's clap for the man child that had to destroy an inanimate object just to feel better. Ugh.
"Where are the snacks?" Gray Eyes whirled around to face me, jerking my arm so I'd stumble forward and bump against the plastic foldable table in our makeshift break area.
Wow, a whole three minutes went by before Gray Eyes turned unhinged again. I'm for sure going to be sporting a hand-shaped bruise on my upper arm and two matching ones on my thighs just above my knees from the rough handling. At least I'll have a head start with legit bruises for the upcoming Zombie day, I guess.
"They must have ate them." I shrugged, muttering that teenagers eat a lot. "I have more in the office." Jerking my head, I pointed to my left with my chin. The more distance between us and my team the better.
Gray Eyes glared at me in annoyance. Yeah, as much as he likes to pretend that he's the boss, he's quite low on the totem pole. Defeatedly, he let me lead the way away from our break area and down the hall towards the office.
"I can't." Shrugging my shoulders exaggeratedly, I reminded Gray Eyes why he had to unlock the combination padlock on the office door.
Having my hands supposedly tied behind my back gave me the perfect opening. One, he'll be forced to leave his fingerprints all over the lock and door. Two, he'll have to holster his weapon to free up his dominant hand.
"What's the code?" Gray Eyes grumbled in displeasure, holstering his gun like I predicted he would.
"One, four, five, three." I said, his bulky body blocking the lock from my view.
"It didn't work." Gray Eyes flashed me a pissed off look, indicating his patience was running low. The threat went unsaid. He doesn't let certain things slide. Or at least, it's what his seething look threatens.
"Flip the lock." The idiot put the code in the wrong order. It can't be more obvious, duh!
"You're too mouthy for a helpless bitch." Whirling around, his hand closed over my jaw as he forced me back against the opposite wall. "I oughta put that luscious mouth to work since you like having it open so much."
Gray Eyes thinks he'll break me with his rudimentary browbeating. Ha!
After a long beat of silence, it was Gray Eyes who broke eye contact first. Perhaps he deciphered that I could do this all day. That, or maybe my eyes really are that freaky when they're a deep shade of blue. It's hard to tell.
I watched him do as I instructed reluctantly, the lock clicking open seconds later. Proving that he's a man that doesn't have to worry about all sorts of crazy scary scenarios happening in his everyday life, he left the open lock hooked on the wall latch. I always pocket the lock when I'm inside the office to avoid possibly being locked inside, regardless of how unlikely it may be. The possibility never even crossed his tiny brain.
With his back to me, as soon as he bent to reach for the bag of snacks sitting between the mini fridge and safe, I attacked. One good kick to his lower back had him tumbling forward, slamming face first against the front of the heavy metal safe. His pain-filled groan got stuck in his throat when he felt my hand snatch the stun gun from his cheap utility belt.
"Wha-…" Before he could twist around to face me, I pressed the prongs to the back of his neck and unleashed all the zap this thing was capable of. Fortunately, for me, Gray Eyes had a fully juiced stun gun. An uncharged one still fills my nightmares.
Digging through his cargo pockets, I quickly found a set of handcuffs. Cuffing his hands behind his back as roughly as he did to me with the zip tie, I used the unused rope we had in the additional supply box next to the safe to hogtie him. Just to be safe, I used my lasso of truth to make sure he was tightly secured.
Leaving him all trussed up in the awkward position is still too good for this pervy sicko. Even if he's going nowhere, I used a spare apron to gag him. No use in Gray Eyes calling attention to himself once he's awake.
Lastly, I clipped his utility belt around my waist after I made some adjustments to keep it from falling off. Digging through his pockets yielded me nothing useful, so after taking his weapon and his thigh holster, along with his comm earpiece, I was out of the office.
Locking the door and engaging the padlock, I held my breath so that I could listen for any noise around me. Muffled sounds floated down the hall from the area we don't use in the back right corner of the building. The earpiece didn't filter any communication to me, confirming my assessment that Gray Eyes wasn't top dog in this operation. Stalking closer, I kept my back to the wall. By the time I reached the end of the hallway, I carefully poked my head around the corner. As I suspected, I spotted their open boxes at the bottom of the rickety wooden stairs next to an area that was once upon a time part of another past business before the building was converted into one joining space. When I first did a walkthrough of this location, I went up those dilapidated stairs. Aside from a creepy attic type of space with shitty lighting, there was nothing worth going up there for. I made it a point to have the section off limits to my team, which surprisingly has been easy to enforce as they find the space extra creepy. Apparently, what I thought was unimportant and my team finds spine-chilling, is exactly what these assholes are after.
Interesting.
Satisfied that three of the men are busy doing their thing above me and another man's effectively neutralized, that only left one man up front standing in the way of my crew making a run for it.
