A Swedish hiker

[1]

The radio was filled with static. I sighed as I desperately tried to fix it. Changing channels wouldn't really work, it was all just some sort of songs with static. I turned it off and back on again. It was up for one second on the loudest volume and then died down. I slapped it out of frustration and it came back yet then died down again.

Why did these things have to happen today? All-day long there had only been minor issues that were so annoying. Being stuck in a darn Ikea would probably be better! Not only had I moved from a two-room apartment too, you guessed it, another two-room apartment which seems to be a lot higher in rent than I wanted and having more or less a city of homeless people and the moving truck has lost like half of everything I own!

Sadly enough this is the most relaxed I have been all week. Let's just hope by the end of next week I will at least have been at my job and have cleaned up all the moving boxes. Since it feels like they just keep coming, no matter how many I pack up.

A few minutes or to be exact half an hour later I was arriving at an Ikea in the middle of nowhere. I swear I will probably go bankrupt by the end of this. No not by me buying the furniture but me buying the white powder some homeless guy will give me. I just hope that I can get some miniature nightstands or some cheap-ass desks.

I hopped out of the car and took a good look at the building in front of me. Yellow and blue with a big entrance and a classic IKEA sign at the top. Just the twist is that there's a forest on the left and back of the building and the rest is just an open field in the middle of nowhere. I swear I am gonna find a corpse in here.

I slowly walked inside, making sure there were cars in the parking lot. The last thing I would want would be to be alone in an Ikea. But then again it's in the middle of nowhere. As I headed inside I felt a strong sense of...well furniture that hasn't been moved in like 3 decades and mixed with some smell of a building that hasn't had any open windows in like 30-40 years?

In short. This place is disgusting.

I began to go around this disgusting Ikea. I just needed those weird trolly things to get furniture. Well, this place just seems to go on forever and ever. After what felt like 2 hours I found a perfect nightstand. Strangely enough, it didn't seem to have any type of price. I guess I will just have to ask the cashier.

It was growing more and more tiring just wandering in an IKEA with this damn LoFi HiP HOp BeAtS playing over and over again. So annoying. I can't even seem to backtrack properly. Everything looks just the same as the last room and the last room before that and the last room before that.

It just keeps going on and on and on...and...and...I begin to realize something. Everything does look the same but...Everything looks different as soon as I leave the room and try to go back...Well, I was never good with directions anyway so I'm just..Imagining things, right? I finally give up and am somewhat confused about how the fuck all of this is happening. I sit down by a giant bookshelf and fall asleep.

Yes yes, I know that I fell asleep. I was just so damn tired of walking and being irritated that I was lost in a bloody IKEA that I just wanted to sleep. And now I wish I didn't, since when I woke up, it was dark. I couldn't see anything. The song had stopped playing and had left an eerie silence. As my eyes adjusted to the dark I finally realized that the store had closed.

Now I begin to panic a little...no a lot. I turn on my phone and turn on the flashlight. I can barely see a few feet in front of me and I keep stumbling on things. I swear to god I keep seeing things in the corner of my eye. I guess 4-5 all-nighters with 90 minutes naps aren't the best mixed with the stress of losing (before I even have been there for one shift) my minimum wage coffee shop job. At this point, I was just swearing as I took turn after turn yet nothing looked the same. And after a while, my flashlights turn off. I desperately try to turn my phone back on yet it doesn't work. I let out a frustrated, irritated, annoyed, angry, and everything in between, groan.

I'm close to throwing my phone onto the ground and all I really want to do is throw up and disappear. After hours and hours and hours of wandering in the dark with hallucinations dancing in the corner of my view. I stumble over something and I let finally snap and yell "Fuck it! I'm going to sue you all once I get out!"

It echoed through the landscape as it slowly faded into quiet. And then I heard someone else, I almost, just almost, threw up as I jolted up as a voice answering my threat to sue them all. They said The store is now closed, Exit the building. It was far away yet it felt too close for comfort.

I then begin to calm as I realize it's probably some security guard or something. They must have seen me on the cameras. I begin to walk towards where I think the sound came from and begin to somewhat chitchat, and then I stumble.

I fall backward. As I land on my back I see something woosh over me. A giant body in a blue and yellow striped shirt. I quickly sit up.

I sat dumbfounded as the phrase repeated itself. I snap out of it and more or less rolled to the side as I see someone or something getting closer.

The thing bashes its hands into the concrete floor. I quickly begin to hobble up on my feet and run yet my mind is already a few miles ahead.

I constantly trip over things yet I keep myself on my feet. My breathing is rapid. My mind is racing with questions. What the hell was that thing? Was that even a human? No, the thing's hands were big enough to crush a watermelon, and it could probably crush my skull.

Yet all I do know is that if I stop running that thing will most likely catch up with me. I can still hear its voice behind me. Constantly repeating phrases like "The store has closed, exit the building" or "Excuse me, the store is now closed, may you exit the building" or even "the store is now closed please exit the building".

Yet those phrases only seemed to get louder, which meant that thing was catching up. And then I stumble, again. I stumble over something metallic I think. I duck down and cover my head as I crawl up In a fetal position, awaiting that things hands come crashing down on me.

Yet it never comes. No, it lands beside me. I hear two loud crunches and then fewer audible ones. I hear it crash into the bookshelf behind me.

I look up and see the thing on the ground. Its hands have become a mess of broken bones, and worst of all is its fingers. Its elongated fingers now point in different directions. I get up and quickly begin to run.

Author's note: I thank you for finishing this, I might add more parts in the future but only if anyone actually reads this, my goal is maybe 10 red