Kansan-Mart: Part 2

Soul Suckin’ Psycho

9:30 PM -

Cole stood at the regular register waiting for any last customers for the night. After waiting for another five minutes, nobody bothered to come up. He looked over at Jim, who oversaw everyone like a watchdog. Cole thought he always looked kind of lonely, since he kept his head down for seventy percent of the time.

Ethan, on the other hand, stood at the belted self-checkout watching a couple customers scan things while Pamela unluckily still stood at the self-checkout surrounded by walls of merchandise. Jacob, Jamaya, and Arianna all stood at their own registers either scrolling or leaning their head over the screen in exhaustion.

Jacob looked the most bored out of all of them, a frown clearly evident on his face that he didn’t want to be there.

“So tell me,” Jim’s voice started.

Cole turned to see Jim walking towards him.

“How’d it go back there with Phil yesterday before you came up?”

“I don’t like the guy,” Cole replied.

“He’s another breed. I bet you knew he was going to be weird because of my sarcasm.”

“I definitely got the memo.”

“He always reminds me of this customer that used to come in all the time. Um,” Jim looked as if he were trying to remember, “It was this young woman, she always seemed a bit nervous and indecisive about her shopping, so she always asked the associates for help. She would ask a new associate every time she made another decision on two different brands.”

“Yeah?”

“She got really weird things. Like rope, knives, bandanas, zip ties. You would have sworn she had another identity, just like I think Phil does.” He looked down the aisle. “It looks like you have a customer.” He backed away to go stand in the spot he originally did.

Cole turned to see the same man Phil talked to earlier. Except, he looked almost unrecognizable from his original self. His hulking shoulders were now bony and hunched even higher, like he was bent in half. The man’s eyes were foggy and he wasn’t wearing a pair of pants. Just his underwear.

Jim looked over at Cole with a widened stare that said the same thing they were both thinking, what the fuck?

The store was quiet again for a while after. Cole did his normal routine, wiped the belt, put more bags in, then grabbed a pen and printed some receipt paper to start doodling his boredom away. He thought about the man and tried drawing him but he couldn’t get it right.

Unexpectedly, the lights flickered and the intercom tapped on.

“Attention Kansan-Mart employees!” Phil’s voice glammored. “Can I please have cashier Cole to Phil’s office. Again, cashier Cole to Phil’s office. Thank you!” It cut out.

“Good luck,” Jim called. “After that, I’ll probably send you home.”

Cole turned his register light off. He let out a breath then shook himself in an attempt to “man up” then started for the back.

____________________________________________________

Cole opened the door to the office only to be blinded by the bright lights that hung overhead. He suspected the lights in the store were acting all funny again; he needed a moment to adjust to it.

“Hey there, Cole,” Phil said with a gleeful smile. He sat at his desk, straight up and down, with his hands webbed on the table. “Grab a chair from over there and sit down. We’ll get this going right away. Open for business I should say.”

“Okay, what’s this concerning?” Cole asked kindly. He walked over to grab a chair from one of the other tables and set it a short distance from the desk.

“Closer,” Phil said nicely.

“I’m sorry?”

“Bring your chair up. Closer.”

Cole scooched his chair a little nearer to the desk. “Bette-?”

“Closer.”

“What?”

“You heard me.” Phil’s smile waned. He slammed his hands on the desk, ever so slightly keeping a smirk.

Terror punctured into Cole’s soul. “Why am I here? Am I in trouble?”

“To talk.”

“Ugmn, well what’s it about?”

“Don’t think I’m stupid, kid. You know damn well what it’s about. Were you trying to get into that door earlier?”

Cole sighed and looked Phil in the eye, intent on giving the honest truth. “I saw you talking to that one customer earlier. He didn’t look good after. I thought you did something to him.”

Phil thrusted his head back in bafflement then laughed. “I didn’t do shit. Customers are always amazed by my discounts that they become stupid. They’ll be blinded to come back no matter how much I raise my fucking prices.”

