It was the tenth of December, and the wind chilled me to the
bone. I was to complete work today, and
soon I would be transferring to Seattle, where I would become a certified
Doctor. I had completed my degree at
Wake Forest University, spending thousands in the process. Luckily my father’s father and his father
before that had been in the furniture business.
But, throughout school, I worked in the retail business. My last night was to set new planograms, or
new aisle layouts for the layman, throughout the night. I hardly worked the night shift, it was set
for people who needed the hours. But, Johnson had called out, so Geoffrey and
I were to work the shift, complete the store, and in the morning I would board
the flight to Seattle. It seemed easy enough.
That afternoon I drank three cups of coffee, ate a steak
dinner, and took a freezing cold shower.
I left at 8:45 PM, the sun had already set, and the fog had settled
in. The drive to my store was a mellow
one. I passed a few solemn headlights on
the way, but most people had gone inside for the night. The air smelled like sadness, and the fog
helped none at all. It was going to be a sad night, as it was my last shift at
the store. The weather did not help at
all.
I pulled into the parking lot at 8:53, to find Geoff waiting
in the parking lot. His van hummed, and
his lights were on. I pulled beside him
to find him listening to music in his headphones. I decided to scare him, and knocked on his
window. His face was priceless and of
utmost horror. He jerked his headphones
off, and after muttering a few words I will not repeat, he stepped
outside. “Ready for your last day?” He
asked. I walked with him inside, and we
locked the outer gate. We stepped
inside, with the hottest pop music playing.
We decided it would be better to play something that we liked, as there
were no customers and a highly low chance that the District Manager would come
in. We decided to listen to Chopin’s
complete nocturnes, performed by the lovely Brigette Engerer.
We got our box-cutters and each pulled a ladder, and began
to work on setting the new aisles. Geoff
started on aisle 35, while I started on 1.
We would hopefully meet before 5 AM, if not, I would have to stay, and
delay my flight, and miss many opportunities.
So for the first hour I worked at a breakneck pace. Having all my supplies ready (thanks to the
evening shift) I set new hooks with ease, unpacked and loaded new product easily,
and before I knew it, I was on aisle 18.
It was odd, though, Geoff was a highly skilled worker (being there for
over 7 years)-yet he had not even finished.
Another curious thing, the music had stopped. It was only 1AM, and only a small amount of
sleep had set in. I began walking
towards the end of the aisles, slowly looking down each for a sign of Geoff.
Aisles 19-23 were empty, and unset. However, when I reached Aisle 22, a dozen or
so empty boxes sat opened, and product halfway on the shelves. Geoff was nowhere to be seen. It was unlike him, company policy required us
to specify if we left our location. I
moved down the aisle to see if there were any signs of where he went.
As I inspected the scene, I came across a few odd
things. His box-cutter was covered in a
substance I had yet to have seen, darker than motor oil, but more viscous than
water. And upon further investigation, I
saw a small drip trail leading to our receiving area. I followed it, while looking down each aisle. At aisle 34 I lost my breath at the sight
that befell my poor eyes, and where I most likely lost my sanity.
Hanging from the top of the left-hand aisle, Geoff was hanging
by his eyeballs. They were tied up in
the railing, and he was skinned from neck down.
His face was torn to pieces, and I had no idea how his optical nerves
were supporting his entire body weight.
The trail of liquid led further away, and into the receiving area.
I began shaking suddenly, and the air became cold. The music was gone, so the store was dead
silent. The lights were dim at night, so
I could see maybe a few feet in front of me.
I had not the slightest idea what to do, except to not follow that damned trail. So
I began to make my way toward the door.
I peered down each aisle, to make sure this was no
joke. Each aisle I passed was empty,
some with a few scattered boxes. When I
hit aisle 17, I saw a few boxes fall. I
jumped automatically, my nervous system a wreck at this point. There was absolutely no noise, and the
complete emptiness off it all was rattling me to the bone. I passed aisle 5, and did a double take. About 9 feet away, two dark red eyes stared
back at me. They looked like eye shine
from an animal of some sort, when light reflects into darkness. I stood completely frightened, unable to even
close my eyelids. The animal slid as
fast as lightning away from me, and went towards receiving. I figured this was my chance to leave, so I
made a bolt for the door.
My footsteps echoed loudly into the nothingness of the
store, and with each step I listened for another behind me. But resistance was futile, and soon I saw a
black tail swipe my ankle, and I hit the ground hard. I turned over to see my assailant, but it was
gone already. It moved silently, and
with the darkness surrounding us, I became frightened for my life. This was the end. It was going to hang me up, like that silly
Predator movie. I began crawling
backwards, trying not to make a sound. I
sadly bumped into some routers, and the boxes tumbled on top of me. Almost instantly, I saw those two red eyes
gleaming in the distance. I threw some
boxes towards it, and made way toward the exit.
Again, it tried to trip me, but I jumped just in time. I shoved some product behind me, and heard
some shuffling and a noisy fall. I
looked back to see its tail darting towards me, and felt a small pierce in my
chest. I looked down, and saw profuse
bleeding. It then shoved its tail down,
cutting me in half from heart down. My
organs plopped onto the waxed floor,
creating a large mess. Someone would
have to clean this in the morning. But
not me. This was my last day on the job.
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