Chapter 2

Veronica slowly opens her eyes to the streams of sunlight coming down from through a large hole in the ceiling. After a couple of blinks, her eyes adjust and she can finally see. She bolts straight up into a sitting position. The room she is in now is not anywhere close to being the same room as before—at least she doesn’t think so.

It is the same shape and there is even a glass case—or at least what is left of one—sitting in the middle of the room, exactly where the whole one was before. Where the black orb was...

She looks down and finds that she is wearing the same clothes she came into the shop with.

Was it a dream?

Veronica pulls her blouse open enough to look beneath it. And sure enough, beneath the thin fabric is the black corset with all of its confines. Her eyes drift lower, down her shirt to her legs and they too are still covered with the sexy black sheer stockings. Her hands slide down her legs over them, she can’t help it. The feeling sends jolts through her legs and up through her crotch into her core. Her pussy already starts to heat up and leak just a little.

Oh my legs feel so sexy.

Veronica shakes her head. She can’t get caught up in the sexy feeling right now. She has to figure out just what is going on. She looks around the room, taking it all in. The walls are dirty, with much of them missing, so that in some spots they can be seen through completely. The bed she fell asleep on is no longer here, replaced by a piece of cardboard.

Slowly, she climbs to her feet. Carefully she walks through the door into the large room where the actual store part is, or as she walks through and sees, was. The store is in pretty much the same condition. There are a few shelves and racks, but the place looks like something out of a post-apocalyptic movie. For just the faintest moments, Veronica starts to wonder if perhaps she fell asleep and slept through the end of the world. Pretty far-fetched, but it’s the only thing that seems rational right now to her.

I just need to get out of here.

And that is what she does. She heads for the exit, trampling over falling boards and shelving pieces, through broken racks and hanging wires. When she reaches the door, she looks up. It is an unconscious thought, but when she does she sees the little brass bell still hanging above it, and she finds comfort that there is at least one thing consistent. But when she pulls on the door, it doesn’t budge. She pulls again and again, but it doesn’t move.

“Son of a bitch!” she shouts.

Veronica is frustrated now—frustrated more than she was a few minutes ago at least. She pulls again and again and finally the door dislodges but only opens a little. She calms herself long enough to pull the door until it stops and looks through. There is a chain wrapped around the handle and something else out of sight. But what is even better, is as she looks out past the chain she sees the street and other buildings. She didn’t sleep through the end of the world after all.

But now the question of how she got into the building if the door is locked comes to mind. Unless it was locked after she entered. But upon further inspection of the chain, she can tell it is old, years old. Unless whoever took the time to lock her inside used an old rusty chain, it was here long before she entered.

Anger wells up in her and she pulls once again on the door, venting all her frustration into the pull and with a snap, the chain breaks and slides through the door’s handle to drop to the sidewalk. She swings the door open and the sunlight cascades into the one time shop, illuminating up the interior. Veronica spins around to take a look and frowns in disgust. The dilapidated shop looks a lot worse lit up than when it is cast in the shadows.

She turns back around and rushes right out the door and then slams right into someone.

They collide and both go to the ground. Veronica is the first to sit up. “Are you alright? I’m so sorry!”

“No, no,” the woman says. “It was my fault, I wasn’t paying attention.”

“No it was...” Veronica begins until the silver haired beauty turns toward her. She is totally captivated by the woman. Her lips, her nose, her eyes are all perfect and flawless. It takes a moment for her to find her voice again. “My name is Veronica Martins.” She offers her hand to the woman.

The woman smiles and then laughs and shakes her hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Veronica. I’m Mandi Vickers. Not quite the optimal way to meet someone.”

Veronica returns the laugh. “Not really. Are you okay?”

“Oh, I’m fine,” Mandi says. “But what were you doing in there?”

“What?”

“That building,” she says pointing. “What were you doing in there?”

Veronica’s face burns red slightly as she looks back toward the door she just came out of. “Do you own it or something?”

“Oh no,” Mandi says shaking her head. “If I owned something like that I’d have it demolished.”

“Ah,” Veronica says with a sigh. “I was ... I’m not sure what I was doing in there.”

“Are you in some kind of trouble?”

“Me? No. No, not at all. It’s a long story.”

“Well I think we shouldn’t sit around on the sidewalk,” Mandi says as she gets back to her and offers her hand to the other woman. “People are going to start thinking we’re having a picnic or something.”

Veronica accepts the hand and is helped back to her feet as well. “Yeah, no kidding,” she says after a moment.

As she straightens out her clothes she catches Mandi looking intensely down her partly opened blouse and blushes again.

“I see you like sexy undergarments.”

Veronica feels the heat between her legs. This woman is incredibly hot and now that she has a chance to look the woman all over, she feels an attraction. Veronica has always found other woman attractive but not in a sexual way, but looking at Mandi, thoughts of seeing the woman naked filter into her mind.

“Yeah, I um, I do like to live a bit on the adventurous side,” Veronica stumbles. “I, um, need to get going. My boyfriend is probably wondering why I’m not back yet.”

“How about lunch?” Mandi says quickly. “Then maybe you can tell me your story. Tomorrow of course,” she adds just as quickly.