It’s only taken a week of my new job to turn me almost completely nocturnal. The old, local grocery store decided to hire a security guard after someone broke in and stolen every last yogurt off the shelves. That’s my kind of thief. Anyways, the grocery store found the youngest, most inexperienced guard they could, because I have to say, this is one of the crummiest jobs that my small town has to offer. Broke, seventeen year old kids with acne can’t be picky though, can they? So now I’m nocturnal. It had only been half true before what with being a teenager and sleeping till noon, but now I’m like a freaking bat, or raccoon or whatever. My shift is from ten to three which are the only hours the store isn’t open, and I’m driving there right now to begin the five hours of hell. I’m the kid who has a hard time sitting still, like ever, and five hours of nothing might as well be eternity for me. I’d probably use it to do homework if it wasn’t summer, but it is, and holy cow it’s SO goddamn boring in there. I have nothing to do and no one to keep me company. I tried to smuggle one of my friends in once, which resulted in me almost getting fired, but they couldn’t find anyone else for the job, so here I am.
I’m on the highway now, headed towards the grocery store and it starts to rain. I mean really rain. there’s everything, lightning and thunder and shit. I hate rain. The car ahead of my swerves, and I see why, there’s a full, king sized mattress in the middle of my lane. I don’t have time to get out of the way, but a crazy jerk on the steering wheel sends me hurtling towards the barrier, just clipping the side of the mattress.
When I wake up all I see is air bags, and I think for a second that I am definitely dead because I don’t feel any pain, I don’t feel anything really. I crawl out of what’s left of my car and land face fist in a puddle; it’s still raining. I pick myself up and stare at the wreckage. My head feels funny, I feel so light, but I don’t think I’m dead. I know I’m not really thinking at all because of what I do next. I walk down the highway towards the grocery store which I can see just a little way off. When I reach the parking lot I have to wade through a huge freaking puddle, like, are really fucking big puddle, like, I think it’s actually a river sort of puddle. My head is feeling really weird now and I think we read about this puddle in school, the river Styx?
I turn to the left after the puddle and walk around back. Everything is normal. If I pretend the car crash never happened, maybe it didn’t. That’s what is feels like, I don’t feel much of anything though, not even the raindrops against my face, and god I must have hit my head, I can’t form thoughts. If I just pretend it didn’t happen…
The store is really old, like it was old when my dad was a kid and the attached gas station only has two pumps. Gotta love the place though, it’s got all sorts of sounds.
I pull out my keys which are remarkably still in my pocket, unlock the back door, walk in, lock the door behind me, and head to my throne. I get to sit at a little desk in the way back of the store behind the cough drops and toothpaste. Usually it’s the manager’s desk, but from ten to three it becomes my throne of awesome. The store doesn’t have wi-fi which makes my life super sucky, and the computer at the desk can only do grocery store things and monitor the premises. That’s my job by the way. “Monitor the premises”.
I sit down at my throne, put my feet on top of a pile semi-vital-to-the-success-of-the-company-looking papers and turn on the ancient computer which makes some pretty great noises while it tries to pull up the screen that shows the views from all the security cameras positioned around the store. Everything still seems unreal, dreamlike, why does my crumpled car seem a million miles away? There are twelve security cameras by the way, which seems a little excessive (these people like their yogurt), especially the one that shows my throne. Yeah, I can watch myself too, it’s great.
As I position myself in front of the monitor preparing for five hours of nothingness, I notice how hot it is, gawd. Why can’t they keep the AC going for the poor security kid? It’s August for Pete’s sake, seriously people.
The old place is full of noises. I can hear all the old plumbing, and the freezer in back is humming like the mayfly throwing itself at the window to my right. It’d be creepy if I was the kind of person to be creeped out. I’m not. And even though there are no lights on in the store except the one lamp by my throne of awesome, I don’t feel oppressed by the dark, it’s even a little soothing. Speaking of soothing and the quiet noises of old grocery stores, my eyes are so heavy right now. Yeah, I’m just gonna take a little nap, it’s not like anything’s gonna happen. Geez.
