I work in a quiet video store. Selling all kinds of films, music, and CDs in a ghost town of a shopping centre.
My friend, Kirsty was the first to vanish after closing...
She had tidied up her stationary store and closed for the night. I had waited by the back entrance, but as time ticked by, she never came out. I had peaked into the store through the window the next morning to see that store was tidy but with no sign of Kirsty.
Since then, it has always been closed. Missing people posters were put up round town of the employees who were working that day and soon the number of posters grew.
One by one the other stores closed; they would lower their shutters for the night to never open again. The store logos still hang in their windows as if waiting for the employees to come back again- turn on the lights, open the shutters and welcome the customers in as if nothing had happened.
We were now hidden in a nearly abandoned shopping centre. so only a few customers visited us every few hours. Most of our customers being old. Even with the talk of the shopping centre being haunted, people still came in to do their shopping. It was safe for them but not for us. They wanted to keep the shopping centre open as there was no proof that anything bad happened to the stores or its employees.
I stood behind the till watching the customers walk through the door, greeting me with smiles and going about their way to find their film. It is quiet, peaceful, and boring.
I scroll on my phone. I look up from the screen, interrupted by the loud noise of teenagers laughing their way through the shopping centre. They feel like they run this place with only three shops left open. Their voices echo outside. Placing my phone in my pocket, I take a deep breath in and focus on the two customers that are already in here.
One old man with thin white hair, a cane, and a wobbly leg- a regular.
A man and his girlfriend, linked by their arms they scan through the horror section, giggling and laughing.
Six new customers join as they disperse throughout the shop. Two girls look at the cd’s in the back while most of the boys go up and down the isles in a larger pack. Their noiseless chatter means nothing to me, in the ear and out the other.
“Hey!” one of them yells from the superhero section. He wears a matching tracksuit with a backwards cap, no older than twelve or thirteen. He holds up the Joker film. “How much is this?”
I stand there for a second, hoping he would notice it. My brows crease as the seconds tick by. “It should be on the back, no?” I respond.
He lowers the case down and looks at the back. “Thanks!”
The old man wobbles his way to the counter and places down a pile of movies in front of me. I smile as I make friendly conversation with him, spotting a foreign film known for its explicit content amongst the other films he was buying. I place the film in the middle of the pile when packing everything into the see-through bag. I wish him a good day as he waves goodbye.
The girlfriend, all dressed in black kisses her boyfriend on the cheek before saying something and leaving him to wonder the store alone.
I watch the kids as some of them go back and forth between the two groups gossiping to one another. The boy in the tracksuit slowly walks up and down the isles looking at the films that catches his eye. One of the boys walk back to him while the rest make their way to the door too. The boy in the tracksuit is eventually left behind by his friends, promising that he would catch up with them in a bit.
He is the only one left in the store.
Thirty minutes go by when the girlfriend walks back into the store, standing by the front but scanning the whole store.
“Hi there.” I greet with a smile. “Is there anything I can help you with? Are you looking for something?”
She steps back in shock slightly. “No, sorry. I’m just trying to find my boyfriend.” I nod and leave her to it.
I watch her look around, even walk around the store searching for him. She glances at her phone now and again tapping and then checking it again. She eventually leaves, saying he must be somewhere else.
A few more customers trickle in as the afternoon progresses but nothing different, nothing exciting, I just stand, and people watch from behind the tills.
A few days later I walk down the yellow hallway at seven in the morning, warm coffee in hand. The missing posters of everyone who use to work in the shopping centre are scattered on the right-hand wall. There were too many to count, too many faces I remember and faces that I don’t recognise. There was something different today. As I neared the end of the missing person trail, I saw two unfamiliar faces. The faces of the boyfriend and the young boy from the other day staring back at me… smiling.
It’s the first time someone else’s poster other than the shopping centre workers were stapled to the wall. I stepped back and caught sight of the bottom text.
Last seen on the Thursday in the video store belonging to the local shopping centre.
It wasn’t busy that day, but I never caught sight of them leaving the store, I just assumed that they left while I was serving another customer.
The lights at the end of the hallway started to turn off one by one slowly getting nearer to me. I’ve never been afraid of the lights going out if I stood still for too long in the hallway, but I took off running towards my store, causing the lights up ahead to flicker on. A child like fear ran through me, as if I were running up the stairs after turning off the downstairs light. Only this time the threat seemed more real and faster.
I slammed the door shut as soon as I stepped past the door. I stood there in silence listening to my breathing, listening to the hallway outside. Could I hear footsteps? Could that be one of the other shop workers? Or could it be…? I feel childish to think that it could be anything but human, but nothing makes sense.
I composed myself as I get ready for the day.
Nothing happens. It’s just an ordinary day, no one coming in and trying to look for someone they lost. Although it had become a funny little normality over the past few days that people came in asking if I saw the other person they came in with.
I always smile and laugh “I don’t blame them; I would spend hours looking at everything in this maze.” The customers would laugh too, agree and leave believing their other person to be elsewhere.
This store was far from a maze. The shop floor consisted of six medium shelves that people could look over and talk across if their friend were on the other side looking at something else. At the back was a tall CD shelf covering the whole wall from top to bottom, from left to right. At the front of the store was the till that allowed me to look down at any aisle at any time.
I watch as the last customer rushes out of the store. I reach up and turn the key, lowering the shutters slowly. Inch by inch it lowered itself to the floor.
With the entrance closed, I took out the key and turned around to the empty shop. Somehow the shop seems bigger than before...
I ignore the dread that was building in my stomach as I go about counting the notes in the registers. I make my way towards the back door.
THUD
I jolt back looking around the shelves.
“Hello?” I call out as I move around the shelves to where the sound came from. “We’re closed.”
I came to the last isle between the superhero section and the family films. There on the floor laid a DVD case, no cover, just a black box.
My back feels warm and the air quieter than before as I slowly walk down the aisle to pick up the DVD. The case is heavier than it should be as I lift it slightly off the floor while looking at it closer.
A small hand holds onto the case, their tiny chubby fingers white with pressure. Dried brown liquid covering the lower half of their hand.
I fling the arm and case back on the floor, with a thick squelchy thud as it lands in a darker area than the rest of the carpet.
None of this was here before…
My heart thumped loudly in my ears as I stared at the hand that never moved. I watched, waiting to see if anything would happen as the seconds ticked by.
My legs were shaking as my hands started to encounter the rough carpet as I lowered myself to the floor.
I looked to see a pair of wide eyes staring back at me, watching me.
A sharp pain erupted around my ankle as my body is yanked backwards, under the shelves behind me.
I scream as I try to cling to the carpet, digging my nails into the carpet’s small groves all the while pain travelled up both my legs, reaching my waist.
Thick red liquid oozed out from under the DVD shelves, my whole body feels painfully warm. I could no longer feel my legs as I tried to break free but it’ was too late.
I grab on to the shelves legs as I struggle to pull myself out. The only thing I could focus on was the pair of eyes watching me from the other side, the pair of eyes that belongs to the young boy who never left the shop when this all begun.
I stare back at the boy as I am dragged to my doom.
Leaving one store left standing.
To Be continued…