SpecFicNZ Shorts: "The Shelver" by Piper Mejia, "The Bookshop" by Jane Percival, and "The Box" by I.K. Paterson-Harkness

By Piper Mejia, Jane Percival and I.K. Paterson-Harkness

SpecFicNZ presents SpecFicNZ Shorts, three creepy stories celebrating NZ Bookshop Day 2015 - which falls on Halloween. Discover family secrets, spooky shop owners, and mysterious magical artefacts in:

"The Shelver", by Piper Mejia

"The Bookshop", by Jane Percival

"The Box", by I.K. Paterson-Harkness

Published by SpecFicNZ, the New Zealand association for creators of sci fi, fantasy and horror fiction.

• Language: English
• Publisher: SpecFicNZ
• Release date: Oct 28, 2015
• ISBN: 9781519909183

Book preview

The Shelver

Piper Mejia

She arrives as the hands of the clock above the purchasing counter tick over to 8am. Flipping the sign from closed to open, she inhales the comforting, earthy smell of new books. She returns the shop keys to her bag and flicks off the lights used to illuminate displays during darkened hours. As if released from prison, the morning light tentatively creeps through the large front windows and along the floor, sweeping shadows into distant corners. From wall to wall, rows of shelves line up – evenly spaced like headstones – and tower out of reach towards the ceiling. She admires the organised layout, the even distribution of wide aisles saving searchers, unhindered by lack of space, from forced intimacy with strangers. To her the campus bookstore is a place of reverence and contemplation.

Conscientious about the time, she walks into the workroom behind the counter and stores her bag in an employee cubbyhole, careful to tuck away the straps to prevent them from dangling onto the floor. She’d hate to cause someone to trip and make a mess. Then, using the computer monitor as a mirror, she checks her spotless uniform: pristine white shirt, crisp black pants. Free from stray wisps, her hair is scraped back into one long braid hanging low on her back, ready to bounce from hip to hip like a metronome when she walks.

The workspace is covered with opened and unopened boxes of recently arrived stock. Crumpled paper, bubble wrap and Styrofoam beans are scattered across the benches and onto the floor, leaving no area unadorned. Her fingers twitch over the chaos spread out before her, but she diverts from her compulsion to