『𝙿𝚞𝚙𝚙𝚎𝚝𝚜 𝙰𝚗𝚍 𝙼𝚊𝚜𝚔𝚜』

『Chapter One - Rumors』

⚠WARNING⚠
┍━☽【This story includes】☾━┑
╰┈➤Mention of:
̗̀➛Cannibalism
̗̀➛Murder

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The ringing of the door's chime spooked me awake from my daze, alerting me that someone had entered the small store. I looked over the counter to take a peek at the person, hoping it would be the night shift worker, they were already 30 minutes late at this point. I sighed, annoyed seeing that it was just a group of teens who were clearly high off of something, not sure what but it wasn't my business anyways.
The teens stumbled over to the drinks section that was near the back of the store, I just kept an eye on them using the camera monitor that was next to me on the counter, making sure they didn't try to smuggle any drinks into their jackets or something.
They weren't even looking at the drinks, they just stared at each other and started talking about horror stories. Not even the interesting ones though, the stories sounded like a story a kid made up for a project or a plot from a terrible movie. I mean, why would anyone be terrified of a flower that apparently eats people or clique haunted doll? Could have gone with something more interesting, like cannibal clowns or some shit like that. I've always been skeptical about stories like that anyways.
I sorta tuned out the stupid stories until they started talking about the recent murder cases in the town. It was some strange cases, whoever it was, had a disturbing obsession with puppets. The police hadn't release many details but there was rumors surrounding them. Rumors that the corpses were turned into human puppets, and that there was a survivor that went insane. Though nothing had been confirmed by the authorities.
The teens were talking about it being some sort of supernatural entity, like a demon or a vengeful spirit. To be honest, it just sounds like some dumb teens making up a fantasy-like explanation to a few murder cases to get some kicks out of it.
Gross.
Before I could hear anything else, the door's chime rung again. I saw the night shift worker, Felix, rush through the door, it was clear that he ran here, he was breathing heavily and seemed out of breath.
"About time you showed up, you're almost an hour late." I said, annoyed "You're lucky I wasn't busy, or else I would have called a manager about this."
"Sorry, I accidently slept through my alarm." He responded, trying to catch his breath.
"Just go clock in so I can clock out and go home" I sighed.
Felix went to the back as I looked back at the monitors, the teens were still talking about the murders, but they moved onto different theories people had speculated about the identity of the murderer. There was even a theory that the rumored survivor was behind it.
Felix came back out a few minutes later. I left from behind the counter and past Felix into the back room. I did the usual clocking out procedure. The room was a little dark, but the machine is visible in the available light from the door, so didn't feel the need to turn on the lights.
As I was about to leave, I saw out of the corner of my eye something moving in the darkness. I stood there for a second before flipping on the light switch, but there was nothing there. Nothing was out of place or had fallen over.
I sighed, it was probably just my eyes playing tricks on me. It was late in the afternoon and I was getting tired.
I grabbed my bag off the hook that was next to the door and turned off the lights, leaving the room.
As I past by the counter, I stopped and looked at Felix, who was on his phone playing some sort of game.
"Hey, there is a weird group of high teens in the drinks area. So just keep a eye on them, make sure they don't steal anything." I told Felix
"Got it, have a good night Robin" He replied, not even looking up from his phone.
I sighed, annoyed. Ever since middle school he's been calling me that bird name, quite annoying, despite that though, it's better than the nickname he had for me before it.
As I opened the store door, ringing the familiar chime, cool night breeze blasted in my face. I put on my headphones as I stepped out into the cold darkness of the night.