You’re probably wondering why in the world I’d never want to thrift shop again. Mostly because thrift shopping is great and I am not saying that it isn’t. It’s just…it’s good to be aware of who the clothes USED to belong to. Let me explain I’m a college student and I work for the school. I’m also apart of a fraternity. While I had no intention of joining a frat or becoming a frat bro the world had other plans. Anyways a key part of being in a fraternity is doing community service. I always enjoyed helping out people so I usually had no problem getting my service hours on time. However, my schedule had gotten hectic and I barely had time to do communities service. This is how I found myself there, at the share shop. I’d never been into the share shop, from what I knew it was a place that had free utensils, shoes, clothes and even microwaves. The share shop also was in the basement of a dormitory. I was met at the entrance by a boy named Finny.
Finny was really nice and showed me around the area. To be honest, it was kinda creepy, but it wasn’t too bad. “So after 6:30 just shut off the lights and close the door entrance okay?” He said. I nodded my head and was about to turn away when he stopped me and leaned in close “I almost forgot to mention, don’t go into the share shop storage room or the others storage spaces. I don’t want you getting lost” and with that he walked off. I walked into the share shop and sat down waiting for the first visitor. By the last hour I’d had about 20 plus people come in and out getting the things they wanted. Since the shop was empty I looked around a bit. I ran my hand over the hanging shirts and the worn out dresses. One shirt caught my interest. It was a beautiful light pink cashmere sweater with light red splotches all over the front. I reached out and touched it, it felt light and soft I loved it. I may be a man but hey who said that men can’t wear pink sweaters?? As I inspected the sweater I noticed that there was a name on the inside tag “Mia” it read.
I shrugged and set it next to my bag and went to the bathroom. And then I smelled it. It smelled like a decaying animal and it made me gag a bit. I went back into the share shop and noticed that the smell was coming from elsewhere. Since I’d been in the bathroom when I smelled it I figured that it must be in the storage room which was right next to the bathroom. I remembered what Finny said and thought about how much worse the smell would get if someone didn’t clean it up. I decided to go in and do what was necessary. Most likely it was just a dead animal that gotten inside and died. How I wish that was the case.
The storage room door was unlocked. I pushed it open and stepped inside. I gagged as the smell worsened, it was so strong. So so fucking strong it almost made my eyes water. I used my phone’s flashlight to find the light switch and I flipped it on. The room was filled with trash bag’s containing whatever college students didn’t want. One bag in particular looked newer than the rest. It didn’t look like it was covered in dust and I noticed there was something oozing from it. I stood puzzled wondering why someone would put a liquid in a bag. I guessed that it wasn’t unusual but it was still unusual. I grabbed ahold of the bag and noticed immediately how darn heavy it was not only that but how the smell seemed to be coming from the bag. I gagged as I began dragging it towards the door. Once I’d dragged it to the door I stopped and rested for a minute. Curious as to what had died I cautiously opened the bag and almost threw up as the smell hit my nose. I used my flashlight to see what had died and I wish now that I hadn’t. Upon seeing why was in the bag I froze, my hands clenched and I stepped back holding my stomach as I hurled on the floor.
What I saw…I can’t even begin to describe to you. All I can say was that it was a person…or…it used to be. I called Finny first and then I called the police. I explained what I’d seen and they walked in just as Finny arrived. I explained ti him what I’d found and his face went pale. The police returned their faces grim and took me and Finny aside asking for our statements. “Who was it…?”I asked my hands shaking a little. “We don’t know. And I’m sorry to ask but how long have these bags been in that storage room?”the policeman inquired. “Sadly I don’t know but I can tell you they’ve been there for a long time”Finny responded “why do you ask?”. “Well”the policeman started “we decided to look through more of the bags and we found 6 more bags containing various bloody clothes and several shoes.” He shook his head “We’ll inform the school and have them shut down the shop until we complete the investigation. You both should go home and stay in town. We’ll contact you if we have anymore questions.” I walked back into the shop, past the yellow tape and into the shop itself.
I grabbed my bag and the soft pink seater before leaving the shop and going Home. I watched from my window as I saw the police cart out the body and the trash bags. I stayed inside and away from that building for a couple weeks. If I did go out, I refused to walk on the side where that building was. I didn’t want to think of what I’d seen. On the day of Halloween I put on the pink and red splotched cashmere sweater. Id washed it throughly before I’d even thought of wearing it. However the red splotches faded yet never truly disappeared. They became lighter but they still looked red. I shrugged on my winter coat and walked out the door. I had barely closed the door when a police car slowed down in front of the house. I watched as the policeman walked towards me. “Are you Michael?” He asked, I nodded. He pulled out a picture of a girl with mousy black hair, she was smiling. “Did you know her..?” He asked I shook my head “no why who is she?” I asked. “She is the girl whose body you found in that trash bag” I watched as he pulled out another picture and I froze. “Her name was Amelia” he went on “but her friends called her Mia for short”.
My throat tightened, and I could barely breath. My eyes were focused on the picture, in it she was wearing a pretty pink cashmere sweater. A sweater I recognized all to well, my hands shook as I opened my jacket showing the police officer what I’d just learned. I was wearing Mia’s sweater, the last sweater she was wearing before she died. And I had a sickening feeling that the dark red splotches on the sweater were not splotches,it was her blood.