The DVD looked scratched up to Rose, but she couldn't quite tell. If it was, she was gonna kill her brother. She had spent her allowance on it, and finished her homework early to watch the whole thing. She stomped downstairs, opening her brother's bedroom door.
"Hero! Did you mess with my movie?!" She asked, shoving his door open. He looked over, his face confused and annoyed.
"I didn't touch your stupid movie. I don't care about that magical girl crap." He rolled his chair back as he looked over and spoke to his sister, who was only two years older than him.
"Well did any of your stupid friends?" She questioned, still annoyed but starting to believe he wasn't the one behind it.
"We don't go in your room, dumbass. Now leave me alone, I'm busy." He responded, going back to his homework, which he always put off until the last minute.
Rose groaned and left (without shutting his door). She didn't want to be a jerk to him, it could have just gotten beat up when she walked home with it in her bag. She made her way into the kitchen. She lived in a small house with her Mom and little brother. Her Mom noticed her as Rose shoved a pop tart in their toaster, which had a worn out sticker on it from years before when she had an obsession with stickers. You could find them anywhere in the house even years later.
"Why don't you eat breakfast and then go for a walk? Maybe hang out with some friends?" Her Mom suggested, taking a sip from her coffee mug.
"I have plans," Rose immediately answered, before correcting herself "...Well, I HAD plans."
"Perfect." Her Mom said, "If you don't have anything to do why don't you go out? Find something to do? You always stay in your room watching those shows."
Rose thought on that as she picked at her worn out nail polish. She didn't love going out. She was a perfect target for people who just want somebody to put down, especially kids at school she ran into. She preferred to stay inside during the weekends, even if it meant missing things she would enjoy going to. But she knew that it wasn't a question, and her Mom was gonna get her to go do something one way or another.
Rose sighed, "Okay, Mom. I'll see if I can meet up with Carly at the mall or something." Just then, her pop tart finished and she picked it up, putting her purse on, which had a cat on it and some miscellaneous pins. "I'll take this with me and just start headin' there now. I love you." She headed out the door, the fall air cool, but not troubling her. After all, she had a hoodie on.
She texted her friend Carly as she walked down the streets. She lived pretty close to the mall, as well as many other places. Rose knew other kids would kill to be able to walk to the mall whenever they wanted, but Rose would also kill to be able to do that without having to worry about being teased for no reason. Carly was taking forever to answer, as she normally did, so Rose just sighed, deciding to go to the mall and just hope she'd show up eventually.
She walked into the mall, walking down all the familiar stores. She didnt love not havind a friend at places. It's like when you're at a party and you stay close to anyone you know the whole time . She didn't even know why she came, she spent all her money on the DVD. She decided to walk into a mostly unfamiliar part of the mall, hoping to somehow find something free, or cheap enough to buy with the many coins in the bottom of her purse.
She noticed a small shop. It definitely hadn't been there before. Rose wasn't exactly a mall expert, there were surely some shops she had never been in, she usually stuck to the same three or four stores. But this place...this place definitely was never here. It piqued her interest, and she made her way into the mysterious shop.
The store was dark. Full of weird items and jewelry. As she got closer to the back, it got stranger. There were rats in cages, bottles of dull colored liquid. There was nobody in the store, not an owner, not another customer. Just her and the rats.
She turned to a shelf, and noticed other small strange objects. A jar full of weirdly shaped buttons, some strange chipped teacups, and a clown horn.
The clown horn was pink. The horn part was a rose gold color and the part you squeezed was a hot pink. Rose picked it up, examining it. It was the only thing in the store that didn't look broken in some way...or poisonous. She held it in her hand, dusting it off with her sweater sleeve. Suddenly, a voice came from behind her.
"Notice anything you like?" The voice asked. She turned around, noticing an old man. He wore many rings, but besides that he just looked like anyone else's grandpa.
Rose stares at his for a moment, seven seconds to be exact. She didn't know what to say. "No, I don't have any money in just here to waste your time." "When did this store get here?" "Whats with the rats?" She always made conversations with people she didn't know too complicated than they had to be in her head. She didn't know why.
"Um...not exactly." She finally landed on saying, "I'm just looking around, but I don't have much money. Like, at all. This thing looks neat, though. What's up with it?" She approached the counter that the man stood behind to show him what she was looking at.
The man looked at the clown horn and nodded. "Yes, makes sense. I assumed you'd notice that. Not much of a story to that old thing. It's just been sitting here for years. Nobody cares much for my store." He didn't seem disappointed when saying this. Or even sad. He thought for a moment, then spoke. "You can take it, if you'd like." He suggested.
"Oh! Um...well, I feel bad just...taking something without giving you something." She fished through her purse for a second before the man stopped her.
"No, please, take it. I want you to. I wouldn't want anyone else to have it. It was meant to be yours." He said, seeming serious yet kind.
Rose was confused. It sounded like a weird thing to say over a silly clown horn. But she didn't question it much. After all, old people say weird stuff. "Well...if you insist. Um...thank you, sir." She replied, picking it up slowly off the counter.
"No problem, dear. But, you should know, don't use that horn until your alone, understand? Or unless your in danger. The time will come when you have to, but it's not going to be the moment you leave my store. It more powerful than you probably think. Understand?" He explained this in a way that Rose knew was fully serious. But this just raised more questions to her. Was this even a clown horn? Was this dude selling some high schooler a bomb just for funzies? But she couldn't just turn it down now. She simply nodded and smiled, leaving the store.
She held the horn in her hands and looked at it as she walked down past the other stores of the mall. She noticed her friend Carly running up to her, her light brown hair tied up in a blue scrunchie.
"Damn, it's about time you showed up! Why didn't you answer my texts?" Rose asked, tilting her head at Carly.
"Oh, I thought I did! Oops. Well, I'm here now!" Carly smiled as she fixed her hair, which was messy from running here. Carly had always been very forgetful, so it wasn't a surprise to Rose that she forgot to text her back. Rose remembered the conversation with the strange man.
"Oh, I forgot to tell you! I found this weird store I have to show you. I just bought this clown horn from it. Well, I didn't buy it, the dude just gave me it. C'mon, it's this way, maybe there's something cool there you'd like." She led Carly back the way of the store.
