I stood in the frozen food isle looking to the front of the store. My jaw hanging open like I was some kind of zombie. I never meant to be a creep… it’s just the new girl Cindy, well she was the prettiest girl I had ever seen.
“Uhh…” I heard my managers voice from behind me. The rack of salad dressing seasoning I was leaning on mindlessly, toppled to the ground as I sprung out my trance at the sound of my name.
“Dennis!” I said ears flushing red with embarrassment as I bent over to clean up the mess I had just made. The clamor of the fall causing everyone around to look our way.
“Are you alright? You were staring out into space” Dennis said raising an eyebrow.
“Oh… oh.. yeah I was looking, I was uh… looking up front, because I thought someone was stealing” I said bumbling.
“Who? The guy in the red!?” Dennis said now scanning the front of the store.
“Oh no! Not him. I think… I think it was a false alarm” I mustered out.
“Alright then… listen, I need you to go cover cash. Susanne has to leave and the new girl has to have someone there who can help her.”
“Absolutely!” I said probably sounding too excited. I had to make a good first impression…
I walked over trying to play it cool, doing my best cavalier nod in her direction.
“Sup.” I said trying to imitate all the guys I had seen in every movie and show.
“Hi!” she said with a big bright smile.
Instantly my cool act crumbled. She was gorgeous. She looked almost too perfect…
For the rest of the night I tried not to seem like an idiot. A few times I had to help her ring some things through and I think she was kind of surprised by my knowledge (in a good way). I was getting more confident as the night went on.
“So anyways, I’ve been here a while, I basically know all the shelves by now.”
“Wow” she said seemingly impressed.
“Yeah… you know I’m not gonna be here too much longer” I said smugly.
“Probably gonna get a job in the city soon, big money. Get out of this dump. “
“That’s like totally cool.” she said twirling her hair.
Maybe it was in my head but she really seemed interested in everything I told her. I mean she wasn’t sharing too much but anytime I told her about myself she would listen intently, every once in a while interjecting with a ‘wow’ or a ‘cool’ and a smile.
She was way out of my league but I was going to shoot my shot. After work that night as we were all leaving I pulled up beside her.
“Cindy… I was uh, wondering, would you like to go out sometime” I was so nervous. I’m not sure if I caught her by surprise or something but at first she stared down at the ground in front of her into nothing. It felt like it lasted an entire minute. Finally she looked up at me as if she had registered what I had said, her face switching to that happy bright smile I had seen earlier.
“Yeah… that would be like… totally cool” her voice with the tell tale valley girl accent that made every sentence sound like a question. “G-g-great. I’ll see you tomorrow then!” I said nearly giddy.
The next few months flew past. Cindy was amazing and I loved every second I spent with her. I took her to every hot spot in town I knew about. I kept telling her how I was finally gonna land that job one day so I could take her anywhere in the world she wanted.
At first I didn’t notice, I mean I was just so happy to be with her. I really couldn’t believe she was dating a guy like me and not flying around doing modelling gigs or something. I tend to talk a lot so I guess it was nice to have a listening ear; she always seemed interested.
After a few months I realized, Cindy didn’t say much… much of anything really.
To be honest and I know it’s shallow, but I think I was still so stunned by her looks I hadn’t noticed. She didn’t have a blemish. It was like she had filters on… in real life. One day I tried to get her to open up.
“Hey Cindy…” I said bashfully.
“We’ve been going for a while now and I think that I talk too much about myself maybe… I mean, you don’t really ever say anything… like anything at all.” I realized how weird it was that we had been seeing each-other for months and she had hardly talked.
“Oh..” she said sounding surprised. “Yeah… yeah I guess so!” at first spacey but then it was like she snapped out of it and was excited about it for some reason.
“Well… I mean why don’t you tell me… I don’t know, like what are you into?” I said feeling kind of foolish. I really didn’t know anything about her.
Of course I knew some things about her…
I had met her family and been to her house, they all seemed friendly enough. I had been in her room briefly but only once or twice. She had some posters and books but not much else. A few porcelain dolls she called her ‘friends’ (which I admit is kind of funny now) and a vanity table where she would do her make up.
There was a TV show she liked that we watched together once, I didn’t really follow the plot. I was too distracted by her. I kept glancing over and it seemed like she was enjoying it but her expression was kind of… idk, like monotone or something.
She just kept smiling at the screen with glassy eyes.
Afterwards I asked her what she liked about the show and all she said was…
“I don’t know, they’re… they’re all so nice. I just like it.” her voice trailed off.
We went roller skating a few times. We didn’t talk much then either. I was infatuated with her though. Did I mention she was beautiful? She was like really really pretty.
I think she had fun. I remember looking at her when we were out and she sort of had this vacant expression; at that time I figured she was focused on not falling.
I snapped out of my recollection as she started to answer my question.
“Well…” her tone raising as if her brain was compiling data for some gargantuan task elongating the syllables. Her eyes blinking as she stared out into space.
“Well…” I said encouraging her as time dragged on.
“Like.. when I get this job. Where do you want to go? I said I would take you anywhere. Japan? Mexico? Australia?”
“Yeah!” she said with a bubbly laugh and smile.