Cole’s hands began to sweat. The use of cuss words in Phil’s language felt like he was going to jump up and stab him in the gut. “I’m sorry for being nosy, sir. I won’t do it again.”

Phil leaned back in his chair. “What do you do, Cole? Why are you here? You seem like a curious boy.”

“I uh, do a lot of writing. Just to get some money for college.”

“Huh, writer. I’ve met a lot of folks like you. They’re super curious. I’m going to be straight up honest, I hate you people with a passion but you seem like a nice guy, Cole.”

“Why do you hate them? I just write stories.”

“I’m a pretty private guy. It’s curious minds that want to find something, something to get all my shit searched around with. But I’m just trying to get by. Do what I’m supposed to so that I don’t starve to death. People love discounts, that’s what keeps ‘em comin’ back.”

“From what you’re telling me, your store’s struggling to make money?”

Phil smiled awkwardly. “You could say that,” he said deeply. He paused, staring at Cole creepily. “Things work out fine around here as long as you stay away from that door and have me keep my privacy.”

“Okay, I will.”

“Good, now,” one of Phil’s eyes twitched, “Get out of my office.”

Cole looked down and saw a slight black mist coming off the hairs of Phil’s arms. He pretended to ignore it but continued out the door anyway without saying another word. Cole started walking down the hall towards the grocery side. He was about to walk down the hall to the store entrance but was stopped when a loud bang paused him in his spot. He swiftly swiveled his head to look down the way he came.

Coming out of his office, Phil floated out, his feet not touching the ground, like some magical presence held him in the air. His body went a little ways down the hall towards the GM side then took a sharp left where the room would be.

“Oh Jesus,” Cole said to himself. “Am I dreaming?” He couldn’t erase that disturbing image out his mind. He couldn’t erase how perfect Phil was standing above ground.

Without a second thought, he quickly rushed up towards the front desk. When Cole was near, he saw Jacob now stood at the belted self-check which meant that Ethan was likely clearing out his returns. He approached and said in a hissing voice, “Jacob.”

Jacob turned, almost surprised. “What’s up?”

“Bro, Phil is acting all funny. That guy was floating in the air!”

Jacob laughed. “You saw Phil fucking Litman floating in the air?”

“Yes!”

He set his forearms on the return cart in front of him. “And I thought I was the only one.”

“You’ve seen him too?”

Jacob nodded. “Mhm. That motherfucker is a monster or something.”

“Why isn’t anybody talking about it?”

“Why do you think? I thought I would look crazy if I told anyone. You could tell the cops but they probably wouldn’t do shit. For all I know, Phil will be able to pass right through them jail bars.”

The lights above shut off, a loud popping noise echoing through the store. A few startled screams erupted from all around. Shortly after, they came back on, flickering for a second and sparks floating down from the LED bar above.

“Well, that ain’t nothing new,” Jacob said.

“That happens a lot?”

“Yeah, then it’s like, magically, it summons all the weird ass people. The ones with their pants below their ass, wearing thongs stretched up to their tits, or whatever. The store is a freak show at night.”

“That’s bizarre.”

“Yeah.”

A clack hit the floor in front of Cole. He looked down and saw a giant bolt.

“What is it? Jacob asked.

Cole looked up and gulped when he discovered it came from a giant vent. “They better get that thing checked out I think.” He picked up the bolt and showed it to Jacob.

“That doesn't look good.”

“I’d watch your back. Just be careful.”

Jacob nodded. “Thanks, and Cole, I would just be quiet about what you saw. Who knows what’ll happen.”

“I’ll write it into my story about working here even if it kills me. Phil will never know.”

Jacob shrugged. “Just looking out for you, but you heard what I said. That’s a lot to risk for a shitty place like Kansan-Mart.” Jacob cringed saying his last two words.

Cole held his hand out for a fist bump. “It’ll be interesting.”

Jacob bumped back. “Good night.”

Cole walked up to the front desk and caught Jim talking to Brittany, another one of the customer service associates, and Sam.

Ethan could be heard shuffling around in the back.

Jim circled to look at Cole. “How’d it go?”

