Hey guys!
This is a story I wrote back when I was in college for a short story writing competition. Funny thing is, some friends and I participated in the event as the organisers told us that they didn't have enough entries and we wanted it to be a success.
To participate in the contest we all had to pick one of five different starting sentences. I picked the sentence: "The place was haunted..."
I named the story "My Toy Store" (a homage to the Toy Story franchise) and it won first place.
Now, I present to you a slightly updated version of the story. Enjoy :D
My Toy Store 2.0
“This place is haunted," Abe whispered.
I looked at him irritated and confused. I thought about what that sentence could mean for my business... for my life! After a long pause, I said to him, “That’s ridiculous! Don’t go around spreading such rumours. Business is bad enough!”
Abe looked at me and instantly knew that I needed to be left alone. I came to this town with the hopes of starting a new life with a new home, new business, new furniture, new everything. I had changed almost every part of my life, so much so that even if I knew someone from this town, they wouldn’t recognise me. Perhaps I felt my life would change for the better if I started anew. So, I came here, bought a house in the heart of town and just a few blocks away, I bought a store.
Once I was fully settled in my new skin, so to speak, all that remained was an idea for a store and someone to help manage the day-to-day goings-on of the business. At first, I thought of opening a small diner since this was a small town, but I decided to open a toy store named Petits Jouets after some thorough research.
An orphanage once stood in the place of my store some years ago, I learned. Tragically, it had burned down in a horrible accident and everyone in it perished. So, I felt like a toy store would honour their memory while also giving me something to do.
My old life might have been terrible, but I made enough friends and connections to help me get my new store up and running. My old acquaintances put me in touch with some really wonderful toy makers and helped me arrange for a supply of the latest toys. However, there was a slight hiccup. There already was a toy store in my new town, although it sold only old-fashioned toys. It was owned by an old woman whom everyone called Mrs Greenwich. While she looked as old as mother Earth herself, some claimed that she lost her mind ages ago, during World War II. To me, she seemed sane enough, so I didn’t bother much about the rumours. However, I did everything I could to stay out of her way as her sharp and cunning stare from her sunken bony face always made my skin crawl.
As soon as business started to pick up at Petits Jouets, I hired Abe, my new neighbour's son. Abe was a kindly young fellow who needed a job to fund his college education and I was more than happy to oblige as I found him to be quite trustworthy.
Right about now, I would have loved to say that things got brighter and I lived happily ever after, but the truth is that things took a weird and horrible turn just three months after I opened my store. I had always gotten an eerie feeling while inside the store, but I brushed it away and chalked it all up to an overactive imagination. But there were some things that I just could not ignore.
Whenever I opened the store in the morning, I always found some toys lying on the floor in a complete mess. At first, I thought Abe was being sloppy at his job so, I stayed back with him, made sure he kept everything in order before closing shop at night, and only then locked the store. But somehow, the next morning, the place was a mess again. I didn’t know what was going on and was at my wits' end. I thought about asking my friends what to do, but I didn’t want to look stupid in case they didn’t believe me.
Another odd thing was that Abe’s little sister, who couldn't have been older than 5, would stand outside the store and stare at the stairway right next to the counter as if she was in some kind of trance. This really bothered my customers. Some would walk off without even glancing at the toys that I had worked so hard to procure and line up in a fun display.
“What do you keep staring at, Gemma?” I asked the little girl one day.
She looked at me with a cold dead stare and turned her gaze back to the stairway. I liked that little girl, but she was downright creepy!
I continued to lose customers as no one wanted to even open the door because they felt that there was something wrong with my store. If things did not get better, I would have to shut shop for good and return to my old town like a loser. The very thought of going back home a failure gave me panic attacks. Why did I leave?
There was no way I was returning home with my tail between my legs. I was not going to let that happen! I decided to take up revival steps on a war footing and did everything I could to stay in business. I even installed a mechanical pony at the front of the shop to attract the children. But nothing I did worked. I felt like a run-down amusement park that no one found amusing anymore.
Somehow, six months passed by and my business was as dry as the Sahara. I was losing hope fast and losing money even faster. I was defeated... but not crushed.
As I was leaving for the store one day, I met the scraggly looking Mrs Greenwich.
“They say the souls of those poor children still wander there," she said to me.
"Where?"
"The orphanage, dearie."
That's when I understood why people said she was crazy.
“There are no such things as ghosts Mrs Greenwich,” I replied.
“I’ve seen and heard a lot of things over my long life, dearie; things you can’t even imagine.”
