The Headshrinker's Dilemma

Chapter Three

Dale couldn’t take his eyes off the cameras. There were about a dozen of them, maybe a little less. He knew that one of them, if not several of the cameras, had to have caught him in action, shrinking that thug’s head and killing him. Dale could feel the pit of his stomach stirring, a low rumbling that was directly related to the sudden nervousness he was feeling; anxiety was a b***h and every fiber of his body was beginning to quake at the thought of how much trouble he was about to be in. The cashier noticed his wandering eyes in the scaling the ceiling.

“Uh, you okay?” she said, peering up at the ceiling, joining him.

“Um… Yea – Yea I’m fine,” he answered.

Dale liked her. He really did. He didn’t quite understand her but he fancied her whimsically awkward nature. Who would do that? Stop everything and just look up into the ceiling so absently with someone, a customer, whom you’ve just met. And she did it so freely, uninhibitedly. Still, the cashier was a problem. The cameras were a problem and Dale could see that the two tracks – cashier and cameras – were coming together, a collision course that inevitably would involve some tragedy. Dale needed to get the video footage off the cameras. If he didn’t then he would surely be going to jail.

But how? How was he supposed to get the video? His first problem was the cashier. There was no way to sneak off to whatever room housed the video and equipment, not without suspicion and not without possibly doing something to harm or incapacitate the cashier. And that was the second problem: deciding whether he was willing to hurt this girl that he kind of liked now. He could kill her. It was just him and her in the store, no witnesses. He could do his thing and shrink her head and be done with it. He would then be free to roam the store, find the room, get the video footage of both killings and leave. The fact that he was even considering this was maddening. He wasn’t a killer – well, he was, but not like this, not coldblooded, nothing calculated and so premeditated. But his options were so little. Maybe if he just knocked her out somehow, incapacitated her that way. But again how? Hit her? With what? Seemed way too dramatic and far fetch. He tried imagining somehow coming up with a reason where she had to show him down an aisle and then he suddenly grabbed a can of corn and then he would whammy her in the head. Seemed crude but still a far better option than killing her. Right?

No. None of those options were right. He was losing sight of who he was. He knew it. It had been happening ever since he discovered he had the ability to shrink heads. Felicia. It all went back to her. There had been no culpability in her victimization. A part of him, very present and to the forefront of his mind questioned that; he had hurt Felicia, a random girl on his college campus and nothing had been done about. While Dale was grateful not to have gotten in trouble for it, he was very much aware of the damaged he had done to Felicia’s life, irreparable and completely debilitating damage. Felicia would forever walk around with a head way too small for her body so cosmetically she was going to be screwed, but she would also have medical issues, there were sure to be problems that would surface from having your head shrunken, brain damage, breathing constrictions, there had to be more. And he was the cause that. Him. Dale Harrison Cabbard. And he had to live with that. Forever. In the knowledge of what he had done but knowing that every moment of his freedom was a slice of selfishness. And now he had the murder of this guy to add to his list of incomprehensible things that he had done and was never going to rectify or be undone.

Dale eyed the cashier. She was dainty. He hadn’t noticed that about her before. It added to her cuteness. Everything about her was nice and for some reason, he felt drawn to her. He didn’t want to kill her. But… If he didn’t, then he would go to jail. He had to. He decided that. He was steadily becoming the villain in his story and it was against everything that he thought he stood for, but life and circumstance was really leaving him no other choice.

Dale put his hands on the counter and leaned forward. The cashier eyed him curiously, a faint smile forming. She liked him. Dale got the message. It was a shame too. A waste. The irony, a girl that actually liked him that was cute in her own way and he had to kill her.

“So…” Dale started, drawing her in.

The cashier leaned forward. Dale felt bad. Horrible. But he had to do it. He looked into her eyes. She fell into his. He had never done this before, made a move like this, he wondered why it had to happen with him trying to kill someone but he guessed that self-preservation superseded feelings of insecurity and angst.

He continued: “I was wondering if you had a boyfriend?”

The cashier leaned her elbows on the counter and flashed her eyes, her face was right in front of Dales.

“Really? Well… I don’t. And… I was really hoping that you were like interested in me. I kind of felt that you were but I didn’t want to assume, you know? But… Yea, I don’t. I’m single and ready to mingle – with you, I mean, not anyone else – I like you.”

Dale sighed. She liked him. WTF. He liked her too but she had to die. There was no other way. Dale would make it quick. He would just grab her face and hold on. He wouldn’t look at her, not her, and he wouldn’t save her head. He would quickly find some place for it, dispose of it, so that he wouldn’t be reminded of murdering probably the only girl in the world that would ever like him. Dale reached for her but stopped in mid lunge when the entrance doors of the grocery store flung back and opened and a group of college students, sophomores that Dale knew from his university walked in. Dale let his hands fall to the counter in a crash. The cashier turned her attention to the new customers.