Cole smirked. “It was fine. It all went fine,” he lied.

A loud crash erupted from the back.

“Ethan, are you okay?” Brittany asked loudly.

Ethan walked out from behind the wall covered in a white powder from head to toe and a disappointed look on his face. “Who didn’t put the broken flour box in a bag?” he asked grumpily.

Sam and Brittany laughed harder than Cole ever heard anybody laugh before.

Jim sucked in a painful breath. “You two are set to go home. Have a good night. We’ll take care of the rest.”

Ethan brushed off some of the flour and coughed, blowing off more of it from his hair. “Thanks.”

____________________________________________________

“Man, that was so not funny. Now I have to take a shower and I’m going to get flour on my new car,” Ethan complained.

“It shouldn’t be that bad. You got most of it off,” Cole said.

“Yeah, but still, man, like.”

Cole patted Ethan on the back. “You’ll be alright.”

Both of them walked down a long aisle, passing all the other aisles and departments of general merchandise. When they came close enough to the front doors, they were greeted with red and blue lights in the parking lot.

Ethan looked at Cole. “Wonder what the hell happened.”

The doors slid open and they were struck by a crowd of people standing. Men and women of all ages looked up silently at something above the boys, their eyes peeled.

“What’s goin-”

“Shhh,” one of the women hissed.

The two boys glanced eyes again and stepped out into the parking lot to view the happening. Cole’s eyes turned up and gasped when he saw a woman standing at the top, leaning over the edge. Her hair was a milk-white and was wearing a long, white dress that waved in the wind gently.

“M’am,” a man on a toned-down loudspeaker shouted. “Please don’t do this…”

Her face turned down to look at the crowd. She widened her eyes and held her hands out in a T-pose, looking up into the sky now.

The crowd shrieked.

“Don’t leave the world this way! You are loved by so many! We don’t know you and we care!” a woman from the crowd screamed.

“My husband...he looks horrible! So horrible!” the white-haired woman clamored.

Cole thought to himself, what is she talking about?

“He’s right here! We’re taking him to the hospital for treatment!” A man shouted.

“He’s gone! Just like the others! He’s going to die...all because of something from this rotten store!”

Phil walked out the front doors, a confused stare on his face. “WHAT IN THE HOLY MOLY FUCKING GUACAMOLE IS GOING ON OUT HERE!?” he screamed with a smile creeping on his face. He stayed rooted under the roof above him.

Cole watched in a frozen trance as the white-haired woman lost her balance and tripped over the edge.

The crowd screamed along with her in perturbed panic. Her foot caught on one of the neon lights and glass shattered as sparks exploded in the air. The dress caught ablaze and she spun, circling a ring of fire down.

Cole turned away right before he heard a thump hit the ground, like a bowling ball hitting concrete. He looked over to see Ethan had copied.

Ethan shook like a leaf. He couldn’t say a word. His face expressed nothing but grief.

“Ethan,” Cole whimpered.

Ethan slowly turned to look at him.

“We need to get out of here. Before Phil does anything dangerous.”

“What...do you mean?”

“The guy is psycho!” Cole hissed. “He needs to be stopped. I think this is his fault. That woman had to be that man’s husband. The one Phil offered a discount to earlier!”

“Oh, Jesus,” Ethan cried.

“We need to talk. Can you meet me somewhere for breakfast in the morning?”

“IHop.”

Cole nodded. “Text me if you need to talk later.”

“I might.”

“Sir!” a police officer called. “I’m going to need you to back away from the body.”

“Take care of it before anybody else sees it!” Phil shouted cold heartedly. “Everybody gets discounts tomorrow!”

“Don’t sleep with the problem, man. We can talk about it,” Cole whispered to Ethan. He turned to look at Phil, a menacing glare looking back at him. A ball dropped in his stomach. He quickly turned back to Ethan and said, “I’ll see you tomorrow at ten.”

7~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Fight For Kansan-Mart

10:00 AM -

Ethan and Cole sat across from each other at the breakfast table. Two plates of food had been set in front of them, a black coffee by Ethan’s hand. They didn’t say anything and, despite the tragedy they’d both witnessed last night, there was a sense of calm. Maybe the presence of each other had something to do with it.

