Kansan-Mart: Part 1

Hiring!

Local Kansan-Mart is hiring Cashiers with a starting pay of 12 dollars an hour! Both experienced and inexperienced. Must be sixteen years of age minimum and willing to work nights. Apply in-store or online. Come be a part of the Kansan-Mart team and help bring our slogan to life! Kansan-Mart: We Beat it or Wheat it!

1~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pinta, Kansas : February 1st, 2017

“Local my ass,” Cole said aloud. “There’s like fifty-five more of you in the midwest!” He dropped the flyer on the bench by his side and looked out at the sight of a playground. It looked like a scene from a silent film, the dull clouds creating a black and white appearance. Kids dressed in winter jackets jumped up and down and slid down slides, looking as if they didn’t give a damn about catching pneumonia.

Cole wished he could be one of those kids out there, having fun, but he was an adult. A broke college student, the familiar story. Beggared, jobless; but was he able to keep up with paying back student loans with the help of his parents. However, writing fictional stories helped Cole take his mind off all of that trouble from time to time. One even became a book, which he couldn’t have been more than proud of.

Ghosts of Linwood, the book was called, while Cole could not keep his hands off of it everywhere he went, he still had many copies to sell from his last book signing over winter break inside his dorm.

The dorm he lived in on campus was small, but it was enough room that Cole could manage. It was no bigger than one-hundred and thirty square feet which, the more Cole thought about it, was actually a bit too small for all the copies of books he’d brought. Maybe it would be nice if he could spare a little more room in an apartment and move in with somebody to help with paying the rent.

The job opportunity was right there. Cole could go to the store right now, apply, and get hired right on the spot. His previous job at a coffee shop was bad but it gave him the necessary experience to work at Kansan-Mart, he guessed. Cole also considered the other half of his apartment scenario. Friends. Maybe he’ll meet some new people that he’d want to move in with and even hang out. That might be hard to do. But Cole felt the adrenaline rushing through him now for a change in his life. Even as generic as this job sounded, it was the perfect opportunity to meet some life-long friends. Besides, he thought, this is a college town, this job has got to be flooding with teens!

Cole picked up the flyer and looked down at the bottom.

Apply at www.kanmart.com/careers

He sighed, almost a little excited, and pulled his phone out of his pocket to begin filling the form. Cole got up off the bench, carrying the flyer with him, and started walking back to the dorm.

2~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Williams Hall : Three Hours Later

Cole set his big creative writing textbook on his desk next to the copy of his own novel then sat back with his feet kicked up on a stool. He looked down at the floor, viewing a cardboard box full of more copies of his book. Cole groaned. He decided that he would put some in his car to take to work if Kansan-Mart took interest in his application. It was an opportunity to share it with other people if he got the job.

Immediately, he stood up out of some sense and made his way to the fridge, placed in between the wardrobe and the extra bunk in the room. A large window facing out into the parking lot below let in a mass ray of light onto the fridge, like the dying sun was telling Cole to go towards it. He stood in the light for a second to take in that beautiful vitamin D. It was a gift from mother nature, the sun had been missing for a few weeks up until that point.

Cole opened the fridge to find bottles of Sparkling Ice water laid down in neat rows on the bottom. On the two shelves above, Mikes, Bud Light, and many other brands of alcohol stacked on top of each other. He was lucky to have parents that buy him alcohol for that semester of college, since they knew he was a bit stressed from the last. Although, one of his best friends in high school was responsible for introducing him to the gateway drug in the first place.

While Cole was no alcoholic, he saved the beer for special occasions, such as when he got stressed or wanted to celebrate an achievement. Tonight, or really, every night, he really needed it. The four classes he took had already given him a pile of work to do all while his professors danced with the tuition he paid them.

Cole grabbed a bottle of Mike’s and twisted the lid off. He took a swig that resulted in half of the bottle disappearing. “Mmm, mmm,” he said aloud. Then wiped his mouth and burped.

An alien-like notification noise erupted from Cole’s phone. He sat back at his desk and saw that Kansan-Mart had gotten back to him. Already? He was a bit surprised they responded on the same day but he opened the message promptly.

Hi Cole! Thank you for applying. With the experience and skills you have listed, you make a great candidate for the cashier position. We work great with college students and offer a little bit of tuition assistance for those who work at least thirty hours a week. Come on in tomorrow around 4:00 PM. Ask for Jim at the return desk.

Phil Litman

Store Manager

Cole thought this Phil guy sounded nice, but he took it with a grain of salt. If there was anything the social world taught him, it was that looks could be deceiving. He turned his phone off and threw it on his desk. “Cole,” he said to himself aloud, “I think you just got a job.”

