On the way back from her bathroom break, Natalie decided she'd take a few minutes to browse the store's stock shelves. It wasn't like Angie'd be overwhelmed without her, after all. Bored as she was, even rummaging through surplus props and unpopular costumes sounded like a fun diversion.
At the beginning of the season, the storeroom had been crammed full of things ready to be sold off. Now, while not empty, it was definitely a lot easier to get through. For the licensed costumes, all the popular characters were gone, leaving behind the unpopular side characters and villains whose appeal had been over-estimated by their marketers. Long sold were the realistic, bloody cleavers and axes, now only cheap, neon plastic swords and daggers sat on the shelves collecting dust. Plastic spiders, cartoony ghost standees, etc. In short, it was a bunch of trash at this point. But it was different trash than what was out on the shelves, so Natalie was giving it a look.
She was just standing back up (she'd seen some gag "sexy janitor" costume on a bottom shelf- not really that funny, but she just wanted to make sure she'd seen right), when Natalie banged her head on the shelf above her. Beyond the throbbing in her head, the loud metal clang, and her own swearing, she heard the clatter of something falling to the ground. Looking over, she saw a piece of costume jewelry- a crimson gem pendant, sitting in a dull silver that seemed to sparkle in even the dim light of the back room. Natalie tapped her fingernail against the gem, only hearing the "clack" of hard plastic in return- but, wow, did it look real! In fact, a blood red gem on a subtle silver chain fit right in with the rest of her costume. Natalie looked around, despite knowing it was just her and Angie on duty- it wasn't like she'd get in trouble, right? A trinket, just wearing it for the night. She could give it back tomorrow, if anyone even said anything at all; if not, it'd just sit unsold in some warehouse for a year, so what was the harm. With a grin, she clasped the plastic necklace around her neck, surprised at how well it fit.
Of course, what Natalie couldn't have seen was the weak pulse of red light coming from the gem as she started back towards the store's main room. As such she had no idea what happened to cause her misfortune as....
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