“You know something?” Cole asked.

“What’s up?” Ethan replied.

“It doesn’t feel like I’ve known you for only two days. More like two years.”

Ethan nodded. “Learned a lot about you over these past couple days, for sure. Co-workers can become some of the best friends.” He smirked.

“I like that. Despite what’s happened at Kansan-Mart, I’ve met a lot of great people I’ll remember. I think I consider you one of my best friends.”

“Yeah, sorry, by the way, I say weird things. I’m weird.”

“You’re not weird. We’re the same level of weird, so it’s not weird.”

Ethan shrugged in what Cole thought was agreement then took a sip of his coffee. “Ahh, this’ll have me jumping walls before long.”

“I don’t know how you can drink coffee black.”

Ethan did the thing where he puckered his lips slightly again, thinking of an answer. “Well, since my grandpa got me into drinking coffee when I was young, I haven’t stopped drinking it since.”

“Interesting.”

Ethan sighed. “Man, I still can’t get what happened last night out of my head.”

“I really want to know what’s behind that special door Phil’s got. He’s up to some shit in there, I know it. We need to know. His stare and...he was a ghost for cryin’ out loud!”

“What do you mean?”

“I saw him floating last night, like he was a puppet. I thought I was hallucinating but when I talked to Jacob, he said he’d seen it too.”

“That’s wild. You’re sure?”

Cole’s phone vibrated. He pulled his phone out to check the notification. “Schedule change? Don’t work until seven tonight?”

“I got that too,” Ethan said, looking at his screen.

“That’s a late time and not that long. Only three hours of work?”

“Phil’s the one who makes schedules.”

Cole looked Ethan in the eyes. “He did it for a reason. We’re going to break that door tonight and expose Phil whether he likes it or not. Wanting to prevent anybody from opening it, he’s got secrets for sure.”

8~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

No Refunds!

7:05 PM -

Cole walked up to the front doors of the store, avoiding the spot where the woman died, and went inside to see Ethan waiting by the carts.

“Hey,” Ethan said.

“Are you ready?”

“Yeah, I waited so I could walk with you back there.”

“Well, thanks,” Cole said, smiling.

Standing against a wall, instead of Barb this time, there was a woman named Tina standing there. Her hair was a little grayish dark and she wore a pair of glasses that made her look like Ralphie from A Christmas Story. “Hey, double trouble. Where y’all goin?’”

“Walking back with Cole,” Ethan said. “Trying not to overwork myself.”

“Take me back with you!” Tina cried.

“You’re enslaved here at the door though.”

“Oh, I know it. These corporate bastards want to keep me here at the door all day and be bored twenty-four seven.”

“Well good luck,” Ethan said. Then continued walking with Cole to the back.

About halfway through the boys’ walk, the lights unexpectedly began to flicker.

“Shit, here we go with this again,” Cole said.

The lights shut off. But this time, they stayed off.

“Man, now somebody has really done it,” Ethan said.

“Was it an accident, Ethan…?” a growl emerged from the office supply aisle. A lavender purple glow shone and black mist followed by purple particles wafting in the air. It seemed to move closer out towards the main aisle, in Cole and Ethan’s path, which led straight down to the back.

Phil stepped out, his appearance now a hideous creature of some sort. His eyes rolled like a casino spinner, numbers flashing repeatedly from the top and into the bottom of his lids. A purple stream of light followed him that raced towards the back of the store. Phil’s smile was brighter than ever, perfectly white teeth that didn’t match such a dead-skinned body. He danced and put his hands in the air. “Your boys’ warranty has EXPIRED!” he screamed in a sing-song tune.

“What the hell is that?!” Tina screamed.

Cole turned around to see her approaching. “No don’t---!”

Phil floated in the air and put his left hand up, a purple glow coming out from his palm.

Tina grasped at her neck and began coughing wildly. “Ahhh! What did you children do!?” she croaked. Her body flew in the air towards Phil until she was right up in his face, her eyes wide with terror. “What the fuck are you?!”