3~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Orientation

The next day -

Cole arrived on sight to the parking lot about fifteen minutes early in his 2014 Kia Soul. Cars littered all over near the entrance and people drove up and down the wrong way again and again. The parking lot had spots that were slanted, so drivers could only go one way when trying to find a spot. It’s easy practice for beginning drivers but a nightmare for old people and those who are in a rush to get their groceries.

The Kansan-Mart itself looked a bit run-down and used for a while. One of the lights flickered on the bold sign in front of the store, displaying the company name. Behind it, yellow paint covered brick walls and neon lights in the shape of wheat grains were placed above the sliding entrance doors.

To the right side of the building, a giant cage-like structure was attached, possibly where a garden and outdoor area was located.

Cole sighed and got out of his car to begin heading for the front doors. When he walked in, an older woman with bleached hair with the name tag, “Barb” greeted him. To the right of her, stacks of steel carts lined up down a long hallway for customers to grab. Some of the carts appeared a little rusty and the wheels on them had dirt and plastic all twisted up in between the rods.

“Hey, do you know where the return desk is?” Cole asked.

“Right down there,” Barb said, pointing to the left. “There’s a big sign that’ll say, ‘customer service’ above.”

Cole smiled. “Thanks.” He started his walk for the desk and took in the scene around him as he strode by.

First, there was an empty self-checkout set up like a long high school hallway where a boy dressed in a yellow polo shirt stood on a black mat next to a register. He held what looked like a phone in his hand, but it looked more like a brick rather than a cellular device. His hair was blonde and when he looked up at Cole, the boy kept a straight face, as anybody would when they saw somebody unfamiliar. “Ethan” his nametag read.

Cole continued walking, where he then saw many normal belted checkouts with none of their numbered lights on. They looked abandoned, as if they hadn’t been used for a few years. Pieces of plastic bag littered the floor and the lights above felt a bit more dimmed than how they were supposed to be.

Following the abandoned registers, an entire shelf of As Seen On TV products were lined up for display heeding by another register area and two more self-checkouts near the other exit to the parking lot.

“Looks and sme-” A horrible odor hit Cole’s nose. His head shot up and he squinted his eyes. “Ugh.” He turned to his left to see the restrooms, in which both the men and women were closed for maintenance. The tape made it look as if somebody had been killed in there, although Cole wouldn’t have doubted it if that was the case. Subsequently came a big room, where a sign read in front of a big desk towards the back, Customer Service. “There you are.”

Cole walked in then approached the young woman standing behind the counter with dark eyeliner and short blonde hair. The front of her hair was sculpted in a cool greased-up look, like Elvis Presely’s, and tied back behind in a bun. On her shirt, she wore a clipped nametag, like everybody else, that read, “Sam.”

“Can I help you?” she said, slightly smirking. It was the kind of smirk that seemed sarcastic in nature, as if she didn’t really give much of a shit about her job.

“Hey, is Jim around?” Cole asked.

“Are you the new hire?”

“Yeah.”

Sam laughed. “You’re in for a ride.”

“That supposed to mean a good or bad thing?”

“Hmmm, I would say a little of both.”

A door opened in the back and out stepped an older gentleman, probably in his sixty or seventies with bifocals. He looked about six-foot-five and skinny, holding another one of those devices that looked like a brick.

“Hey Jim, the new hire’s here,” Sam said.

Jim looked over at Cole and Cole smiled nervously.

“Hello,” Jim said in a broad voice. “Happy that you’re here.” He held his hand out for Cole to shake. “What’s your name?”

Cole accepted the shake. “It’s Cole. Nice to meet you.”

“I was just telling him about how you’re going to fire Tina here in a second.”

A nervous pulse built up in Cole’s vein. “What?”

Sam laughed and Jim shook his head. “I ain’t firing nobody,” he said. Then turned back to Cole. “Come with me, I’ll show you around back and get your badge and everything.”

“Do you guys not want to interview me or anything?”

“You look pretty qualified for the job. Store manager said you were fine.”

“Great.”

____________________________________________________

As Cole walked towards the back of the store, he couldn’t help but notice the unorganized shelves and scattered products occasionally in each aisle. Some of the lights flickered and a mildly loud buzzing noise filled the echo chamber they all stood in.

“What the heck is that?” Cole asked.

“It’ll get a little louder. The refrigerators have been having some issues for the past few weeks. They’re trying to get maintenance back there to fix it.”

“Do you hear complaints about it a lot?”

“Very much so. I even had a customer get really pissed at me about it.”

“Seriously? But it’s not even your fault.”

