Day Is Gonna Come

18. Mint Condition

INT. COMIC BOOK STORE - OCTOBER 29TH - NIGHT

A man on the TV said, "Do you have unwanted gold just lying around the house collecting dust? Why not turn that gold into cash? Here at Diamond Dave's you can have cash in your hands today! We'll take anything you want to sell us!"

A woman on the TV spoke. "When Aunt Gloria passed away she left me so much jewelry, I didn't know what to do! That's when I called Diamond Dave's!"

"If it's gold, it's cash in your hands!"

The television sounded in the comic book store. A poster for a Hell Hazers movie was seen next to one for All Saints Day.

"You're watching Shocker TV!" a man on the TV said.

A horror movie, All Saints Day, was playing on the TV.

The man continued. "This week on Shocker, it's going to be a blood bath with guts, slicing and dicing. We've got scream queens and killing machines. 24 hours a day, all week long."

"Time to slice and dice," Hatchet Man said.

The TV was turned off by a man; Stuart. He set the remote on the table, opened a cardboard box, and started taking out action figures. There was a life-size replica of Hatchet Man in the shop. Stuart was startled when he took out the action figure on Panthro from Thundercats.

"Whoa, 15 inch megascale Panthro," Stuart commented. "So handsome, so hungry." He chuckled and put the action figure into a bag, His phone rang, startling him. It was a video call from Samantha. He answered it and held the phone up. "Hey, Sam."

"Stuart, what did you do?" Samantha asked.

"I, uh, nothing."

"Really? Because according to Yelp and this awesome one0star review we just got, you screamed at a customer and called him a, quote, mongoloid Tribble in a robotic exoskeleton built by Tony Stark's inbred third cousin, which is not cool and weirdly, creepily specific."

"That. He said I couldn't beat up Superman."

"Okay. Again, Superman is not real."

"That's not the point."

"And I have seen you get winded eating a taco."

"Okay, that doesn't matter! If I had kryptonite gloves I could beat up Superman. Anyone could. That's science, Sam!"

"Look, I, I like that care, really really care about this stuff but we need every customer we can get okay? So just chill a little, please."

"Yeah. Um, okay. I'm sorry Sam I'm just, I just get spun out sometimes."

"I know."

"Coming to Game Night?"

"Of course. I'll see you there."

Stuart waved goodbye and disconnected the call. He picked up his keys with a Batman keychain and the bag with the Panthro figure. He stopped for a few seconds looking guilty, then continued out of the shop after turning off the lights. He locked the door and left.

INT. STUART'S HOUSE - NIGHT

Stuart shouted on the phone, "Yeah, well, all I'm hearing is excuses! Okay, look, I don't even care about traffic, okay? It has been over 30 minutes so hello! Free pizza!"

The Panthro figure was on the table. As Stuart was on the phone, the figure turned its head to look at him. There was a noise and Stuart turned around, startled. The figure was on the floor.