A bright yellow light formed around Tina. It sucked into Phil's body and Cole watched as it zapped into the purple stream behind Phil’s back, pulsing into the plastic doors straight ahead. She slowly fell down to the ground on both feet.

“Tina, are you okay?!” Ethan called.

She turned around to look at the boys, groaning like a zombie. Her jaw dropped open and she let her body hang forward, like nobody occupied it.

“Oh God, she’s not even in there!” Cole screamed.

“Don’t you see why?” Phil asked. “I can’t survive without soul food. The discounts bring more and more of ‘em back. But now word is getting out that nobody should shop here anymore. Now I have to target my own employees for food!”

“Dude, you’re stupid,” Cole said. “You’re making a scene of yourself publicly and now everyone’s going to know you’re a soul suckin’ psycho! There’s no point in killing us and for the record, I’ll write an entire book about working here and you’re going to be the clown of the show!”

“Bad idea, bad idea, bad idea,” Ethan hissed over and over.

Phil screamed an unearthly roar. A yellow pulse of light streamed up behind Phil, shooting into his back. He turned his hands into fists then thrusted his chest out, the dark purple that illuminated around him becoming brighter.

Tina roamed down the office aisle with a blank expression, ignoring the chaotic scene.

Ethan sprinted into the kitchen aisle. “Cole! That light looks like it’s giving him more power! Whatever’s behind that door in the back has got to be what’s giving him it.”

Merchandise and other objects; knives, spoons, and bulk printer paper came flying off of the shelves and towards Phil like a black hole, like a void! “Discounts! Discounts! Discounts!” Phil sing-songed. “You try, you DIE!”

Cole hid behind an aisle with balloons, napkins, and other birthday supplies. Balloons popped violently all around as sharp objects rushed past him. A horrendous pain hit Cole in the shoulder. He let out a howl then looked over to see a fork stuck in the back of his arm. Using all of his strength, Cole reached over to pull it out, a loud squelching noise releasing from the tug. He ran down the rest of the aisle and took a right to head in the back direction. When he made it to the electronics area, Cole turned again to head to the book aisle, which would eventually take him down to the entrance to the back. The beam of light shot out from down there, showing the way to the source. It was like Phil was plugged in to that door and if Cole were to open it, who knew what was going to happen? He made a run for it but was stopped when the psycho stomped in his face and grasped him by the shoulders, into the air.

“You cost me sales...and souls, Cole...Now you’re mine!”

Cole closed his eyes, prepared for his life to end right there, but a loud THWACK interrupted his fate. He opened them to see a knife stuck in the head of Phil, black mist escaping from the wound.

Phil shrieked almighty like a killer whale but didn’t fall to his death.

Cole turned to see Ethan standing by a bunch of boxes with his eyes wide. He held a handful of kitchen knives in his hands.

The monster dropped Cole and when he fell on his knees, he made a run for the plastic doors straight down the book aisle.

“Go! Go!” Ethan screamed. “Get that door open!” He continued throwing knives at the monster, shrieks erupting from it with every blow. “I’ll keep it distracted!”

“Seems like a plan, but way cooler!” Cole shouted.

“I know it, man!”

Phil howled.

Cole busted through the doors, where a bunch of employees stood watching the spectacle through the plastic windows. The light became more faint the closer he came to the red door. It shook violently, as if something was trying to come out. “Coming through!” he shouted. Cole reached in his pocket for the bobby pin Ethan gave him.”Gotcha.” He bent it to create his key. Cole stuck it in the hole and immediately was able to hear a click. “Wow, if he really made it that ea-”

The door blew open and light scattered everywhere. It turned into small orbs, some of them rushing to get somewhere, others diminishing in thin air.

Phil roared and Cole turned to watch what was happening to him. The black and purple mist around the man disappeared and his stream of light fueling his powers exploded into small orbs. Phil gave one last helpless scream before exploding into a million little black orbs.

