Deep Waters

Chapter Twenty-One

We walked inside a building and quickly realize that it was indeed mostly just a clothing store. To me, it looked to be a thrift store owned by someone from this area, unsurprisingly. Oddly enough I did like the look of the store because everything seemed old and used but in the best way possible. Everything in the one-room building had a history.

"Well, hello!" an older middle-aged man greeted us as we walked in, being alarmed by the bell on the door. "No one told me we were having visitors!" he exclaimed. "How are you two lovely kids this fine morning?" A wide genuine smile showed his brittle, pale yellow teeth and he only had a few white hairs on his bald head.

I felt a little offended that he called us kids but smiled at him anyway. "We are doing great," I replied. "How about yourself?"

"Oh, every day is great here in Arcane Valley."

Arcane Valley. That must be where we were. The one problem was, I had never heard of this place in my entire life. The geography class I took in the seventh grade was failing me. I made a mental note to look up this place on the internet when we got back to the farm.

"Did someone say, visitors?" An older woman walked out from a backroom wearing a long, floral skirt and carrying a bright yellow handbag. "It's so exciting when we get visitors! It rarely happens, you know," she told us.

Kason pushed his hands in his front jean pockets. "When was the last time you had visitors?"

The couple took a long moment to think about it. "It's been about six years I believe," the woman finally said.

I was immediately taken aback. "Six years?" I asked, making sure I had heard her right.

"Yes...is there a problem?"

I shook my head. "No, not at all...I just figured there would be more traffic around here," I said carefully.

"Well that's a silly thing to think," the man chuckled. "We are in the middle of nowhere and this is a nowhere that isn't a somewhere to people." I couldn't even comprehend the sentence that came out of his mouth, but I decided it was best to not speak up about it. "Are you two looking for anything specific?" he asked us.

Both of us shook our heads. "No, we are just looking around the town," Kason told him.

The man chuckled again. "That's not something I'm used to hearing. All of these clothes have cycled through everyone in this town at least three times. People usually know the exact item they are looking for when they come in."

I just kindly smiled at him, not really knowing how to reply to that, and started walking and looking around the store. Though, I already knew very well that I wasn't going to buy anything. With my luck, someone would walk in this place asking for the exact shirt that I purchase. The longer I stayed in this town the weirder it seemed. And at that moment I was getting nothing but weird vibes. "Ready to get out of here?" I quietly asked Kason after a few minutes.

Seeing the look on my face, he nodded, and we kindly said a farewell to the couple before quickly leaving. As soon as we walked outside and the door shut behind us, Kason spoke up. "Everything okay?"

I immediately nodded. "Yeah, this town just gives me the creeps."

Before another word could be said, we were approached by a woman who staggered when she walked. Her left leg shook really bad and her skin was void of any color. She had saturated yellow teeth and her eyes were golden but blood-shot. I stopped in my tracks, not knowing what her intentions were. "Hello, you aren't from around here, are you?" the woman asked us, her voice trembling and barely above a whisper. "I usually remember faces quite well."