Imposter Syndrome: Chapter 2, Part 2
Imposter Syndrome: Chapter 2, Part 2
Welcome to Shady Springs
Imposter Syndrome is my fourth novel. It’s a spooky young adult mystery set in the weird town of Shady Springs, where nothing’s ever quite what it seems. Over the coming weeks, I’ll be sharing serialised instalments of the story exclusively on Substack. If you like it, consider upgrading to a paid subscription to help support my fiction writing. Annual subscribers will get a free physical copy of the novel when it’s published in full.
Previously…
Shady Springs was wide awake and bustling when they rolled into town. It was already hot at nine-thirty. Most of the adults were at work by now, tugging grumpily at their shirt collars and complaining to one another about the heat, but the sidewalks on Main Street were busy enough: the older folks were out and about (they’d been up since five, didn’t you know), buying their local newspapers before lining up at the Post Office for their daily chat with the nice man behind the counter; stay-at-home parents ferried pushchairs from the bank to the supermarket to the coffee place, checking errands off their list before the day got too warm; and kids, briefly free from the tyranny of the school year and determined to squeeze every last drop of fun from their summer, biked or skated or roller-bladed their way from one end of Shady Springs to the other, laughing and joking and being altogether too boisterous for the adults’ liking. Some kids were still at home, in bed or in front of the TV, but they were sure as heck missing out, weren’t they?
Theo knew if he was at home right now he’d probably still be asleep. But as he and Alex came to a stop at the north end of Main Street, resting in the shade of a little produce store with sweet-smelling plums and pears displayed out front, he decided that being outdoors on a warm summer’s morning wasn’t so bad. Except it was already so hot.
Alex wiped her forearm across her brow. “Tired yet?” she said, grinning.
“No way,” replied Theo, resisting the urge to wipe his brow as well. His head felt like it was cooking under the helmet.
“Good, because I’ve got some stuff to show you later.”
“Is any of it indoors? Maybe in, like, a place selling air conditioners or something?”
“You’re so weird.”
“I know.” Theo saw she was about to start pedaling again and grabbed her handlebar. “Wait, tell me about it first. About the binder. You said you would.”
“Ok, but not here,” Alex replied conspiratorially, glancing around like she suspected they were being watched. Maybe there’s a spy in the plums, Theo thought. “Comic book store. This way.”
She pedaled off. Theo readjusted his helmet for the fourth or fifth time, and followed.
They turned right and started along Main Street. Alex took it slow, weaving expertly between pedestrians. Theo did his best to follow suit, wobbling after her on the pink bike. Some people glanced his way and one or two smirked, but most didn’t care. They were in a hurry, doing their own thing.
“This is Main Street,” Alex announced unnecessarily, just as she’d done during her tour of the Oakwood house the night before. “It’s where all the stores and stuff are, apart from the big sporting goods place. This is basically most of the town, right here.”
“Right,” said Theo, almost bumping into a red-faced mother dragging a screeching toddler towards her car.
“The comic book store’s just up here,” Alex called over her shoulder. “Come on.”
They pedaled on for another three or four blocks, Theo growing sweatier with each passing second, Alex seemingly oblivious to the morning heat. How can someone who likes the sun so much be so pale? Theo wondered, as his helmet slipped down once again. Has she become a vampire since I last saw her? No, because then she couldn’t -
“Here,” said Alex, and he promptly ran into the back of her. “Ow!”
“Sorry,” he muttered, “didn’t see you.”
The comic book store was sandwiched between a small bakery and a boarded-up building that’d once been an office of some kind. The splashy, cartoon-style lettering above the door read The Inky Dungeon; a neon sign in the window declared that the place was open. Theo caught a whiff of fresh-baked bread from the building next store and his mouth watered.
They left their bikes propped below the store window (Alex said it was ok, why would anyone want to steal those bikes?) and went inside. A bell tinkled at their arrival.
Theo thought The Inky Dungeon certainly lived up to its name. Inside, it was dimly-lit and shadowy near the back, and the whole place smelled a little musty. Heavy rock music played from a hidden speaker. Rows and rows of comics lined the shelves on three walls and an old table in the center of the room was stacked high with reduced-priced items. The floorboards creaked beneath their sneakers as they approached the counter in the corner.
“Good morning,” said Alex cheerily, brushing a long strand of white-blonde hair from her face.
“Oh, it’s you.” The guy behind the counter - Theo guessed he couldn’t be more than twenty - had been leaning his lanky frame against the wall with his nose in an X-Men comic. He hadn’t even looked up when they walked in. Now, he peered at them through thick glasses over the comic pages, screwing up his nose in displeasure. “It’s very early.”
