One day, while typing away on my computer, I got a call from my sister, Anna, in the middle of the workday. This was unusual because we weren’t particularly close and usually only talk a few times a year. From the second I picked up I knew something was wrong.
“Adelia?”, she asked, sounding stressed.
“Yes?”, I answered. “What’s going on?”
“It’s our uncle Jim. He fell again”.
I sighed. My uncle Jim and I were very close when I was growing up. He stepped in to help my mom with Anna and I after our father died and was the only father figure I knew. Up until last year, he was very healthy (at least for a seventy-something man who’d smoked since he was fourteen). About a year ago, he fell off a ladder one day while painting his living room and his mobility never fully recovered. He’d fallen earlier in the month and sprained his wrist. He also had his electric shut off a few months back dude to forgetting the bill. He seemed to be losing his self-sufficiency bit by bit.
“I know you don’t want to hear this but I think it’s time we started looking at nursing homes for him”, Anna said.
I shook my head. “No we can’t do that to him. He doesn’t want to leave Rex in some dog shelter and he loves his gardening. He would also hate being stuck in some room all day”
“Adelia, he wouldn’t be stuck in a room all day. They have activities. He could make friends there”.
“No, we’ll figure something else out”, I cut her off, determined to make her see my point.
“I care about him too and I’m not happy about this either”, responded Anna. “But I’m scared that if we don’t do something soon he’s gonna end up seriously hurt-or worse”.
“What about hiring a home health aide?” I asked.
“I’ve already looked into that, pickings are slim around here on his budget and so far I haven’t been able to find anyone-”.
“I’ll do it”, I volunterred without thinking.
“What?”, Asked Anna, sounding surprised.
“I’ll move back and be his caretaker. My job’s remote and I can clean out the extra room at his house to stay in”.
“Are you sure?” She asked. I know you’ve been doing really well in Louisville”.
“I love it here”, I admitted. “But I want to help Jim. It’s the right thing to do. He was always there for us when no one else was”.
“I mean that’s great but aren’t you worried about living in the same town as Chase?” She asked.
I sighed. “The protection order’s still in effect and Jim has plenty of guns and a big dog. I think I’ll be okay”.
“Well I gotta get off the phone but if you’re serious about this I can talk to Jim”.
“I am”, I responded.
After ending the call I sat there in shock. I knew I wanted to be there for Jim but I couldn’t believe I was moving back to the small West Virginia town I had to flee just 4 years ago. I spent the next two weeks packing my things and tying up the loose ends of my brief stint in the city. I knew I would miss it. While a lot of my friends craved the wide open spaces, farm land, and light traffic of smaller towns, I felt nothing but dread the second I left city limits. I’d enjoyed growing up in the small town, but as I got older the facade of it being a safe and quiet place began to disappear. Things seemed to get really bad when a local factory closed leaving many people out of a job. Drug use was also rampant in the area and an increase in theft and property crimes followed. Small businesses closed due to the lack of income and it was generally accepted that anyone who didn’t move away would likely spend their lives in poverty.
The lack of employment wasn’t the only reason I left. I was a freshman in high school when I met Chase, who was a senior. I quickly fell for him and moved in with him immediately after graduation. Although he’d been controlling throughout our relationship I never knew he was capable of violence until his first outburst a few months into us living together. I left a year later. Unfortunately, Chase didn’t take the breakup well and immediately began stalking me. I would often notice his car driving past my home and place of employment. He also wrote me unhinged letters accompanied by flowers (sometimes alive, sometimes dead). I went to local police several times for help and was basically laughed off or told this was just a relationship issue that I needed to work out. Chase had a cousin in the police force which likely didn’t help my case. I had few ties to the small town, especially after my mom passed and decided the most rational option would be to leave.
I arrived at uncle Jim’s just a few days after the call from Anna. Anna and her husband stayed for a few hours to help me get settled in. Jim seemed really glad to have me around. As much as I hated to admit it, I could see why Anna was thinking about a nursing home. Jim would insist on doing everything himself and within the first week there were a few fall scares and forgotten pots on the stove. Eventually he started to feel more comfortable with me helping around the house and seemed to enjoy having more time to just sitting on the porch with Rex. Even though I missed the city, I began to feel somewhat more comfortable at Jim’s. I still felt a tad uneasy when I went into town, though, because Chase still lived locally.
