Make Avery second-guess her sanity

Avery stepped into the back room, wondering where the sound had originated from. Somebody was clearly back here, but she knew the only other staff member on the clock was out front.

"Hey, is there someone back here?" Avery passed through a few aisles of the stockroom and didn't see anybody, though she did see something that made her stop and back up.

It was a pair of boots. They were standing right in the middle of one of the aisles, and they looked just like the boots the customer out front was looking for. Avery looked around, checking for some evidence that she was being tricked.

"Did you specifically send me back here just to look for something you'd already found?" There was no response to Avery's question. "Seriously, am I being messed with?" Avery looked back at the double doors leading to the front of the store. If she was being tricked, there certainly wasn't anybody present that wanted to take credit for it. Avery heard a clicking sound again coming in the opposite direction, and turned around to look at the boots, still standing in their place.

Had they moved?

Avery squinted her eyes, looking around at the stockroom again before approaching the boots. She'd have to get back at Jess for this silly nonsense. She huffed and walked back towards the front, approaching Jess at the counter.

"That's really cute. Why don't you go get them yourself since you went through all the trouble of setting them in the middle of the aisle?"

Jess looked confused.

"What do you mean?" Jess asked.

"I mean what I mean," Avery said, pointing at the back room. "The boots you wanted me to get are sat right out in the middle of the aisle like they're being displayed."

"Avery, I didn't even go into the back room." Now it was Jess's turn to look annoyed. "You mean you found the boots and you didn't even bring them out here?" Avery looked back at the customer, still smiling and waiting. Thankfully she was still out of earshot.

Avery gave her a 'be-with-you-in-one-second' gesture and headed back to the stockroom again, more confused than ever.

When she went back to the aisle with the boots, she took a double take. The boots were gone.

She wasn't sure what to think. There was no way anybody could've gotten to the back room without her seeing. Unless there was actually someone in here, she had no idea how the boots would have moved.

"Listen, I'm going to be real nice about this and not press charges for trespassing...if you come out right now."

Avery heard the clicking again. Someone was approaching from behind her. As she turned to see who the cause of all this was, she looked down towards the floor to see the black boots standing there clicking one of their heels against the hardened epoxy. Avery could only stare as the boot tapped its foot. For what seemed like an eternity she took in every detail...glossy, conditioned leather, zipped up shafts...empty, but filled out as if ghostly feet were wearing them.

When they pivoted on their toes and started for her, Avery snapped out of it and took a few stumbling steps back toward the doors to the front. It wasn't long before she turned and sped back into the front of the store.

"Jess, Jess...?" Avery breezed past the aisles of boots and racks of leather clothing. "Jess?!" She didn't bother to gauge the customer's reaction now. She simply got to the front of the counter and stared Jess straight in the face.

"Avery, what is it now?"

"Jess, the boots..." Avery said through gritted teeth, "They're moving."

Jess responded with an eye roll and headed toward the back room.

"I get it, I get it…" She mumbled to herself. "I won't ask for another favor again."

When Jess burst through the stock room doors, she tripped over something.

It was a box of size 7 boots. With the lid off, she could see that they were the boots the customer had asked for. She had no idea why Avery was so miffed about simply going and getting these while she printed bulk orders, but whatever. She would deal with the attitude later.

Jess put the top back on the boot box and carried them out to the sales floor.

Avery was standing in her path, holding up her hands.

"Were they back there?" Avery asked her.

"Just forget it, Avery, I've got them." Jess brushed past her, but Avery grabbed her arm and stopped her.

“You mean they weren’t standing up in front of you?” Avery asked. Jess narrowed her eyes at her.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Avery.” Jess gave her a firm look. “I’m going to bring our customer her boots now.” Avery thought about trying to stop her, but realized how it must’ve looked. She went back to the stock room to look for any evidence of what she'd seen.

As Jess delivered the box to the customer, Avery searched the aisles. She went up and down the stockroom, but there was no sign of them. Avery's pace got slower as she realized she may have just been working too long. Maybe she shouldn't have had that 3rd cup of coffee. Maybe she should have gotten more sleep last night. She tried one last time to coax something out of the room.

"Hello?" Her eyes jumped from rack to rack, and from shelf to shelf. She didn't get any kind of response, least of all the living boots she thought she'd seen earlier.

Avery sighed, realizing she probably overdid it with Jess. Whatever she thought she saw, there had to be some kind of explanation. She tried to shake out the feeling that something was off as she headed back towards the doors leading to the sales floor.

In the meantime, Jess helped the customer get her boots on. She had been wearing high heels, and Jess had already given her the short thin throwaway stockings that serve to protect the new footwear from customers without any socks. Jess helped her into her first boot, and just when she slid it on she went for the zipper when it moved up its tracks all by itself.

Jess jumped back a little, causing the customer to do the same.

"Something wrong?" The customer, looking down at Jess.

"No, um, can you, uh--just give me a second?" Just didn't want to panic her, but now she had to find Avery. What she just saw was too strange to second-guess, especially after all the things that Avery had been talking about.

As Avery approached the doors to the sales floor, the bolts slid into the floor and the top of the doorframe. Avery gasped and took two steps back. After seeing the door lock itself, she did a quick 360, looking all around the stockroom for a sign of the haunted boots. Her heart began thumping, and now she paced at the doors doubletime to see if she could get the bolts undone.

She jumped back when she heard a bang on the door. That bang, however, had been Jessica, trying to find her in the stockroom. She saw Jessica's face through the small window and was momentarily relieved to see her.

"Avery, did you lock the door?" Jessica asked her.

"Jess, it wasn't me!" Avery answered, reaching for one of the bolts high up on the doorframe.

"I saw it, Avery! I saw the boots move. One of the zippers moved without me even touching it!"

Just then, they both heard a shriek from the boot section.