“Yeah… but where do YOU want to go” I said trying to help her find the answer as she sat there contemplating like she was computing the final sequence of digits in pi.
Her brow furrowed slightly and her mouth opened, almost reminding me of that meme of the surprised Pikachu. What was so difficult about a simple question?
“You know what” I said interjecting. “It’s cool, it’s totally cool. We can go to all of them.” I said trying to make light of the awkwardness of her apparent mental meltdown.
To be honest I was fine if the girl I was dating didn’t have much in the ‘brains’ department, she had a good heart I thought. Plus, she was so so unbelievably pretty.
Friday evening rolled around and I had decided I was going to surprise Cindy. I had at least found out in the time we had been dating what some of her favourite snacks were. I stopped at the store and picked them up and a special edition magazine about that show she liked.
I had mentioned my plan to her parents. They told me they would be out, but just to walk in; they were positive she would love it.
I pulled up to the house as silently as I could. I would be sure not to scare her but didn’t want her to know I was there. I texted her before I left and she said all she had planned tonight was relaxing and watching her show with her ‘friends’.
I noticed it was really quiet. It didn’t look like any of the lights were on. I sent her another text, but she didn’t respond. I walked up the porch with the surprise snacks and magazine in hand, carefully opening the door as I walked inside.
I had expected to hear the TV or the radio going, maybe Cindy in the kitchen cooking, or the shower running. Instead it was dead silent. Was she even home? Maybe this was a dumb idea I thought. The house was uncomfortably dim and looked almost foreign in the dark.
“Cin-dy” I said in a melodic whisper as I crept through the house.
I looked up the stairwell and saw a sliver of light. I realized she must be in her room so I started my way up the stairs. While tiptoeing, I noticed something in the photos on the wall of the stairwell. Cindy was hardly in any of them… and the ones she was in? Her expression… her expression, or more aptly lack of one, was completely flat.
“What…” I said taken aback.
The Cindy I knew was always smiling… how strange I thought, as I continued up the stairs.
I could hear her now. She was in her room. She was humming quietly to herself. A thin ray of dim light emanated from the crack in the door. The wood floors creaking nearly imperceptibly as I made my way to the room. I rested my hand on the handle for a moment and slowly pushed it open.
There she was, gorgeous as ever brushing her hair. The strands like silk and ivory waves as they fell gracefully through the comb. She still hadn’t noticed. She was seated at her vanity, her back to me.
It was too dark for the mirror to show a proper reflection. I wanted to speak but I was almost enchanted. She reached into a drawer in the desk and pulled out what looked like a key. I watched mesmerized.
Then my heart stopped.
Cindy’s movements were extremely rigid, her arm contorted behind her almost inhumanly as I watched her part her hair and unzip the upper part of her dress. Her hand pressed into her back and I heard a click and a pop, a panel springing open. I watched in absolute shock as she inserted the key into her back and began turning, her movements becoming more fluid with each turn.
I gasped audibly.
She stopped.
Her head slowly rotated in my direction 180 degrees. There was no smile now, her eyes cold and sharp piercing through me.
“Cindy…” I said astonished.
Like a switch I could see her start to try and form a smile, but something was wrong. I had interrupted her process… Her arm fell limp like a puppet. Her expression became emotionless again, her right arm struggling to reach behind, finally turning the key.
She stood from her chair and walked slowly towards me. “You… were NOT supposed to see ME like this!” her voice hard and harsh.
I was too stunned to move.
Then, she placed both her hands on her face behind her jaw. I heard the same click and pop as before and watched aghast, unable to move as she pulled the visage of her face from the frame. Like a wooden mask, a facade…
I felt a strange sensation in my legs. I looked down at my feet and watched in amazement as they slowly became hard like stone. I looked back up to Cindy in unbelieving horror. Her perfect doll-like complexion gone… her features the same but her skin ghastly pale and eyes black with hate.
I was being petrified.
The last thing I can recall thinking as the solidification overtook my body was… in spite of the horror of the situation and the fact that I would soon be stone…
Still.. so… pretty…
I woke a few days later in the hospital. They told me they had found me standing completely motionless in a local park. The doctors diagnosed it as some undocumented type of stasis. Fortunately I did wake up and my body has returned to normal for the most part.
I drove to Cindy’s house as soon as I was released. I don’t know what I expected. It couldn’t have been Cindy that did this to me… that was all some sort of bizarre dream.
I checked my bank statement, it showed that I had been to the grocer that evening when I picked up the magazine. It was real.
When I got to the house I saw it right away. The ‘For Sale’ sign; the house already sold. I knocked on the door regardless. There was no one… I looked inside the house. All the furniture was gone. All of the items… gone.
Cindy… was gone.
I’ve tried dating a few times since all of this happened. For some reason it just isn’t the same.
I guess I’m not used to dating girls who talk so much, and even though some of them are very beautiful they don’t compare to Cindy…
I still have a photo of when we were together. I found a number for a local porcelain doll maker. I think I’m going to get him to go through with it… He said it was strange but he should be capable.
It will never replace her… the life sized doll of Cindy… but I think we will get along fine…
I do most of the talking anyways.