More than anything I found myself getting bored. I didn’t have any real friends here and there wasn’t much to do. One evening, I found myself taking a drive after Jim went to bed. I just needed to get out of the house for a while. I stayed away from town and was listening to music with my windows down on the backroads. I was actually having a pretty good time until I noticed a truck behind me. I didn’t think much of it at first but they seemed to be gaining on me despite the fact that I was driving well over the speed limit. There weren’t any other cars so I figured they would pass me. They didn’t. I glanced up at the rear view mirror and quickly looked back down. The driver was a male around my age. I couldn’t see him that well but he did look a lot like Chase. It was hard to say for certain since I hadn’t seen him in years. The truck continued to aggressively follow me. I began panicking, fear welling up into my chest. I reached into my purse for my phone. Damn it! It wasn’t there. I remembered putting it on the charger and I must have forgotten to take it off. I could feel myself start to hyperventilate but I knew I had to stay in control. Abruptly and without thinking I took a sharp right turn onto a single lane dirt road. Despite it being dark I turned off my headlights and sped forward. I took a few random turns, one left, one right, then another left. Luckily, I didn’t see any sign of the truck once I turned off.
I began to wonder if I overreacted. Maybe it wasn’t Chase after all. Either way, the driver still seemed questionable. Why tailgate someone for so many miles out in the middle of no where when you could easily pass? I quickly realized that I didn’t know where I was. Great. Now I was lost at night with no phone. I tried my best to navigate my way home but nothing was looking familiar. Just as I was losing hope I saw a light ahead. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The familiar bright red sign of Target. But how? I glanced around and didn’t see anything nearby. No other stores, homes, or businesses. I knew from experience that target stores are never in small towns. Certainly not on the outskirts of a small, impoverished town in West Virginia. I slowly pulled into the parking lot. I didn’t see any other cars there. It was pretty late so maybe they were closed. I decided to walk up and see. I missed shopping at Target while living in Louisville and it would be nice to be able to get some things to make my room and office at Jim’s feel more like home.
To my surprise, the store was open. The glass doors opened as I approached. I grabbed a cart, excited to start shopping. I started in the cosmetics aisle, grabbing a few facial creams. I quickly noticed something unusual. There seemed to be no one else in the store. I didn’t see any customers or employees. I figured maybe they were just short staffed and not busy this time of night. I also noticed there was no music playing overhead. The only sound I could hear was the light buzzing of the fluorescent lights. I continued to walk through the aisles and made my way to home decor. I saw a cute storage ottoman that would be a great fit for my room. When I picked up the box I noticed it was covered in a thick layer of dust. I coughed. I glanced around and noticed a few items similarly covered. I continued with my shopping, albeit slightly annoyed at the dust. I was looking at some containers on a lower shelf when I noticed black shoe prints on the ground. This place wasn’t very clean for a target but I shrugged it off. I would need to get used to things being different here.
I remembered that Jim had mentioned needing some more ibuprofen so I decided to take a look at the medical aisle. I was grabbing a box of ibuprofen when I noticed a row of nebulizers. While I wasn’t surprised to see this in the medical aisle I was shocked at how many types they had and how much of the shelving they took up. The first few rows consisted of one’s I’d seen before when my mom was in the hospital. But as I glanced down I noticed more unusual looking medical devices. They looked vaguely familiar like maybe I’d seen them before in an antique store. Some looked brand new while others were rusted and covered in dust. I also noticed a bunch of oxygen tanks further down the aisle. Like the nebulizers, some looked brand new while others looked like they were decades old and worn. Nothing in here made sense. Why would a target have all of these oxygen tanks & vintage medical supplies? Was it even safe to store the oxygen like this? I paused and picked one of the older looking breathing machines up. As I tilted it a black liquid spilled out. I dropped it and wiped my hand on my pants, cussing to myself.
I started getting a bad feeling. I was in a strangely placed Target on the outskirts of my hometown that appeared to have no one else in it but did stock strange items that don’t belong in Target. I started to wonder if maybe the store was abandoned. I contemplated abandoning my cart and leaving the store but as dumb as it sounds I hadn’t been able to buy anything special for myself in a long time and I was really hoping to get what I came in for. I made my way up to the front and noticed there were no self checkouts. I glanced around looking for an open checkout. The lights on each line were off and I didn’t see any workers. “Hello?”, I called out hesitantly. There was no response.
I was starting to walk back towards the doors when I noticed a worker. His back was turned but I recognized the red shirt. “Hey!”, I called out. He didn’t answer & continued walking away. Feeling frustrated, I decided to head home. As I tried to leave the glass doors stood still. I tried pulling them apart but they wouldn’t budge. My heart began to pound. I felt trapped, like a caged animal. I was stuck, alone, in this weird store that defied all common sense. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a clock. It was ten PM on the dot. I started to reason with myself. Yes, the store’s a little off compared to the targets where I was from but the doors are probably only locked because they close at ten and maybe the employee was just wearing air pods or had hearing issues.
