"Is it just me...or does this store change size regularly?" Chelsea asked as she stood upright from stocking and glancing around the building. Juno did the same, collapsing the cardboard box in her hands as she did. She thought for a moment, then nodded.

"I think you're right," she said in agreement.

"I never really noticed it until now," Chelsea said, "but it does seem to alter in size every day. Sometimes, if we don't have as much stock, certain aisles are shrunk. Sometimes they're gone entirely. It's just not something I ever really picked up on until just now."

"Maybe you have a problem focusing," Juno said.

"I'm sorry what were you saying?" Chelsea replied, grinning, the both of them laughing. The bell over the door rang, and neither even went to see who it was. They knew. It was Polaris. It was always Polaris, in on his usual once a day stop and shop visit. As he came round the corner of the aisle, dressed in a dapper black and blue pinstriped suit with a bowler hat on his head, he stopped and looked at the girls who also stopped and looked at him.

"If you're having to restock this often," he said calmly, "then Luna needs to hire more help. Clearly you're understaffed. That isn't running a tight ship. That's barely running a ship at all."

"Nobody asked you," Chelsea said.

"And yet here I am, giving my opinion on the subject. Funny how that works, isn't it?" he remarked.

"We sell antifungal cream?" Chelsea asked.

"That's weird, cause there's entire beings here made of fungus," Juno chimed in.

"Well, someone wants to keep them away apparently," Polaris replied. Together, the girls gathered up the now empty boxes and walked them to the front of the shop, where Juno then took them all under her arm - they were all relatively small - and carried them to the dumpster out back as Chelsea took her place behind the counter once again. Polaris leaned against the counter, pulled his lighter from his shirt pocket and lit a cigar, puffing on it.

"So," Chelsea said, leaning on the counter and opening a bag of chips, "what non business do you have here today?"

"Actually, my cynical friend, I do have business here today. I am meeting Luna," Polaris said, which surprised Chelsea. She raised an eyebrow as she shoveled some chips into her palm and then into her mouth, speaking while chewing.

"Why is she meeting with you?" she asked.

"Don't talk with your mouth full, it's disgusting," Polaris said, "one of the few reasons I'm happy not to have one. We're meeting because, as you know, she doesn't want me here and yet I am here constantly. We're going to discuss that, amongst other things."

In all the time Chelsea had known both Polaris and Luna, she'd never once gotten the impression that they'd ever meet and talk. Then again, she really had no concept of their history together. Come to think of it...she didn't really know much about the store or The Elsewhere for that matter at all. The bell over the door rang, and in floated an enormous eyeball that constantly blinked. It approached the counter and stopped, looking down at Chelsea.

"Can you help me?" they asked.

"Depends," Chelsea said.

Just as this happened, Luna entered the store and, walking briskly past everyone, snapped her fingers at Polaris, who turned and followed her on her heel into her office. Juno finally came back in, picking at her fingernails.

"You know," she said, "it wouldn't hurt someone to clean the dumpster now and then, because-"

She stopped and looked up, seeing the giant eye and sighing.

"Now what?" she asked.

                                                                               ***

"I really don't like that we have to speak," Luna said.

"Well, we could just sit here in awkward silence if you prefer that," Polaris said, seated in the chair in front of the desk, his long legs up on its solid wooden frame. Luna sighed and seated herself behind the desk, then shook her head.

"I know we have to speak, I just wish we didn't," she replied, "but seeing as you are part co-owner, I suppose it would behoove me to include you. Right now I'm dealing with something that requires...your input. Much as I hate to admit that. There's a landowner looking to develop the block. He's not a very up and up individual, not that many are in The Elsewhere, but even by our standards he's sleazy. He's pressuring me and other shop owners, and frankly, it's gotten to the point where it feels threatening. They all asked me to turn to you."

"Awww," Polaris said, still puffing on his cigar from before, adding, "So what do I need to do then?"

Luna bit her lip and exhaled, then opened a drawer on her desk, pulled out some papers and slid them across to him. Polaris sat upright and leafed through them with his slender fingers, chuckling as he did.

"I don't like doing this," Luna whispered.

"Well, good thing you won't be then, isn't it?" Polaris remarked, "after all, I'm part owner, so this is my responsibility."

