Stella Ji

The Countdown

Astrid walked toward the isolated bookshelf on the wall. It was oddly distanced from the other collection of notebooks and journals. Bookstores would usually locate these shelves adjacent to each other for easy navigation, but there were quite a few steps between this one and another. Other shoppers didn't even seem to notice this dim corner, and Astrid would have missed it too without the flickering light above. Astrid found herself stepping away from the traffic of the shop as she reached the tall brown shelf placed against the dark green wall. It was stocked solely with duplicates of a small black notebook. Though she found the monopoly unusual, Astrid still appreciated the soft leathery feel at her fingertip. Astrid looked for a barcode or a price sticker but only found five digits embossed in the center both front and back: 20000. If it were meant to indicate the current year, they were horribly off. Astrid dismissed it as a bad copy and grabbed a different one. Same embossing was on the back. She reached for another. Same thing. Now Astrid wondered if this was an intentional design or a terrible printing mistake. Having lost the desire to purchase, she began to put the journal back. As it left her hand, Astrid felt chills going down her spine. She instantly realized something was different, perhaps even wrong. The bustle and the noise had stopped completely. Silence fell over the entire store, and Astrid did not dare turn around. Her instincts were screaming at her to pick up the book. She slowly placed her hand on the black cover, and air began to move again. White noise returned, and Astrid whipped her entire body around. No one was looking at her. Nobody was paying any attention to her. Everyone was going about their day. I... must be really tired, she thought. I must be.