I started walking back through the store and saw the employee. His back was turned again and he was walking ahead of me. I continued to try to call out to him with no response. Finally I got close enough and tapped him on the shoulder. He turned his head to reveal a blank canvas of skin with no facial features present. This person-or whatever it was- has no eyes, mouth, or nose. I jumped back in horror and ran. I ran further into the store, not stopping to look back. I couldn’t believe how big the store was. I’d been running for so long without hitting a wall or seeing another exit and the store appeared to go on indefinitely. I noticed that the light was becoming dimmer and dimmer as I went forward. It was almost in the dark by the time I stopped running. The setup and merchandise of the store was becoming less and less familiar as I went further in. The aisles in the darker section of the store were filled with bags of coal, rusty looking gas masks, and a variety of tools that looked decades old.
I noticed that I was hearing faint noise. Footsteps and hushed voices. I glanced around to see that there were other people in the store. At first I felt relieved, especially when I saw they had faces, unlike the employee. But then I noticed something was off. All of the people were covered head to toe in a sort of black dust. They were also dressed in clothing that looked over fifty years old. Some wore gas masks, others didn’t. A few had head lamps. I knew coal mining was a big industry in West Virginia but nothing here looked modern.
One of the men turned to look at me. His eyes widened and he began sprinting towards me, steel pick in hand. I ran but tripped and he quickly caught up to me. He was hovering over me and I was certain the pick would soon be crashing into my skull when another man pushed him away and I took off. At this point I was so deep in the store that it was pitch black. I saw people walking around but tried to avoid being noticed. I saw a faint light towards the back of the store. It was a cave with people surrounding it. The entrance glowed orange like a fire was lit. I hid behind a shelf and tried to figure out what they were looking at. Someone emerged from the cave and an empty mine cart followed in tow. A man walked up to it and began emptying huge bags into it, the contents of which crashed against the walls of the trolley. I could see the outline of the last few bits coming out of the bag. Bones. I stood there frozen in terrified silence watching this strange ritual play out. Little did I know, it would only get stranger. I heard loud footsteps and the floor vibrated beneath my feet. I could see a shadow from within the cave. It appeared to be hunched over, as if it was too tall to stand up straight in the cave. As the figure emerged I could see it was humanoid in shape and stature but had a generous display of antlers. I remembered Jim telling us kids legends about Wendigos in the area. He claimed to have encountered one while hunting. I didn’t believe him at the time- especially with his track record of telling tall tales- but there was nothing else that could describe what I was seeing.
The wendigo let out what I can only describe as a demonic screech. It spoke in a low, distorted, voice. “I need more!”, it yelled. The man standing next to the trolley said something in a quiet voice that I couldn’t make out. The wendigo lowered it’s head so it was eye level with the people standing there and snarled, causing a few of them to jump back. It then retreated back into the cave.
“What the hell”, I whispered. Just then, a hand covered my mouth. I turned around and noticed it was the same man who pushed the guy who attacked me earlier. His skin was hot to the touch, almost burning my lips. I tried to scream but he tightened his hand around my mouth. He whispered to me “You need to stay quiet or you’re going to end up in that mine cart. If you keep quiet I’ll help you get out”. Apprehensive, I nodded. He took his hand off. He glanced around and motioned for me to follow him. He pulled me off into an aisle as there were a lot of people walking back from the cave. “We need to give everyone a few minutes to clear out before looking for the way out”, he said. There’s a janitor’s, closet up front. We need to make a beeline for it and stay as quiet as possible, got that?”. I nodded.
We were able to get into the closet safely. The man lit up some archaic looking lantern. And I was able to see his face for tht first time. He looked to be late 20’s and was covered in soot like the others. Despite his gritty appearance he had kind-looking eyes.
“W-what is this place?”, I asked, stammering.
The man chuckled. “It’s whatever you want it to be. For some it’s a bar, others a casino, hell, I’ve even seen it be a strip club”. I gave him a confused look. “Look I don’t have time to go into all the fairytales and lore behind this place but it’s basically the perfect storm of crypids and angry human spirits”, he explained. “West Virginia hasn’t treated its people so well for a long time and hasn’t treated the environment much better. When you have hundreds of people dying an early and ugly death because of unsafe working conditions their spirits tend to stick around. The cryptids weren’t happy with their land being invaded either so we teamed up and here we are. The cryptids require so many human sacrifices each year in order to maintain their alliance with the human spirits. The human spirits are happy to pitch in because most here are full of rage and want revenge on the people living now for enjoying the fruits of their labor”. I stated at him. “My name’s Andy but the way”, he said casually.
