Creepy Ass Nutcracker

Back in 2014, I took a part-time retail job to have a little extra holiday money. For the most part, the job wasn't too bad. It was more mundane than anything else. However, it was on December 22nd when I stopped working there. The reason I did was because of the nutcracker.

The weirdness with it began when our manager brought it into the store the Saturday after Black Friday. I thought that Friday was the worst day I was going to have there. Little did I know it was about to get much worse. My heart nearly stopped when I first laid eyes on it. I had just finished stocking some juice bottles.

I was going to take the empty box in the back to be broken down and thrown away. When I rounded the nutcracker was waiting for me. I let out an involuntary yelp, dropping the box I held. My manager, who I will refer to as, Benny, came to check on me. If I had to describe him in a way it would be well-meaning but not too competent.

"Dillan, was that you, I heard just now?" He asked, approaching me with his clipboard in hand.

"Yeah," I admitted, a little embarrassed.

"Well, what's wrong? Don't tell me you saw another rat."

"No. It was that."

I pointed to the nutcracker.

"This is what scared you?" He asked, chuckling.

My embarrassment deepened.

"It just seems kind of...What's the phrase I'm looking for? Off Putting."

That was a severe understatement. This thing looked like it belonged in one of the Child's Play movies. I find regular nutcrackers to be really off-putting, with their glassy eyes and perfectly straight teeth. I remember getting nightmares from seeing my elementary school's play of The Nutcracker. I thought the ones in those were the freakiest I'd ever seen.

The one in the store made those look cute by comparison. It stood at over seven feet with eyes that almost seemed to follow me. It held a spear in its hand that Benny assured me was fake despite the fact it seemed to glimmer in the light as if it were a murder weapon. It wore a green shirt with red pants. Its hair was wild looking and almost felt real to me.

"Well, I think it adds some much-needed atmosphere to the store."

He was right about that, just not in the way he intended.

"Where did you get this thing anyway?"

"I saw someone tossing it in our dumpster the other night."

"Why am I not surprised?" I thought.

"I had to fix it up some but I think people will like it."

Benny couldn't have been more wrong. Every customer I saw pass by it, got this look of fear in their eyes that I could relate to. Some of my coworkers mentioned seeing it facing one way. Then facing a completely different one when they saw it again. In addition to that, I myself recall seeing it in places other than where it had originally been placed.

If our security cams worked, I would've checked them to confirm if these anomalies were actually happening. Since I couldn't, I just dismissed them as our minds playing tricks on us. I tried everything I could to avoid operating in the part of the store where it was. Unfortunately, I had to eventually. This brings me to December 22nd of 2016.

Benny wanted me to stay late and help our assistant manager, Will, with the night shift. Normally, he would be helping him but he had to have a meeting with corporate the following morning. Although I wasn't really feeling up to it, I agreed, figuring I could use the extra money. I already found the store at night to be pretty eerie, never mind with the nutcracker there. I was just coming back in from throwing away the empty boxes when Will called me over.