Page 33 of Made to Be

When he only gave me a confused look, I sighed and pulled out my phone. I clicked on the photo that Alice had sent me to show him, and his eyes widened in realization.

“Oh, the Cochura dining set. Yes, a young woman called me as soon as she found out we came into possession of it. A beautiful set indeed, and one hundred percent authenticated haunted.”

“Yes,” I nodded. “She asked me to get it for her. Do you still have it?”

He grunted in confirmation, “Indeed. It’s displayed over here. Right this way.”

“God bless for small miracles,” I mumbled.

We followed his wiry hunched form to a series of shelves situated beside the checkout counter.

“Do you know who’s haunting it?” I piped up casually. The man only turned to give me a look thatsaid,Why the fuck would I know that?So, I crossed my arms defensively and grumbled, “Just wondering. What if it’s somebody famous or something. That would be pretty cool.”

The man scoffed, “Do you honestly believe if something came in haunted by a famous person, that we would sell it on the floor?”

I didn’t deign that with a response.

When he stopped in front of the shelf, I peered over his shoulder and saw the dishes. They matched the photo exactly.

“We’ll take them,” I told him, eager to get to browsing with Cam.

“Splendid. I will package them up for you. For an upcharge, we can include our ghost-don’t-be-gone padding. It ensures you will not lose the ghost while in transit or your money back.”

“What’s the upcharge?” I asked, then immediately waved my hand, “Nope, doesn’t matter. Yes, ghost padding please.”

The man grinned and shuffled behind the counter to gather the packaging supplies. I turned to Cam and muttered,

“If I bring her these dishes and lose the ghost haunting them, Alice will kill me and makemetheir ghost.”

Cam chuckled, blue eyes crinkling at the corners.

“Have a look around in the meantime,” the man told us. “It’ll be just a few minutes.”

I grabbed Cam’s hand and pulled him along toward the shelves at the back of the store. As we browsed, nothing really caught my eye, nor Cam’s. But it was still fun to look and read the tags on each item. I passed an antique folding camera that claimed it would entrap those it took pictures of, but noted that film wasnotincluded. How would one get film for a century-old camera? Not for any particular reason, just curious.

There was a pearl necklace that would make the wearer a “beauty beyond compare,” but you could never take it off. It had a disclaimer in fine text that the side effects were unknown.

As if that wasn’t disturbing.

And then there was the brass megaphone record player without a sign. For some reason, that one creeped me out the most, and I steered us well clear of it.

Our wanderings took us up the spiral staircase, our steps echoing off the metal with our ascent.

Half of the upper level was what appeared to be a mini library, and I nearly hopped on my toes with excitement. Then I remembered that not everything that was cursed was appropriately labeled and decided not to tempt fate. With my luck, I would pick up a book that sucked me into a mundane world of people without magic. I shuddered at the horror.

Cam had drifted to the other side littered with more knickknacks and had come to a stop. When I peeked around him and noticed what he was looking at, my jaw dropped.

No way...

But yes way. It totally was. There was an entire shelf of BDSM paraphernalia.

What the hell? This was anantiqueshop. What was this kind of stuff doing here? Who would want second-hand sex toys. And why was I... kind of curious.

Chains, whips, paddles, cuffs of a... wide assortment. Ball gags, blindfolds, ropes, studded leather with an unknown purpose... It was, quite honestly, an impressive collection.

Something seemed to catch Cam’s attention, and he reached out to pick it up.

“Wait, be careful-”