Page 18 of The Girl on Hallow's Eve

But tonight, just Mindy and Gloria.

In the dressing room, Gloria shimmies into a dress that’s the perfect color but might not be the right cut for her shape. She wishes for smaller thighs and to count the bones along her rib cage. Then she could wear anything. She never says it, but she longs for Mindy’s eyes. The blue of her own might be classic with her blonde hair and clear skin, especially when tinted gold in the summer sun, but she would rather have the smoky violet of Mindy’s. They’re unique in a way that Gloria’s aren’t. Mindy doesn’t know. She doesn’t realize Gloria stares at them, wishing she looked more like her.

“Mindy?” she calls out. “Can you come look at this? I really like it, but I’m not sure about it.”

There’s no response. Mindy had said she wanted to look for shoes to go with the gorgeous dark purple, crushed velvet dress she picked out that Gloria would never be able to pull off. She must have gone to the shoe department while Gloria tried on the clothes. Mindy never tries anything on. She always just figures it will fit if it looks right.

Gloria turns back and forth a few times to look at herself in the dress, trying to see herself from as many different angles as possible. Frustrated at the way the waist sits, she peels off the dress and tosses it in a crumpled heap in the corner of the bench attached to the wall. As she grabs another of the dresses hanging from the hooks on the door, she thinks she hears a sound toward the front of the dressing area.

She and Mindy were the only ones in this store when they’d come in. The others at the party either hadn’t ventured this far into the mall yet or just weren’t interested in the large department store when there was so much else on offer tonight. But this was exactly what Gloria had been looking forward to ever since she’d won the invitation and chosen Mindy to come with her. She wanted to be the first to get her hands on the newest clothes and refresh her wardrobe for the rest of fall.

The only other people they’d seen so far were the employee stationed at the one cash register open for the evening and a roaming clerk there to answer questions and help shoppers find what they want. Gloria hasn’t seen either one of them since reassuring the clerk they don’t need help and are perfectly happy just wandering around discovering the store for themselves. But it is the clerk’s job to be helpful, so it’s possible she’s come by to check on them.

She drops the next dress over her head and hears another sound, almost like the door to one of the other dressing room stalls opening. Tugging the dress down into place, she pauses and listens again.

“Hello? Mindy, is that you?” she asks.

There’s still no response and a strange feeling shivers down the back of Gloria’s neck. She can hear the music pulsing out in the open mall beyond the store and the occasional muffled burst of laughter or shout of someone’s name, but it’s faint. She didn’t notice it before, but now the quiet of the store is starting to feel unsettling. She looks in the mirror, telling herself she’s being ridiculous. It’s just that the store isn’t playing music tonight. Usually there’s background music played in stores, but this one doesn’t have any because of the party music being played throughout the rest of the mall.

Gloria examines herself in the mirror and decides she likes this dress, so she takes it off and puts it back on the hanger. She glances at her reflection again, seeing herself standing in the brightly lit, mirrored cubicle in nothing but her teal bra and panties. She runs her hand over her belly almost compulsively. Straightening her spine, she pulls her stomach in to try to accentuate her ribs and hip bones more.

The sound of the door beside her opening and closing stops her. She knows what she heard this time.

“Mindy? Did you find the shoes you were looking for? Are you actually going to try something on?”

Silence comes from the other side of the partial wall separating the individual dressing rooms. Gloria’s heart flutters in her chest. A chill travels along her arms and she leans down to pick up her clothes and put them back on. She wants to get out of there, to find Mindy.

“Let’s go get one of those smoothies they had in the food court,” she says, trying to keep her voice from trembling as she tugs her jeans over her feet.

She straightens and looks in front of her. The scream that starts as a hard, burning rock at the bottom of her belly doesn’t get a chance to come out of her mouth. She sees the image of the dark hood and gleaming blade over the top of the wall for only a brief second before the blade slicing across her throat ends her voice forever.

