31 Frights of October

The Last Customer

When I stepped inside Spirit Halloween, the fluorescent lights flickered erratically, casting shadows that danced across the aisles like skeletal fingers. Despite the brightly colored decor and flashing displays, there was a chill in the air, as if the place were holding its breath, waiting.

It was nearly closing time, but I'd promised my little sister, Lily, I'd pick up a costume for her school party. She was at home, sick, but too determined to miss out on Halloween. So here I was, fifteen minutes to close, wandering past plastic cauldrons and ghastly rubber masks, scanning the shelves.

The store was quiet—too quiet. Even for a near-empty Spirit Halloween, I couldn't shake the feeling that I was not alone.

As I rounded a corner into the main costume aisle, a life-sized animatronic witch sprang to life, her mechanical cackle echoing around me. I nearly dropped my bag, jolting at the witch's sudden, leering face. But then she stopped, stuttering as if her gears had locked, her eyes flickering and fading, one final hiss sputtering from her cracked speaker.

I chuckled, tension slipping away. "Cheap electronics," I muttered to myself.

But as I moved further down the aisle, the witch's head twisted, just a fraction, her cold eyes following me. Goosebumps crawled up my arms, but I told myself it was nothing. Animatronics were designed to do that—to keep the Halloween vibe alive. And yet... the store felt too silent once again, an eerie absence of sound that clung to the air like spiderwebs.

I continued my search, heart thumping in my chest. I'd just turned my back on a towering reaper animatronic when it, too, sprang to life with a rattle of bones and a deep, growling voice that seemed to fill the entire store.

"You think you're alone? The dead never walk alone..."

I whipped around, staring at the reaper's hollow face. It shouldn't have triggered—none of these should've triggered. The store was empty, save for one tired employee at the front counter. And even as the reaper stilled, I felt the weight of something—or someone—watching me, waiting.

A voice rasped from the aisle behind me. "I wouldn't linger too long if I were you." I turned to see the employee, a wiry man with dark circles under his eyes, staring at me with an unsettling intensity.

"What... what do you mean?" I asked, forcing a laugh.

He shrugged, stepping back into the shadows. "Just some advice."

I forced myself to shrug off his warning, my gaze returning to the rows of costumes. A witch hat here, a devil tail there—I scanned for anything my sister would like. And then, in the farthest aisle, I saw it: a beautiful, shimmering fairy costume, wings tipped with glitter and lace. Exactly the kind of thing Lily would love.

But as I reached for it, something cold brushed against my shoulder.

I whipped around, but the aisle was empty. Just rows of forgotten masks staring back, their hollow eyes somehow seeming alive, as if watching with twisted amusement. I clutched the costume close, taking hurried steps back toward the front.

Suddenly, every animatronic in the store powered on at once.

A chorus of laughter, growls, and screams filled the air, swelling to a deafening crescendo. I stumbled, dropping the costume as I clamped my hands over my ears, the cacophony of sound rattling my bones.

The figures shifted—one by one, they began to turn, their eyes snapping to life with a sinister, glowing light.

The reaper lurched forward, its bony hands outstretched, clattering as it reached toward me with a menacing hiss. I stumbled back, the witch's cackle mingling with the shrill scream of a banshee. Even the clown in the corner, which had been lifeless when I'd passed by, was leering at me, red lips twisted into a horrific grin.

Panicked, I dashed to the exit, but it was locked. I yanked on the handle, my breath coming in shallow gasps as I pounded against the glass.

"Please!" I screamed, looking back over my shoulder.

The animatronics were closing in, their voices merging into a horrible symphony. I felt the breath of the reaper on the back of my neck, the cackle of the witch brushing against my ear. Every step I took, they mirrored, in perfect unison, an endless, mechanical horror.

Then, just as the reaper's hand brushed my shoulder, the lights snapped off.

I stood frozen in the pitch-black silence, the echoes of laughter dying in the air. Then came footsteps—steady, deliberate, circling me in the dark. And I heard a whisper, low and chilling, that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere.

"You entered our domain willingly," it hissed. "You are ours, until dawn."

The lights flickered back on, and I found myself in the middle of the store, the costumes, masks, and rows of eerie props back in their places, as if nothing had happened. I looked around wildly, expecting to see the animatronics still moving, reaching, but they were all motionless.

The exit was open. And the employee? He was nowhere to be seen.

With trembling hands, I snatched up the costume I'd dropped and sprinted out of the store, vowing never to return.

As I glanced back from the safety of the parking lot, I saw a row of glowing eyes watching me through the store's darkened windows. The animatronics, standing perfectly still, yet somehow...alive.

When I handed Lily her stolen costume that night, she smiled, none the wiser. But as I turned to leave her room, she cocked her head, frowning.

"Who's the man with the scary mask behind you?"

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Written by frailsituation