Elizabeth appeared in her apartment and quickly changed into her store uniform. It was a plain black mini-dress, but employees were allowed to embellish it anyway they wanted to. So, Elizabeth hung a small silver crucifix around her neck and a small angel pin on her lapel. While she put on her make up her mind kept going back to Micky. She loved him very much, but she had to concentrate on her duties as an angel. Still she prayed constantly to the Lord for guidance in sorting out her feelings. Looking at herself in the mirror, Elizabeth put the final touch on her costume; she turned her short blond hair to shoulder length red hair. Now that she was able to stay in the same city all the time, Elizabeth felt it better to change her appearance so she wouldn't be recognized.
Grabbing her purse, Elizabeth left her apartment to catch a bus into town. She didn't want to be late. Many times, she was tempted to just `appear' where she wanted to be, but she could not let anybody become suspicious. Especially in the place where she was working.
Finally, the bus came to her stop and after walking a few blocks, Elizabeth came upon the `Blazin' Hot Music Store' with its sign lit up in red neon lights. The angel frowned at the sight of the devil's horns coming out of the letter B and the pitchfork running through the letter O. Why must anything hot be associated with Satan and his work? Putting her annoyance aside, Elizabeth walked over to the side employees' entrance and went inside.
The smell of cigarette smoke hit her right away as she walked into the back room. Sitting on a chair with her feet propped up, was a girl smoking a cigarette. She had jet-black hair down to her shoulders. She looked to be about twenty and had black kohl make- up around her eyes. The girl's uniform had been embellished with pins from several of the more popular groups around the area. She glanced up as Elizabeth came in.
"Oh, hi." The girl said, giving Elizabeth a quick once-over, "You must be the new girl."
"Yes, I am." Elizabeth replied, "I'm Chris Jenkins. Pleased to meet you."
"I'm Darlene Markham." She said, exhaling a puff of smoke. "The boss told me to bring you over to her when you got here. You can put your purse in the locker there. Nobody will take it."
Darlene reluctantly put her cigarette out and stood up as Elizabeth put her purse inside a rusty metal locker. Closing the door, she used her powers to lock the latch to make sure nobody would look in her purse. Darlene motioned for Elizabeth to follow her and the two walked along the stacks of stored records on the shelves. Coming up to a door, Darlene opened it and the two went through. They were now in the store behind the counter near the cash register.
Standing a few feet away was an old lady who looked to be about seventy years old, dressed in black, with her gray hair done up in a severe bun. Wire-rim glasses were perched on her nose and Elizabeth noticed a pentacle on a chain around her neck. This was the woman that had hired Elizabeth a few days ago, Estella Duke. It seemed odd that someone so old would be in charge of a popular music store, but right away, Elizabeth had known Estella was a witch. She could sense the evil with her powers, but had to be careful Estella didn't sense Elizabeth's powers with her own black magic. Thus, Elizabeth hid her powers as deeply as possible, made herself as mortal as she could, as not to stir suspicion.
Darlene and Elizabeth walked over to Estella. The old witch looked up from a magazine she was glancing through.
"Here she is, Miss Duke." Darlene said.
"Oh good, you're here on time." Estella said to Elizabeth with a smile, "I hope this will be a habit with you."
"It will, Miss Duke." Elizabeth said, "And thank you for hiring me."
Estella simply sniffed and waved Darlene away. Darlene looked relieved to get away from her boss and went over to help a customer. A slight frown formed on Estella's face as she looked at Elizabeth's crucifix.
"What an interesting necklace." The old witch said slowly.
"Thank you." Elizabeth replied, "My aunt visited the holy land last year and brought it back for me."
Actually, a priest gave it to her many years ago, claiming it was made of silver from King Solomon's holy temple.
Since Solomon was a wise and holy man of God, anything from his temple was holy as well. That explained why Estella was put out by it.
"How nice." Estella said putting on a fake smile. "Now come over here, I will teach you what to do."
Estella showed Elizabeth around the store, where all the different types of music LP's were arranged. The angel noticed that the most popular rock music was out in front near the door.
Next, Elizabeth was shown the stock room, where Elizabeth and Darlene had walked through earlier and pointed out the color-coded signs at the end of each aisle to make it easy to find what was wanted.
Elizabeth noticed one section was marked in black.
"What section is this, Miss Duke?" She asked.
"Oh, that's where the newest music from our parent company, Ritzy Records is kept." Estella told her. "Always tell our customers about the new albums coming out, Miss Jenkins. We have new music coming out almost every week." The old witch said with a smile.
"Ritzy Records owns this store?" Elizabeth asked.
"Yes, and a few others." Estella replied, "But this is their main store."
She then led Elizabeth out to the store again, and handed her a sheet of paper from a counter top.
"This is a listing of our latest acts and the names of all their records." She said, "You would do well to try and memorize it as much as possible."
Elizabeth looked down the list of acts. Several of them had odd names, like The Coffins or Glitterdust. They each had just one album out so far.
"All new acts, I see." The angel remarked.
"Yes, they just signed recently and have released their debut album." Estella said. "The Coffins seem to be the most successful so far in terms of sales, so they'll probably record another album soon."
Elizabeth nodded and looked over at a row of small glass-enclosed booths lined against a side wall.
"Those are the listening booths?" She asked.
"Yes, they are." Estella replied, "We permit customers to play any record they are planning to buy to make sure it is not damaged."
"Or to see if the record is any good in the first place." Elizabeth smiled.
Estella frowned at that. "Well, yes, that too I suppose." She sniffed. "Now, I will show you how to operate the cash register."
After Estella had shown Elizabeth how to operate the register and keep track of the money, she was turned loose on the store floor to wait on customers. It wasn't long before a young boy about fifteen years old, fashionably dressed with long hair, walked into the store. Elizabeth walked over to him.
"Hello, welcome to Blazin' Hot. May I help you?" The angel asked.
"Yeah babe, I'm looking for the new one from Warmonger." He said, trying to act cool.
"It'll probably be up front here." Elizabeth said, leading him over to one of the stacks. She looked at the tags and quickly found the W's and found the requested album.
The angel looked at the cover. It seemed pretty normal, with the group, five young men, gathered around an army tank. But yet...something seemed wrong with it. Elizabeth wanted to use her powers to see if there was something hidden in the picture, but didn't dare with Estella hanging close by.
"Hey, could I have the album now?" The boy asked, looking impatiently at the angel.
"Oh yes, I'm sorry." Elizabeth smiled, handing the album to him. "Will that be all?"
"Yeah babe, thanks." The boy smiled, giving Elizabeth a wink as he headed for the counter.
Elizabeth watched the boy go, then picked up another Warmonger album. Looking at the back of the album, she saw another picture of the group holding guns and smiling. At the very bottom, there was the location of the Ritzy Music studios and the name of the owner.
Her musing were interrupted by Estella walking over.
"What are you doing, Miss Jenkins?" Estella demanded.
"Just looking at the interesting photos, Miss Duke." Elizabeth said, putting the album back in its place.
"You are to keep moving around and not be idle, Miss Jenkins." The old witch said, "If there are no customers to wait on, then help Miss Markham dust the counters."
"Yes, Miss Duke." Elizabeth replied, walking away. Estella watched the angel for several seconds, looked at the Warmonger album, and then walked away.
Chapter 2
Chapter 4
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