How To Capture A Masquerade (And Other Odd Tales)

The Pegasus Grocery Store

Ayomide lets out a bored sigh as he flips through another page of the Science Enquirer magazine. He scans the words over and over again, and none of them seem to stick to his tired mind. It's a slow early morning, which is not unusual, but a change of pace from the last few days. In fact, the lack of regular customers should have made Ayo feel a bit of relief, that maybe he could keep his eyes closed for a few minutes and nothing bad would happen. But Ayo didn't really feel much relief.

He didn't feel much of anything lately. It was as if his heart had been scooped back and big puffs of cotton wool were shoved into the chasm of his empty chest. He did not feel the sadness of his rushed departure from his old life, nor the increasing frustration that plans to build his new one kept falling apart. This would be a welcome change if not for the fact that he lost the ability to feel joy in the little things in his life. His Star Trek books didn't make him excited when he read them, talking with his friends online felt like a waste of time. Even eating became a meaningless chore. He bought some guinea fowl from the food truck on his day off, Wednesday, and ate it with some garri and boli. This was a luxury meal to him and made the terrible days at the store feel less terrible. But the garri felt like wet sand in his mouth, the boli a dry mush and the guinea fowl a chewy mess. He didn't have much of an appetite either at that point and trashed the contents halfway through.

It wasn't the first time he'd experienced that feeling, but he hasn't figured out what had caused it this time, or why the feeling had lasted 2 weeks. Especially since the last time was before he left home. Whenever the feeling arose, it was mostly due to the sight of his own appearance. But that couldn't be right, because he got rid of all the mirrors after the weeping widow incident. Her wails for her lost love, combined with her horrid visage in the mirrors, kept driving away what little customers he had left. Helping her sort her business and find eternal peace would have been a much more permanent solution but would require time and money that Ayo neither had nor wanted to spend. He figured he could blame the moans on pipe construction or something. So far, that seems to suffice when customers asked.

Maybe the emptiness inside of him was from this job. He's been the only full- time night staff at the small roadside store in this desolate, cursed neighborhood. [The location of this story has been made "REDACTED" to protect the reader's sanity and ensure their physical safety]. Or maybe he got a curse from the last time he fought a demon. He checks under his uniform sleeve at his left shoulder. The protection seal is still there, so the prospect of that was highly doubtful.

The door swings open when the busted clock on the register reads 4:35 AM, and right on cue, Mr Joseph Balogun strolls in whistling his signature tune. He's one of the only regular customers that the store ever sees at night. He's a very...queer old man. His dressing was always something puzzling, either a color clash, a style clash or a combination of the two. He has deep scars snaking around his arms and neck, and when asked, Mr Balogun went quiet for a solid minute and then walked away from the store in a hurry. Ayo actually had no idea if Mr Balogun lived nearby or far away. That question was met with "Its a bit of both" and a very unsettling laugh.

Mr Balogun goes behind an aisle, and Ayo can only imagine what he's up to this time. On a regular Saturday, his items could range from a single pencil, which Ayo has seen him take a bite out of, to every single bag of peanuts in the store. The peanuts, he explained, were for a secret project to disturb a council meeting. Ayo had just nodded as he scanned the bags of peanuts, arms tired from 70 repeated scans, praying to be released from this mortal coil. Within 10 minutes, Mr Balogun was back again, hands behind his back.

"Good evening, Ayo" He says with an excited smile. His eyes have the usual twinkle of mischief and

Ayo looks up briefly at him, then grunts a reply as he goes back to his "reading".