S&R
Megan's POV
As soon as Steph was dragged by the man, and Devon gave us the all clear, Lizette got to work. With Lindsey free of her binds, the two worked efficiently to get the rest of us free. It's a slow process, because we don't want to draw attention to ourselves.
While the rest were busy getting JC and Devon out of their restraints, I crawled around the register counter to serve as lookout. It was easy to spot the armed man as he paced back and forth by the entrance of the display maze near the glass doors. He looked bored, as if this was an everyday kind of thing for him.
I caught a flash of deep red squeezing past an immobile Monty. Squinting, I noted the hooded figure had to be Stephanie. She must have snatched the heavy, intricate velvety red riding hood hooded cape we have displayed in the women's section near the back sales floor area. Then, Steph must have made her way behind the merch walls until she reached the ISE in adult horror. Since she's thin, Steph has no problem squeezing through the narrow space created between the freestanding walls full of merchandise and the building's stationary walls. Thankfully, Devon didn't forget to turn off all displays and animatronic stations tonight. Out of all the times he's forgotten to do so, tonight wasn't one of the nights for him to forget. The sensors would have gone off the instant Steph got near Monty and that would have spelled major trouble for us all.
Steph ducked below the cymbals Monty the six-foot evil gorilla was holding in his hands, moving gracefully and stealthily. When the armed man stopped his pacing, possibly sensing movement, Steph blended in with the other horror displays. Because she's as white as they come, Steph really could pass off as a mannequin by standing statue still. The man didn't even bat an eye when he did a quick perusal of the section where Steph had to stop abruptly in. The oversize hood cast her face in perfect shadow.
As soon as the man returned his focus to peer out the glass doors, Stephanie reached for a horror themed staff. I'm surprised we even sell those, as they're pretty heavy. Made out of solid metal and glass decorative top pieces, you can do some serious damage with one of those.
"Oh shit." I heard Devon whisper beside me. Without turning around, I could feel the others huddling around me as we used the impulse section as our cover while crouching low.
Stephanie was moving fast and quietly, the heavy full length cape flowing ethereally behind her thanks to her nimbleness. Gripping the staff like a bat, we could clearly see that she got herself some gear from the other masked man. The clashing visuals were out of this world. Steph's looking like a mash up of various styles, the gun holstered to her pale bare thigh and heavy utility belt resting around her waist giving her a more deadly appearance. Who needs a lasso of truth when you're armed with shit from this century?!
The only thing that could detract from such a breathtaking, beautiful and badass Steph visual was a flash of white sweeping by behind Stephanie.
"The woman in white!" Lizette squeaked behind me before someone clamped their hand over her mouth, muffling her fear filled wail.
Since I started working here in late August, there have been a few sightings of what we call Woman in White. The first time one of us saw her, we thought it was a customer that we missed when we closed the store to the public. Lindsey had caught a partial sighting of who she thought was an in the flesh person. Calling out to her, Lindsey was ticked off when the woman seemingly ignored her. Undeterred, Lindsey ran to be able to catch up to the figure before she fully rounded the corner to the next aisle. Surprise, surprise, Lindsey could no longer spot the woman. Stephanie asked that we do a thorough check to make sure it wasn't a person trying to hide out in the store overnight. A store two towns over had an issue with some wannabe social media personalities trying to hide at closing time so that they could spend the night inside of the store. The idiots got caught when they emerged from their hiding spots minutes after the staff left for the night and set off the motion sensors. The cops weren't too thrilled with their vapid excuses.
Did I believe that we had a haunting or whatever in our store? Not really. Sure, we have a spooky atmosphere but everything we have is manufactured. I honestly just thought the others were either full of shit or just being superstitious like the rest of the people in the Burg.
Now? Not so much. I too saw the flash of white breeze behind Steph.
With a battle roar that I could barely hear, Steph swung the staff. Nailing the man on the head, he went down like a sack of potatoes. She knocked his ass out cold with just one single, solid blow. I've heard stories around town about Stephanie, but I'd never seen her in action. Wow!
Rushing to her side, we helped her restrain the man before he regained consciousness or his pals came rushing towards us.
"Get out of here." Steph ordered us, reminding us of her initial plan.
"We don't want to leave you." Devon wheezed as we all collectively hurried to strip the man from his weapons.
"Go." Steph hissed just as we were bathed in total darkness. No one reached for the lights. We're not even close to the switches! What the freak?
As if to further feed the eerie atmosphere, every animatronic in the store went off simultaneously just as loud claps of thunder crackled outside. No one dared to move, too frozen in place to do so. We know the layout of the store by heart, yet there's something sinister about being cast in full darkness that's left us rooted to our spots.
Now what?
ISE: In-Store Experiences