In Oasis, Florida horror lurks behind every shadow. Even in Louise’s store, the mannequins come alive to torment her.
Chapter 5
The next
morning, Louise arrived early at her store. As soon as she stepped
through the doorway, she sensed that something was wrong: the air was
frigid and the lights wouldn’t turn on. From the corner of her eye she
noticed a shadow pass by her. She was terrified that the creeping
shadows were now stalking her inside and in the daylight.
She grabbed the door handle but found that
it wouldn’t budge in either direction. She stared through the door’s
plate glass window and began to realize that the town was deserted. All
the other stores along Main Street were still closed, except for the
sheriff’s office, which was too far away to be of any help. She was all
alone with no one around to save her. If she cried out for help, no one
could possibly hear her.
She felt panic beginning to overwhelm her.
She couldn’t breathe; it felt like all the oxygen in the room had been
sucked out. She began gasping for breaths of air, but there didn’t seem
to be any left in the locked store. She scanned the store for something
to help her break the front window but only found the display of
mannequins. She rushed over to one of the mannequins and threw it head
first through the window. Sharp shards of glass sprayed across the
outside pavement and fresh air flowed into the store.
She gulped in huge breaths of air and climbed
through the broken glass. She threw glances up and down the streets,
but couldn’t detect any signs of movement.
She ran all the way home without informing
the sheriff’s office about the intruder in her store. She decided not to
tell anyone what had really happened—not even the sheriff—since she
didn’t know who to believe in anymore.
She didn’t believe that the sheriff had ever investigated any of the strange sightings or unsolved disappearances.
From that moment on, Louise decided not to trust anyone or to confide her fears to anyone in town ever again. She would
become an island to herself: strong and self-sufficient. She didn’t
even trust Todd any longer: he was too chummy with the sheriff and the
original residents. She suspected that these residents were the ones
responsible for the unknown creatures stalking her and all the other
unexplained incidents in town.
When the call finally came from the sheriff’s office later that
day to inform her of the break-in at her store, she managed to sound
surprised and concerned. She even returned to the store with the sheriff
to check out the extent of the damage, informing him that nothing had
been stolen. She then arranged to have Tom and Edward fix the window. No
one had commented on the fact that the store mannequin and the broken
glass had been on the outside of the store. And this didn’t surprise her
at all.
THE DEAD GAME BY SUSANNE LEIST
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