Shot to the Heart

Chapter 2- Epileptic Lettuce from the Shores of Italy

The drive to Southridge Mall was filled with laughter, bad music, and equally horrible jokes. Apparently, Alex's brother, Stefan, had given him a book of bad jokes as an early Christmas present. Alex was having fun telling them to Jayla.

"What do you call epileptic lettuce?"

Jayla shrugged.

"Seizure salad." They both started laughing uproariously.

"Okay, okay, this one's even better! What did Snow White say after she came out of the photo booth?"

"I have no idea!"

"Someday my prints will come." Jayla laughed again, harder this time. These jokes were so. bad.

"Last one, last one. Why did the snowman have a smiley face on?"

"He watched the weather report? I don't know."

"He heard the snowblower was coming."

Jayla laughed harder then she had ever laughed in her life. Tears were coming out of her eyes. Alex laughed hard as well. When they had both calmed down, he turned the radio back on. They found some Indian Pop station and were jamming out to that as they rolled into the parking lot. Jayla deftly manuevered her way through the cars and pedestrians and found a prime parking spot near the front of the building. As she and Alex walked in, suddenly, uncontrollably, she shivered.

"You cold?" Alex asked, watching her carefully.

"No. It's weird, though, that I shivered." Jayla now couldn't shake this creepy feeling that had settled in between her shoulder blades.

"How ominous." said Alex, lowering his voice an octave or two.

"Shut up!" Jayla said, and hit him lightly on the shoulder.

"So, where to first? Shopping, or eating?"

"Eating, always eating."

"A predictable answer. Honestly, I was hoping you'd say that. S'barro's sound good?"

"Absolutely!" She chose a table while Alex stood in line for their food. She scanned the food court once before checking her phone. Frick! It was only at 7%! The charger must not have been plugged all the way in at her house. And Alex had left his phone in the car....oh well. They'd survive.  After all, this shopping trip was only gonna last a few hours. As she put her phone back into her purse, her eyes roamed the food court once more. She noticed a man sitting in the corner table. He was rocking back and forth in his chair, crying. He had a large paper bag beside him, but she couldn't read the label from here. That was odd. She was interuppted by Alex, who came bearing gifts from the magnificent shores of Italy.

"I come bearing gifts from the magnificent shores of Italy!" He announced grandly. Jayla giggled.

"Just give me my pizza."

"Yeah, yeah, and take the fun out of everything. You poopstain."

Jayla smirked, and tore a huge bite out of her pepperoni pizza. The two of them ate their meals and laughed and joked around a bit more. When they had finished, Alex asked her, "What store do you want to head to first?"

"Sears. They sell a shirt my brother really wants there."

They headed out of the food court, and as they did so, they passed the strange crying man Jayla had seen there before. He had one hand resting inside his bag now, rather suspiciously. Jayla considered alerting security, but maybe all this poor guy needed was a warm place to rest for a few hours. She was okay with that. They kept walking toward the escalators, when she saw a sweatshirt that caught her eye on one of those loose vendor stands that stood in the middle of the floor. She held up one and checked the price. In the corner of her eye, she saw that the ragged man had gotten up and followed them. He was at another stand, looking at the ornaments. She noticed the tears had gone, and in their place was a look of rage? Hatred? Whatever it was, she didn't like it.

"Come on, Alex. Let's go." They were headed away, when suddenly yells broke out. They turned around. the vendor at the ornament stand was yelling at the man, who had dropped three ornaments on the ground and broken them. Jayla noticed the man's hand was in the bag again. A suspicion came over her, and white hot dread filled her. As he pulled his hand out of the bag, she pushed Alex away and turned, when BANG!