Chapter 9: Night

I showed up to work on time. The walk from urgent care wasn't too bad despite the sprinkles of rain. Other than the lower thighs on my jeans, I stayed pretty dry under my black rain jacket. Bill, the manager, gave me a professional nod as I entered. I shoved my tote bag in the locker then donned my name tag and fake smile for the day.

After a few hours of manning a cashier station I could feel the heavy curtain of exhaustion coating my conscience. I smiled at the next customer and my eyes did a double take. I had been pushing food across the counter after greeting him, but this was the first time I actually looked up. He was bald with an average build but his ears were all scraggly and pointed. I quickly looked back to my task of pushing items across the scanner.

What the heck did I just see? I must be getting really tired. Or maybe he just had an ear deformity and it was weird for me to stare. And his eyes had been so green, not normal green, like crazy bright green. What was I seeing?

"$104.85," I said. He held out cash to me with long pointed finger nails that wrapped around the money. I looked up again and forced a smile as I tried not to stare at his ears. He gave me an odd look with a cock to his head. Like "What was I looking at?", but did I really see it?

"Have a nice day," I tried in a cheery voice that may have come out a little sarcastic or frightened, I'm not sure which. He gave me that funny look again.

"Have a nice day, sir," The bagger said in a perfectly cherry tone.

"What's wrong with you?" The boy hissed.

"Didn't he look a little... odd?" I asked in a whisper.

The boy, Freddy, looked after the man in the long brown coat. "Odd? Like what?"

My fingers flicked to his ears. I was just being rude. Maybe the man had just gotten caught in a fire and his ears were elongated and well and, I don't know. I'm sure there was a perfectly good reason for it. I was just being judgy.

"Never mind, I think I'm just tired."

"Aren't we all," he retorted.

I wasn't sure what a teenage boy had to be tired about already in his short life, but again, I must be in a judgy mood or something. I resumed my task for a time.

It must have been another hour or so. My feet hurt as I shifted my weight back and forth on the relief mat.

"Did you find everything okay?" I asked automatically with the fake smile on my face.

"Yes," the woman said in very high squeaky voice that sounded like she'd just swallowed a bunch of helium.

My hand hesitated over her milk before I caught myself and scanned it. I scanned the rest of her items. "Five ninety-six," I said.

"Here you go." Her squeaky voice was so distracting. I reached my hand out and open to accept her change. Her violet eyes, yep, that's what I saw, violet, looked up my arm, following the angry red swirl. Her hands started to tremble before she dropped the money in my hands.

I hit the change drawer and dropped the money in. I grabbed the receipt, but when I looked up, she was scurrying away.

"You forgot your receipt," I called after her.

"What did you do?" Freddy asked.

My eyes followed her until she disappeared out the door. "I don't know. Was it something I said?"

He shrugged. "Maybe you're just extra scary today."

"I mean, her voice was kind of strange though, right?"

"What do you mean?"

"Like kind of high, like too high?"

He gave me a confused look. "No, what kind of drugs are you on today and where can I get some?"

"I'm not, I swear. It's just...What color were her eyes?"

"What? I dunno, brown."

"But normal right? Not like bright purple?"

"Were they? They looked fine to me, but I wasn't really looking."

I turned to the next customer. Maybe I was losing my mind. Maybe the doctor put something in my system and I didn't remember. Maybe I had a concussion or something. Whatever the case, I was definitely seeing things that weren't there. Oh god, and hearing things. What was my problem?

I stayed alert the rest of the day, but nothing else out of the ordinary happened. By the end of the night I was left all alone again to close the store. The two weird people I had seen still ran through my mind. Why hadn't I paid more attention? Why didn't I ask Freddy more questions? I wanted to confirm if I really was seeing things.

I closed my locker. It was going to be another walk in the dark. Maybe Anton would magically appear again. I stepped out the door, leaving the room lights on yet again before the door closed behind me. I locked it then quickly turned around to face the dark. The yellow lit parking lot stared at me just like it always did. My damn car, too. I stepped forward while keeping my eyes on the wall of the building across the street. As I walked, the ember that wasn't a cigarette coalesced in the darkness. It was him. That man I spoke to, I had completely forgotten about that weird encounter this morning. Damn.

I looked down as I cut through the hedge bordering the sidewalk to the street. When I looked up, the ember was gone. I looked down the street. The empty road stared back. Now I was truly alone. I had to get over this stupid fear. The dark wasn't going to get me. Everything I had seen was just a figment.

Mila's body disappearing in the dark was just a construct in my mind I had developed to avoid processing her death. She... wasn't eaten by the darkness. That was just crazy. She... was... in a car accident? I squeezed my eyes shut for a second. I felt like my mind was going to burst. I was crazy with grief that was all. There was nothing more to it. I just needed to get over it, get home, and get on with my life.