Madame Lilibeth's Shop of Wonders

Cw: murder, stalking, and foul language 



It was a regular Saturday morning at the shop where my best friend, Casey, and I worked. We worked at an old junk shop that was owned by her uncle, Jimmy. The day dragged on as we were put on go back duty, which had to be the absolute worst. Huffing, I threw different items into their respective piles as I tried to get my tasks done as soon as possible so we could head out. 

“Hey, Andi!” I heard Casey scream from behind the big yellow curtain that led to the back of the store. 

“What?!” I yelled back. She didn’t answer, so I sighed and dropped the couple items I had in my hand back into my basket and trekked over to the other side of the store. I moved the curtain out of my way, and stepped over her mess of dog beds, shower curtains, and a questionable set of playing cards, which I could only guess was some type of adult game that neither of our parents would be okay with us playing.

“Casey,” I called out once more. 

“In here!” She yelled out from the top of the stairs that led to the upper level of the shop. I walked up the stairs and found her over by the big bookcase where her uncle stored all the kooky conspiracy, psychic, and mystery shit that I always teased him and Casey about. Jimmy had only moved in town a few years back, and Casey didn’t know that much about him, but their mutual love for these things definitely bonded them.

She waved me over and held something out to me. I took a look at it and saw that it appeared to be an ad for some sort of psychic. The bottom of it read, “Madame Lilibeth.” Under the name was an address: 347 Oakwood Lane. 

“What about it?” I asked.

“We should go! You know how much I’ve always wanted to go to a psychic.”

I laughed. “For the last time, Casey. Psychics aren’t real. She’s just a scammer trying to get over on people.”

She didn’t give up. “Let’s just check it out. Please.”

I sighed. “Okay, when? I still have a lot of studying to do for Mr. Ha-”

“Now,” she cut me off. 

One thing about my best friend: it was hard to say no to her. So, she didn’t need to put much effort in trying to convince me to go. I told her as long as we get back by the time Jimmy got back. She agreed, and we closed the shop and headed towards Oakwood Lane. When we got there, we found ourselves in front of a small shop with a dark purple exterior and a sign that read ‘Madame Lilibeth’s Shop of Wonders.’ The shop wasn’t too far away from the city plaza, which I thought was weird. I’ve never seen it before. 

“Case, are you sure about this?” I asked once again, thinking we may have wasted our time. “Let’s just head back. What if Jimmy comes back early?”

She rolled her eyes. “He won’t. He takes forever getting back from his lunch. We have time.” 

I knew I wouldn’t change her mind, and we headed inside. The inside of the shop was dim-lit, and there was a wide array of objects such as crystals, incense, jewelry, and more. The shop was of medium size, not too big nor too small. I looked up to see what I believed to be a black cat figurine perched up on a podium on the far side of the store, until it jumped down and almost gave me a heart attack. 

“Hello?” Casey called out. The store looked empty and was quiet enough to hear a pin drop. We looked around but didn’t see anyone. Right ahead of us, we saw a counter with a bell on it. I walked up to it and rang it twice. After a few seconds, we saw a woman with pale skin, long thick black hair and crimson red lips walk out from a door behind the counter. She looked neither young nor old, I’m guessing somewhere in her thirties. She gave us a wide smile and welcomed us. “Hello, girls. Were you in need of any help today?”

Faster than I could even blink, Casey pulled out the card from her bookbag. “Hi, I found this in my uncle’s shop. We just wanted to come by and check the place out.” 

The woman took the card from Casey’s hand and smiled at us once more. “Of course. Take your time looking around at whatever you’d like.”

She gestured towards the shop, and we moved along the rows of mystical objects and spirituals. I looked over at Casey, who was already lost in her own world and looking excitedly at almost all the objects in the shop. We were definitely going to be here for some time. I looked up at the clock near the entrance of the shop that read 4:17pm. We had at least an hour left before Jimmy would return. 

Casey nudged me in the arm, breaking me out of my thoughts. “Andi, look.”

I turned around and saw what Casey was pointing at. It was in a smaller section near the back of the store. There was the same woman sitting there. As if her sixth sense was tingling, she looked up at us. She flashed us the exact same warm smile as she did before and gestured to the seat in front of her. 

“Hi, ladies. Could I interest you in a palm reading?” She looks at both Casey and me.

“How much are they?” Casey asked, before nudging me on the shoulder. “You should get one.”

The woman waved her hand. “Don’t worry about it. My treat.”

I rolled my eyes at Casey. Eh, what the heck. What harm could it do? I sat down in the chair in front of Madame Lilibeth and stretched my hand out towards her. 

