Note: this story has connections to the following previous stories (so you may want to read those first, I will make them free again temporarily): The Woman in the Red Coat, Lucy in the Sky with Demons
(Above is AI generated art from the 3 words…very nice)
The Spine Mine
by Mike DeFrench
The first time that Lila Meyers saw the tall man was the first night that she had to close all by herself at The Spine Mine. Closing never bothered her, but usually there was someone else there to help. It was the store's policy that no one ever closed completely alone.
It was too dangerous, for one. But it also made the whole process take twice as long.
That night Lila was way more pissed off about the time aspect of the whole thing than she was about the potential for danger. Here in downtown Conners Switch, there weren't ever any robberies or any break-ins. Nothing like that. Hardly any crime at all!
The little wealthy city in northern Indiana had been on the list of Top Ten Safest Cities in America for several years in a row.
The worst thing that had ever happened since Lila had moved here two years ago, was when the woman jumped out into traffic just down the road from The Spine Mine and gotten herself splattered all over the pavement.
Ew.
Lila had been walking back from her lunch break at the time—saw it happen right in front of her. The poor girl who was driving the car was pale and in some kind of horrible screaming state of shock.
She looked like a sweet innocent goody-two-shoes type bitch. Probably annoying as fuck.
Not someone that Lila could ever see herself going out and getting drunk with after work. But still. That was fucked up man...Lila wouldn't have wanted that shit to happen to her.
But other than that, this place was as safe as safe could be. At least in Lila's mind. Sure, some fucked up stuff happened everywhere, every now and then.
But she wasn't worried about meth heads busting into the front door of the book/music/random-ass entertainment and collectibles store and holding her up at gun point so they could steal the $854.63 in the cash register.
She checked the time on her phone again. 8:50 PM. Close enough. She knew she was technically supposed to stay open those last ten minutes.
And it really wasn't all that unusual for customers to come in right before closing. It didn't happen every night. But it happened more often than you would think.
And it always sucked.
Because of course these stupid fuckers, coming in just minutes before closing, would take their sweet ass time perusing the aisles of records, albums, and rare or antique (or just plain weird) books. And before you knew it you weren't even able to really start closing until 9:30 PM.
Which meant that you wouldn't actually be fully done closing until like 10:30. Or maybe even 11:00...which meant that you wouldn't be getting home (at least in Lila's case, since she lived closer to the Castleton area—a good fifteen to twenty minutes south of here), until damn near midnight.
Getting home at midnight did not leave enough time to sufficiently chillout after having worked a double shift at a retail job in the downtown strip of Conners Switch.
You needed at least an hour to drink a few drinks. Then watch some TV and fuck off on your phone for another hour or two. And then, then you could maybe think about going to bed soon.
But when you had to work another double in the morning the next day (which was the case for Lila), staying up until fuckin 2:00 AM wasn't really an option either. Of course, she would do it still...and then be tired as fuck the next day. But what other option was there?
It was all Joseph's fault. He was supposed to be closing with her. If he was here (he had to go home mid-shift because he started hacking up a lung and had a fever of 101 (the Covid policies were strict here, no working while you were sick)), then the whole closing process would've been able to be sooo much more smooth.
But Lila found herself scrambling all over the place to get everything cleaned up and put away. She was bloody determined to get home at a decent time.
She did NOT want to be a fucking half-asleep zombie all day tomorrow.
Working a double on next-to-no sleep was one of the worst things she experienced on a regular basis in her life.
So she'd been busting her ass the last couple of hours, trying to check out all the customers, help the ones that were too stupid to find what they were looking for, but also getting everything in order so that when 9:00 came around, all she would have to do would be close out the register and lock all the cash in the safe. Then go the fuck home.
She'd been eyeing the OPEN sign for a while now. Like the last twenty minutes. Trying to talk herself into just clicking the damn thing off. But Harry, the owner, would have a fucking stroke if he knew that she locked the doors even a minute early. He was a dick like that.
Oh, sorry Harry! You missed out on the extra $4.99 from whatever bullshit the last nerd walking in here was going to spend forty minutes looking for.
For fuck's sake, she would've just paid the $4.99 to close earlier. Take it right out of her paycheck, she didn't give a shit.
It had been a bit of a hectic day today. Lila was more than ready to be home.
And at 8:50, it seemed a good enough time to click the light off, lock the doors, close out the register, and just go the fuck home. Harry wasn't even here today.
(Though...Lila was slightly certain that Harry had some way of knowing if people closed early. Cause even when he wasn't here, if they did it, there would always be some company meeting the next week where he gave some big talk about how "every customer mattered" and "ignoring one customer, even if it is the last one before closing, would lose a returning customer, and all of our jobs, and yada yada yada fuckin yada.")
Meh. Fuck it.
Harry could go suck a dick, she decided as she walked over the neon lights of that classic (or cliche?) OPEN sign and clicked it off. but as soon as she did that, the bell above the front door rang.
And the tall man walked in.
Should've locked the fuckin doors first. ALWAYS lock the doors first ya dumb bitch! But it was too late now. Or was it...
"Sorry," Lila said. "But we're closed."
She still hadn't looked over at the tall man, had no idea what he looked like. (Fuck would she be a bit more freaked out once she saw him!) She was pretending to act busy. You know—like she was trying to close up shop or something like that. Surely the dude would get the hint.
"Sign was on when I came in," he said. The dude's voice sent chills through Lila. Something was...off with it. She didn't know what—couldn't really tell what it was. Maybe it was that it was deeper than she had expected, deeper almost than anyone's voice she'd ever heard.
Almost unnatural-sounding.
Or that it sounded like he talked too fast. Or that he talked too slow. Or both at once.
Or that his tone was so...direct. So assertive and authoritative. Sign was on.
"Well," Lila said, surprised to hear the edge of fear in her voice. "I was just turning it off. Sorry. Just closed."
She turned away form the man with the strange voice. It was almost like she was trying to avoid looking at him all together. But that made no sense.
But still...she just hoped the man would turn around and leave. She walked to the far side of the front of the store, started rearranging things with no real goal in mind.
It was a habit she'd picked up when she first started working at The Spine Mine. Back when Harry used to come in all the time. It was right before Covid hit. After the first wave of lockdowns and every store closing up, once people started going back out again, and the stores started opening back up (The Spine Mine included), Harry started to barely ever show up anymore.
But back then he was like a hawk when he would come in. He'd find something to get pissed off about no matter what you were doing. So your best bet was just to appear busy at all times. Even if there was quite literally nothing at all to do. Just go to any old shelf of books or rack of albums and start moving them around. You were "sorting them" or something.
Lila felt stupid for turning her back to the man—whoever he was. She hadn't even looked at him. He could've been anyone. What the fuck was she doing!? Putting her life at risk. But...GOD why couldn't she turn around? It was like: the last thing that she wanted to do was to turn around and look at this guy.
This guy with this weird voice.
This guy who came into her store right as she was closing it. This guy that as soon as he stepped in, somehow changed the air in the room.
Yes. Lila felt it.
She felt it right away but hadn't really noticed it until just then. But the air, the...vibe of the store had completely changed. It was...off.
It didn't feel good.
It felt...scary. It felt wrong.
Please, just go dude. Please get the fuck out of here. I want to go home. And I don't like you. I don't know why. But I don't.
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