New Furniture (A Horror Story)

    Alicia stood on the corner of a used furniture store and a supermarket. A warm beach breeze blew through the run-down strip mall. Across the street was a landfill, and the fumes wafting into her nostrils were both cloying and sharp. Did this negatively affect the business of the stores behind her, Alicia wondered, or did it help them, driving customers inside before they could consider it properly? She was definitely having second thoughts about coming here.

    She did need some new furniture to replace the half that had perished in the recent earthquake, but did she really have to resort to this? 

    Sighing, she forced herself forward, through the doorway and into the used furniture store. A bell dinged above the door. Alicia immediately tripped over a battered rug on the floor, which wasn’t smoothed down at all, and looked like it hadn’t been for some time. The amount of dust in the air was so excessive that it couldn’t have been less than two years since it had been dusted. 

    The only other occupants of the small store were an old man sitting at the register, and a bored-looking teenager wandering around with a feather duster that was so covered in dirt that it was probably doing more harm than good. Both of them barely looked up before returning to their various tasks, and she wasn’t sure if she was more relieved or offended. 

    At first glance she could clearly see that most of the furniture was out of her price range. Looking down at the small envelope containing her pitiful budget, she seriously considered turning around, walking out of the dusty, poorly maintained store, and using the money to buy some snacks instead. But it was so difficult to be in her room after dark without any light to see by.

    In the earthquake, she had lost a bedside table and all four of her lamps, and because she did not have lights in her ceiling, she had to use a single flashlight to do her homework at night. No, that she would not tolerate. 

    Heading toward the lighting section, she scanned the rows for anything she could buy with ten dollars. Yes, that’s right, she had ten dollars to replace the two thirds of her furniture that she had lost. It really was sad that she had blown all of her savings the week before to get a remote controlled helicopter. She could have used that money for this as well. But it was beyond undoing now.

    Everything in the lighting section was unreasonably expensive. Everything except for one object. A simple, medium-sized lamp that was sitting on the shelf was only ninety-nine cents. Done, Alicia thought as she reached out for the lamp. It twitched a little as she picked it up, but it stayed stiff as she inspected it. Must’ve been my imagination, she reasoned. 

    There was a small wooden bedside table that also fit into her budget, and she brought them both to the front. 

    The man at the register scanned them, and as he did, Alicia spaced out, looking in the mirrors near the door. They were all so dusty, they looked like they had been there for a few decades, at least. She paid for her furniture, but as she heaved it toward the door, wondering how on earth she was going to get it all home, the teenager stopped her. 

    “Don’t get that,” he said, pointing at the lamp. 

    Alicia, who was surprised and agitated, asked, “Why not?” 

    The boy answered in a low voice, “Trust me. That one’s only mildly chaotic,” he pointed to the bedside table. “But that one,” he said desperately, waving wildly at the lamp, “Even I wouldn’t chance. Please, listen!” 

    “You’re a weirdo. I’m sorry, I have somewhere to be.” Alicia quickly shoved past him. She looked back, and even when he didn’t follow, she broke into a run until she got home. 

    In her room, Alicia arranged her new furniture. The lamp went on the desk, and the table went at her bedside. Inside the drawer, she put her math flashcards and granola bars. 

    When she straightened up, she realized that the lamp was on. But she hadn’t turned it on, hadn’t even plugged it into the wall. However, there it was, bright and cheerful. Alicia found herself shivering, though she didn’t know why. Shaking it off, she headed downstairs to get her homework. 

    Alicia took several hours studying for her upcoming test, and she was exhausted when she finally climbed into bed. But for some reason, she was creeped out. There was a strange, faint shuffling that seemed to be coming from her desk, but that was probably the air conditioning. Alicia drifted off to sleep. 

    Nightmares battered her consciousness. Shuffling noises in her room, a burning smell, an unbearably bright light getting closer…closer…but then Alicia realized that she wasn’t dreaming that part. 

    Her eyes flew open and she sat bolt upright. The sight she beheld was the most terrifying thing she had ever experienced. The lamp had climbed up onto her bed. It had sprouted legs! Spindly purple ones that gleamed red at the tips. Its lightbulb was so bright that it was smoking slightly, hence the burning smell, and the slight tapping was it winding up, preparing to spring—Alicia barely managed to leap out of the way to avoid the glowing lamp. It crashed into her pillow and acid leached out of the bulb, melting the bedding around it into a burning, purple-tinted blob. Alicia’s wobbly legs collapsed and she grabbed at the bedside table. It shuddered, and then stilled. She jumped away from it, then dodged as the lamp monster launched itself again at her head. She could hear her heart pounding in her ears, could barely think through her own shuddering. This couldn’t be happening! But somehow it was. She threw herself to the side as the lamp made its third attack, hissing slightly and trailing burning acid. Was she in a nightmare? It was just too vivid to believe that. The lamp bounced back up, and hurtled toward her. She was cornered. Behind her was a solid wall. In front of her was an evil lamp. Nothing was going to save her from this terrible situation. Nothing except…driven by some primal instinct, Alicia suddenly leaped toward it and hissed spit at its bulb. The lamp shuddered, wobbled, and then went out. The shadowy outline of the lamp seemed to evaporate into thin air, until there was nothing left. 

    Breathing hard, Alicia gingerly sat down on her bed. And then, like so many before her, she blinked. And the memory faded. 

    Two streets away on a corner, a supermarket stood next to a blank, empty storefront. In the window, an old man and a teenager were briefly seen standing there. And then they were gone.