Work Text:
Pearl wasn’t a wimp.
She wasn’t, really. She watched horror movies with the lights off. She got rid of spiders with her bare hands. She ate expired yogurt from the back of the fridge.
Pearl prided herself on her fearlessness. Usually, she wasn’t scared of anything.
But as her footsteps echoed on the IKEA’s cold tile floor, Pearl couldn’t help the intrinsic dread that settled deep in her stomach.
“Pearl!” Gem laughed, playfully shoving her shoulder. “Don’t tell me you’re scared !”
Pearl smiled. Her favorite redhead never failed to lighten the mood. “Of course not,” she lied. “It’s an IKEA. Why would I be scared?”
“You looked mildly terrified. Just thought I’d ask.”
Pearl huffed.“Well, IKEAs are a bit scary now, after…”
“Ohh,” Gem’s face flashed with recognition, then guilt. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have asked. We can leave, if you want. Go to an American Furniture Warehouse or something.”
“You’re fine.” Pearl grinned, reaching over to ruffle her girlfriend’s hair. Gem smiled back. “I can totally handle it. Just frays my nerves a little.”
“Do you need help finding anything?”
Pearl clutched Gem’s arm, jumping a foot in the air. Gem, keeping her cool, turned to face the employee. “No thanks!” she laughed nervously. “We’ve got it. But thank you!”
“Of course” The employee walked away, and Pearl released her death grip on Gem.
“Where did he come from?” she asked breathlessly. “I mean, really. You’d think we would notice… Gem? Gem?”
Gem was still staring at the place where the employee had been, furrowing her brow. “His eyes…” she muttered. “They were fully blue. No white, no pupil. Just… just a weird pale blue.”
Pearl frowned. She couldn’t help but feel she’d seen something like that before. “That’s creepy. Could it just be a trick of the light?”
The redhead shrugged. As much as she’d like to, it was clear she didn’t believe it. “I hope so. Why did we come here again? To get a table, right? I… let’s just get it and get out.”
“Yeah. Yeah, of course. Um… over there. By the kitchen furniture sign.”
Gem nodded and turned left, beginning to walk.
“Gem?” Pearl called. “Where are you going? The kitchen furniture’s over here, on the right side of the store.”
“What? No!? Look at the sign. It says it's this way.”
Pearl blinked. The sign was to the left. It had always been there. “Sorry,” she muttered, embarrassed. “Must’ve seen it wrong.”
A concerned look washed over Gem’s face. “That’s okay. C’mon.”
As they walked, Pearl tried to glance into all of the aisles, just to see what was there. It was all rows and rows of assorted light bulbs, then particle board, then a whole aisle dedicated to memory foam loveseats. In some aisles, employees stocked shelves. Pearl tried to wave to one, only to have the shockingly blond employee turn to glare at her. Pearl gasped. His eyes were pure red, no pupil or white to be seen.. She shook her head. It must be the nerves, she thought. He probably just has naturally red eyes, and my brain’s blowing it out of proportion. Poor guy.
“Are you okay?” Gem tugged on Pearl’s arm, pulling her out of her thoughts.
“I’m fine.” Pearl tried to smile at her girlfriend, but found she couldn’t bring herself to. “It’s just the nerves– whoa!”
“Ouch!” Gem stumbled backwards, rubbing the crown of her head. She laughed breathlessly. “I swear that wall was not there five seconds ago.”
Pearl laughed. “Neither of us was paying attention. Did we miss a directory sign?”
“Oh, yeah. There it is!” the redhead gestured behind them.
“What do you mean? It’s obviously just there. We didn’t miss it at all.” Pearl laughed, and pointed to where the sign had always been. It was in front of them, in the aisle that had always been there.
An odd glaze passed over Gem’s eyes for a split second. She shook her head and smiled. “Obviously. Silly me.”
The pair walked towards the kitchen furniture.
“Wait, where are we going?” Gem asked, stopping in her tracks. “Didn’t we come here for a bookcase? What are we doing with the kitchen furniture?”
“Did we? I thought we came here for a dresser.”
“No, I’m sure it was a bookca– Ahh!” the redhead jumped back, her left shoe suddenly painted red from the growing puddle of visceral crimson blood in the middle of the aisle.
“Oh,” Pearl said. “Somebody spilled some paint.”
The dead body shoved under the nearest shelving unit seemed to disagree.
“We should alert an employee, probably.” an odd murky sheen engulfed Pearl’s eyes.
A guttural growl echoed off the concrete floors. She didn’t hear it.
“ Run .” Gem hissed. “Oh my god, run.”
“Why?” Pearl asked. It was just a little bit of paint. It was probably non-toxic, too.
Gem didn’t respond, just grabbed her arm and turned around. There was nothing there. Behind them was a dead end. There was no aisle there, there never had been. Why did Gem think there would be something there?
“Shit! Go right, go right!” Gem yelled, dragging Pearl through the maze of wire shelving.
They were met with a register.
A familiar face stood behind the counter, but his eyes were completely black. No iris, no white. Just black. He placed his hand on the cash register, his movement sluggish and jerky like a marionette controlled by an untrained puppeteer.
A chill spread throughout Pearl’s entire body.
“You’re dead,” she said, and it was true. “You’re dead. They found your body. I saw it. It was right outside of–”
A beat of silence.
“Right outside of an abandoned IKEA.” Grian finished, his voice his own and yet so, so wrong.
Pearl’s breath quickened, her chest heaving up and down and up and down and yellow and blue and yellow and blue. She reached for Gem, but there was nobody there. Nobody had ever been there. Pearl didn’t know anybody named Gem.
“Can I help you with anything?”
“Please don’t take my eyes.”
“Would you like to purchase an IKEA membership card?”
Pearl scoffed. “No. Where did you take her?”
Grian shakily tilted his head, the dark voids of his eyes dripping onto his cheeks. “Who? You came alone. Do you have anything else you’d like to purchase today?”
Pearl shuddered at his voice (not his voice), and something in her head shook loose. “No thanks. Uh, sorry.”
“That’s okay.” The corners of Grian’s mouth curled into a poor attempt at a smile. “It’s painless.”
Pearl turned and slowly walked away, feeling dizzy as though her brains were turning to mush. She could barely remember her own name, let alone her girlfriend or her mother. Her girlfriend … Was Pearl gay? That was news to her. She was pretty sure she knew that ‘person’ behind the register, or at least she used to. She’d loved him, loved him like a–
Like a brother.
Pearl let out a choked gasp, her memories flooding back. She remembered Gem, she remembered her first day of high school, she remembered celebrating graduation, Gem and Grian at her side. Pearl felt everything; she loved Gem, she loved Grian, she loved her home and she loved the world (and hated Scott, but that’s a story for another day).
Pearl turned around.
Where her brother had been (but was he ever really him?), she saw a vaguely humanoid mass of deep, inky black, dotted with grotesque eyes. It opened its mouth.
“ The process has already started .”
Pearl saw everything.
And then Pearl never saw anything, ever again.