“You’re open,” Alex pointed out.
“Yeah, I guess.” His voice was deep and dreary; Theo wondered if his reddish hair was naturally frizzy, or if he’d made it that way on purpose. “What do you want? Are you going to buy something this time?”
“Maybe.”
The guy sighed and lowered his comic, revealing a name tag pinned to his t-shirt. It simply read ‘Fintan’. He turned his sleepy gaze on Theo for the first time and said, “Who’s he?”
“He’s my cousin. His name’s Theo.”
Theo held up a hand, like someone had just done a roll call.
“Cousin?” said Fintan, squinting at Theo. “He doesn’t look like you.”
Theo and Alex looked at each other, frowning. “I guess his hair’s dark, and mine isn’t,” said Alex. “And he’s taller.”
“Where’s your sister?” said Fintan, apparently losing interest. “Is she with you?”
“No.”
“Is she still, like, totally into me and stuff?”
Alex blinked and said, “Oh dear.” She stepped away from the counter. “We’re going to look around now, ok?”
“Sure,” Fintan mumbled, going back to his comic. “Just don’t touch anything.”
Alex led Theo to the rear of the store. She began leafing through a line of DC comic books, humming softly along to the music. Back here, it would easily drown out their voices, as long as they lowered them a little.
“Thought we weren’t allowed to touch anything?” Theo said.
“Fintan always says that,” said Alex, pulling a Superman comic halfway out to read the title. “Fintan’s weird about the stuff in here.”
“I think Fintan’s just weird,” Theo said.
Alex grinned, sliding the comic book back into place. “Yup, and he has a thing for Tiffany. I used to make her bring me here. I think it made Fintan’s day.”
Theo pulled out a Batman comic and started flicking through it. “So, about the binder - ”
“Hey, what the heck are you doing? Be careful with that,” Fintan snapped from the other end of the store, craning his long neck past the shelves. “Those are collectibles.”
“Oh, sorry,” said Theo. “I’m just looking.”
“Gosh,” muttered Fintan, disappearing from view again.
“So you do remember it?” said Alex quietly. “You remember what it was?”
“Well, yeah,” Theo said. “It was, like, a record we made, wasn’t it? Like a scrapbook.”
Alex scoffed. “It was more than a scrapbook!” She pulled out another comic book. “It was everything. Every weird, unexplained thing we ever heard about. News reports, photos, stories we cut from magazines, back when we used to have magazines in the house. Stuff from all over the world! Remember the haunted doll?”
Theo puzzled for a moment, then remembered. “Yes! The doll - man, that was creepy.”
Alex nodded. “It was all really creepy, but we were totally into it. Every time you came over you’d have more things to add, and so would I. We almost ran out of pages at one point. And then my family, yunno… moved.”
“Yeah,” Theo said, staring blankly at the comic pages. “That was a bummer. But I guess we were just kids then. Maybe we just made a bigger deal of that stuff than we needed to, yunno? It probably wasn’t as weird as we - ”
Alex snatched the comic book from his hands. Fintan heard the sound and leaned past the shelves again, scrutinizing them through his over-large glasses. “What was that?” he said.
“Nothing,” replied Alex sweetly. Fintan disappeared again, muttering to himself, and Alex pushed the closed comic back at Theo. “We didn’t exaggerate any of it,” she said, “not one bit. It was all unexplained, creepy stuff, and it was real.”
Theo stared at her. Her eyes were electric blue, bristling with conviction. He thought they might glow in the dark if Fintan turned off the lights.
“So, that’s what you were looking at last night?” he said slowly. “That… record we kept?”
“Yes. And no,” Alex glanced towards the counter. Then she leaned closer and, in a hushed voice, said, “After we moved here, I started making a new record. One about this town, about Shady Springs. I made a record just for it, because… because this place is totally weird.”
Theo frowned. “What d’you mean? Weird like…” He gestured towards where Fintan was.
“Weirder,” said Alex. “Like, no-one would believe it if I told them.”
“Not even Janice?”
“Not even Janice,” Alex said, missing the jibe. “No-one would understand, so I didn’t tell anyone about it. Not one person. Until now. Because you’re the only one who gets it. You’re the only one who knows this stuff is real.”
“What… stuff?” said Theo cautiously, thinking about the red lights in the night sky.
Alex’s eyes burned bright. “I’ll show you.”
Fintan reminds me of Comic Book Guy from "The Simpsons" (albeit less pretentious).