“I know, but when you’re in a service industry, that’s just how things go about.”

The two of them walked through two plastic doors that flew open with an easy push and swung back behind by itself. The floor became concrete instead of the white tiles out in the store and to the left, a couple of big pin boards were hung up displaying employee of the month and a calendar marking the next pay day. The music could be heard a lot clearer in there, just a catchy little beat that would keep customers in the store for a while.

Jim led Cole down the long hallway and took a right, where an even longer hallway came into view, shooting all the way down for what looked like half a mile. Lockers lined up on the left side and a couple of fenced cages with boxes inside them could be seen.

“Down at the end there is where all the general merchandise gets shipped in,” Jim said. “That’s where you’ll get your toys, books, clothes, anything like that.” Jim turned around and pointed in the opposite direction, walking backwards. “Down there, is where all the grocery products come in. Some nights, I might ask you to take hangers back here or cardboard boxes. You can take the boxes to either end, but hangers, you can only take to the GM side.”

“Got it.”

“Just don’t touch any of the machinery and such. That’s for the people in the back here to do. Last time we had a cashier do that, she lost her fingers.”

Cole cringed. “Oh, Jesus.”

Jim turned to the right and entered into an office, where a man with black hair, darkened eyes, and a welcoming smile sat in a chair. He was dreadfully skinny, almost like he’d hadn’t eaten for a couple months and wore a striped shirt without a name tag.

“Cha! Ching!” he said in a surprised, high-pitched tone. “Welcome! Are you Cole?”

“Oh, hi,” Cole said.

“He’ll take care of you from here,” Jim whispered.

“Yeah, I’ll send you right back up when we’re done here. Have you shown Cole around a little bit?” the man asked Jim.

“Yeah, I pointed him down where the grocery and GM side are, sir.”

“That’s great. You’ll learn more as you go along the way,” the man said as he looked at Cole with an aroused eye. “Go take a seat at one of the computers over there. I’ll get you your uniform and login stuff.”

“Good luck,” Jim said sarcastically. “I’ll see you soon.” He walked out the door.

Cole approached the computer closest to the man and took a seat. “So do you-?”

“Your login stuff? Yes, Yes. It’s right here. I’m just going to need you to watch some training videos and then I’ll send you up to finally start taking care of some of our customers!” He walked over and handed Cole a slip of paper. It had a four digit number as the username and the first three letters of his last name followed by a six digit number after the letters for the password. “You’ll also need that for logging in on the registers. So don’t forget,” he added with a small chuckle at the end.

Cole smiled nervously, but inside, he could only think of how weird this guy was. He assumed it was the store manager that got a hold of him about the application.

“Just log on and get that training done and you’ll be right on your way. Wa-la! Discounts galore!” Phil said gleefully.

Cole faked a chuckle and logged on, listening as Phil’s clacky footsteps walked back to his desk. The screen popped up a website that showed a list of tasks to do before heading out to the register.

Phil’s clacking steps didn’t stop, it sounded like he was thumping his foot on the floor nervously. A trait that Cole sometimes did but he didn’t want to appear stressed on his first day, in front of the big boss.

Cole turned around to look at him only to see him look away as if he was staring at him. The clacking stopped.

“Hey, Phil...right?”

Phil quickly turned his head with a smile. “Can I help you, fine employee?”

“Um, yeah, which one should I do first?” Cole pointed at his screen.

Phil clicked his tongue and pointed a finger in the air. “Active shooter training is what I recommend first. Corporates are very serious about that. We care very much about your safety.”

“Alright,” Cole turned back to his screen and shivered a little, now bothered by the thought of that creep staring at him from behind.

4~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Floor: Day 1/2

8:00 PM -

After getting his hours punched in for the training and receiving his uniform, Cole went to the bathroom to change and went straight up to the front to find Jim. He walked a maze through the clothing department, where he caught a thin, old woman wandering in the aisles along the way. Cole stopped to hide behind a corner and watched her out of curiosity.

She had dark brown hair, slender arms, and wore a white cloth mask smeared with brown stains over her mouth. Blue rubber oven mitts covered her hands and she wore brown pants covered in unknown material. It was an odd sight, as if she were living in a pandemic or some apocalyptic world.

Cole watched her struggle to grab a dress off of the hanger.

She fidgeted and pinched with the mitts on, attempting to get the clothing off the rack.

Cole shook his head in total bafflement and continued walking to the front. “Damn, this might be my next story if I see enough of this crazy shit,” he said to himself. As he approached the return desk to find Jim, Cole was met with stares from his other co-workers as he walked.

