Fashion Frightmare! (My Sister the Vampire) (12 page)

But her steps only dragged a little bit as she followed her twin towards Blue Skye’s shop. Today, the display window was draped with gauzy fabrics, and a curtain of colourful beads hung in
the doorway. Taking a deep breath, Olivia ducked through the curtain, tiny beads jangling and bumping against her skin on all sides.

She winced at the loud tinkling of the wind chimes that were hung all over the place. Olivia found it almost impossible to move without making them jingle. She tripped and fell straight into a
huge one. Ivy and Reiko both clasped their hands to their ears and moaned. It was too much for their super vamp hearing to take!

Mouthing ‘Sorry!’, Olivia straightened up, forced herself to breathe deeply and took a good look around the shop.

There was only one other customer inside – a long-haired boy about their age who was browsing through a colourful collection of scarves, pashminas, saris and sarongs on the opposite wall.
He fingered one purple-and-yellow cotton sarong with a thoughtful look on his face. Usually, in a shop like this, Olivia would only have expected to see boys waiting impatiently for their
girlfriends, or simply looking lost, but this boy actually seemed to know what he was doing.

Too bad
. Olivia sighed and turned away. If he’d actually needed help, he
might
have distracted the attention of Blue Skye. Speaking of whom . . .

‘Welcome, friends!’ Blue Skye’s voice boomed out just behind Olivia, making her jump. ‘Have we met before?’

‘Um . . .?’ Olivia flashed a desperate glance at her sister.

Ivy removed one hand from her ear and pointed wordlessly behind Olivia. Slowly, reluctantly, Olivia turned to face the shop owner.

Ohhh. So that’s why she didn’t recognise us!

Blue Skye was an unmistakable figure, clothed in gauzy, rippling layers of bright blue, green, and yellow silk from the top of her head to her gold-painted toenails. But what Olivia noticed most
of all was the thin, black silk scarf wrapped around her eyes.

‘I’m so sorry!’ Olivia said. ‘Did we wake you up from a nap?’ She wouldn’t have expected most shop owners to go to sleep in the middle of the daytime, in
their own shops, but Blue Skye was not ‘most shop owners’.

‘You’re asking about my little blindfold, aren’t you?’ Blue Skye chuckled indulgently as she patted the silk over her eyes. ‘No, I have simply reached a higher
level of experience. That thing which we call “sight”? That only gets in the way of
really seeing
the world around us!’ Her voice rolled out with all the intensity of a
politician campaigning for votes. ‘When we open our eyes, we become blind to the truth
beyond
our vision!’

Reiko looked fascinated. ‘But . . . don’t you walk into things – like, all the time?’

‘Pfft.’ Blue Skye waved the question away with one sweep of her arm. ‘My goal is to improve my
true
vision. What does it matter if I suffer a few boring bumps and
bruises along the way? Honestly, the physical is
so
overrated.’

Ivy cleared her throat. ‘Uh . . . it might not be
that
overrated . . .’

‘What do you mean?’ Blue Skye swung around, turning to face Ivy’s direction. ‘Do you dare dispute my vision, visitor?’

‘Well . . .’ Ivy coughed. ‘It’s just, I can see quite a few empty hangers and racks around the store.’ She shrugged. ‘I think someone may have taken advantage
of your experiment, Blue Skye. You’ve been robbed!’

Something crashed at the other side of the shop. Olivia spun around to see the boy at the other side of the store looking as shocked as if Ivy had poked him with a stick. The clothing rack
behind him had been knocked backwards – he must have jumped when he’d heard her words. He pointedly replaced the sarong he’d been holding and backed away with his empty hands held
high.

Oops!
Olivia gave an apologetic smile – clearly, he’d thought Ivy was accusing him of the clothing thefts! He only ducked his head in response to her smile, though, turning
around so fast he nearly tripped over his own feet. He then speed-walked the rest of the way out of the shop, sending the curtain of beads jangling with his exit.

‘Oh, nonsense.’ Blue Skye let out such a massive snort, the gauzy silk hood around her head ruffled in its breeze. ‘That’s the problem with our culture nowadays –
this inhibiting belief that everything has to
cost
something.’

