Fine
Courtney gazed at her phone with blurry, bloodshot eyes, wondering for a moment why she’d set her alarm so early before remembering that she was supposed to go in early to open.
And then the memory of why she had to open returned, chasing away the exhaustion and dread with outright horror.
‘Sandra.’
She hadn’t known Sandra that well. Hadn’t liked her that much, just by dint of hating her job and the other woman being her boss. But now Sandra was dead and Courtney couldn’t help feeling… what? Regret? At not stopping it? At not being someone who could have? For the fact that it was now, simply and forever… too late? Too late for anything?
She gazed at her phone. At the messages. At the ones she still hadn’t responded too, still hadn’t blocked or deleted. She opened the message history in question, finger floating over the screen, unsure what, if anything, she was doing. Block? Reply? Which was her future regret?
‘Can we talk? Please?’
She didn’t know how to talk. What to say without feeling angry.
Not answering would maybe make her regret it.
Answering now, when she still felt so… hateful .
She’d definitely regret it.
Courtney took a breath, closed the text app, and began to get ready for work.
—
The mall didn’t open up to customers until 11, but the various stores began receiving deliveries as early as 9, which is why Courtney found herself entering the mall’s service elevator at 8:30 in the morning after waving Brooke goodbye, the other woman having offered to drop Courtney off using Lauren’s car.
It wasn’t her first time in the oversized cargo elevator - while she preferred to use the store’s front entrance when coming and going at work, she had had to pick up/drop off stuff from loading before - it was the first time she’d taken it this damn early in the morning - and it was also creepy as heck. At least it had, miracle of miracles, not been raining this morning, but that did little to help with the creepiness of the situation, and she was all too happy to get out of the elevator once it reached her floor. So happy, in fact, that it wasn’t until the door had fully opened and she’d managed to step out onto her floor did she bother to look up - and almost fall backwards back into the damn box at the sight of the mannequin some asshole had left standing in front of the elevator as a prank. “Fucking.”
It was the same model of mannequin that was in her store. Not surprising - she’d notice other stores switching to the same style. But it was still a surprise for it to be right here, blocking the elevator.
No. Not quite blocking the elevator. Rather, the mockery of a man was propped up against a door directly opposite her.
The cargo elevator was at the end of a very long hallway stretching around the perimeter of the mall, and frankly looked like something out of some creepy video game. Doors lined one side of the hallway, leading into the various stores throughout this floor at the mall. The particular door the mannequin was busy creating a fire hazard for wasn’t for any particular store, but rather was the one marked “Roof Access.” “Irresponsible…” Courtney murmured as she lifted the surprisingly hard to move figure, dropping it against the wall a foot or so down from the room access point. “Someone’s going to trip…”
Good deed for the day done, Courtney began the walk around the perimeter toward the door leading into Dillard’s own back area. On the way by she passed by yet another mannequin someone had left sitting around.
“I’m going to get a complex,” she mused to herself as she finally arrived at Dillard’s back entrance. She pulled the keys out - Sandra’s keys, and dear god wasn’t that still hard to think about - and opened the door.
She paused as she found herself face to face with mannequin number three.
‘Ok, I’m officially no longer amused.’ Not that she ever really had been. But that number three had been blocking the inside of the door meant that it was probably someone who worked at her store. That or security.
Fuck. What if it had been Sandra, before she’d…
‘Not thinking about it.’
She pushed the mannequin aside and stepped into the hallway, then opened the door to the manager’s office.
And just about screamed at the sight of no less than five mannequins crowding the already small room. ‘What the absolute fuck.’
There was something draped over the single desk taking up most of the room. White lines on blue paper that Courtney recognised even upside down.
“Why did Sandra have blueprints in her office?’ She took a step into the room and then paused, eyes sweeping over the mannequins. They were all facing her, Had they been facing her - the door - before? She couldn’t remember. They had to have been, right?
They are quantum-locked. They don't exist when they're being observed. The moment they are seen by any other living creature, they freeze
The words from that silly Easter egg flashed into Courtney’s mind, and she found herself backing up and out of the room, bumping into the mannequin behind her - hadn’t she left that one by the hallway door - before pushing it inside the manager’s office with the other five and pulling the door closed.
She was being stupid. It was just some dumb experimental short attached to a DVD. Besides, those were angels, not manaqueens, and there was something about stone? She was just stressed. Between Sandra, and Brandon, and work and school and Tay-
‘Don’t think about it.’
It was just too much and she would be fine.
She was fine.