Standing behind a register, two dark-skinned girls stood, laughing. One of them had curly brown hair and small eyes with the name tag, Arianna, while the other had her hair tied back with a giant poof coming out the other end. Her smile beamed and she stood taller than Arianna; her name tag flipped upside down.

He walked past without saying anything then walked up to see Sam, who was talking with a customer.

“It’s ridiculous that you guys only have two checkout lines open,” the customer complained. “I mean, look at those girls, they’re not even working right now! Just laughing and joking around!”

“M’am,” Sam started. “I’m sure they would be happy to help you if you just head on over there. There’s nobody in line.”

“But it’s an inconvenience to the other customers! Don’t you know how retarted you guys are to be running a store like this?!”

Sam’s face turned red. “Alright, bitch! If you don’t like it, then how about you take your ass over to a self checkout then and do it yourself, how about that? Huh? Now beat it!”

“Oh my God!” the customer scoffed. She raised her hand to cover her mouth dramatically.

“Bye, Karen! You don’t need to be here, Karen!” Sam mocked.

The woman shook her head then pushed her full grocery cart over to the side angrily and stomped out of the service area.

“Wow, does that happen every day?” Cole asked.

“God, dude. I can’t even tell you.” She let out a tumultuous sigh. “Are you done with your training?”

“Yeah, the guy back there was really weird.”

“Oh yeah. That guy is a pedophile. I swear to you on my life that’s a fact.”

“Was he always like that?”

“Believe it or not, he actually used to not be so weird. But then he just suddenly changed. Don’t know what it was, but the quality of this store has basically gone to shit. He says he’s always giving discounts to random customers but they never come up here about them. We always find full carts around the store, as if he pissed them the hell off.”

Cole gave a shrug. “Well hey, at least it looks like there’s some decent people who work here.”

“Depends on what shifts you get. This time of the day, you have some pretty good people here but you get the worst customers.”

“Be more specific?”

“This store is literally haunted with those people at nightfall. Only the college kids and the high schoolers work them usually. Judging from how you look, you look like you’re in your twenties. We just really needed people for nights.”

“Ah. I’m eighteen actually.”

“Wow, you’re young. I’m thinking you’re in college then.”

“Yep, the one up the road from here.”

“That’s good. Stay in school. Beware though, the store might start to dwell on you before long. When I say haunted, I don’t mean just the customers.”

“Really? Like haunted, haun-”

“Hey!” a familiar voice said calmly.

Cole turned around to see Jim. “Oh, hey!”

“Did you get your training done?” Jim asked, folding his arms.

“Yeah, so where do I start?”

“Well, you only have a couple hours, but I think for tonight, I’ll put you on a regular register and get you some practice with that.”

“Sounds good. Which one?”

“Go to seven. Jamaya and Arianna can help you out if you’ve got any problems.”

“Sounds good.”

“Thank you.”

Cole nodded and walked away to approach the register. He logged on with his numbers and stared in confusion at the screen. There were so many buttons and things that he didn’t know about, but Cole knew from his experiences in working in food industries that he’ll catch on with it quickly. His eyes turned up to see the girls talking and looking over every once in a while.

Arianna circled around and approached Cole’s register. “Hey fool, you new here?” she asked.

“Uh, yeah? Are you going to help me?”

“Yeah, do you know the keys and stuff?”

“Not really. This is my first time on the floor.”

“Oh, so you’re new-new.”

“I’m nice, I promise. Ain’t no asswipe here.”

Arianna laughed. “Don’t take me too personally. I’ve been here for too long.” She stared for a second then squinted her eyes. “Just let me know if you need any help. You should have a customer come up to you at any second. I’ll come over when you need help. Or actually, I’m not sure. Jamaya and I might be going to our last break soon so Jim will have to help you.”

Cole gave two thumbs up. “Sounds good,” he said with a quirky smile.

Arianna rolled her eyes and went back to talk to Jamaya.

Fifteen minutes passed and there still wasn’t a customer. Jamaya and Arianna were sent to their break. Cole tried everything he could; wiping down the belt, the bag carousel, stocking bags, organizing his area more. Anything that made him look like he was busy and responsible on his first day.

Cole jumped in surprise when a plop landed on his belt. There was a customer standing right there. “Hi!” he said cheerfully. He realized something: It was the lady wearing oven mitts he saw earlier. Then, another customer joined Cole’s line.

“Hello,” the mitt lady replied in a scratchy accent.

Cole did his best to keep a smile on his face and grabbed some of the groceries to begin scanning them. He looked for the barcode and slid it across the scanner. Bop! And into the bag it went. He continued scanning the items, tossing them in the bags as best as he could.

“Are you scared of something?” the young woman standing behind the mitt lady asked.

