Unwelcome Shopper

Part 1 of 1

     I kept telling myself that it wasn't real. Just the product of too much stress and not enough sleep. No one else wanted to work the night shifts, and at first I'd been eager to fill the role, as dealing with customers was beginning to test my morals, and no one really came into the store this late.
     I leaned back away from the desk. From here, I could just see into the office where all the security footage was monitored. The cameras weren't the greatest, but from what I could make out on the screens above the desk inside the office, I was alone in the store. No customers. No other employees. Frank, my boss, was technically supposed to be here to supervise. However, Frank liked to sleep (like most people) and I was a good employee, despite being a little on the quiet side. Frank had left an hour ago, reminding me to lock up when my shift was over as he hurried out the door.
     I leaned against the desk and sighed. I did my best to not watch as the creature came by again, slinking out of the darkness and into the light of the pale florescent bulb above the sliding door. They paced for a few prolonged moments, then silently stalked back into the darkness from which they'd come.
     Maybe I really was just seeing things. Maybe it was a bear or some other animal and my anxiety-ridden brain was just twisting it into something worse. I reasoned if it was an animal or something real, then the automatic doors would open as it neared. So it was just in my head.
     It wouldn't be the first time I'd seen things since moving to this town. At first I reasoned it was just the stress of relocating, living alone for the first time, not sleeping well, or whatever excuse I could conjure up. The facts were, I'd been here almost a year now, and this creature was a lot more confrontational than the other things I'd seen.
     I wished there was someone else here, to either see or not see the creature. I didn't like the quiet possibility that the thing out there was real, and I'd have to face it at the end of my shift to go home.
     The logical part of my brain insisted that it was all ridiculous. Of course I was only hallucinating. The creature was not real.
     A different part of me argued back, insisting that the creature could very well be real, I shouldn't take the chance of it being a hallucination, and I should be very afraid. There were so many things about this old earth, and the timeless forest bordering my town, the forest surrounding the store on all sides, that I don't know about, couldn't dream to learn of in my lifetime. Unexplainable things. People going missing, people who were forgotten almost instantly, never searched for, never missed for long. Strange travelers who never seemed quite right, never stayed for long, and never taking anything or leaving anything behind except for the slightly altered perception of the town's overall character that their seemingly goal-less visit would inevitably enact. It was also in the way no one went out at night. The way everyone seemed so opposed to the night shift, even though we all dealt with particularly difficult customers on a daily basis. The way Frank had looked at me, almost a mix of pity and relief, as he left.
     I shook my head, as if trying to shake away the spiraling thoughts in my mind.
     The creature was back. It watched me intently. I looked back. The creature could easily break the doors down if it wanted to, but it just stood there. Watching. Waiting.
     I needed to calm down, or anxiety would end up getting the better of me. I breathed in for a few seconds, then exhaled for twice as long.
     I decided to distract. Maybe if I worked my brain into a different place, into different thoughts, the creature would go away.
     I forced my shaking hands to cooperate, and opened up the cabinets under the desk, and reorganized all the supplies. Coupon books, cleaning supplies, replacement lightbulbs, old instruction manuals for some of the outdated computers.
     I wiped down the desk for good measure. The cleaning spray smelled citrusy. A few moments later, I realized the stuff might actually be expired or something, because it was extremely potent.
     "Dammit," I grumbled, pinching my nose. I eyed the bottle, holding it up and studying it with a less than favorable gaze.
     My eyes drifted beyond the bottle, where the creature outside seemed to be getting agitated.
     The creature was snarling and shaking its giant formless head, flinging bits of saliva every which way as it did. It fell onto the ground and rolled, bumping into the door several times, making me jump each time it did. It got up and paced around with more intensity than before. Its face was leaking something nasty, which appeared to be as unpleasant to experience as it was to look at. The creature shook its head again, swiping at its face with a paw.
     I looked back at the bottle, and suddenly got a strange idea.
     The creature watched me approach, now a great deal warier than before. It stood very still as I ignored the voice in my head telling me to get as far from the creature as I could, and I knelt down next to the sliding doors so the camera wouldn't see me and open the doors. I briefly met the gaze of the creature- a somehow possible and at the same time terrifying feat, as the creature did not have eyes, yet a gaze to meet all the same. I pinched my nose, held out the bottle, and sprayed all along the bottom edge of the doors before my anxiety could talk me out of this plan.
     The creature booked it faster than I'd ever seen anything move before. It made it to the edge of the parking lot before turning back to flash its shifting fangs at me from the darkness. Then it vanished into the trees.
     I sat there for a long time, watching and waiting for the creature to return. When it never did, I went back to the desk and set the bottle within arms reach.
     When my shift finally ended, I turned off the lights and locked up. I strolled through the parking lot to my car, spray bottle gripped tightly in my hand and eyes on the trees. I'd already added the stuff to my shopping list.
     During my drive home through the dark, the alien glow of street signs whirling past, I thought about the monster in the parking lot. I wondered if it was real, or if it all really was just in my head, or if it even mattered. The feeling that I was not safe was real, the feeling that I was being watched by an unkind eye. My anxiety, my fears, they were real.
     I glanced at the spray bottle sitting quietly in the passenger seat.
     It seemed, whether the monster was real or not, there were ways to fight it. I might be afraid, but I was never powerless.
     The next day, Frank asked me if I'd like to take the night shift again. I told him I would. I wouldn't be hiding from my fears any longer, because now I was certain that every monster, tangible or imaginative, had its weakness.