The first cut makes blood spurt from Gloria’s neck, splattering it across the mirror. She drops out of the gloved hand that holds her, landing in a sitting position on the floor with her back against the bench. She isn’t dead when she hits the floor. Her heart is still struggling to give her body what it needs, pumping blood that ends up pouring like a sheet down her cleavage and onto the floor. She wants to scream, but she can’t. She wants to crawl out of the dressing room and find someone, anyone to help her, but she can’t feel her body. It’s no longer in her control.

All she can do is stare into the mirror as her body turns red and the edges of her vision go dark.

Mindy looks in the direction of the dressing rooms. It’s across the space and behind several displays and columns, but she’s waiting to see Gloria coming toward her. Mindy mentioned that she wanted to find some shoes, so she assumes when Gloria is done trying on the stack of dresses she found, she’ll make her way to the shoe department to find Mindy and pick out a pair or two for herself.

It’s taking her a long time to try on the clothes, but it’s not much of a surprise for Mindy. She knows her best friend and the production that can be her trying on anything. She has to question, then admire, then question, then make a decision about every piece she chooses. What she sees in the mirror that day impacts how long it will take for her to get through each outfit as well as how many of the items she actually brings home with her.

Today has been a good day. For the most part. For Gloria, that means only a handful of instances of complaining about her body or worrying about what she ate. Mindy is accustomed to that. She has to be. She’s the only one who hears any of it. She has to take that responsibility on herself. To listen. To commiserate. To reassure. To hide what she’s feeling and not let it seep out. To keep Gloria’s balance and not let her topple down again. To not let it show how often she wishes things were the way they used to be.

Mindy tries on a spectacular pair of heels that caught her eye the second she saw the display of shoes taking up the entire wall. Each of the clear acrylic display shelves along the wall only holds up one shoe, which means she can try on the right one, but the left one is stored somewhere in the back so it doesn’t take up any valuable display real estate. But trying on just one shoe doesn’t really help. She needs both so that she can actually walk around in them and feel if they are going to work.

The clerk that greeted her and Gloria with tremendous enthusiasm when they first arrived at the store is nowhere to be found. She glances around in hopes of finding her, or at least being able to catch the attention of the cashier who might be able to page the clerk for her. The store seems empty. Except for a small group that came in briefly and then shuffled away when Gloria was deep in exploring the dress department, the two of them have been the only two shoppers in the store all night.

The party has only been going on for a couple of hours, which means many of the invited guests hadn’t gotten far into the mall yet. When she and Gloria got in, they saw a lot of people get distracted by the lights, music, and food in the food court and stop making any progress further into the mall. It was their plan from the beginning to head right up to the top floor. Most people would first explore the bottom floor and then make their way up to the top, but they agreed to do it the opposite way.

Once they get the clothes they want, they’re visiting a couple of jewelry and accessory stores before heading down to the salon to get their nails done. Then maybe a smoothie before visiting what they could on the bottom floor before the event ends.It’s the perfect plan. Only, it requires Mindy to know where Gloria is in order for it to work.

The clerk is still missing and Mindy lets out a frustrated sigh. She sits down on one of the mauve upholstered chairs and takes off her shoes so she can at least try on the one shoe she has. She goes through the process of tying the complicated straps and stands up, lifting her other foot off the floor to try to replicate having the other half of the pair. The long mirrors positioned on the walls near the shoe displays give her a full-body image of herself. She hops around until she’s standing so she can look at the one shoe. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees someone coming toward her.

“There you are. I can’t find that clerk anywhere and I really want to get this other shoe. Can you believe how ridiculous I look right now standing here in one heel? I look like a flamingo,” Mindy says.

Gloria doesn’t respond and Mindy glances over to where clothes are moving on a tall display stretched across a gap between two cube displays containing coiled belts and draped ties. It reminds her of a shower curtain with the long coats hanging on it nearly brushing the ground.

“Glo? Seriously, what are you doing over there? Those are men’s coats. Unless you’re planning on leaving it most of the way open and cinching it closed with a belt, that’s not your look.” She thinks about this for a second. “That actually might be cute, though. Did any of those dresses fit?”

She drops her foot and makes her way back toward the chair. Before she can sit down, the coats on the rack suddenly part and a figure steps through. It’s not Gloria.

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