The mitt lady turned to the other woman. “I’m just trying to protect myself.”

“From what?”

“The Void. It can suck the minds out of anybody who shops here. If you don’t leave any evidence of yourself being here and hide your face, you will be safe. Don’t accept the discounts.”

The young woman started laughing. “You sound coo-coo, lady! Go get some help.”

“He took my husband. Ate him like a fish.”

“You’re making it up,” the young woman said sassily. “God, Kansan-Mart always has crazy people.”

Mitt lady’s eyes became immediately infuriated. She turned and viciously bitch-slapped the young woman with her rubber mitts.

Cole gasped. “Oh shit,” he whispered under his breath.

“Did you just fu-” the young woman thrusted out with her fists and began tugging at mitt lady’s clothes. “You bitch!”

The two women smacked and pulled each other’s hair and after a second, the young woman gave up, backing away and holding her hand over her mouth and nose. “Oh God, that smell.”

“I identify as a stink bug. It’s in my nature that the stink will keep away psychos like you. Suck on that,” mitt lady said.

Jim came running over. “Hey! Hey! Both of you need to stop now or I will have to call security and get you kicked out.”

“It’s over,” the young woman said, a liquid seeping between her fingers. It looked like greenish vomit.

Cole finished scanning mitt lady’s items and turned to Jim. “What am I supposed to do now?”

“Click complete and,” Jim turned to the mitt lady. “Are you paying by card or cash?”

“Cash,” she said with her eyes locked in suspicion.

He turned back to Cole. “Click the cash button on the screen and it’s pretty straight forward from there.”

Cole watched the mitt lady take off her mitts, revealing plastic bags tied over her hands. She lifted her white dress up, revealing a portion of her wrinkly thighs, and struggled to pull a wallet out from her diaper underneath. She was able to hand the cash to Cole quickly and immediately, when he got the change, he circled her bags over and said, “Have a great day.”

Mitt lady grabbed her bags, set it in her cart, and walked away. What followed after was a horrible stench that Cole only described as, shit.

The young woman walked up, wiping her mouth and quickly covering her nose with her shirt. “Oh my God, did you see the brown stains on her mask? On her dress?!”

“I-uh,” Cole started. He didn’t know what to say. “I’m just trying to process what just happened.”

“You have a trash can I can borrow?”

Cole lifted a small bin from under the register and set it on top of the carousel. The young woman threw a ball of wet napkins in.

“Thank you. Does the air still stink?”

“I think you’re fine.” Then continued with her checkout.

____________________________________________________

After a slow first night, Cole grabbed his return bin and walked up to the front desk to begin separating the items in the coordinating department boxes. The area was dark, which made sense since they closed the returns at ten o’ clock. He heard a shuffling from the back area, where all the department boxes were set up on the shelves.

“Hello?” Cole called. He walked past the desk and entered the back area, where he saw a boy he recognized to be from the self checkout when he first walked in.

“Oh hey,” the boy said.

“What’s up?”

“Not much, just about to go home. How was the first day?”

“How’d you know?” Cole was trying to remember the boy’s name.

The boy stood up straight, dropping the item he had in his hand into a box. Ethan his name tag read. “Well,” he said with his lips puckered a little and scratching his chin. “I don’t suppose I’ve seen you here before.”

“You got that right.”

The boy walked over and held his hand out for Cole to shake. “Name’s Ethan.”

He shook his hand. “Cole. If the name tag doesn't make it clear.”

“Yeah, but I’m a formal person, you know? Just your average Christian cowboy, if you can’t tell from the boots I’m wearing.”

Cole looked down, where he saw what looked like a new pair of leather boots on Ethan's feet. “That’s cool.” He turned his eyes up. “And I wouldn’t say average. You’re pretty nice.”

“How do you know? We just met.”

“Believe me, I can learn a lot from a first impression.”

Ethan chuckled. “Name something, then.”

“Well, the fact that you keep pointing out you’re average tells me you’re not average.”

Ethan clicked his tongue and squinted one of his eyes in disapproval. “I don’t know, man. Might be fair enough, though.”

Cole gave a thumbs up. “I do recall watching a fight go down earlier for my first day.”

Ethan rolled his eyes. “I heard about that. I wished I would’ve been there to watch it.”

“It was this lady wearing oven mitts and a Karen.”

“That’s extra. This store is haunted by those people at night.”

“I think Sam mentioned something about the store itself being haunted. Is it, really?”

“Oh yeah, man. There’s no legend really. It just is. The lights flicker and things get moved around. There was a theory that Phil is doing it with black magic because everyone thinks he’s so creepy. I only ever said hi to him but I don’t know about you.”