When I wake up, the first thing I notice is that it’s cold. Not freezing, but cold. My arms and legs are covered with goose bumps and my fingers are stiff. The shadows in the corners seem to be deeper. This isn’t right. This isn’t right. This isn’t right. It’s so cold and it’s the middle of the August, 90 degrees is the coldest it could be outside. Calm down, the air conditioner is just over reacting, that thing must be twenty years old anyways. Why am I scared? I couldn’t feel anything a little while ago. Calm down. Okay, deep breaths, I’m good.
I get up from my throne and walk the darkened aisles to calm myself. I go past the cereal, the bread, the eggs and butter, the yogurt (still there), and finally back to my desk. Why was I so creeped out a couple minutes ago? I don’t freak like that usually. It’s still very cold and dark in here, but not as bad; I guess I’m just not used to being cold, with it being summer and all. I sit back down, kick my feet up on the desk, and stare at the computer screen. The storage room looks normal, the cash registers look good, the yogurt is still there, the gas pumps are vacant, and the enormous river-puddle is still raging even though it stopped raining ages ago. I pick up some of the papers on the desk and try to read them, they’re as boring as heck, I decide right then that I’m going to college, and right after that I see something out of the corner of my eye. I glance at the computer, but everything seems fine, what was it? I look back at the paper, flash, there it is again, screen, everything’s normal. Goose bumps. What is it with me tonight? Paper, flash, screen. Oh my god. Oh. My. God. One of the screens, the one in front of the bathrooms has gone black. One twelfth of my all seeing eye is gone. Holy crap. Calm down, gawd, calm down. It’s just run out of batteries. It’s just run out of batteries. I walk quickly over the bathrooms and look up at the security camera. Only there isn’t a security camera. It’s on the floor in several pieces.
I’m at my desk again. It’s getting weirder, and colder. What would make the security camera fall? Wouldn’t I have heard it? The bathrooms are pretty close to my throne of awesome. Maybe the noises of the ancient air-conditioner and the plumbing and the refrigeration system drowned out the crash, and that’s when I notice it. It’s silent. There is no water running in the pipes, there is no hum from the refrigeration system, there is no air conditioning. There is no air conditioning, and yet it must be 50 degrees in this place. I stare into space and a million ice cold needles brush the back of my neck; my stomach shrinks back into my ribcage. If I can just turn on the lights, if I can just turn on the lights it’ll be okay. I run to the nearest light switch, flip the switch, the next one switch, next one. Oh my god. Nothing happens. I feel my own powerlessness so acutely, it’s the kind of powerlessness that you can only feel after being locked in a grocery store at night when the power goes out. That’s it, the power, is out. The power is out, that’s why there’re no noises coming from the plumbing or air conditioner. Thank god.
I’m at my desk again and I’m finally calm, I just gotta wait for the power to come back on just wait… Sigh. This is the weirdest night. I glance at the computer screen and see everything’s normal. Normal. The screen. Normal. The screen isn’t normal, the power’s out. It can’t be on! The SCREEN CAN’T BE ON! HOLY CRAP! Why is it ON! Then it happens, all the screens start to flicker. On off on off on off on… then the one by the cash registers goes blank, the one by the yogurt is gone. I jump up, it’s still completely silent, but I’m sure my heartbeat is filling the entire store. I sprint to the cash registers, the camera is in a wirey mess, the yogurt camera isn’t even there. Just gone. GONE! I’m standing, staring at the hole in the wall where it used to be. I turn, and I have every intention of running right out the door and all the way to my house to my bed. The aisles have moved. They’ve rearranged themselves. I blink hard. Open. Still wrong. I head in the direction of the door, but when I get to the side of the store where my escape should have been, all I see is my desk. I walk around the wall to my left, if I stay on the wall I’ll find the exit. After only twenty steps I reach the back of the store again. Desk. There is no way out. No way out. Something comes over me. I sit down robotically. I’m in the chair in front of the computer. If my face would move my teeth would be chattering gawd it’s freezing in here. My head turns to the computer one last time. There’s only one camera left. One out of twelve. My stomach turns. I see my throne, I see my lamp, I see the stack of papers on the desk, pencils and pens in a jar, and my chair. My chair sits in front of the computer, behind the desk, to the right of the paper, to the left of the pencils. It is empty.
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