Murderer on the loose!

Charlie was having an exhausting day in the Crazy shop where she worked part time. She was a student at the local technikon earning extra money to pay her fees.

It was the 31st of October and most of the population were preparing for the ghostly and ghastly,in her opinion, rituals of Halloween.

Kids were going ballistic in the Shop, making their selection from hideous ghoulie masks, ranging from illuminated pull on rubber skulls to witch hats complete with long straggling hair and bulbous warty noses. Parents  simply let them go wild as the youngsters were over excited by the prospect of the 'trick and treat' festivities planned near their homes for later on in the evening.

Charlie dragged two squabbling boys apart as they pulled a magic cauldron, complete with a witch's brew of rubber toads and a bottle of smelly brew, off the shelf to make a magic spell right there in the aisle of the Crazy Shop. Their wailing brought the parents who blamed her for thwarting their children!

Someone came in with a pamphlet and asked if she could put it up on the door of the shop.

"What is it about?" Charlie asked loudly above the noise of spooky background music, yelling kids and the ring of the cash register as she took money for purchases.

"Haven't you heard of this man dubbed 'The Axe Killer'? He's on the loose again and we want to warn people in the area to be on the look out, especially not to confront him as he is considered dangerous.....women in particular as he's said to be very good looking!"

"Yes I heard he murdered a girl named Yvonne.....revolting," she groaned. "I don't suppose the boss would mind," said Charlie wearily, " put it in that space above the advert for edible sour snakes."

Somehow the day ended. It fizzled to a close like a slowly leaking balloon

It was late as the Shop had to sell every Halloween item possible as everything would be half price at opening time on the following day. The Shop would be just as chaotic as this one she thought ruefully, the hoarders would be buying up a storm! 

She had a shopping bag filled with sweeties and trick and treat bags that her two nephews would enjoy later when she saw them dressed up in their Halloween finery, worse for wear after trailing round the neighbourhood. Matt was dressing up as Catain Hook with a REAL scar on his face and younger Jeremy had decided on being Donald Duck some time back.She was relieved that were inclined to be anti horror, just like her. Her sister and her quirky husband were going dressed as two sides of a hot dog roll and yes, their 'sausage' dog had a red tomato jacket and would be carried between them!

She was sad as she reflected on the fact that her boyfriend was in faraway Australia on a student exchange program. In the back alley where the street light was very dim she threw the bag of stuff she had bought on the passenger seat beside her. 'I keep hoping,' she thought,' that this old wreck of mine will be stolen but unless I actually leave the keys in the ignition...... 'with a start she looked at the dashboard as the yellow light indicated that petrol needed topping up.

"Drat," she muttered as she revved the engine, "I'm actually just too tired for this." She pondered over the wisdom of going to her sister's house anyway but common sense prevailed and she drew into the nearest petrol station, glad to see there was someone to fill up her tank, she was that tired.

The young man was charming as he spoke to her, cheering her up considerably. After fussing around with petrol and cleaning the windscreen he came up to her window and suddenly he tensed up as she gave him a considerable pile of cash. She sighed as he walked to the window across the forecourt where a cashier was busy . There seemed to be a bit of discussion and then the attendant came walking briskly back.

"Sorry m'am but you haven't given me enough money to cover the cost of the petrol," he said looking at her boldly.

"I thought I did," she said opening her purse to check.

"You did not," he said rudely.

"Now wait just a minute," said Charlie looking up sharply.

"Are you accusing me of lying? perhaps you had better go and see the manager?"

Suddenly sick to her stomach at how quickly the conversation had escalated into an argument, she unclipped her seat belt and with irritation showing in her face she swung her legs out of the car and strode up to the office window.

The cashier had a strangely relieved look on her face as Charlie marched up to her. As she opened her mouth to remonstrate the woman said quietly, "I think you had better come round through the back door into the office. We have a problem and it doesn't have anything to do with money or petrol. 

Charlie felt goose bumps rise on her arms. "What on earth......." she began until she saw panic cloud the cashier's eyes. She walked rapidly round to the back and was alarmed when the petrol attendant came in closely behind her and the door was locked with an alarmingly loud CLICK. Panic and nausea began to rise in her throat. In the  distance the wail of a police siren could be heard. The urgency and threat that the noise carried made tears start to well up in Charlie's horrified eyes.

"It's going to be okay now," said the petrol attendant, 

"The cashier hurried towards her crouched over as Charlie stuttered "wha.....wha.....what is going on?"

"Get down, he might have a gun," she said as she pulled Charlie onto the floor beside her. "We know you're scared and confused, but you see when Michael here had finished filling your car with petrol and was waiting for you to give him the money he noticed that there was a big hump under some rug or cloth behind your seat and when he had a closer look he could see half of a man's shoe sticking out."

"Oh no," whispered Charlie....."not the 'axe man' guy?" she gasped.

"Well whoever it is he wasn't going to ask you to drop him off at his house!" said the attendant with a grimace.

"Here are the police now!"

The siren was cut off with a loud strangling shriek as blue clad bodies leapt out of a vehicle with a flashing blue light whirling about on its roof.

"Hands where we can see them," bawled one as the back door of her car opened and a handsome man stiffly unfolded his body with her dog's blanket still wrapped around his shoulders."