                                                                                 ***

"Okay, do you have a certain brand you like?" Chelsea asked, as she, the eyeball and Juno all stood - or floated - in a nearby health care aisle. The eye blinked a few times, then shut its lid and shook itself in a 'no' manner. Chelsea nodded, then started looking through the available options.

"Well," she continued, "we have Retinox, which seems to be the favorite to be honest. It's the most expensive, but from what everyone who buys it tells me, they wouldn't entrust their eyes to any of the others."

"Retinox will be fine," the eyeball said.

"Now the question remains how we're going to do this," Chelsea said, "Juno, you can climb on my shoulders and administer them from above him, if you're not too scared of heights."

"Not really the height that's making me uncomfortable in this particular situation," Juno said, as Chelsea grabbed a box of Retinox and, with the others, headed back to the counter; as they walked, she looked up at the eyeball and spoke.

"So, how long have you been having irritation problems?" she asked.

"My whole life," the eyeball replied, "I get itchy and watery a lot. Sometimes I think that if I had a full body, all my problems wouldn't congregate in one particular place, but being just a singular eyeball, I think that's why I have these issues, because there's just nothing else on me to affect."

They reached the counter and Chelsea sat atop it, unboxing the Retinox and undoing the cap to make it easier for Juno to apply. As she did this, Polaris walked back through the store, but didn't seem to give them any attention whatsoever, which seemed strange to Chelsea. He usually stopped and chatted, or perhaps made a little quippy remark, but this time he was just out the door lickety split, no time to waste. She shrugged and handed the Retinox to Juno.

"Alright," Chelsea said, "now climb up here and get on my shoulders. Sir, can you float lower, maybe?"

"I can," the eyeball said, dipping down below them a bit as Juno pulled herself up onto the counter and then, clutching the Retinox in her hand, began to carefully get on Chelsea's shoulders, exhaling nervously.

"The things we do for paychecks," she muttered.

                                                                            ***

Morgus Yantil was exactly as Luna had described him.

He was shady, he was sleazy, but he was charming and charismatic and those traits seemed to cover up the less appealing ones and made him interesting to folks. So he wound up in the real estate business because he knew that The Elsewhere had a lot of open market worth developing, and he wouldn't even have to actually develop a sizeable portion of it and nobody would notice. But he hadn't counted on Luna, and the neighborhood her shop resided in, which was a pretty tight knit group. Sitting behind his desk, tapping his pen against some forms, he needed to figure out a way to get her to sell the land her shop resided on, but in a non threatening way. Not that there was really any legal ramifications in The Elsewhere to worry about, but moreso his reputation was at stake if he went down that path and others might not sell to him. Suddenly his office door opened and Polaris stepped through, causing Morgus to look up in confusion.

"Do we have a meeting?" Morgus asked, leaning back in his chair, still tapping his pen.

"I doubt it," Polaris said, "because those who schedule meetings with me often are aware of them. No, my name is Polaris, and I'm the co-owner of The Last Shop on the Left, with my business partner Luna. She and I had a...discussion, earlier, about you wanting her to sell the property?"

"Did she finally send someone over to do that, because that would be fantastic, I need to get permits going and-"

"Oh, no no," Polaris said, laughing as he sat down on the desk and loomed over Morgus with his tall, spindly frame, "no, actually, quite the opposite. I'm here to tell you to back. off. Leave her and the shop alone. See, she didn't want to bring me in on this, but the others on the block insisted she do so, and here I am. So just allow me to give you this warning once and once only...end your plans for the block development. Please."

"Wow, who knew being threatening followed by the word 'please' would be so convincing," Morgus said, smirking, "actually, I appreciate you coming down here, but I'm in no way interested in doing that. See, that block is prime real estate, and right now it's housing mostly trinket shops, small food marts, drink carts and, of course, your store. None of which, aside from yours, really, are worth saving. Now the shop you two have built is certainly worthwhile, and hell, lemme buy in and we can even relocate it and nothing will change except location. But as far as it stands, I'm going to continue with my plans, thank you."

Polaris stood back up and sighed, putting out his cigar, finally, on the desk.

"I'm sorry to hear that, because now I have to do this," he said, reaching up and unbuttoning the shirt under his suit coat, then pulling it slowly open. A blinding white light appeared, filling the room, and Morgus started to scream as his skin began to blister and bubble. Polaris walked closer, still letting this occur, as he spoke again, saying, "I gave you a very reasonable chance to pull out, do not forget my leniency now that you're suffering the consequences of your own decisions."

