So I recently got a job at this video store in my town. The place has been open for as long as I could remember. And through circumstances I will not get into now, I was hired there. Now, I am using the term ‘Video store’ very loosely here. It’s more of a large storage facility that just so happens to rent out VHS tapes. And weirdly enough, the store actually gets quite a few customers.
I am only one of three employees that work at the store. There is also the manager but I had only seen him once throughout my whole time working here. One of the employees that works with me to serve the customers is a girl, who I will call Sunny. I see Sunny at the front desk, or in the break room making her 100th coffee. There is also Jared, the store’s Archivist. He does as his job title implies. He is given a box of VHS tapes and is told to watch, catalog, and sort them into the store.
The store itself is a whole different story. On the outside, it just looks like your average brick and mortar warehouse. The inside however, if I may describe it in one word, is dark. I have no idea why but there are now windows in the store. The only windows being the glass doors at the front entrance. So when you need to navigate the store, in search of a tape, you need to bring a flashlight with you. And even with a source of light, the place is like a labyrinth. Going deeper into the store proves to be the most frustrating and stressful part of the job. As you need to do it quickly if you don’t want the customer to grow impatient. I now cannot imagine how difficult it must have been for Sunny. As she does the night shift at the store. So it is dark inside and out.
Lastly there are the customers. They are peculiar to say the least. They range from salesmen, homeless people, Even clowns that one time. I’ve heard from Sunny that when it is night shift. You get some weird customers.
So, now that I have told you what my job is, Ill tell you what got me into this mess. I just arrived at the store early this morning. When I do, I always find Jared in the break room, making himself some tea. This time he wasn’t there. “Hey Sunny, where’s Jared?”
Sunny turned her head to face me while she was making herself coffee. “He called in sick today. The manager also wants to see you upstairs in his office.
My stomach churned when she said that. The first time I met the manager I was instantly freaked out by him, his skin was almost perfect. like a wax doll, And his ear to ear smile with perfectly symmetrical teeth made me shiver, he looked like an idyllic business man, almost like a living parody of one.
I walked up the metal stairs to his office and opened the door. The manager was sitting in his chair filing some paperwork. He asked me to sit down. “So new employee. How are you coping?” His voice was sincere yet eerie. He gave that familiar ear to ear, perfect teeth grin. “Good sir.”
“Amazing news new employee! Now as you may have heard from the night shift employee. Our archivist has called in sick. So I’ll be making you the surrogate archivist for today.” the manager said. Opening his desk drawer and pulling out a key, the key’s head was painted with a pale, sickly green color. “Now I know that you have only been working here for how long?”
“Oh uh, 1 month sir.” I answered. His face contorted into what looked like a surprised face. “ 1 whole month. So you have fitted in nicely? Got along with the two employees?” He stretched out the ee’s in ‘employee’ to make his point. “Yes sir.”
“Good then. Now the green key is to unlock the archivist’s office. The night shift employee will guide you. If you do a good job, then I will give you a bonus for this week’s wages. But any mistakes. Well, the consequences will be costly.” The seriousness of his tone completely caught me off guard. A hot, red fuzzy feeling grew ever present in my gut. “I-I understand sir.”
“Alrighty-yo then. Now get moving.” the manager turned his focus back to the paperwork. I took the green key from him and walked down the iron steps.
Meeting Sunny below. She took me to the archival room. “Alright. The door opens with the green key, you have it?” she looked back at me. I took the green key out of my pocket to show her. “Okay, now listen to me. If you are in any trouble. There is a black phone near the bottom of the steps. There will be two options on it. Being the front desk and the manager’s office. Press the front desk if you need my help. You understand.” her voice was assertive. I nodded solemnly. She said goodbye and walked away from me. I waved and looked back at the door in front of me.
Opening the door I was surprised to find a long dark stairway leading into the inky abyss. I took out my small flashlight and flicked it on. Flashing the light down the stairway it just showed more steps. With a long sigh I stepped down, closing the door behind me. The soles of my shoes tapped against the steel steps. Sending a slight echo throughout as I descended. To keep my mind off of the fuzzy feeling in my gut, I started counting every step I took. When my foot hit the smooth concrete floor at the bottom, I had counted around 50 steps.
I flashed the light across the basement. The walls were simply just featureless, smooth concrete. The only things in the basement were Four shelves, all different colors ranging from red,purple,blue and green. An old CRT Tv near the middle of the room, it looked like one of those old tv’s teachers would wheel into class to play a movie or something.
There was also an old desk hugging the wall, only a few feet away from the CRT Tv. Some journals lay strewn about. With a singular page torn out, laying on a bunch of notebooks. I came closer to read the page. Here is what is said;
“Hey Buddy. So if you are reading this then that means that I am probably at home, in bed, coughing my lungs out. I haven’t been feeling well yesterday and decided to write this note as the manager is probably going to ask you to do my job. So I’ll be leaving this note here with the rules on what to do.
1st— All the tapes you need to watch are in the box near the Tv. Pop them in and watch them. If you didn’t finish a tape. Whether it be for having explicit imagery or it was just causing too much distress. Pop it out and slap a Golden star sticker on the side.
2nd— there are four shelves, all different colors. Red is for if it is explicit stuff. Purple are for tapes that seem normal but give you an uneasy feeling, make your body ache, pain etc. Blue are for tapes that are just static and random flashing lights. And lastly green is if the tape is just a regular old by the books VHS.
