Outside Business Hours

A mysterious handmade soap shop deep in a mountain village.

In the dim light, amid dried flowers and glass bottles,

secrets beyond words lie hidden.

When a family of three tourists stumbles in,

the smile in the shopkeeper's eyes and the cold, hard bars of soap

begin to silently erode the boundaries of reality. Perhaps they sell far more than soap here.

#MysteryAndHorror #EerieAtmosphere #FolkloreAndUrbanLegends #FemaleProtagonist #Dark□□ #PsychologicalThriller #FamilySecrets

[Excerpt from the original]

After cleaning the shop, I took out a tarot deck, spread a piece of black velvet on the tea table, shuffled and cut the cards, then drew one.

My mother has always looked down on tarot as a Western form of divination, but I love it.

I turned over the card: Death, upright.

A terrible omen, but this is my favorite card. It was bound to be another delightful day.

[Author's note]

The author is experimenting with shifting forms of address and multiple points of view. This may make the reading feel jumpy or disjointed, and that is intentional.

If this makes for an unpleasant reading experience, I'm very sorry.

If, by some chance, you do enjoy it, then... welcome to the author's strange world of stories.

Theme: I would trade my soul for yours and become your prisoner