Dante looked up when Mr. Imp spoke to him. For a second, he just blinked at him, a little thrown off by the fact that the guy had apparently noticed exactly where he was looking. Then his eyes looked toward the hall, then back again. “The restroom?” he repeated. “No. I’m good.” He put the lighter back down and gave a small shrug, trying to play it off. “Just looking.”

Then the crash from across the shop pulled his attention away.

Dante turned at the sound. Something had hit the floor hard enough to make him flinch, and apparently Mr. Imp’s attention had gone with it, because the man was already fussing over whatever happened and not looking at him anymore. “Okay,” he muttered under his breath. “Weird.”

His eyes drifted back toward the hall. That’s when he heard it. It was faint. Easy enough that he almost missed it under everything else going on in the shop… but it was definitely a voice. He couldn’t make out what it was saying, if it was even saying anything at all, but it was there. Coming from the direction of the hall.

Dante frowned. For a second he just stood there listening, phone still in one hand, as the rest of the shop was moving along doing whatever it was doing. And under all of it, that voice. His gripped his phone tighter “Nope,” he murmured to himself. “We’re not doing this…”

Then he glanced toward the front of the shop, back toward the hallway, and immediately got annoyed because curiosity was already winning.

“No seas tonto,” he muttered. Still, curiosity won out. He slowly stepped in that direction. Enough to hear better. That was all. Maybe he imagined it, and there would be nothing. Dante hesitated, then called out, not too loud, like he already regretted it, “Uh… hello? Is someone back there?”