“I’ll make a reference to him in my next story. I definitely want to write about this place.”

“Oh, please,” Ethan said, putting his hands together. “With the things that happen here, I would definitely read that shit.”

“Yeah, I’ll publish it too if I want.”

“Even better. You write a lot of stories?”

“I have one published now actually.”

“Dude, that’s cool. I’ve been wanting to do writing too, but I just have a hard time getting the ideas down, you know? I want to write about angels and demons. I love that kind of stuff.”

“That’s kind of what I like to do too. I just do monsters; I’ll get a copy for you out in my car.”

“Oh sweet, that would be nice. How much?”

“Five bucks. I’m on overstock. I’ll help you write a story sometime if you’d like me to.”

“I just might not have the time. Or the energy. But that would be cool.”

“I’d love to help you. We’ll come up with a cool villain or something.”

“Boanerges! Sons of Thunder.”

Cole nodded in interest. “Unique.”

____________________________________________________

10:10 PM -

“So how long have you been working here?” Cole asked.

“About three months now,” Ethan replied. He carried a small bag on his back and used his hand to comb his hair as they walked. “I’ve seen a lot of crazy shit, man. I'll tell you that.”

“Like what?”

“Well, for example, we have this lady who comes in once a month to buy a cart full of clearance socks in the self check. Adds up to about three-hundred dollars worth of socks.”

Cole scoffed. “Joking?”

“Yeah, and the mitt lady? She pees and shits herself in the store.”

Cole cringed. “That one’s obvious.”

Both of them walked out the door.

Pushing carts out in the middle of the street was a man with long, white hair, square glasses, tanned skin, and a scruffy beard. He turned to look at the two boys by the doors and waved, his yellow vest shining a reflection from one of the lights above them. “Hey Ethan,” the man said in a quiet voice.

“What’s up, Butch.”

“Nothing much.” He left the train of carts out in the middle of the street and approached. “Heard something crazy happened in there tonight.”

“Oh yeah, Cole here was the one who saw it all.”

Butch turned to look at Cole. “You new?”

“Yeah, it was my first day.”

Butch nodded. “You’re gonna have plenty of stories to tell. Me, I ain’t got none ‘cuz I’m always pushing these son-of-a-bitches out here.”

“He was just taking me to get me a copy of his book,” Ethan said.

“Oh really? How much do you sell ‘em for?” Butch asked.

“Since I’m overstock right now, I sell them each for five. It’ll really help me out since I’m kind of broke and in college.”

“What college do you go to?” Ethan asked.

“The one right up the road from here.”

“Bro, really? That’s where I’m at.”

Cole raised his hand in the air for a high five. Ethan gave back the respect. “That’s awesome, man. We need to hang out now.”

Butch nodded. “Pretty cool how you just run into each other like that, isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Cole said, smiling.

“Have you met the big boss yet?”

“Phil? I already don’t like him. He kept staring at me in the computer room.”

“Now that you bring that up, I do remember that guy being weird around me too,” Ethan said.

“Any idea why he does that?”

“I’ve been here for ten years,” Butch said. “But the last couple years, it was nothing like I’ve ever seen before.” He paused, looking at both of them, who were clearly listening. “A lot of the customers who come here, they’d be put on life support.”

“Why?” Ethan asked. “I never really heard anything about this.”

Butch shrugged. “Don’t know. But it’s always after they come to this store, the next day, you hear something on the news about them being brain dead and not themselves anymore. They don't eat. They don’t drink. Sleep. They just walk around until their family decides to pull the plug on them when they’re in that hospital bed. It’s been happening pretty much since Phil changed.”

“He’s a pedo if you ask me,” Cole said. “He stared at me like he wanted to touch me in the wrong places.”

Ethan shivered. “Ahhh, I don’t even want to think about that with that man.”

“He’s got a special room in the back that he always keeps locked. Nobody, not even the managers are allowed in there but him,” Butch explained. “Anytime he caught anybody trying to go in there, he would snap,” Butch snapped his finger in front of the other two. “Just start screaming like a lunatic.” Butch shrugged. “Whenever he goes in and out of that room, he’s a completely different man. A little more sane you could say.”

“That’s strange. I wonder what’s in that room,” Ethan said.

“We should all band together to try and get in there,” Cole suggested.

Butch laughed. “Get us all fired, then.”

“Good point.”

Butch stared for a second. “Yup, well I better get back to pushin’ these carts before Phil comes out here and bites me in the ass. I’ll see you guys later,” Butch said.

“See ya!” Ethan and Cole said at the same time. They continued walking in the parking lot, Cole leading the way towards his car.