As the woman grazed my palm, I noticed her expression change. She opened her eyes, and the look in her eye was a mixture of concern and fear. I’m taken aback when I saw her hand begin to shake, and without thinking I grabbed it with my own. Casey looked at me, shock evaded her features. I look back at the woman, who now seems to be calmer, although the previous look of fear was still evident on her features. 

“What is it?” Casey asked. 

Lilibeth took a few more seconds to compose herself before speaking. “Your life is in danger.”

Her words leave me puzzled, and I can’t help but find myself needing more information. “W-What do you mean?”

“You need to be careful. Please.” She stood up abruptly, found her way to the backroom of the store and shut herself inside. I’m left with my mouth agape, processing exactly what the woman had said. I felt Casey’s hand rest on my shoulder. “We should go.”

Without saying anything else, Casey and I made our way to the front entrance of the shop. Before I walked out the door, I caught sight of that black cat once again, and I could see his slitted eyes piercing straight through me. I felt a chill run up my spine. I pushed through the double doors of the shop, more forcefully than I thought, and stumbled outside into the autumn air. 

“What do you think she meant?” Casey broke the silence, confusion and fright laced in her tone. 

I tried to shake it off. “It’s probably nothing. Like I said, Case, these kinds of things aren’t real.”

“She looked really scared,” Casey continued. “What if she really thinks something is going to happen to you?”

I didn’t say anything. Instead, I grabbed her hand and begin the walk back to the shop.

***

I didn’t sleep much that night. Just tossed and turned. In the early hours of the next morning, I couldn’t help but lay awake with Lilibeth’s words in my head. 

“Your life is in danger.”

I tried to take my mind off of it. After another half hour of tossing and turning, I eventually fell into a deep slumber. 

When I woke up, it was almost noon, and I was soaked with sweat. I didn’t have any dreams last night, which was unusual for me. I heard my text notification go off and I picked up my phone from my nightstand. It was from Casey: CALL ME AS SOON AS YOU CAN!!

I called her and she picked up after the first ring. “What’s going on?”

“It’s not there.”

“What are you talking about?”

Her voice was shaky. “Madame Lilibeth’s shop. It’s not there anymore. It’s gone.”

I felt my entire body go rigid. How the hell did a shop just disappear? There’s no way. She must have just gotten lost. She took the wrong street and probably just missed it. That has to be it. I got so lost in my racing thoughts that I completely forgot that I was on the phone. “ANDI??!”

She snapped me out of my own head. “Case, there’s no way. You had to have gotten lost.”

“Come see for yourself.” I heard a click, and the call ended. 

I’m there in less than 5 minutes. My mom was still asleep, so I just grabbed her keys and borrowed her car. I made my way to Oakwood Lane and saw Casey hugging herself tight in the cold weather. I got out and slammed the door shut as I raced over to her, and the sight before me made my blood run cold. 

It was gone. Just like she had said. The lively purple exterior from before was now a chipped, peeling mess that was slowly deteriorating with age. There were cobwebs covering the corners of the doors and the inside of the shop was deserted. No display cases, no crystals, no nothing. I took a step back and almost fell on my ass. It was as if the place had never even existed. I remembered the card with Madame Lilibeth’s number on it and I reached in my bag to get it. But the card was nowhere to be found. There was no proof that this place was even real. 

“What the hell, Andi?” Casey said, petrified. I swallowed hard. None of this made sense. My chest began to feel tight, and I felt a sour taste grow in my mouth. I wanted to throw up. I felt the world around me begin to blur, and I collapsed to the ground as everything went dark. 

I woke up back at home. I was in my bed, and I heard voices outside my room. For a minute I just laid there, wanting this all to be just some sort of horrible nightmare. I slowly got up and swung my legs over the side of my bed. I felt groggy and my legs were tingling with that weird pins and needles sensation. I looked at the time on my clock and saw that it was close to six. Had I really been out that long? 

I heard my doorknob turn and click open and saw Casey enter my room. “Good, you’re awake.”

She opened her phone and tossed it on the bed next to me. On the screen was an open google page. I looked at it and froze. It was a news article that was dated about 10 years back. 

April 9, 2013

The body of 38-year-old shop owner, Lilibeth Reynolds, was found earlier this morning by three customers in the early hours of this morning. 

The decedent’s cause of death is believed to be the result of foul play, but an autopsy is still yet to be performed as she was taken just hours ago by the Oakwood County coroner. 

