screaming season

costume shop

Sam hated working on Halloween. He should be out partying with his friends but for some reason his boss wanted him to work late even though he worked in a fucking Halloween shop and everybody had all they needed because it was already Halloween, sure some parents would want to get a last minute costume but most kids already had costumes. The bell above the door rang and Sam turned around to greet the new customer but smiled as he recognized the girl walking towards him, it was hailey,one of Sam's classmates from school. "Hey nerd, kinda sucks that you're stuck here, I was hoping you'd come to my party" Sam's boss was out with his kids for the night and wouldn't notice if he was one for a while. "I think I can still come, I just can't stay long, oh and I need a costume" Hailey smiled. "If only you worked in a costume store" Hailey said in a sarcastic,playful tone. Hailey followed Sam around as he picked a costume out of the racks. She picked out an old fashioned vampire costume with a dark cloak and a fake gold pendant. "You'd look good in this" she said with a twinkle in her eye. "Too basic" Sam waved the costume off and began to search the racks again. He ended up picking random accessories and a bright colored purple cloak and putting together a dark mage outfit. "Very cool, I like it." Hailey smiled and pulled him out of the back of the shop, Sam left money for the costume in the register and followed Hailey to her house for the party. Sam had a lot of fun at the party and at the end of it Hailey kissed him on the cheek. "Call me later tomorrow" she said sort of drunkenly as she stumbled back into the house giggling like a little girl. Sam didn't drink much at the party because he knew he would have to go back to the shop to lock up. When Sam got to the shop he was relieved that the lights were off, his boss hadn't come to check up on him yet. His relief vanished when he tried to put the key in the lock and discovered that the door was already unlocked. "Maybe I forgot to lock it before I left" Sam thought to himself. He slowly opened the door and began to do the nightly ritual of cleaning the store before closing. He was sweeping the floor when out of the corner of his eye he saw the costumes on the rack shifting. Someone was hiding behind the costumes. "Hello??" Sam called out. "Whoever's back there, it's closing time, you have to come back tomorrow" the costumes stayed still but sam knew that whoever was back there hadn't left. He sighed and moved back there to catch the person but no one was back there. He began to search the other costume racks thinking the person was trying to hide, they couldnt have left, sam would have heard the door open. Sam was worried that his boss would be mad if he found someone hiding in the store and would probably blame Sam. Sam searched the whole store but couldn't find anyone. He gave up and went back to cleaning up the shop. The lights went off as Sam was done with all the nightly chores. He would have to leave that as a problem for his boss. He walked to the exit door and tried to pull it open but it was locked this time. He hadn't remembered locking it yet. He searched the register for the keys but they weren't there. He found them in his pocket and began to walk towards the door again but he saw a shadow in the corner of the store, a man wearing a fox costume complete with a mask to hide his face. the person from earlier hadn't left. Sam stared at the man and the person grinned as he took a silver gleaming knife from his back, before Sam could react the man in the fox costume ran at him full speed and stabbed Sam in the gut. The man continued to stab Sam until Sam stopped moving. The man took off the bloodstained costume and threw the costume into the dumpster.
When Sam's boss came to open the shop up and pack it into boxes he screamed as he saw Sam lying dead on the floor.