"Ok hon," Selene smiled. "Friday the thirteenth is a somewhat auspicious day for your first solo shift, but if you're confident you can handle it then I'll head back home and leave you to it."

I nodded, "I'll be fine, ma'am. I can handle it."

Of course the place almost never got busy. Having two customers in here at once was a rare treat. And I'd been here four weeks now, including the last two working full time. It almost felt silly having two of us in the shop when ninety-nine percent of the time we outnumbered the customers by a wide margin.

I added, "Enjoy your day off. I'll be fine. I'll see you tonight before I go home, and let you know how it went."

"Ok then hon," she smiled.

She disappeared through the stock-room door and I settled in for my first shift alone in the store.

The morning was quiet, but we had some customers drop in over the lunch hour. Then it was quiet again in the early afternoon.

It was nearly two o'clock when I spotted a guy stalking towards the shop with a determined glare on his face. I watched through the window as he approached, and I could tell he was going to bring trouble.

He looked to be in his fifties, he was dressed in a dark suit like some kind of business man. He didn't feel like a banker or insurance salesman or anything like that though. It felt like whatever line of work he was in, it was something dark and unpleasant.

He was tall and well-built. I'd guess he was about six-foot even, with broad shoulders. He had maybe a little extra padding around his middle but not much for his age. His skin was slightly tanned. His hair was dark and cut short. When he got to the door he flung it open and stalked inside.

It occurred to me that he didn't look like the type to be shopping in an occult store. I didn't like to stereotype but I did get a bit of an idea for the sorts of people who shopped here over the past month. This guy didn't seem to fit any of those patterns.

The man faltered slightly when he saw me behind the counter. I realized he was probably expecting to see my boss here. Coming in looking for a tall middle-aged blonde and instead finding a scrawny teenaged brunette seemed to temporarily throw him off whatever mission he was on.

He recovered quickly, then stated abruptly "I need to see Selene. Where is she?"

I was silent for another second or two as I reviewed my options. Handling irate customers had been part of my training of course. I knew the store policy was 'No Refunds, No Returns' but Selene said if someone was really upset then it was better to just give them what they wanted.

And she was very clear that if anyone was rude or loud then I should ask them to leave. Calling the police was the last resort, but if someone refused to leave or they started causing damage or acting threatening it was the only option. She'd even showed me the speed-dial on the phone, just in case.

For now I tried the first step, which was to find out why the customer was upset in the first place.

"I'm sorry, Selene is off today. Perhaps you could tell me what seems to be the trouble?"

"Bullshit," he stated. "She's never off. I want to see her, and I want to see her now!"

I frowned slightly as I thought again through everything I'd been told. Unfortunately the one thing she hadn't explained was how to get in touch with her if someone really needed to see her. I didn't have a phone number for her. I wasn't even sure if she had a phone.

Of course her home was on the other side of the stock room door, but that was one of the most important things she'd told me never to do. I was not to open that door when there were customers in the store. She didn't even like it opened when the front door was unlocked.

"I'm sorry sir," I responded calmly. "I don't have any way of reaching her at the moment. If you'd like to give me your contact information though, I'll see that she gets it as soon as she's back."

The man scowled at me and raised his fist up in what I knew to be a threatening gesture. I'd been on the receiving end of that from Chuck and Doug often enough to know what it meant.

He growled, "I'm not fucking around kid. You get your boss here right now, or else!"

I glanced at his fist, then my eyes were back on his again. I'd remained oddly calm so far through the entire confrontation. The man was acting a lot like the bullies at school did, but those tactics no longer scared me.

In my internal predator-prey fantasy world, I recognized the irate customer as an angry rodent. He could squeak, and he might even draw blood if he got lucky with a bite or scratch. But in the end I would come out on top. I wasn't quite sure how that translated to the real world, considering the man was a good eight inches taller than me, and probably some eighty pounds heavier.

My voice remained calm as I finally replied, "As I said, I don't have any way to get in touch with Selene. She's off today. She'll be back again tomorrow though, if you really need to speak with her."

He seemed to ignore what I'd just said. He still had his fist raised, and this time he raised his voice as well. "Fuck you kid! You get your boss here right fucking now!"

I took a deep breath then sighed. "I'm sorry sir, I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

He actually laughed. It wasn't mocking or scornful. I think he was honestly amused, like here I was a scrawny weak little teenager acting like I could really kick him out of the store.

I could sort of see his point, I had no way of bodily moving the guy. Meanwhile he was probably strong enough to bend me in half if he wanted. Nonetheless I still felt no fear of him.

The man turned and for a moment I actually thought he was going to leave. He took a few steps away from the counter before he stopped. He picked up a crystal ball from the display beneath the window, then spun around and threw it.

It struck the glass counter in front of me, the one next to the cash register. The display shattered into a thousand tiny squares of safety glass. Half of them wound up in the case with all the jewelry, the rest were on the floor.

The man picked up another crystal ball. He held it in his right hand and pointed at me with his left hand and warned, "Get your boss out here now. Or the next one's going to do that to your skull."

