Elise sprinted up the stairs two at a time. Where was Tommy? How comes it had a piece of his orange shirt on its arm? Had it taken him— kidnapped him? Worse? She could barely bring herself to think about it.
She burst out into the bright, spacious ground floor. It was bustling up here. Lots of interested women (and a few desperately bored men) examined the store’s collection of make-up. It took only s a few seconds to spot Athena’s bleached blonde hair moving in between the aisles of mascara. Elise raced round and up to her.
“Athena!” she cried, grabbing hold of her arms and swinging her round.
“Elise!” Athena gasped and apologised to her customers, who shrugged nonchalantly and wandered off.
“Athena,” Elise gulped, trying to let the cool air and soothing perfume calm her. “There’s a thing downstairs.”
“A thing?” Athena raised her eyebrows.
“Yes,” Elise nodded frantically, “a thing. Like a… a shadow. It’s done something to Tommy. He’s gone. Vanished.”
“Vanished?” Athena remembered the recent disappearances of the three people. Two of them had been in rooms with locked doors and windows. In order to get into Fiona Adamson’s room, they’d had to smash the window. There’d been a chair lodged under the door handle.
Athena hurried to the basement stairs smiling sweetly at customers who shot her odd looks. But at the top of the stairs, she paused. “Come on, Elise!” she hissed over her shoulders.
“No,” Elise shook her head, “it might be still down there.”
“Oh come on,” Athena stepped back, took her hand and pulled her forwards, “I need you to show me where it was.” And before she could argue, Athena had dragged her to the bottom of the steps.
It was eerily quiet downstairs. The chatter of happy shoppers seemed a long way off. It was dark down here compared to the bright light upstairs. “Where’s the light switch?” Athena muttered in annoyance, fumbling along the wall. She found it, and the basement was flooded with the artificial lighting. “Where did you see this thing?” she asked. Elise crept over to the joke toys’ column.
“Round there,” she whispered.
“Why are you whispering?” Athena asked loudly. Elise shrugged nervously. Athena stuck her head round the column. “Oh my – “ she began but Elise interrupted her: “Is it there?”
Athena’s heart pounded and she quickly turned back to look at her. She was grinning. “No of course not!” She grabbed Elise and pulled her round. “Do you see it?”
“No,” Elise said, “but I’m telling you, it was right here. I saw it, I swear!”
“Sure,” Athena smiled and walked over the to the desk, “now come on, get on with your job.”
“But Tommy” Elise protested.
“But Tommy what?” Athena asked impatiently “That ‘thing’ probably was Tommy, dressing up and scaring you for a laugh. He’ll have run off now.” She stepped behind the counter, looking down to check she stepped over the wires. Then, she screamed.
Elise ran round to the counter. The shadow man, with his square head and featureless face, was sitting, crouched under the counter. He was facing Athena. With a move like lightning, his hand shot out to Athena. She wasn’t fast enough. With another scream, his hand fastened around her leg. And then she was gone. In her place, stood another shadow man. It was unlike the first. Instead it was a perfect silhouette of Athena.
The Shadow Man released the ankle of the Shadow Athena. Elise couldn’t move. She was frozen. Shadow Athena turned her blank face towards Elise, and reached out her arm.
Uth 