“Hello? Welcome Meck’s Market & Food,” she blared, her voice shrill but full of life.

Life. She was so full of life. Dale knew that he was in hot dookie but he was glad that the students had walked in. Of all the people in the world, Dale wanted to hurt and kill the cashier the least.

“Nah, we just need to pick up a couple of things – thanks though!” said a grifter-looking kid, skully and ripped jeans.

The rest of the bunch, three of them, another guy and two girls, followed behind him.

“Okay then,” retorted the cashier and then turned back to Dale.

But one of the girls had caught Dale’s eye and she in turn had looked at him curiously. Dale stopped. He knew her. She was in his Poli Sci class. He turned his head to look away, hoping that by doing so she would just go away. But she didn’t. Out the corner of his eye, he could see her coming towards him. He sighed heavily. He couldn’t catch a break. A normal night turned into this: a robbery turned killing turned cover-up-turned another possible killing. It was crazy. And he couldn’t even do that because out of nowhere a group of students had shown up and one just so happened to be in one of his classes at the university.

“Hey… Dale, right?” the girl interjected.

“Uh, yeah,” he answered.

He was honestly shocked that the girl knew his name. He wasn’t the kind of guy that people just knew his name and he definitely didn’t think he had made any kind of impression in the class. Yeah, he had answered a couple questions once or twice but nothing he thought was significant, not enough for this girl to know his name. Dale was curious.

“How – How do you know who I am –?”

The cashier cleared her throat and not in a subtle way. She eyed Dale hard, her face suddenly stony and her expression equally calloused. Was that jealousy? WTF was happening? The cashier girl was actually upset that the Poli Sci girl had come over and was talking to him. Never in a million years would Dale had thought this night would happened and it only got weirder.

“You were in my group one time – you had some really great ideas about international relations, I remember,” said the girl.

Dale blushed. He couldn’t help it. It wasn’t every day that he got a complement and definitely not from a girl.

The cashier sneered and then walked away. Her leaving was enough for the Poli Sci girl to notice.

“Oh, I’m sorry… Is – Is that your girlfriend?” she queried.

“Oh ah…”

Dale thought for a second. This was his way out. As much as he would have liked to stick around and have a conversation with Poli Sci girl, she was a looker too , leaps and bounds prettier than the cashier, and for some reason actually seemed interested in him, he couldn’t. There were more pressings matters at hand: video footage of him killing a man by shrinking his head that he had to locate and get rid of. The cashier was needed for that.

Dale continued: “Yeah. Sorry. We were kind of in the middle of something and…”

“I’m so sorry. Oh my God! I’m sure I didn’t make it better… I’m sorry,” Poli Sci girl said as she skimped out of the way, moving towards her friend.

“No problem,” Dale responded, waving her on.

“I’ll see you in class – we can talk then,” Poli Sci girl winked and then she was gone down an aisle after her friend.

***

Dale found the cashier restocking the cans that he had knocked down when the thug had attacked him. She looked different. Less vibrant. More solemn. He approached her, weary of what he needed to do. Shrink her head and kill her.

“Hey…” Dale started.

But the cashier wouldn’t turn around to face him. This would be easy, thought Dale, if he wanted to kill her right now. He could just grab her head and then do his thing. At that moment, he hated himself. He hated that him had this power to shrink heads, he wondered why he had it, who or what had given it to him? Still, he drew closer to her. He was behind her now. Close. He could smell her hair, it smelled soapy and scented, she must have washed her hair recently. The smell was pleasant, made him want to be closer to her. He hadn’t decided yet what he was going to do. It was all still in the back of his mind, killing the thug, the video footage that he need to get. He didn’t know what to do.

The cashier turned around to face him, her eyes were red from crying, her cheeks tear stained. Dale opened his mouth to say something but the words caught in his throat. Was she crying over him? No way, he thought. But if she was – then things just got weirder and he didn’t think that was possible, not on this night.

“I’m sorry – I just really like you and I thought that you liked me and then that girl showed up and she was way prettier than me so…”

“So, you’re crying right now because of… Me?” even saying it out loud didn’t make it seem possible.

The cashier shuffled her feet and then looked up him. Dale knew then that he couldn’t kill her. He didn’t know what to with her.

“Well, she wasn’t my girlfriend or anything. She was just some girl from my university that I had class with –”

The cashier kissed him. Full on. Threw her body into him and kissed him. Tongue, too. The night just kept getting weirder and weirder. Dale just went with it.