zombie goasts leave this place!

[KamiKaze]

((Ashlee Donovan continued from Yumeno Hajima Ring Ring))

The memories of the first day of school still flickered around in her brain. Of Teddy’s breakdown(?), of the awkwardness of being back in person after so long. She swore, she just barely survived.

Poor Teddy. Poor… everyone in that convo, really. Quarantine really was rough, wasn’t it? Ashlee definitely could relate. She even started it with a hurt back. She couldn’t imagine what it was like for other people. Was she happy she could go out? Of course. But it was still so surreal that she was able to walk out like this, in her brown teddy jumper dress, straight to the mall after the first day of class.

It went back to normal so quickly it was hard to parse. She still couldn’t believe it.

Honestly, she didn’t really have much planned here at the mall today. If anything, she just wanted to walk around, see how things had changed. Maybe get something small from the food court, you know? And of course, there were people flickering about.

But something caught her eye on the bottom floor.

Oh, of course.

It was a law of nature. If a store shuts down if there’s an empty spot in the mall? There was a high chance of it getting occupied by a Spirit Halloween in the leadup to spooky season. And there it was, the orange sign with the Grim Reaper.

And like a moth to a light, Ashlee decided to walk inside.

She wasn’t expecting to make any huge purchases today. She might grab some small decorations and trinkets, sure. But she already had an idea of what she wanted to dress as. But even then, well, Salem had a big big Halloween culture, and you can’t overlook every stone, not even the tacky Halloween store ones. Already she was hearing rumblings of celebrations, of parties, of things to do around town. She wasn’t kidding about Halloween culture.

Ashlee tugged at a bat decoration, feeling it under her fingers. Somewhere in the distance she heard the distinct audio of an animatronic, along with someone shrieking and giggling.

… Should she somehow talk to Teddy, or Jessica, or Marshall, or Wendy? Just to check in. Just to show she cared.

Honestly, right now she was just stalling for time until she had to go home. Already teachers thought to give homework, and on the first day, too! And, uh… it helped to distract her a little from this morning.