3rd— there will be a notebook titled ‘Volume-124’ lying beneath the page you are reading. Make sure to document what you saw on those tapes. If you don’t know how you should document them. Just look at some examples in the notebook itself.
4th— Do not. Under any circumstances. Watch a VHS with a red strip of duct tape stuck on its side. If you encounter one, then please leave it. Don’t touch it. Don’t look at it. Don’t even think about it when you see it.”
That was all the letter had to say before I turned around and looked at the box, lying near the Television set.
Opening the box I found it filled to the brim with neatly stacked VHS tapes. I decided to take my phone out of my pocket to check the time. 8:30.
I sighed and put my phone back in my pocket. Best to get it done and not slack off.
The first few tapes that I watched were slightly unnerving. Some were old cartoons that made my body feel stiff. Others seemed to be videos of crime scenes. I wrote down what I saw on the volumes. The examples I had to look at in the notebook just showed I had to write short sentences with a clear point on how they made me feel, what was the tape about and what category it ends off with an ascending number. ‘Tape 2234’ and then ‘Tape 2235’.
I won’t be talking about all of the ones I saw. But there were a few I had to mention. There was one that was some old student project film about a half bunny, half man that was going on a rampage throughout a college dorm. The blood and viscera made me think that the practical effects of this movie were realistic. I am a bit too realistic. So I thought of just putting it on the red shelf and moving on.
Another VHS featured a documentary about this old farm. Retelling the generations of its inhabitants and how they seemingly died of strange causes. Like being impaled by a tree branch or seemingly strung up in the barn. It was actually quite a bit entertaining in the way you find murder documentaries entertaining. It was descriptive with the details. Which is technically telling ‘explicit information’, but again, no gore or frightening material. Si just just put the tape on the desk and told Jared I didn’t know what to do with it.
I was finally now finished down to only two tapes. I now saw the tape with red on it. Now if I was an absolute idiot I would have watched it. Ignoring the rules laid out by my good old friend Jared. Don’t get me wrong, I was very much tempted to pop it in and watch it. See why it was so forbidden. See if it is a snuff film. But well, the fear of actually seeing a snuff film and getting in trouble for it, stopped me.
So I took the VHS That lay beside it. The name of it was scribbled on its side. ‘Lisa.’
I inserted it into the player. The subsequent screen that flashed on the tv was of a cellar door. The footage had an unusual blue, distorted filter to it. Like the camera that was filming was submerged into water. I sat there in the uncomfortable fold up chair, Staring at the screen unblinkingly. After some indeterminate time had passed. I stood up from the chair. My gaze upon the screen now gone. The sound of screeching metal erupted from the television. I jumped and cursed under my breath. Quickly flicking my gaze back at the screen.
The Rusted cellar doors were now open. Revealing a deep void. I stood. The warm fuzzy feeling I had felt was now ever present across my whole body. From the void, a pale hand emerged. It was heavily contrasted against the blackness behind it. The arm stretched out and grabbed the dead grass in front of the cellar. Then slowly. Another pale hand appeared. Doing the same as the others. The arms now seemed to haul up a ghostly looking woman. Her long, jet black hair covering her face.
Suddenly, the arms propelled the figure out of the cellar, moving swiftly and smoothly towards the screen. I couldn’t help but give out a startled gasp as I was jumpscared by the video. The figure of the woman was now inches away from the supposed camera filming her. Her face is now slightly visible.
The skin on her cheeks and jaw were stretched thin. The iris of her eyes is a deep crimson color. I never in my life expected what was about to happen.
With an eerie determination, she pressed her hand against the screen, her pale fingers pushing through, defying the boundaries of reality. I couldn’t help but scream in terror. She started climbing out. Water spilling over from the film world into mine. Her long black hair trailing along as half her body was now out of the television.
My fight or flight response kicked in as I grabbed the metal fold up chair and hurled it at her, then booked it for the stairs. Now I know that I had counted 50 steps on this stairway, but my feet probably landed on only a quarter of them as I was jumping hurriedly across 2 to 3 steps at a time.
Reaching the top of the stairs in leaps and bounds.
I grabbed the handle of the metal door and pulled. It didn’t budge. Looking behind me I saw she was now crawling up the stairs like a feral beast. Rapidly approaching. I pulled the green key out of my pocket but it slipped and fell onto the floor.
The ghost woman was only 6,5, only 4 steps away from presumably ripping my souls out of my body and sending me to hell. So, out of sheer panic. I thrusted my leg out. My foot connected to her face with enough force that she lurched backwards and started falling down the steep stairway. The woman was wailing out until her head landed on the step. Her screams cut short with a loud crack and tumbled hearing her tumble the last few remaining steps before silence.
I was cupping my hands over my mouth. Trying my best not to scream. I stood there for what felt like an eternity before I slowly started descending back to the basement. The now familiar glow of the Tv showed that the woman was very much not moving.
An inky black liquid was seeping out of her opened skull onto the smooth concrete floor. I then remembered what Sunny had told me. And so I looked around and saw the black phone on the wall near the steps.
The only buttons on it had the words ‘manager’s office’ and ‘front desk’. I took the handset of the phone and pressed the ‘front desk’ button. A short beep came out the receiver before I heard Sunny’s voice.
“I’ll be right over.” is all that she said to me. That was an hour ago as of typing this. So now here I am asking you this question. How do I dispose the body of a ghost?