‘Er . . .?’ Ivy looked at the price tags on the clothes hanging near her. ‘We are in a store –’

‘Ah, but money cannot buy you time, can it? Or peace, or love?’ Blue Skye shook her head, her tone weary. ‘Trust me, young one: the sooner we
all
realise that, the
happier we will be.’

This is getting us nowhere!
Olivia’s breath whistled out through her gritted teeth in a noise that was half-growl and half-sigh. A
grigh
!

At the sound, Blue Skye swung around to face Olivia. With her blindfolded eyes, the movement looked strangely eerie, especially when she sniffed loudly, as if following a scent. ‘I can
sense – oh yes – I have seekers in my shop today. Seekers who need my help!’

‘Well . . .’ Olivia blinked, slightly taken aback. ‘I guess you could say that.’

‘Of course. My inner vision grows strong.’ Smiling serenely, Blue Skye placed both be-ringed hands on her chest. ‘I will provide all the help that I possibly can. Come!’
She swept around and headed purposefully for the counter, neatly side-stepping all the clothes-racks in her path.

Olivia watched with reluctant awe as Blue Skye cut a clear path through the cluttered shop, bypassing clothing racks, jewellery displays and glass cabinets, despite her blindfold.
Maybe she
is developing inner vision after all!

Ivy didn’t stop to watch. Instead, she hurried after Blue Skye, frowning intently. ‘Do you know all your regular customers?’

‘Ohhh . . .’ Blue Skye shrugged, sending her gauzy layers shifting all around her like an ocean in a storm. ‘Can any person truly
know
another person, in their heart
of hearts?’

Olivia could feel another grigh building up inside her. She had to slam her mouth shut to keep it in . . .

For once, Ivy seemed to be keeping her cool. ‘I take your point,’ she said calmly, ‘but we’re looking for someone – someone who may need our help – and
we’re running out of ideas for how to find them.’

Otherwise, we certainly wouldn’t have come here!
Olivia added silently. But she kept her mouth shut as she watched Blue Skye’s face smooth out in pleasure.

‘You have come to the right place, seekers,’ the shop owner announced. She set the palms of her hands together and cocked her hooded and blindfolded head to one side, waiting with
unnerving poise. ‘Tell me.’

‘OK.’ Ivy leaned across the counter. ‘We have reason to believe that Maxie might shop here.’

‘Maxie?’ Blue Skye’s lips curved into a smile. ‘Are you talking about Maxie Richards, by any chance?’

‘Yes!’ Olivia couldn’t help the squeak of delight that escaped her lips.

Ivy leaned towards Blue Skye. ‘Can you give us an idea of who it is we’re looking for? All we know so far is that Maxie has shoulder-length brown hair.’

‘I have no idea what Maxie
looks
like,’ Blue Skye answered.

‘What?’ Olivia’s mouth dropped open.

Ivy shook her head. ‘You just said you know Maxie Richards. So how can you
not
know what Maxie looks like?’

‘Perfectly easily,’ Blue Skye said. ‘You see, Maxie has only started shopping here in the last couple of weeks or so, and in that time . . .’ She let out a low, purring
hum of satisfaction and pointed to her blindfold. ‘I have not laid eyes on a single person. And, I have to say, if all you care about is frivolous, shallow physical detail, I don’t know
how much help I can be.’

Olivia clapped her hands to her head.
You can say that again!
She had always believed in compassion and tolerance – but, while it was great that Blue Skye was trying to mellow out
and believe in the goodness underneath other people’s surfaces, Olivia wondered how sensible such an approach was when it led to her getting robbed . . .
and
being no help at all in
the twins’ Pashmina Panic?

Sighing, Ivy stepped back from the counter. ‘Thanks anyway,’ she said to Blue Skye. ‘We appreciate the help.’

‘Of course.’ Blue Skye lowered her chin in a regal nod. ‘You may always come back to this shop, seekers, when you desire a brush with true inner vision . . . or, of course,
when what you desire is a really lovely piece of clothing, designed especially for the inner you.’

‘Thank you,’ Olivia mumbled. She knew she didn’t sound enthusiastic, but right now, it was the very best that she could do, with yet another grigh building inside her.

‘What are we going to do?’ she whispered to Ivy as they started out of the store.

