The Haunted Traveler Vol. 2 Issue 1

hung up and dropped the phone in her jeans pocket. She
walked up to her mother, trying to feign interest in the search
for a toy. “You find something yet?”
Her mother had a few items tucked under her arm.
“Goodnight Moon, a magic ball, a baby doll…” She pointed
to a large box in the corner. “…or a cooking utensils play
kit.”
“You might as well give her a box of poop.” Wendy
laughed.
“If you don’t want to help me, fine,” was all her
mother said, before choosing the doll and heading back the
other way to drop off the other toys.
“Sorry,” Wendy said sarcastically, before sauntering
to the other side of the toy store.
She made sure she was out of sight from her mother,
then dialed Cassandra back. She ran her fingers along the
spines of books for toddlers, clucking her tongue in annoyance
as two rings became four, and then six. Wendy waited
for the voice-mail, but none came.
Instead, she looked down at her phone to see it shutting
off.
“Wait, what? No.”
She hadn’t been paying attention in the car, but her
phone had been losing its battery at an alarming rate that
afternoon. She glanced at the top of the phone to see the
dreaded 2% icon disappear, the phone going completely
dead.
“Nooooo,” she said. “Oh, come on, come on.”
Wendy tapped the phone against her leg and looked
across the way to see her mother heading to the register.
But she didn’t stay looking at her mother for long.
Something else caught her eye.
The nineteenth century mannequin was no longer
staring out the entrance door to all the incoming customers.
It was turned around, facing her again, staring at Wendy with
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