***

The next day Casey and I were back at her uncle’s shop, and I barely managed to get through the day with my racing thoughts. Casey’s shift eventually ended, and I told her I would text her as soon as I got home. I agreed to help Jimmy close for the night. I was cleaning out an old trunk that was next to Jimmy’s office. He was out on his break right now, and I figured he could use the help. I pulled out a bunch of magazines, newspapers, and envelopes. A photo at the bottom of the trunk caught my eye, and I did a double take. What the…?

It was a picture of Jimmy…with Madame Lilibeth. He was in a plain black suit, and Madame Lilibeth was wearing a gorgeous wedding dress. I looked at the back of the photo and saw the date on the back. 6/23/2003. No way. I scrambled through the other remnants of the trunk and found newspapers about Lilibeth and her death. I found what looked to be a journal. I opened it and the more I read, the more I felt my heart threaten to stop. 

In the journal, there were entries upon entries of Jimmy writing about Madame Lilibeth. Every single page. Madame Lilibeth’s birth name was Caroline Omatta. Before she moved and began her business in Oakwood, she was married. Her husband’s name was James Montana, and they were married for almost seven years. During their marriage, they were trying to have children. Due to Lilibeth’s infertility, they had a difficult time conceiving, and it eventually led to James' drinking and becoming emotionally and verbally abusive. After dealing with this abuse for several years, Lilibeth left in the middle of the night while her husband was at work. She changed her legal name and moved across town, and she never went back. 

“Holy shit.”

In the trunk, I found countless pictures…of me. There were pictures of me walking to school. There were pictures of me in my room. Even some of me hanging out with friends. Jimmy was completely obsessed with me. Lilibeth's words slip inside my mind once more: Your life is in danger. What the fuck. I backed away from the trunk and spun around and saw Jimmy. His look was one of anger and I felt myself want to throw up. “Jimmy?”

He took a step towards me. “You weren’t supposed to see that, Andi.”

I didn’t know what to say or do next. I was terrified. I felt nauseous and wanted nothing more than to get out of here. I tried to make a run for it, but only got so far before I felt him grab onto me. I cried out as I felt his hand dig into my arm, and I grabbed a gargoyle statue from a shelf in the shop and hit him over the head with it. He screamed in pain and instantly lost his grip on me.

He stumbled back, and I rushed to get away before he found his balance. I ran down the stairs leading to the lower level of the shop when I felt him push me. Hard. I fell down the last few steps and hit my head on the hardwood floor, making my vision blur. Through my impaired sight, I saw Jimmy’s figure approaching me slowly. When my vision finally clears, I see a maniacal smile plastered across his face. 

“It was you. You were Madame Lilibeth’s husband. You killed her, didn’t you?” I questioned, hatred radiating off my words. 

“Yes,” he replied. No remorse was found in his voice. He was completely monotonic. I looked into his eyes and noticed the sheer lack of humanity. He was nothing like the Jimmy I had known for so many years. 

“Caroline was my wife. We had eloped when she was 29, and I was 33. We had moved to the city and built a life for ourselves. We were married for almost eight years before she left me.” 

“She’s the reason I came to Oakwood in the first place. It wasn’t for this stupid shop. It was to find her and make her pay for abandoning me.”

“You’re a sick fuck,” I spat. He kicked me in the stomach, making me cry out in pain. I noticed him reach into a cubie that was attached to the wall. He pulled out a revolver, and I felt a chill run through me. He aimed it at my head, and I begged for a miracle. I closed my eyes tight. This couldn’t happen. I couldn’t die today. Not like this. 

He pulled the trigger. I wince as I hear the click of the revolver, but no shots came out. A look of confusion crossed his features. He tried again. And again. Nothing. He yells in frustration. I took advantage of the opportunity to kick him in his knee as hard as I could, hearing a loud crack as he screamed in pain. He fell backwards and tripped over scattered items on the floor and hit his head against the corner of a table. I heard another crack as he fell to the floor, unmoving.

I let out a shaky breath, my chest still tight. I propped myself up on my elbows. I see something out of the corner of my eye, and I turn. There she was. Madame Lilibeth. She looked the exact same as she did the day I met her at her shop. The same long black hair and warm presence. She gave me one last smile, and then she was gone. I hope she’s at peace. 

I pulled myself up. A pool of blood had made its way around Jimmy’s head, and for some reason I needed to make sure of something. I had slowly walked over to Jimmy and got the gun that was lying next to his now lifeless body. I had opened the chamber, and sure enough, it was loaded. I let out an emotional sigh and looked up. Towards the Heavens, or the Cosmos, wherever Lilibeth now was. 

“Thank you.”