Tina romaed out from the paper aisle and turned to look at the light show. An orb went flying straight into her face, launching her a few feet into the air and bringing life back into her eyes. “Ahhh!” she screamed.

All was quiet for a short time as Cole entered out into the store to find Ethan. “Ethan! Where are you at?”

Ethan came out of hiding behind a stack of boxes. “Jesus, I thought I was going to die for a second. That was probably the most peaceful explosion I’ve ever seen.”

Cole smirked.

Ethan patted Cole on the back. “You okay?”

“Yeah, thanks.”

“Did you see what was behind the door?”

“I haven’t actually looked. I was too blinded by the light.”

Cole and Ethan turned to the other stocking employees approaching.

“You guys okay?” a woman asked.

“Jesus Christ, that thing was our store manager?” a man said in a mexican accent.

“No wonder the place felt like it was haunted. He was causing all this racket the entire time.”

Cole and Ethan walked down the book aisle to enter in the back. As they walked down the hall to view the room, Cole was surprised. It was empty.

9~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Just Low, Low Prices!

A couple weeks later, Cole walked into the store again with the bright yellow polo on and carrying his bag. Barb waved as he walked past, her bleached hair now dyed brown.

Even with Phil gone, the store still looked shitty. But Phil was right, no matter how shitty the store looked, a good discount will always bring ‘em back.

Jamaya stood at the first self-checkout he passed. She nodded.

Cole nodded back. He made his way further down where he saw another one of his co-workers pass, Caleb, who joined the team about a week ago. He considered Caleb another one of his best friends, since they both caught the same vibes and were both artists.

“What’s up?” Caleb asked. He swooshed his brown hair to the side and pushed his square glasses up.

“Just getting here. Where you going?”

“Heading to the self checkout.”

“That sounds...boring.”

“Hey, it’s money. Are you still writing that story about working here?”

“Yeah, you want to be in it?”

“A story about working at Kansan-Mart? No.”

Cole held his hand up for a fist bump. “No promises.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Caleb asked, bumping back.

“We’ll see.”

Caleb rolled his eyes and walked past. “You’re putting me in, I know it.”

Cole laughed and walked further to enter in the return desk area, where Ethan and Brittany stood around talking.

“Hey Cole!” Ethan said.

Brittany waved. “You seem happy.”

“That’s because I am.”

“Why? You’re at Kansan-Mart.”

“Because I’m writing a story with my amazing co-workers in it.”

“Awww,” Brittany said. “I’d like to read it.”

“What will I do in it?” Ethan asked.

“Well, you helped in killing Phil and I hang with you a lot, so I’m going to make you a secondary main character, of course.”

Ethan smiled and did a fist pump. “Yes!”

Jim came out from the office in the back, displaying his new promotion as a front end manager with his green nametag. “Hey Cole, how are you doing?”

“Not bad. Where am I going today?”

Cole turned around to face the cash registers, where he saw a man dressed in tighty-whities and something saggy hanging from the side of his leg. He thought it was his testicles. No comment.

Jim let out a breath. “Tell me, how do you like it here? Even with all that crazy shit that happened on your first few days?”

Cole scratched his head. “You know, I never expected things to go the way they did. The store manager turned out to be some soul sucking...black hole? That’s a story in itself.”

“Hey Jim, where am I going?” Ethan said, stepping by Cole’s side.

“That’s what I’m trying to think of right now.” Jim turned around to Brittany, standing behind the desk. “Hey Brittany, have you seen Sammie? She’s got the schedule sheet.”

The intercom made a cackling noise. “Attention Kansan-Mart shoppers!” Sam’s voice called. “I just want to announce that I am quitting this shitty fucking job because I don’t get paid enough to do what I do! That’s all and thank you, have a nice day, shitheads!”

Jim looked down at the two other boys.

“Yikes,” Ethan hissed.

“Well uhm,” Jim started. “I guess both of you go out and push carts.”

“Awwww!” Both the boys groaned.

Brittany let out an absurd laugh.

Jim smirked. “Make me one of the villains in your story Cole if you want, but you both better get pushing.”