5 Minute Reads | Anthology

The Predator by Flamexxz

by Flamexxz 

A narrow alleyway of Ravenshire, the capital city of Somberville . Ignoring the furious glare of the busy outer world, time has decided to pause itself here. Laziness flows through the obscure shadow of the alley, and days pass uneventfully.

Here in the alley, you will see a strange shop. A shop which sells dolls, different kinds of dolls. Those dolls have no similarity with beautiful barbies. They are made by the owner. Peculiar, strange, ugly yet beautiful. From a meter long to human size. Apparently, similar with human anatomy.

The stained glasses were unfolding the story of the ancientness of the shop. The faint walls were craving for a single drop of paint. Despite of all these facts, the counter of the shop was occupied by a strikingly attractive young lady. Which seemed most unusual and out of place. Her crimson red hair perfectly matched with the darkness of the shop. She was most probably in her late twenties, Eliza Springfield, the owner of the shop.

Eliza was going to lit her twenty-third cigarette of the day, when the unexpected customer entered. The bell hanging from the door chimed, at the same time the aged door let out a hoarse scream. The fusion of two completely different kinds of sounds filled in the shop.

"Welcome..." Eliza greeted with a bored voice.

It's very rare to get a customer here. The homeless people, alcoholics, even the drug dealers and thugs totally avoid this alley because of some unknown reason. She peeped through her glasses at her new customer. Although the shop was in the middle of an alley, enough sunlight still came through the stained glasses, contrasting the flying dusts in the air, but the sunlight was also creating enough shadow to hide the person's face under the hood. The customer was a lady. It was hard to tell her age. She was almost entirely covered in a black robe. Her gray hair, which was most probably dyed, was falling in the front, hiding most of her face. The dirty long nails on her slender fingers were adorning ugliness

She walked toward Eliza with her unsteady steps, put her hands on the table and faced her. Eliza noticed the weird features on her face. The pupils of her eyes were small. Which were shaking because of an unexplainable horror. The nose was very straight. The eye bags under her eyes were telling about the sleepless nights. She asked in a shaky but harsh tone.

"D-do you have head?" As she spoke her musty breath infected the air.

Eliza raised a brow, "Excuse me?" she asked, being clueless.

"H-heads! Don't you have it?" Her eyes turned wider.

Eliza frowned a little, she noticed her sharp teeth, like a vampire. "You mean dolls' head? Sorry but I don't sell heads separately. If you want to get a head, you will have to buy a whole doll." She pointed at the showcases.

"O-ok." She blinked, it seemed like she understood.

She moved toward the inner part of the shop with trembling steps.

Eliza was looking at her strange customer. Then she turned on the mini portable TV resting on her desk, fine tuning in order to vanish the shallow stream of statics which were denying to disappear from the TV screen. After being successful in terminating the statics, she switched to the news, and the weatherman's voice filled in the room.

The weather would be fine today. No hint of rain so far...

Meanwhile the lady found the shop was much deeper than she had presumed from the outside. The walls, the floor, the ceiling and even the shelves were coated with dark colours, which were producing a hollowness and mystification. The smoke of the cigarette, the fragrance of the incenses and the damped smell altogether was creating a strange odor. Several wind chimes were hanging from the ceiling, which spiders have turned into their ancestral nest. The selves were huge. Made of solid wood, they smelled of ancientness. Cobwebs had freely spread their branches from the wall to the shelves, connecting them like cables. Dust had wrapped every object within its grasp. Another specialty of the decoration was that, nothing was arranged in a specific manner. Everything was in disarray. Like a storm had just passed through.