“Do you think I’m pretty?” She asked.
I was halfway through an eight hour cashier shift at the local grocery store I work at and I wasn’t really in the mood for talking. I never am, but anyone who works in customer service long enough can turn it on when they need to.
“Yeah,” I said with a million dollar smile. “I think you’re really pretty.”
She was wearing a blue mask, one of those N95 ones that everyone wore when covid was a big deal. I couldn’t see her mouth or nose, but she had tan skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes. Classic California girl.
“Really?” She asked. Her eyes lit up with a smile and she sounded absolutely ecstatic, like she’d just won the lottery. Or been proposed to.
“Of course,” I said, trying not to laugh as I finished scanning her last couple items. “That’ll be forty-three ninety-five.”
She reached into her purse and paid with exact cash, but when I tried to hand her the receipt she just stared directly into my eyes, head tilted to one side so that it rested on her shoulder.
“Have a good day,” I said.
That seemed to wake her up. “You too, Alex!” She said before walking away.
What? I thought. How does she know my name? I was so confused, wracking my brain and trying to figure out where I knew her from, that I didn’t notice the next customer placing his items onto the conveyor until he cleared his throat in that “I’m trying to get your attention without being rude” way.
It wasn’t until after I finished checking him out that I remembered that my name was in big block letters across the name tag on my chest. I laughed at myself for a second, then shut down my lane for my break.
In the breakroom, I caught up with my friend, another cashier named Jesus, and told him the story.
“She’s definitely mask-fishing, bro,” he said. “I mean, who wears masks anymore? I bet she’s hiding something mean under that thing.”
We had a good laugh before my break ended, and by the time the store closed, I’d completely forgotten about the strange girl.
Nothing weird happened for a couple weeks after that. I’m currently taking a semester off from college to try and save up money, so I’m pretty much always working–forty hours a week and overtime whenever possible. Days came and went with no abnormalities until I was closing one Saturday night.
It was about 10:50 PM when she came through my lane. She was wearing a blue N95 mask just like the other girl, but they seemed to be polar opposites. She was tall, red haired, and pale enough that she could have passed for albino. When it was time for her to pay she just stared at me for several seconds before tilting her head to the side and asking, “Do you think I’m pretty?”
“Yeah,” I said. “I do.”
“You are too sweet, Alex!”
The sheer joy she spoke with immediately reminded me of California girl. I thought that it was really odd, but she paid and quickly left the store, so I wrote it off as a coincidence. This time I didn’t worry about why she knew my name.
I went home and got some sleep, then came back for a twelve hour closing shift. The day was going pretty normal until we were getting ready to close. Once again, about fifteen minutes till I was out the door, a brunette girl wearing a mask came through my lane.
I swear to God, I thought. If she asks me if I think she’s pretty, I’m gonna lose it.
She was only buying milk. I scanned it, read her the total, and then looked up to see her staring at me intently. I swear it was like she was intentionally building up tension, because we must have just been looking at each other for ten seconds before she asked in a childlike voice, “Do you think I’m pretty?”
I couldn’t get myself to respond for a second. When I did, it was an unconvincing, “yeah.”
She narrowed her eyes and said sarcastically, “Thanks, Alex.”
I wasn’t really scared, but I was definitely confused. Three girls wearing masks, all in the span of a month, all ask me if I think they’re pretty. I thought it might have been some kind of TikTok trend, but when I asked the other cashiers if they’d experienced anything similar they all just acted like I was being ridiculous.
“Maybe you’re just that good looking,” Greg said.
“Yeah,” Jesus said. “I mean, is having girls flirt with you every other shift really something to complain about?”
There was just no way to explain the weirdness of the situation without sounding crazy. I mean, the way they all talked in that high pitched child-like voice, the way they all wore the same blue mask, the way they each tilted their heads, the way they all called me by my name. I could imagine Jesus saying, “yeah, girls have high pitched voices, genius, most masks are blue, and–newsflash–Alex is your name.”
So, again, I tried to put it past me. It was weird, not scary.
Until I saw one of them somewhere else.
I was at the gym. I had just finished a particularly hard set of back squats and was trying to catch my breath. I had my hands on my knees, bent over, when out of the corner of my eye, through the gym mirror, I saw someone walking towards me.
I could only see them from about the waist down, but I was in the corner of the gym and there was no other equipment near me. No one had any reason to walk that way unless they were trying to talk to me.
I turned to see a blonde girl in a blue mask. No. Fucking. Way.
She walked up to me real close, closer than any stranger ever should.
“Hey!” She said, voice like the happiest cartoon kid you’ve ever heard. She was looking directly into my eyes.
I took a step back. “What- what’s up?”
“I just wanted to ask, do you think I’m pretty?”
I cannot stress enough how rare it is to see someone wearing a mask in my area. She was without a doubt the only person in that gym wearing a mask. It could not possibly have been a coincidence.
“No,” I said. “I think you’re fucking ugly.”
“Oh,” she said. Her voice dropped and her eyes diverted to the ground as if she was gonna cry.
“Who are you people?” I demanded. “Why do you all keep asking me that? Is this some sort of prank?”
“Alex…”
“How do you know my name?” I yelled. “And why do you all wear masks?”
Several people looked over at us. I took a step back and lowered my voice. “Just tell me what’s going on,” I begged. “This is really starting to creep me out. If it’s a prank it’s whatever, but this is starting to go too far.”
“You were so nice to my sister,” she said. “I don’t understand.” Tears welled up in her eyes and she seemed to be genuinely confused. It was like she really didn’t understand how creepy they were being.
“Sister?” I said. “You mean sisters? Plural, right? You’re the fourth fucking one.”
Her eyes widened as she gasped. “I only have one sister. She told me about you; she said you were so nice,” she paused for a second. “Was one of the girls you talked to really pale? Did she have red hair?”
“Yeah,” I said. “One blonde, one red head, and one brunette. Just tell me what’s going-”
“Oh God, Alex,” her voice was filled with concern. “You’re gonna die.”
“What?”
“You need to come with me, now.”
“Why the fuck would I go with you?”
She looked left, then right. “I’m sorry,” she said as she raised one hand. “I don’t have a choice.”
She removed her mask.