Ivy didn’t bother to whisper back. ‘I don’t know,’ she said glumly. ‘Short of asking every customer in the mall, I have no idea how we’re going to find her
now.’

‘Oh, you won’t.’ Blue Skye’s voice boomed through the store. ‘Trust me, seekers. You won’t find her.’

‘Huh?’ Ivy’s voice finally took on an edge as she swung back towards the blindfolded shopkeeper. ‘
Why
won’t we find her? Oh, let me guess. Because
we’re not –’ She crooked her fingers into air-quotes that Blue Skye had no chance of seeing –‘“looking in the right space”? Or because our “open eyes
are really locked shut”?’

Uh-oh.
Olivia braced herself.
I think the Skye is about to turn Red!

But Blue Skye’s lips curled an extra half-inch higher in their smile as she leaned forward, her hood dropping lower over her forehead. ‘No, my dears,’ she murmured gently.
‘Because there is no “her” to find. Didn’t you realise? Maxie Richards is a boy!’

Olivia clutched at Ivy’s arm. They stared at each other in sudden, wild surprise.

Why didn’t it ever even occur to me that ‘Maxie’ could be a boy?
Olivia wondered.
But if he is . . .

‘Actually . . .’ Blue Skye tilted her head back to sniff the air. ‘I think I recognise his scent – oh, yes. Patchouli oil and lavender. Unmistakable.’ She lowered
her chin to her chest. ‘Yes, he was here not long ago. But, how odd. He usually says hello.’

‘I know why he didn’t this time,’ Ivy said grimly.

‘Of course,’ Olivia breathed. The boy who’d been there when they’d first arrived, the one who’d browsed so purposefully through the sarongs, who looked like he knew
exactly what he was doing . . .
That
was Maxie!

And he’d left like a startled cat the moment Ivy had mentioned the subject of
thefts
.

‘He can’t have got too far away,’ said Reiko. She was already bouncing on her toes, warming up for action. ‘He might still be in the mall!’

‘Let’s go!’ Ivy lunged for the exit.

I can say one thing about trips to Blue Skye’s shop
, Ivy thought as she ducked through the curtain of beads.
They’re always memorable!

Ivy had to force herself to take deep, calming breaths as she thought through her strategy. If she wanted to, she could race through the whole mall in a blur, but that would risk exposing the
vampire secret – a gamble she would never take.
If only vamps could make themselves invisible!

Instead, she led Olivia and Reiko to the escalator that led up to the mezzanine level. ‘Come on. What we need is a raised platform to stand on, so we can get the best view of the whole
mall.’

‘Makes sense.’ Olivia nodded firmly as the escalator lifted them up, while Reiko scanned the scene around them with wide-eyed interest.

Ivy counted down seconds until they reached the top. ‘Finally!’ She lunged forwards to look over the glass banister at the shifting crowds beneath them. All she needed now was . .
.

Wait a minute.
She frowned. ‘Can either of you two remember, clearly, what the guy in Blue Skye’s store looked like?’ As much as Ivy tried, all she could envision was
his black shirt – something that half the boys
and
girls downstairs were wearing. ‘I was so sure Maxie was a girl, I didn’t even take a second look at him when he was in
the shop.’

‘Me neither,’ Reiko said.

‘Um . . .’ Making a rueful face, Olivia shrugged. ‘I think . . . he might have been wearing blue jeans? Or black?’

‘Great.’ Ivy slumped against the banister. ‘That
really
narrows it down.’

‘Sorry.’ Olivia winced.

‘Don’t be.’ Ivy sighed. ‘It’s not your fault. But . . . aagh! Our best lead just slipped through our fingers. He was
right in front
of us – and we
still can’t find him!’ She dropped her head on to her forearms. ‘Some investigator I am!’

‘Hey.’ Olivia patted her shoulder. ‘Don’t you think you’re forgetting something?’

‘Like what?’ Ivy mumbled. ‘My brain? My observational skills? My –?’

‘No,’ Olivia said. ‘Your
nose
! Don’t you remember what Blue Skye said? Maxie wears a scent of patchouli oil and lavender. That can’t be a common combo on
most of the guys shopping here today, can it? And with you and Reiko both sharing that heightened sense of smell . . .’ Her smile sounded in her voice. ‘All is not definitely
lost!’