The bell chimed over Ella's head as she entered Mr. Mooney's bookstore. Her eyes scanned around slowly until landing on Ethan who stood behind the counter. She approached him as he looked to her.
"Oh hey Ella B! Are you still mad at me about the laptop?" He asked with a frown and Ella only sighed.
"Surprisingly no, I've found a new subject to put my anger into" she said making Ethan smile. "Is Joe here by the way?"
"Nah, he told me was running late, had to run-"
"Errands for Mr. Mooney" She interrupted.
"Oh did he already tell you?" Ethan chimed making Ella roll her eyes.
"No, but..Joe's been real..predictable these days" she chuckled dryly though Ethan didn't know what she meant exactly. "Anyway..um, I actually did mention that I wanted to borrow that book again, Ozma of Oz. He told me to just come over and go get it" she said going to walk off but Ethan jumped infront of her.
"Oh No can do buckaroo" He said holding up his hand. "Joe told me very specifically that nobody should go down there when he's not here. Not even me. Not even *you*" Ella looked at Ethan with a 'really?' Expression. Typical. Now suddenly she's not allowed to go in his super secret dark creepy basement. But she *had* to go down there. Her doubts could be her overthinking but what if they weren't? What if Joe knows more than what he is letting on? What if he knows where Evan is? And she would only get those answers, in the basement.
"Okay...I lied" She sighed glancing away from Ethan. "Joe..didn't tell me I could go get a book from downstairs. The truth is..Joe and I..had sex last night-"
"Whaaaaat?" Ethan gave her a surprised questioning look.
"But..it was super awkward because..." she looked around behind leaning closer to Ethan to whisper. "He dressed up as the cowardly Lion.."
"No!"
"Yes! And I wasn't expecting it so I just ended up laughing in his face. He told me..he was inspired to spice of the bedroom..from you" she said smiling and poking Ethan's chest who always put a large grin on his face.
"Wait really?" He asked as his eyes lit up.
"Mhm, Joe said he was so inspired by your Star Wars improv night that he wanted to do one of his own-though he was quite embarrassed when he realized, I haven't even read the whole book. So I thought I would get it, read it, and surprise him later tonight for a little yellow brick road moment if you know what I mean" Ella smirked biting her lip as Ethan happily nodded.
"Oh I definitely know what you mean! Wow, I can't believe I inspired a guy like Joe" Ethan sighed looking off with a smile. Ella gave him a 'well?' Look before he nodded again. "Okay, you can go, but don't tell him I let you down there"
"My lips are sealed" she said pretending to zip her lips and rushing past Ethan to head downstairs.
Like before, Ella turned on the lights to expose the glass box. This time, her skin crawled with goosebumps. Why was now so weird? She walked closer to the box, examining the outside as he looked at the small window that could be opened and closed. Jesus, it was like a prison. But why would Mr. Mooney have this for books? It seems..excessive. She continued her look around, walking around towards the back of the room where she noticed a line of lockers against the wall. She opened the first one but nothing was inside. And she went on to open two others until she reached the last locker. To her surprise, it was locked with a pad lock unlike the others. And no matter how many times she pulled on it, it wouldn't open.
She looked around for a moment before noticing a table pushed against the wall with a few tools placed on it. It wasn't out the ordinary as Joe did tell her he fixed the books, but it was strange that when she picked up the hammer, a weird dark stain covered the end of it. Was that..blood? No. No that was going too far. Ella shook it off, going back to locker and taking a deep breath before swinging the hammer back and hitting the lock. It broken half way before she readied her arm again, hitting it harder this time as the lock flung off. Ella dropped the hammer to the ground before quickly opening up the locker. She took a step back as she looked at the small brown boxes that stacked on one another in the locker. Her brows furrowed as as she slowly took one of the boxes. She placed it on the table as she opened the lid, hit by it's old stench.
"Oh geez" she gagged, covering her nose as she started to go through the box, but as she pulled out..pantiess..a scarf....a..tampon- "what the hell!" She gasped dropping it and pushing the box away. She turned back to the locker, doing the same with the other one. But she froze seeing a picture on top of the items. It was of her but it was torn. She recognized the day however. It was their first road trip together, they were heading down south when they ran into a festival. It was out of the blue and not planned but Evan begged to stop and go. They got matching face paint of stars on their cheeks and took a selfie together. Ella printed out the picture and gave it to Ethan as a birthday present. He had it in his room ever since..well..until now. But why was it here..? Ella put the picture down as she picked up the next item, her mouth dropping slowly as she realized it was a pair of her *panties*. Her heart began to race as she dropped them and went to pick up a tissue, and then.."oh my god" She covered her mouth as she lifted up the bloody tampon by the string. Was that hers?? She let out a disgusted squeal, flinging the tampon away as it went flying across the room. She let out a breath as she reached in the box again, this time pulling out a broken phone. She flipped it over to see the cracked screen and her heart almost stopped.
This was Evan's phone. No..
No
No
No
NO.
Ella grabbed a small box that was left in the box, it looked like a box for dentures and she opened it slowly, her hands shaking. And the sight was..horrific. In the box laid human teeth, scattered around. Ella screamed dropping the box as it fell to ground, backing away and covering her mouth with her hands.
Were those..Evan's? No no. There's an explanation. There has to be an explanation by Joe had Ella's panties, picture, tampon, Evan's phone, and..teeth. Joe could explain. He had to. Oh..Joe...
Snapping out of her shocked state, Ella had to put this stuff back. She worked quickly cleaning up the teeth, gagging along the way. She put everything back exactly how it was, even attempting to put the lock back on but it was too busted to stay locked, hopefully it wasn't that noticeable from just looking at it.
Ella wiped her hands on her pants as she walked away. Okay..okay..she had to get out of here, get out, get some air..and just..think.
Ella turned, hurrying up the stairs and back into the book shop. She had to make a beeline to the door. get. Out. Get-
She stopped as she turned the corner, facing Joe almost running into him.
"Oh! Joe! What are you doing here-" she exclaimed, swallowing as she backed away, her eyes looking everywhere but to his. She had to act natural but it was so hard to when she just discovered what she did.