“Hey Cole, not to be rude or anything, but after I get the book, I kinda gotta go fast because I have some schoolwork I gotta get done.”

“That’s fine. You want my phone number? We can talk outside of work, too.”

“Sure. That sounds great.”

Cole approached the car and opened the door to the back seats. Sitting on top were a couple boxes full of multiple copies of his book. He reached for the cupboard and pulled a pen out to sign one copy and write his phone number in it. “Here you go. I wrote my phone number in there too.”

Ethan handed over the five. “Good deal. That’s a thick book too. Ghosts of Linwood? Sounds spooky for sure.”

“You’ll like it. It’s got some demons in it.”

“Thanks, my bro-ski.”

“Bro-ski?”

“Just another term I use.” Ethan held his hand up and Cole grabbed it to do the Arnold Schwarzenegger handshake. “Oh, I was just going for a high five and a fist bump but okay.”

“I usually like to do that with everyone.”

“Ah, well that’s good. Well hey, it was really good talkin’ to ya. I’ll text you, if I remember to do that. You work tomorrow?”

“I’ll be here.”

“Great, well I’ll see you tomorrow, man!” Ethan waved.

“You don’t read that book, I’ll be mad.”

“I’ll get around to it.”

5~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Day 2

6:05 PM -

The night was busy, cashiers swapped around and round, getting everyone’s breaks out. Cole was one of the last to get his lunch break and as he stood bored at the podium behind the register at a self-checkout, somebody approached the corner of the exit. She was short and looked about Cole’s age. Her hair was a dark brown and she had tanned skin with a nose ring pierced on her right nostril.

“Hey,” she said.

“How’s it going?” Cole asked.

“I’m giving you your lunch.”

Cole smiled and gave a thumbs up. “Yay.”

She rolled her eyes. “I hate working at the self-checkout. It’s so boring.”

Cole nodded. “You tell me...” his eyes traced down to her name tag. “Pamela.”

“People are so dumb at these things too. Like, I had a guy one time that couldn’t even tell the difference between a cantaloupe and a mango. He put his card in backwards too when trying to pay.”

“Was he old?”

“He was young!” Pamela said dramatically.

“Welcome to our generation.”

“Yeah, well, anyways, take your returns up to the desk and go on your break. Jim said to come right back here after. I want to be here for as little time as possible,” she said sassily.

“Alright.”

Cole groaned and turned around to begin pushing his cart back up to the front. As he walked, he saw a group of co-workers standing at the belted lane self-checkout. It was a self-checkout that looked a lot more like the regular registers next to the bullpen Cole was just monitoring.

Laughter came from each person standing in the group, looking at something. A girl who looked about to be in her thirties with blonde, curly hair tied behind in a ponytail looked up at Cole. “Hey you! Come over here and look at this.”

“What is it?”

“I’m Amanda, by the way. I heard you’re the new person here.” Arianna stood on the left of her and a boy with the name tag, Jacob, stood to the right. He had dark blonde hair and looked about Cole’s age as well.

Amanda showed Cole a long receipt. At the top, it said, Kansan-Mart in a weird format and right below, We Beat It or Wheat It! Underneath all of that was a long list of items that person bought. At the very bottom, Cole noticed that they used food stamps to pay for it all.

“What is it about the receipt that’s funny?”

“Look at what they bought,” Jacob said. “If I was on food stamps, I would be buying healthy things like produce and stuff to make things. Not frozen dinners, candy, and nacho Lunchables like this woman did.”

“The things people buy with their money,” Amanda said, laughing.

“Frozen Lasagna? Ugh,” Cole said. “It always tasted watery whenever my Mom got it from the store when I was a kid.”

“I used to work at this pizza place that was way worse than this store,” Jacob started. “It was pretty much like one of those family fun centers. They used frozen pizza to serve the customers there. Frozen pizza! Never made it from scratch. Plus, the managers were fucking horrible. I almost beat the shit out of one of them one time.”

“You think it’s better here now?” Cole asked.

“Hm? Uh, not by a long shot.”

“How long have you been here?”

“Not long. I prefer being at one of these self-checks where it’s quieter, but Jim’s gotta be an ass and put me on one of their registers. The keypads on those things haven’t been cleaned for fucking ever.”

“Good thing I wash my hands on break.”

“Ethan told me you wrote a book,” Arianna interrupted. “Where’s my copy?”

“You’re an author?” Amanda asked.

“Word spreads around here fast, damn,” Cole commented.

“Sure does, now where’s my copy?” Arianna demanded.

“What’s it about?” Jacob asked.

“It’s about a haunted ghost town. It’s a lot deeper and compelling than it sounds.”

