A dark caption.

Annabella walked into the old shop, now under new owners. This had been her favorite shop, so much new technology on the first and second floor, plus a basement with lots of discounted older products one could get at a great price. Now it was still her favorite, but it felt different to her. While the new products had stayed the same and the the new owners seemed friendly enough, it did not have the same feel as it once did.

Maybe, she thought it was because they had cut down on half of the basement, cutting to a big chunk of the reason she came here. She could spend hours browsing and did often buy. While there was still quite a bit, it wasn't quite the what it had been.

Today, though, she was looking for a specific product, a new radio that had possibly come in. She went right to where the radios normally were and seeing it, went immediately to pick it up. She'd keep it with her but now she wanted to browse a bit.

As she was looking at the new products, one of the store clerks walked up to her. He was a man who looked like he had just graduated college, early twenties, his glasses thick and his build tall and gangly. He was friendly enough, but something about him always seemed a bit off. Maybe it was just she was so used to the previous owners.

"Mrs. Parker?" He asked politely.
"Yes, David?" She asked. Odd, she thought, they normally come up to people while they were browsing. They preferred to wait to see if someone needed help first.

"I do not mean to bother you," he started. "But I was wondering if we can ask for a quick favor. In exchange, you can have that radio half-off."

She looked at him and smiled. This was a twenty dollar radio, so she was interested.

"So, we had a customer bring in an old product, a hair dryer chair you see in beauty salons. I know you used to work in one. See, none of us know a thing about them and we can't get it working. We were wondering if you could take a look at it."

"Sure. Do you need me to come with you right now?"

"No, let us get it moved so it's easier for you. It was in our storage area, so maybe fifteen minutes. Just come down at that time and we should have it ready by then."

"Okay." She said. She shrugged, but ten bucks off was ten bucks off.

She waited the fifteen, not seeing a point in watching them move one of those and wanting to look at more products. Once the fifteen had passed, she walked down the steps.

The part still open to customers looked as it always had and she now saw where they had made a new wall to create their storage area, with a large sliding door. She saw the hair dryer chair sitting right near the door and walked over to it.

"David?" She asked.

No answer. She shrugged. Maybe he was handling something else. She looked it over for a few minutes, not really seeing a thing wrong with it save that the hair dryer part didn't really look like a normal hair dryer. Of course, it could be a foreign model, or a niche model that never caught on.

Finally, seeing no obvious issues, she sat down, lowered it slightly, and turned it on. She figured that would give her the best indication of what was wrong. She wasn't worried, she saw no electrical issues and everything seemed sturdy. Maybe the feel of the air blowing and the sound it made when turned on might give her a clue.

She flicked a switch and screamed as it lowered down onto her head, metal grabbing her jaw and holding her head steady. She tried to grab at it, but it was of no use, and she tried to flick the switch but it seemed to do nothing when she flicked it.

Her mouth was a mask of terror as a buzzing and cutting sound came from it, and suddenly she slumped down, still being held in place. As the sounds went on new, more organic sounds started to come from inside the hair dryer.

Within ten minutes it was over, the cutting and buzzing stopped, and the sound of stapling just finishing as the hair dryer came up.

David sat there a moment, then stood up on high heels and opened the top of the machine. Inside was a clear jar with a bright green liquid in it and floating in that liquid was a human brain. Annabella's brain.

He smiled as he took the jar out and sat it on a nearby end stand. He'd have to drop this off at her house before he left town. What kind of person would he be if he didn't at least drive her home after she had helped him?