Morgus thrashed in his chair, looking half cooked now. After another minute or two, Polaris buttoned his shirt back up, straightened his tie, fixed the collar on his coat and then leaned across the desk to the now slumping, panting Morgus, who was having trouble keeping his eyes in their sockets. Polaris put his palms firmly on the desk and stared him right in the face.

"Let it be known that conceding isn't failure, sometimes it's simply a way to continue living," he whispered, before his head split down the middle and all the flesh on Morgus's body was sucked inside. After he finished, a now nearly skinless corpse laying in the chair behind the desk, Polaris stood back upright, turned, and exited the office. He told Luna he would take care of it, and she knew what that meant.

But he was starting to understand her hesitancy a bit.

                                                                                ***

"It's a miracle," the eyeball said happily, floating up and down like an excited dog wagging its tail, "I can see! It's clearer than it ever was! This stuff is amazing, oh thank you so much for your help! How much do I owe you?"

"You know what, since it's a medical issue," Chelsea said, trying not to laugh at how cute they were being, "how about the first few are just on the house, okay? Because nobody deserves to live in pain and nobody should have to pay to not be."

"That is so kind of you!" the eyeball said, taking its little bag with a few boxes of Retinox and turning to leave, "Thank you so much!" and as they started to float away towards the door, they stopped, turned back and said, "You two are maybe the single best employees I've ever deal with. Your genuine interest in helping me has not gone unnoticed, and I hope you keep in mind just how good of folks you are. Thank you again."

And with that, they were out the door. Chelsea was touched. She was almost crying. This job was usually just so much selling snacks, cigarettes, lottery tickets, or other generic items one might find at a shop like this, that when she actually got the opportunity to help someone, to truly help someone, she felt like she was doing the world a service. Juno sat on the counter beside her now, tugging at her braid.

"You know," Juno said sullenly, "nobody has ever really thanked me for my help. I guess maybe I've never done anything to really warrant being thanked, to be fair. But...but if today has taught me anything, it's that it feels good to help others, especially those in dire need."

"I appreciate your help, I couldn't have done this without you," Chelsea said, patting Juno on the shoulder, before hopping down and getting back to work, doing restocking, reordering and the like. Juno remained on the counter, swinging her legs as she chewed on her braid and thought. She thought about how she'd never felt like she fit in anywhere, how she'd never really been appreciated, and how suddenly all that was beginning to change. This place, this shop, it was becoming a home of sorts to her, and she was both scared and excited about that prospect.

That evening, Chelsea stayed overnight in the shop in the backroom with her sister. She'd turned it into a mini studio apartment of sorts, and now had books to read, her laptop with which to watch things on, and, of course, her sister to keep her company throughout the night. Besides, the shop had plenty of food and drink, so she didn't even have to go out to find stuff. Chelsea had even brought a small futon mattress and laid it on the floor so that she and Maddy had a comfortable spot to sleep in. And that's just what they did. Her little sister cuddled up to her, her arms wrapped around her, Chelsea never felt more at home than she did here at the shop. Maybe she'd entertain the idea, one day, of living in The Elsewhere forever.

Meanwhile, a few blocks away at a food stand, Polaris and Luna were standing in line, waiting to order. Luna dug her hands into her coat pockets, but Polaris simply shook his head at her.

"There'll be no need for that, your money is no good here, I'm paying," he said.

"I wasn't offering, I'm just cold," Luna said, the both of them laughing, "but thank you. So...how did it go?"

"It went about as well as could be expected when dealing with men of a certain nature, if one could call them men," Polaris said, "but rest assured, he won't be bothering you or anyone else on the block anymore."

"Did you...do that to him?"

"I did."

A long pause, and Luna shook her head.

"I know we've known one another a long time, and I know we're in business together, but I have to ask...what the hell are you?" she whispered, and Polaris adjusted his hat and stood up straight, not looking at her but instead staring straight ahead at the line before them.

"I am nonexistence. The void. That liminal space you fear so greatly between life and death. I am obliteration, the end of everything and the beginning of nothing, but what I am most of all, my dear Luna," he said, finally looking down at her, "...is hungry. I am hungry."

Luna chuckled, because he had a way with words, and then she shivered. But that wasn't from the cold.