“Hmm,” Jacob grunted. “Sounds cool.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll bring some more tomorrow. I got to head to my break before I get yelled at.”

“Alright, well it was nice meeting ya,” Amanda said.

Cole smiled and held his hand up for fist bumps then continued walking to the services. After he finished emptying his cart, he took it back to Pamela and started for the back. When he was halfway to the doors, his blood ran hot when he saw Phil come out from the chip aisle. “Shit.”

“Hey there!” Phil said, approaching a random customer. “How are you doing? Would you like a fifteen percent discount?”

Cole hid behind the baby food aisle. He peeked around the corner and watched the interaction happen. Phil said his words so quiet, Cole thought it must have been a scam he was doing.

“I guess, sure, that sounds like a great deal,” the man said.

Phil smiled wide and got all up in the man’s face. “DING! DING! DING! DING! Great!”

“The hell, man?!”

Phil set his hand on the man’s neck and leaned in. Something started glowing inside his palm.

The man shook then suddenly froze. He looked at Phil dead straight in the eyes without saying anything else.

“And just a heads up,” Phil added. “No refunds.” He took his hand off the man’s neck then brushed at his shoulders. “You have a nice day, sir. Enjoy your discount,” he said with a smile. Phil started walking, almost speeding, towards the back doors.

The man just stared at nothing, hunching his back and dropping his hands mindlessly. He turned to walk for the front like a zombie, leaving his full cart behind.

What the hell did he just do to him? Cole thought as he watched the customer pass. The man didn’t even try to fight his touch.

Cole then came out of hiding and chased after Phil through the plastic doors and down the hall. He took a right and saw that he was already halfway down the long alley to the GM shipping.

“Jesus,” Cole whispered. He sped walked faster, chasing him down, but then Phil disappeared behind another corner to the left. Where are you going?

When Cole was almost to the corner, he slowed down to peek. Instead, he was faced with a dead end and nothing but a bunch of boxes in the back. On the left side of the small hall, there was what appeared to be a heavy-duty door the color of burnt brandy. It was an off-putting color because it didn’t match with the store’s style, like an entrance into Hell.

Cole walked up to the door and tried his luck at opening it quietly but it didn’t budge. “How’d you get in there so fast anyway?” he asked himself quietly. He wasn’t sure of what exactly he was trying to accomplish by chasing Phil down like that. For all he knew, Phil could have done to him what he did to that customer.

He backed away and began the walk to go clock out for lunch. He strode back the way he came and approached a machine next to a break room, where only a few people sat eating. Cole swiped his card and started his meal break. He walked inside and saw Ethan staring at his phone at one of the back tables, eating a footlong sandwich from the grocery store brand. Cole approached slowly to surprise him.

Ethan looked up. “Oh hey, how’s it going?”

“Nothing much.”

Cole sat down next to him.

“On lunch?”

“Yeah. How about you?” Cole asked.

“Only got like fifteen minutes left.”

“Oh, RIP.”

“Did you meet anybody new today?”

“Yeah. Jacob, Pamela, and Amanda. They all seemed pretty nice.”

“That’s good. I’ve known Jacob since high school.”

“Well that’s nice. Does he go to the same college we do?”

“Yep. PU is the main college everybody goes to here. Derrick, you haven’t met him yet. He goes there too. You’ll meet him eventually.”

“It would be nice to get some of us together and hang out somewhere fun for a day.”

“That would be a lot of fun, actually.” Ethan looked at Cole with a bit of concern in his eyes. “You seem nervous, are you doing okay?”

Cole leaned in and said quietly, “I saw Phil do some weird shit with a customer earlier. It looked like he was offering one of his ‘discounts’ but started acting all broken. He drugged the customer or something because the man didn’t look right after Phil left.”

“What kind of sketchy shit is that? Did you confront him?”

“Of course I didn’t. I was scared he would act all weird at me. I followed him and ended up near that room I think Butch was talking about last night.”

“Did you try going in?”

“It was locked.”

“You really tried going inside?” Ethan hesitated. “When he was in there?” He set his sandwich down and knocked on the table. “Bro, bro, think about what you just did. You literally risked your job right there. No offense but-”

“That was stupid, I know.”

Ethan puckered his lips a little. “So, if we’re so curious, because I am too, maybe when the store manager is around one day, I can distract him and you try to get in. He’s always walking around and I’m pretty good when it comes to psychology and distracting people. It’s a plan.”

“Okay, hmm, maybe an idea on how to get in?”

Ethan reached inside his pocket and set something on the table. When his hand uncovered it, he revealed a bobby pin. “You a master with locks by chance?”