Levi Rem in: A Sculptors Nightmare

Chapter 4: The Slipper

The hardware store was more strange in person, it made Levi uneasy, even unwell. It felt wrong, looked out of place. Its ashen walls were wide as they were tall. The uncomfortably perfect angles. It was like a flawless stone square, like it belonged apart of a pyramid. It had no windows, at least in the front, and besides a double door its face was featureless.

Levi stood across the street, staring at the odd building. Tucked away in the darkness of an alley. Feeling whatever the sight conjured up. You can see over his shoulder, past him. You can see his hair, wild and out of sorts, but you couldn't tell the color in the shadows. The jacket he wore, dark green and rough, still, over his shoulder you can see buildings on either side opening up to the empty street and the store, like a chiseled rock. A cube the color of dense storm clouds and its ominous double glass door. Rich greenery behind it, the encroaching forest.

Levi turned around, eyes cut, looked. He had the feeling of being watched, like he was on a stage, since waking up but the feeling stayed hidden, shy. It came barreling to the surface all of a sudden, like a torpedo. It felt like those watching eyes were right behind him, over his shoulder. But behind him only held shadows. He visibly shook, a chill. Turning his attention back on the odd building. Thinking he could just leave town, walk by and not look back but something pulled him here, something intangible. As wrong of a sight it was, sending signals of dread and discomfort, Levi couldn't deny that it felt like he was supposed to be here. Like a dentist appointment. He decided he couldn't resist the urge, not scratch the itch. He carefully, cautiously walked to the door.

Levi grabbed the door handle and pulled, opening. He stepped inside. The store seemed like a normal department store at first glance, albeit devoid of life. A row of cash registers at the front and rows of massive shelves behind that. Long wires hung from the ceiling in the middle of each aisle, at the bottom a yellow hued light bulb and a small, grey shade. The rest of the floor space laid in darkness. It was with a second glance that things stopped adding up. The roof looked light-years away, same as the walls, both weren't visible from where Levi stood. The outside didn't look this gigantic. This was like the inside of a completely different store, just the doorways have gotten mixed up, leading where they shouldn't.

Levi's curiosity hadn't quite been sated but it was quickly becoming overruled by a sense of foreboding. Just laying eyes on this place birthed more questions than answers. The survival and inquisitiveness clashed, his sensibility finally coming back to him, taking over. He turned, began reaching for the door. Bang. Gunshot. Somewhere in the murky depths of the store. He froze. A survivor, had to be. The monster's don't use guns. He turned back around, hesitated. He just couldn't resist scratching the itch. Sensibility subdued. He walked past the registers and deeper into the store. Desperate for the company of someone sane.

Up close he could see on the open shelves in the aisles were only endless amounts of hammers and chisels, nothing else. Thousands. Forever. He stepped into an aisle and began walking. The tiny bulb lightening the way. He could see through to the other aisles, they were a mirror image of this one. He kept walking, stepping in and out of the light. Another one hung further down. Kept walking. The back wall might as well have been a cryptid, he couldn't prove it existed at all. The only sounds were his own footsteps. Soon, looking back was no different than looking forward. Shelves that stretched to infinity, it's only equal the darkness surrounding them.

All of a sudden, all at once, like a bomb, the realization hit him. The person he was looking for could very well be The Raven. Or maybe he was wrong, maybe the smileys could use guns. His mind swirled with awful thoughts so densely he tripped over his own feet and fell. He shot up, dusted himself off, checked his aches and pains before a new, more frightening realization hit him like another bullet. He didn't know which direction he was walking. Which way led out.