Everyone’s got a go-to corner store, right? Like, a drug store or a gas station mini-mart or just a bodega, most of us city-dwellers have that one-stop shop that we go to for the sake of ease when we really don’t have the energy for a whole grocery run. Maybe it runs a little pricier for stuff—I’ve always called it “convenience tax”—but hey, it’s handy when you realize you need milk or you’re craving a quick snack or something. I usually end up stopping by my local corner store once or twice a week.
Well…being something of a regular, I’ve noticed for a long time that the place has a weird energy. I really don’t care, personally, since it’s not like I spend my whole day there. But lately, I feel like it’s been getting gradually weirder. I mean, I get that hiring has been rough with the pandemic, but I swear there’s a new kid at the register every month. Well, okay, not always a kid, of course, but a new person. I used to see the owner here and there, but I don’t even see him anymore. For all I know there’s a new owner every month now, too.
That in and of itself might not seem all that weird. Like I said, the pandemic has made turnover crazy for stores like this. But…every time I see a new person at the register, there’s something else. By that I mean, some new, minor thing that I wouldn’t notice if it wasn’t happening so repeatedly, y’know? Like, a couple months ago or so, there was an odd smell, salty and acrid like sweat. And I couldn’t even tell you if it was coming from anyone or anything specific, because it permeated that whole little store. Not that sweat-smell is like, the worst thing in the world, but it stood out to me. Just like how last month, I noticed that, instead of the station they usually have playing on the radio behind the counter, it was just this one song. Skipping over the same verse like a burnt out CD, except their radio doesn’t have a CD player as far as I could tell from a glance at it. Sweet Home Alabama, I think.
Sweet home Alabama, Lord I’m comin’ home to you…
I even asked the cashier about it. Not, y’know, like, a trying-to-be-nosey kind of way, just making conversation. I said something like, “Man, that must get annoying after a while.” Completely casual, didn’t mean anything by it.
But the girl behind the counter just…stared at me. Just a blank, dead-eye look that bored into my head and pierced straight through my skull. That’s another thing, the last handful of cashiers have been…well, they start out normal, “Is this everything?” and, “That’ll be $4.85, do you want a bag?” But then they just…there’s no other way to put this, they just seem dead. They don’t say a word, and they either don’t look at you or they stare at you like this girl did, like she was looking through to my very soul.
Again, it might seem like that’s not all that weird. My mind could be exaggerating the whole thing, or they could just be, like, stoned out of their minds. But here’s another thing—two weeks ago, I stop in for a snack like I always do. The same girl is at the register. I cash out, head home, then realize I’m running low on salt and pepper. So I go back to pick some up—couldn’t have been more than an hour between trips—and there’s a new person at the register. A guy I’d never seen before. Which I wouldn’t think twice about, if it weren’t for everything else I just told you. Not to mention a light was flickering that I swear had been fine before, and I think I saw some kind of stain on the counter. Like, a stain that I would’ve sworn up and down was brand new, but had that dull aged look of a stain that’s been there forever.
I don’t know. Maybe all that stuff was always there. Maybe I’m being paranoid over nothing. But I can tell you with certainty that what I just saw tonight wasn’t nothing.
I feel like I should warn you, it was pretty graphic. My brain couldn’t process what was happening at first. But, well…I just wanna let you know now, if you’re grossed out by gory stuff, you might wanna back out of this post.
See, I had popped in to get a drink. There was someone at the counter already, I’d guess a fifty-something box blonde mother of three. Not usually the type you see in a little run down corner store, but that’s none of my business, I guess. I was just waiting my turn, not really paying attention. But then she started arguing with the cashier about god knows what, a price was wrong or her card was declined, who cares. He was just giving her that same blank stare they all have while she was getting more and more upset that he wouldn’t respond—or, more likely, that he wouldn’t just magically fix the issue for her. It’s right when she starts raising her voice, going so far as to lean over the counter and get in his face, that something in him snapped.
No, seriously, I’m certain I heard an audible snap from somewhere in his body. He leaned right back, got right in her face, I mean like their noses were touching. I think that alone shocked her too much to do anything else, but then he started SHOUTING. Full blown shouting, so loud it echoed around the empty store, straight into this woman’s face. He said something like, “ARE YOU UPSET? ARE YOU ANGRY WITH ME? DO YOU HATE ME? DO YOU WANT ME TO DIE? HUH? YOU WANT ME TO DIE?”
That’s when he leaned back and spread out his arms, but I don’t think he ever averted that dead stare. “YOU WANT ME DEAD? HUH? YOU WANT TO KILL ME? YOU WANT ME TO KILL MYSELF FOR YOU? YOU WANT ME TO DIE FOR YOU THEN?” And then…I didn’t see him grab anything, but honestly I was too shocked to pay attention to details. Maybe there was something sharp he grabbed from behind the counter, or maybe he used his own nails, but suddenly both hands were at his neck, and before I knew what was happening, there was blood gushing between his fingers.
He was still shouting, but now every word was punctuated by a spray of blood. I could see his fingertips buried underneath his skin, squirming like horrible bugs. The lady got absolutely covered, and I think she was screaming. Maybe I was screaming. I just felt frozen in place, watching this happen, watching this guy tear his neck open and just start ripping chunks of flesh out of it. He just kept jabbing his hand into the wounds, tearing them open wider and wider, drawing out another squirt of blood with each movement. Jesus, the stuff was everywhere. Then he just started scratching at his collar and shoulders and down his chest, so hard that I could see his shirt and skin ripping open.
I don’t know how long it lasted. At some point the woman must have just run out the door, her purchase forgotten on the countertop. Eventually he must’ve ripped out his own windpipe, because he abruptly stopped shouting even though his face was still twisted as if he was trying to. And then he just…fell. A dull, wet thud on the ground, out of my view.
I couldn’t tell you how long I stood there. Nobody else came into the store that whole time, so maybe it was just a few minutes, or maybe it was hours. But when I finally forced my feet to move…quite possibly the weirdest part yet happened.
Someone came out from the back. A blonde woman I’d never seen here before, seeming completely and utterly unfazed by the mess around her. Actually, thinking about it now, she kind of looked…I don’t know how to explain it. She looked a lot like the woman who had been arguing. Maybe a little younger, maybe with a haircut—but that face. It looked like her.
She stepped right into the spot where the guy had been standing before. I heard a squelch like she actually stepped INTO his corpse on the floor. And she just looked at me with a thin, perfectly polite customer service smile, and said, “Will that be everything today?”
I left. I realized when I got home that I forgot to pay for my drink, but I don’t really care now. I don’t think I’ll be going back to that corner store. God, I’m still sweating just thinking about it.