Chapter 4

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Natalie couldn't believe how busy it was for a Friday afternoon, her first Friday since her boss, Kaitlin, had agreed to hire her on a temporary basis at the odd little book store in the center of town. The entire place was buzzing. It was a gorgeous day with beautiful sunshine radiating through the mid July afternoon. Still, people had been coming in and out of the shop since early that morning. She couldn't even blame curiosity for the surge of shoppers, as the quaint mystical shop had been there for a little more than a year.

It was a pretty shop, though not dark and gloomy as most of her friends expected. Instead, it was light, airy and a fun place to be. Her boss was smart and sweet; a genuinely nice woman who cared what everyone thought and always paid attention to her customers. There was a book for the customers to fill out at the front desk for any queries or complaints, questions or notes of what they would like her to bring into the shop. The back room—mostly used for psychic readings and the occasional monthly séance—was always filled with one customer or another, but that was what Natalie liked. Her boss always found the time for her customers, day or night. Even if she was just about to close up the shop and someone arrived, Kaitlin would take them into the back room for coffee and a chat. She was a friend as well as a boss and that was nice.

Natalie knew she wasn't the best employee in the world, having already caused quite a few incidences, even though she had only been working there for five days. On her first day, Kaitlin had laughed when Natalie went down to the basement and dropped a glass jar of sage, having been frightened by a plastic skeleton that was kept there as part of the Halloween decorations. Of course, she knew that if she'd turned on the overhead light first, then it wouldn't have happened. She felt bad for it, but it had been easily and quickly forgiven by Kaitlin. Then two days later she mis-sold a forty dollar spell book for less than half the price because the tag had fallen off. She thought that she had remembered pricing it that morning. Thankfully, Kaitlin understood how sorry she was. She still didn't understand how she hadn't been fired yet. Even Maria was really nice about it, trusting her to take the lead of the shop while she was on her day off.

Kaitlin took a client into the back room for a tarot card reading—which was one of her boss' special gifts—while Natalie manned the front. Natalie was glad because she had a lot to do. But it didn't take her long before she was wandering through the shop with some newly delivered books, placing them in their rightful places with the other books, whistling and singing to herself along with the music that played quietly in the shop.

The cheerful chime of the doorbell rang through the shop as another customer entered, but his appearance immediately made Natalie suspicious. She didn't know why she was so cautious of the new customer, but she was and kept her eye on him as she rearranged the candles on the other side of the room, watching the man as he walked through the shop with interest. She couldn't see his face. A grey sweatshirt and its hood hid any distinguishing features, except that the rolled up sleeves revealed a tattoo on the back of his hand. It was barely recognizable, just two curved lines meeting together at both points, forming a nondescript oval. Natalie wanted to get a better look at his face, so she moved to one of the bookcases and played around with the books that lay there.

His energy felt vaguely familiar. But as she watched him move about the shop, he seemed completely disinterested in the objects that lay before him. He lifted one of the candles from her display as he glanced at the base to check the price tag then placed it back down on the table. It seemed to be more of a scrutinizing interest, as he repeated the same process of glancing at the price tags of certain items, showing a complete lack of interest and moving on. But it wasn't until he moved over to the fabric barrier between the shop floor and the back room that his interest sparked.

He seemed more interested in Kaitlin than anything else as he parted the fabric with his hand and peeked into the back room. Natalie decided that being curious wasn't enough. He was a very suspicious character as it was and no one was allowed into the backroom without being invited by Kaitlin first. Partially secluded from the sight of the customers, it was Kaitlin's policy to make sure that no one was tempted to peek in. Also, a lot of very interesting books were placed on the shelves beside the throughway as a deterrent. Walking over to the mysterious figure, Natalie tapped him gently on the shoulder, about to inform him of the policy, when all of a sudden he spun around, grabbed her arm and held a knife to her throat.

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