“So this place is like a live trap for humans”, I asked.
Andy nodded. “Pretty much. People who happen to pass by see something that would draw them in, like moths to a porch light”.
I felt embarrassed I fell for thinking a Target would be in the middle of no where. “We’re you a coal miner?”, I asked, trying to wrap my head around this.
Andy nodded. “Yeah, I died way before you were ever born”.
“Was it a collapse?” I asked.
“No, it was lung complication”. He responded.
“Wait, so if all the human spirits here are angry and need sacrifices, why are you helping me?”, I asked.
Andy shrugged. “It all starting to lose it’s luster for me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m angry I died so young-especially because my daughter wasn’t even two yet- but making other people suffer a worse fate isn’t gonna change how my life turned out. When it’s just drunken assholes walking in here hoping to cheat on their wife I don’t feel so bad but you look like you have your whole life ahead of you”.
Andy and I talked for a while, waiting for the others to clear out. Andy told me that once daylights hits, the target will disappear. If I’m not on the outside I’ll be stuck hiding in here until I’m caught and sacrificed. At some point in the night I heard a distant scream. It was definitely a human being killed. I could tell Andy tried his best to act like he didn’t hear it and to distract me but I knew what I heard.
About an hour after we got to the closet Andy opened the door and looked around. “It looks like the coast is clear”, he said, smiling.
“But where’s the way out? The door was locked”.
“You have to go out the same way you came in. The laws of reality still apply to the door you entered through. So if it was locked we need to break it or pry it open”.
“Okay”, I answered hesitantly.
Andy and I carefully began making our way to the front of the store. Andy grabbed a crowbar off a nearby shelf. Once we were up front he began prying the door open. The sound of a security system blared the second it opened. Before I could leave the store someone grabbed me from behind. It was one of the many human spirits. They all came running when they heard the security system. They began to surround me. The one who grabbed me, a large gruff looking man wearing overalls and covered in soot, began to strangle me. I tried to fight myself free but it was no use. I felt the breath leaving my lungs and began to feel dizzy. Just as I was accepting my fate, a familiar face emerged from the crowd. Andy hit the man holding me in the face with the crowbar, bloodying his mouth, then yanked me towards the door. The others attempted to grab me and Andy, one tried to grab my arm and I clawed and bit him until he let go. As Andy and I got closer to the slightly opened door, the spirits began pushing us up against the glass. It felt like I was being crushed. Andy managed to make enough room to move me closer to the door. The crowbar had fallen during the struggle and I couldn’t reach it. I was going to be crushed if I didn’t get this door open. I pulled at it for what felt like forever, my fingernails breaking off and bleeding in the process, then it finally opened enough for me to skip out and I ran out. I turned back to see the others were angrily turning on Andy. “Adelia, take this and give it to my daughter!” He yelled and tossed a worn envelope out the door. I inched back towards him. “I’m gonna help you Andy”, I said. “No!”, he screamed, “Just make sure my daughter gets the envelope”. I hesitated, then grabbed it and ran to my car.
I peeled out of there and was quickly back on the road. I was shaking and hyperventilating the entire drive. It was daybreak by the time I made my way home. Still in the driveway, I looked at the envelope. It was heavy. The outside had a name. The ink was so faded I could barely see it. Josie Rhaes, I read. On the inside there was an old looking watch. I looked it over for a few minutes. Just then there was a tap on my window. I jumped. It was Jim.
“Good god Jim, you scared me”, I gasped as I got out of the car.
He looked concerned. “Where were you? You look like hell”.
I shook my head. “It’s a long story. I went shopping but I got lost”.
“ You look like you’ve seen a ghost”, he said.
“I-I saw something that’s for sure”.
Jim gave me a knowing look. “You know, I’ve seen a lot living here all these years. I was kinda glad when you moved away, thinking maybe you’d be spared some of the strangeness that comes along with living here. But there’s more good here than bad. There’s so many good people around here that would literally give you the shirt off their back. I guess what I’m trying to say is when a beautiful landscape and caring, hard working people are exploited year after year, things start getting weird. The politicians who lined their pockets may not be keeping score but Mother Nature is- supernatural forces too”.
I nodded. “ Jim, do you know someone named Josie Rhaes?”, I asked.
“Yeah, she plays poker here every Saturday”, he responded, looking curious.
“I have something I need you to give her”. I told him.