It was a warm summer day at Wilko, as the workers proceeded about their jobs as they normally do. They were nothing overly special about today, except maybe that the customers today were less needy than usual, which is always a great thing from the retail side of things. The managers had been observing the store via the cameras in the upstairs offices, taking note of potential shoplifters and making sure that everybody was doing what they should be doing.
"Hey Caleb, watch those boys over by aisle 3. They keep floating over near the liquor cabinet and I don't trust them to not make a mess if they bump into something" Emma said to Caleb over their walkie-talkies.
"Rodger that," he said, making his way over to the group of teenagers. Emma watched Caleb as he did so, walking at a calm pace as to not bring too much attention to himself. Before she could watch him approach them, she was interrupted by Liz who had just re-entered the office. "We've got to get that dammed vending machine in the breakroom fixed. This is the second time I've put money in and it ate it up without giving me anything." Liz sighed as she walked over to see what Emma was looking at. "Hmph, this damn group of boys again. You'd think they'd find something better to do with their summer break than hang out in our parking lot and loiter around the store".
"You can say that again," Emma said, turning back to the monitor. She'd, unfortunately, missed the engagement between Caleb and the group of boys, which would've been the highlight of the day as today was particularly slow, to her at least. She turned back to Liz, "Do you think Caleb ever gets scared or timid when he has to approach customers, like the suspicious ones?"
"Well if he does, I never see him show it. He's pretty stone-faced. Kinda scary sometimes, but pretty admirable. I wouldn't want anybody else up in front." Liz said, "Like when that crazy guy came in the other day and said that he used to be a woman? I would've been running the other way, but Caleb went straight to the guy and booted him from the store!".
"What? Are you serious? How come I didn't hear about this!?" Emma said, shocked about the events that had transpired in her store.
"I think you had called off that day. Either that, or you may have been on your lunch. I think it may be in the archives of the security footage if you wanna see". Liz explained as he reached over Emma and grabbed control of the computer mouse, navigating to the archives.
Emma watched as Liz pulled up the footage of what she had just described. It was a handsome-looking young man, in some odd clothing, for a young man at least. He looked somewhat frantic when he walked in, but really blew over when he was looking over some of the available hair products that the store carried. Sure enough, Caleb had walked over to the young man and escorted him out, having to drag him somewhat as they approached the exit. "That was crazy. It sucks that he ran off before you or the authorities could make it. He even said something really crazy before he left, but nobody understood what he said!". Liz explained.
"Really? Like what?" Emma asked, curious.
"Keep watching and find out!"
Emma turned back to the monitor and watched as Caleb had to exert more strength to semi-lift the man out of the store, but not before the man seemed to look straight into the camera at the entrance and say"ǝɯ ǝʞᴉʅ ʞooʅ noʎ uoos ʻǝɥ oʇ ǝɥs ʻǝɥs oʇ ǝɥ". She was perplexed. What the hell was that? English? Latin? A Harry Potter spell? Emma shook herself out of it, she had things that she and Liz needed to attend to. "You ready to do your rounds with me? You can cover the north end of the store and I'll sweep through the south end. If anybody needs any extra hands just reach me on my walkie," Emma explained as she got up and gathered her things from her desk.
"Sure thing, let's go".
As Emma got up, she had her phone in her hand and dropped it on her keyboard. This then caused the old footage to play in reverse as she picked up her phone and walked out of the manager's office with Liz. Upon closer review, the man's message could clearly be heard to be said "he to she, she to he, soon you look like me". The playback stopped right after the man could be heard saying that, as the screen froze and blacked out. An odd energy filled the now-empty office and spread throughout it as it eventually make its way into the central air system, soon to spread throughout the store.
Shit was about to get weird.  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
| Members who added to this interactive story also contributed to these: |
<<-- Previous · Outline  · Recent Additions © Copyright 2025 Thomas Johnson (UN: thetallestboy at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
Saracen1187 has granted Writing.Com, its affiliates and syndicates non-exclusive rights to display this work within this interactive story. Poster accepts all responsibility, legal and otherwise, for the content uploaded, submitted to and posted on Writing.Com. |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
More by this author