By now I knew there wouldn't be a peaceful resolution and I figured I was going to have to call the police. I still wasn't scared, but I was upset that he'd damaged Selene's display and messed up some of her merchandise. I felt responsible for that, since it happened on my shift.

And I really wished there was some way I could contact my boss and let her know what was happening. It crossed my mind she ought to have some kind of magical way for me to reach her in emergencies, like telepathy or something. Then I could just think at her that there's some guy here breaking things and threatening me.

We didn't have anything like that though, but somehow I remained confident that whatever happened I wasn't going to be harmed.

I was just about to reach for the phone when we both heard the clunk of the front door locking by itself, followed by the open/closed sign flipping itself around to 'Closed'.

The man frowned as he looked over his shoulder at the door.

While his attention was on the front door, the back door practically flew open. An angry-looking twenty-year-old Selene emerged and stalked directly toward the man as the stock room door swung closed again behind her.

He spun back around towards her then glared at her and shouted, "Selene! It didn't fucking work! After what I paid?! You think you can cheat me?!"

He was still holding the glass ball in a somewhat threatening manner but like me, my boss didn't seem the least bit scared of him. She stalked right up in front of him with that angry scowl on her face.

When she spoke her voice was low, quiet, and dangerous. "Of course it didn't work. I told you to wait until the next full moon, that's not for two and a half more weeks. But no. You were so impatient you ignored what I told you, ignored the instructions, and tried to do it last night. That's on you."

He started to say something else but she cut him off. She was still talking in that quiet dangerous voice, and I figured it was probably pretty scary. She wasn't scaring me, but then her ire wasn't directed my way.

"If you'd been respectful and civil I might have been convinced to help you out. Instead you came into my business and threw a tantrum like a child. Then you Threatened. My. Assistant."

Her voice almost seemed to drip with venom when she got to those last three words. As if him threatening me was the worst, most unforgivable sin imaginable.

She shook her head. "You're done here. Apologize to my assistant and leave. And never come back. Or I will remove you myself and that will not end well for you."

For a moment I thought the guy was going to back down. I thought he'd realized my boss wasn't messing around. I didn't actually know what sort of stuff she was capable of, but I didn't doubt her words.

Unfortunately it turned out the man was either too proud or too stupid to back down.

He shook his head and growled "You don't scare me, bitch! I'm "

Selene and I were alone in the store, and the display case wasn't broken.

It was almost as if the angry customer never existed at all. There was nothing left of him or his visit. The only thing out of place was one crystal ball was resting in the display with the jewelry and another was missing.

"I'm so sorry about that dear," my boss said as she moved to my side. "Are you ok? He didn't hurt you at all did he?"

I shrugged, "No ma'am. I'm fine."

She gave me a concerned look, then frowned. "You weren't even frightened, were you?"

"Not really," I shook my head. "I was worried though, that he was going to cause more damage. And I didn't know how to get in touch with you. I was about to call the police, just before you got here."

Selene looked thoughtful for just brief moment, then sighed. "I'm sorry hon. We'll have to figure out what to do if that sort of situation comes up again, but I promise you it doesn't happen very often. Maybe once a year, at most."

I nodded slowly then asked, "What was he so upset about? And where did he go?"

It took her a moment to decide how to respond. Then she replied, "I think it's best if we leave that discussion for another time, after you've had some more experience."

"Ok." I just accepted it for what it was.

I glanced at the clock then suggested, "There's still a few more hours till closing time, so maybe we should re-open?"

Selene raised an eyebrow as she watched me for a few seconds. I had a feeling she thought maybe I'd be in shock or something. Or maybe she thought I'd have a lot more questions.

Finally though she just agreed, "Ok hon. Would you like me to stay with you the rest of the day?"

"Nah," I shook my head. "I'll be fine."

She gave a warm smile and nodded, "Yes, I believe you will. Ok hon. You keep up the good work."

She retreated through the back door into her home. I retrieved the misplaced glass ball from the jewelry display and put it back where it belonged. I took a step towards the front door to unlock it, when it unlocked itself. I glanced at the sign in time to see it flip back around to 'Open', so I just returned to my place behind the counter.

The rest of the afternoon was uneventful by comparison. We had a few more customers later in the afternoon. Fridays were typically good days for business, but Friday the thirteenth turned out better than usual. Not as good as the full moon though.

I kept the shop open an extra hour since we had some good traffic, then finally closed it up at seven o'clock.

As I went about sweeping up and tidying the displays and organizing the merchandise, I thought again about that strange incident in the afternoon. I didn't want to judge people, especially not my boss, but I couldn't shake the feeling that the irate customer was some kind of criminal. And it worried me that Selene might be involved in something illegal.

Not that I cared if she was breaking some arbitrary laws or whatever. I was sure she wouldn't do anything harmful, I trusted she wouldn't do anything that hurt innocent people. But I worried for her safety. Like even if it only happened once a year, having potentially dangerous violent people storming into the store looking for trouble seemed like a bad situation.

Of course from what I saw, she was able to take care of herself. I decided I didn't need to worry about her after all. I'd keep my eyes open though. I was curious about what was really going on here, because it definitely seemed like there was more to this place than just selling candles and incense.

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