Night Terrors

R eva stood on the main floor of Dalby’s Department Store and gazed around nervously.

I shouldn’t have come here to pick Daddy up. I should have let the driver bring him home.

The store stood empty, closed for the day. The main lights had been turned off and the dim security lights cast long shadows over the glass counters.

I shouldn’t have come here, Reva thought again. Being in the store after closing still gives me the creeps.

Turning quickly, Reva glanced behind her. No one stood there, aiming a gun, ready to kill her. It’s over, she reminded herself. The kidnapping happened a year ago.

Go upstairs and get Daddy. He’s waiting.

Reva gave herself a shake, then started across the darkened floor into the cosmetics department.

What was that noise?

Reva spun around again.

No one.

Running her hand along the cool glass of a perfume counter, Reva hurried through the cosmetics department. She crossed an aisle and began making her way past racks of winter coats and displays of sweaters.

A group of shadowy, dark-coated figures suddenly loomed up in front of her.

Gasping, Reva stumbled backward into a rack of parkas. The heavy jackets seemed to close in on her. She frantically batted at them and scrambled away.

The figures were still there.

They didn’t move or come after her. They just stared down at her with glassy eyes in their stony faces.

Glassy eyes.

Smooth, stony faces.

Mannequins.

Reva let out a shaky breath. She’d been terrified by a bunch of plastic mannequins.

Scolding herself, she continued through the clothing department.

More mannequins arranged in fashion-model poses peered down at her as she made her way toward the bank of elevators on the far wall.

When she reached it, she stopped, confused and stunned.

The elevators had disappeared.

The wall was totally solid.

What was going on? The elevators had to be here!

Reva ran her hands along the wall. No gleaming elevator doors, no shiny buttons to push.

Had she gotten turned around in the darkness?

It didn’t seem possible, but...

Reva gasped as a tune began to crackle from the loudspeakers.

“Silent Night.”

Reva shivered with fright. The same song had played the night of the kidnapping. The night she’d almost been killed.

And now it was playing again.

“Silent Night.”

Her heartbeat drummed in her ears. Sweat broke out on her forehead.

She had to get upstairs. Get her father. And get out of here!

The music seemed to grow louder as Reva hurried back through the clothing department toward the opposite side of the store.

Past the hovering mannequins, through the racks of coats, and back into the cosmetics department.

Find the elevators and get out of here!

The music soared. It was getting louder!

Breaking into a run, Reva knocked into a display of perfume bottles. Glass shattered on the polished floor. A sweet, overpowering scent rose into the air.

Reva kept running.

The music pounded in her ears.

Reva dashed past a display of designer makeup and raced toward the far wall.

No elevators here, either.

Where were they? How could elevators just disappear?

Frantic to get away from the music, she raced back through the cosmetics department, then turned toward the center of the store where the escalators were. They’d be turned off, of course, but at least she could climb them up to the executive offices on the sixth floor.

Huh? The escalators were gone, too.

Reva stared at the empty space, shaking her head in disbelief.

What was going on?

“Silent Night” stopped, then started again.

The music didn’t just play by itself, Reva thought. Somebody had to turn it on.

Somebody had changed the store around. Made things disappear. Made it so she couldn’t get away.

Trapped her in here!

Reva suddenly shivered as she heard movement behind her.

Creaking, groaning sounds.

And a loud thumping.

Footsteps.

Terrified, Reva spun around.

And screamed.

The mannequins! The mannequins were moving stiffly down the aisle toward her.

Alive, Reva thought. The mannequins are alive!

Their plastic limbs creaked as they came closer.

Closer.

Reva looked to her right, to her left.

More mannequins. Dressed in winter coats, in beaded evening gowns, in delicate silk lounging robes, they stalked toward her.

Screaming again, Reva backed up.

The mannequins closed in.

Surrounded her.

“Please!” Reva gasped. “Stop!”

The mannequins pressed closer.

Their faces were cold and blank.

Their glassy eyes gleamed in the dull light.

Empty eyes.

Dead eyes.

Reva tried to scream again, but the mannequins pressed even closer. She sank to her knees, felt their weight on top of her.

She couldn’t breathe!

They were smothering her!

Please! she thought. Please!

Something soft and thick filled her mouth.

I’m going to die!

Reva jerked her head aside and tried to take a deep breath.

Sweet, cool air filled her lungs. Her eyes snapped open to darkness.

Empty, quiet darkness.

No mannequins. No “Silent Night.”

No store.

A nightmare, Reva realized with relief. She shoved her thick comforter away from her face and took another deep breath.

She was in her bed, in her room.

She’d had a hideous nightmare.

Another nightmare.

So many horrible things had happened to her at the store, it was no wonder she had nightmares about it.

Pushing her damp hair off her forehead, Reva groaned and sat up.

And froze in terror as two hands grabbed her in the darkness.

Дата добавления: 2015-07-20