“Are you suggesting that you can see these ‘beings’?”
“Oh, they call out to me in my sleep! They call out to me for help! 'Save us, save us!' I hear them cry!” she said, her face growing more ghastly with every word that left her trembling lips.
At that point in time, I could think of only two explanations: either she had completely lost her marbles or I was losing mine.
“They are angry,” she continued.
“Angry? Why?”
“They don’t like you. They don't want you in their house. They want you to leave! Be gone! Be gone!” she flapped about, almost hissing at me like a cat ready to pounce.
I’m not one to scare easily, but this old woman made my hair stand on end. I ran to the store, opened the door and slammed it shut behind me.
“Is everything alright, Miss?”
Up from the pits of my gut and into my mouth leapt my heart. I turned around to face the source of the voice. To my great relief, it was Abe standing behind the counter.
“It’s impolite to startle someone like that," I said, trying my best to gather myself and dust off any signs of fear. Perhaps I didn't make a great job of it as Abe looked apologetic.
“I’m sorry, Miss. I didn’t mean to scare you,” he replied, looking worried.
“Don’t worry about it, Abe. Now, I need your help with something. I need you to help me find out what’s…”
BANG!! BANG!!
Till that very moment, I had managed to spend a great majority of my adult life without screaming like a stereotypical helpless woman in a horror flick. But the preceding events and the gravity of the current moment proved too much for me and I let out the loudest shriek I could muster as just seconds later, I sank to the floor- numb and shaking.
“What was that?” Abe yelled.
He was shaken. Anyone would have been. Slowly, I gathered my wits and courage and tried to wear a brave look to protect the kid. Inside, however, I was shaking like a little pup who had been out in the cold for too long.
“Who’s there?” I yelled. There was no reply.
BANG!! BANG!!
There it was again. This time it was louder and closer. It sounded like it came from the closed room behind us.
For some reason, I had never opened the door to this room. I never asked the landlord about it, nor did I ever give it a second thought. And here I was resting on the door to this mysterious room from where the loud sound just originated. As I looked back and stared at the handle, questions that should have crossed my mind months ago now began popping up, almost mocking me for my determination to remain ignorant.
What was in the mysterious room? Was there something sinister there? Most importantly, was the door locked?
Abe grabbed a stick and slowly inched closer to the door. He held out his hand and picked me up off the floor. Still trembling, I managed to move and stand behind him. I felt useless. I was the adult. I was supposed to protect him.
Abe moved closer to the door and with a sudden burst of energy, broke down the door. There was no one inside. In fact, there was NOTHING inside this once mysterious room, save for cobwebs and a stuffy smell. He quickly went inside and started flinging his stick around like a crazed fool. I slowly moved back, not knowing what we were dealing with.
That's when I heard it.
It was very faint, yet very distinct... the sound of children crying out for help. Suddenly, I got the smell of something burning and I began to cough. They say that when you are experiencing paranormal activity, you can feel, see, hear and sometimes even smell everything that they did at the time of their death; as if you were there when it happened.
Before I knew it, I was standing in front of the stairway that led to the top floor. There were sounds of shuffling of footsteps above me as if many little someones were rushing around. But Abe and I were the only people in the entire building. I gulped and braced myself, not knowing what to expect. Suddenly, a child dressed in white came running down the stairs and ran screaming into the room that was, just moments ago, stripped of all its mystery.
I felt like I wanted to scream and cry but it was as if my voice decided to retreat into the depths of my fast fading spirit. My body went so cold that I felt like a ghost in a foreign vessel. Was this what finally did me in?
“We need to get out of here now!” I heard a voice scream at me. A voice that managed to bring me back to my senses. I was Abe.
Not wanting to witness any more happenings, we ran out of the store and into my car. I drove off as quickly as I could to Abe’s house and dropped him off.
“Where are you going, Miss?”
“Away from here. Far, far away from here!”
I sped off leaving behind everything from my new life, just like the dust that my car left behind as I rushed for a safer place. I left everything that I had worked so hard for and never looked back.
.
.
.
.
.
.
“We sure scared her off didn’t we, Gamma’?”
“Indeed. She didn’t even see it coming” the woman smirked.
“How’d I do Gamma? I think I hurt my leg coming down the stairs like that.”
“Stop whining. You did just fine”
"Of course I did! I even managed to scare you."
"That's what you get for stealing my customers. This town is big enough for only one toy store and mine is all it will ever need. Abe! Go clean up the mess you made in that woman’s store. I think I’m ready to expand my business. Hurry up, boy!”
“Yes, Gamma!”