You're The Reazon [Sid Wilson Short Story]

Here For You

"Hey sweetheart" Sid called out as he walked into the shop. Rose was perched behind the counter tuning an old Ibanez bass guitar. She hopped off her stool to give Sid a hug as he made his way around. "Well hey yourself," she said with a grin on her face.

"The place looks good. I sure hired the right woman to run this bitch, didn't I?" He asked, throwing his arm around her neck. She blushed and nodded. The bell chimed over the loud music and Sid removed his arm from Rose. They both turned towards the door and saw a tall, skinny guy walking in. He looked like he just crawled out of the sewer and he smelt like it, too.

Rose tried to hide her disgust the best she could but Sid wasn't being a team player. He simply walked back to her office - probably to check on other shit on the computer.

The customer was really starting to creep her out. He stood over in the far corner staring at her. He wasn't even trying to hide it either. She turned her attention from him and continued tuning the bass again. There were cameras in the shop and the monitors were in her office so Sid could be keeping an eye out for the guy stealing. Rose was simply too afraid to watch the guy.

She heard footsteps approaching her and jumped off the stool she had been perched on and dropped the bass clumsily onto the floor. When she whipped around she met the worried eyes of Sid. "Holy fuck, dude." She said as she picked up the bass. "Everything alright?" Sid asked her. She looked over towards the creepy guy to see him smirk at her and walk out.

"Y-yeah. He just gave me the creeps." Rose replied. She couldn't shake the feeling and her heart felt like it was going to beat out of her chest. Sid grabbed her into a headlock and rubbed her head playfully. "I gotta run. Thanks for everything you do here, Rose. It means a lot to me." He said to her as he got ready to leave. She bit her lip nervously. Couldn't he tell how scared she was? She really didn't want to be left alone in here today. But then again, as caring as Sid is, he's still a man and let's face it. They just don't think of shit that way.

Rose didn't have the guts to ask Sid to stay. He probably had more important shit to do anyways. And didn't he hire her to be able to do this shit without him being there to babysit? David owes her big whenever he comes back to work. It damn well better be soon.

"Call me later." Sid said as he opened the door. Rose only waved to him. She sighed and put the bass back on its stand. She decided to unpack the new records that came in and sort through the ones on the shelves. It was pretty slow today - most people in the area were probably hungover from the concert last night, anyway.

- - - - -

About an hour later, Rose had completely let her mind slip of the creepy customer from earlier. She put on one of her favorite CDs ever - 'Jar Of Flies' by 'Alice In Chains'. It was one of their slower CDs that they put out. The whole thing had this acoustic and dark sound to it. But it always made her forget everything else around her. Usually she enjoyed the escape she got from that., But not this time..

There hadn't been a customer come into the shop for at least 45 minutes. She didn't hear the bell chime, or the person approach her. She just felt her elbow being tugged roughly, turning her around. She screamed out and dropped the record she had been holding. She met the eyes of that guy from earlier.

Fear struck her paralyzed. She felt a panic attack coming on - which she hadn't had since she was in high school. She couldn't think of what exactly to do. The phone was on the other side of the store and no one else was in here. Not to mention the music was loud as hell and there's always something going on in here so no one would come check to see why someone was screaming.

The man slapped Rose on her cheek and she yelped out. With her free hand, she punched him in the nose as hard as she could. He let go of her elbow in an instant to grab his nose. She took this opportunity to jump over the counter to the phone. Unfortunately, it looked a lot better in her head than it panned out.