𝐇𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐨 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐦𝐚𝐳𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞!! .✦ ݁˖
𝐇𝐨𝐩𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠. 𝐈 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐨 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐲 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐫𝐨𝐩 𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐁𝐨𝐱 𝐋𝐨𝐠𝐬. 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝! 𝐈 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐚𝐥𝐬𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐚 𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐭 𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐰. 𝐄𝐧𝐣𝐨𝐲! ₊˚⊹ ᢉ𐭩 📼˚ ༘
The person whose hand you might be shaking right now might also use the same hand to pick up an axe and swing it. You just never know who you might be meeting. These are masks. Everyone wears one. It’s what keeps all chaos from breaking loose.
Mallory so happens to understand masks, along with noticing patterns most tend to ignore. In fact, she wears one too, just more subtle. Well… at least tries to.
As usual, Mallory swoops in, making sure everything is not falling behind, with her taking over for Astrid, one of Mallory’s coworkers and dear friend. Mallory seems to be calm and also fast-paced as she speed-walks behind the counter with her Everygreen working vest.
Astrid raises her eyebrow as she checks up on Mallory.
“You gonna be alright taking the rest of the shift?
Mallory waves her hand off, smiling in ease without directly looking, trying not to let pressure overtake her.
“Oh yeah, just do what you gotta do. I don’t mind having to step up.”
But this doesn’t go unnoticed by Astrid, though she doesn’t push this any further. Perhaps another day they can discuss it.
“Okay, well…You take it easy on yourself now. See ya.”
Astrid takes her leather jacket over her shoulder and exits the store, done for the night.
Without Astrid noticing, Mallory takes a moment to watch her leave.
To her eyes, Astrid is a rockstar: the afro, the leather jacket, her not giving a hoot of what others think of her, the ability to make it through the end without a sweat. So rad.
Or maybe she wears her mask better, convincing enough that she’s hanging in there.
Meanwhile, Mallory, on the inside, has that nervous jittery feeling of not wanting to mess things up. It’s a little bit like that when starting working hours, but the tidal waves will become calmer eventually.
For Mallory, she could sit at the counter and wait for people if she wanted. But instead, she is always doing multiple things, coming up with tasks along the way, finishing one and then moving on to the next in order to keep herself on her feet and busy.
She prefers it that way. She convinces herself it’s a way to stay motivated, but in reality she doesn’t want to end up pacing from the front and back of the store, just like she does between the kitchen and living room at home whenever she has to deeply think about something.
And when she thinks someone is ready, she makes her way right back to the counter as if she never left.
Somebody approaches with a copy of Ghostbusters.
In order to make the atmosphere less awkward, she gives a little fun fact about the movie, whether it’s about the behind-the scenes-production, an actor, the music, or something else, while she scans the movie and membership card and enters everything into the computer.
“Oh, did you know that the original person who was supposed to perform the theme song was Huey Lewis? But he couldn’t because he was busy with other things, like Back to the Future.”
“Yeah, I heard,” the customer says, sounding tired and disinterested, as if they’ve heard it before. “Huey ended up suing because of the similar beats.”
She blinks a couple times, a way of keeping her composure.
She shakes her head and returns to the task.
She switches the display with the real copy of the movie and hands it over with the membership card.
Nothing in return. The customer simply walks away.
It stings a little, but it doesn’t matter whether or not it was an already known fact.
At least there was a decent conversation, she thought.
She takes a moment to breathe, running a hand through her hair once before letting her head rest a bit. Her stance is hunched now, eyes slowly moving around to take in everything.
And that’s when she sees Creature with mint and strawberry dye coloring in her natural, fluffy, wavy hair.
Wearing, for those who know their designer brands, Ann Taylor. Almost 70s looking.
But Mallory doesn’t know.
It’s not like she’s careless. She’s just pragmatic, but still curious.
All she is thinking right now is,
Whoever this is, they reminded Mallory so much of her friends in the best way. Unique and real.
It’s like finding a remarkable creature.
Of course, Mallory notices patterns, like how they are trying to subtly fight the urge to tap a finger or jerk their head.
Realizing how long she’s been looking, she respectfully and casually looks away to lessen the feeling of being watched.
Maybe they might appreciate it.
But she still can’t help feeling excited when the woman finally approaches the counter.That same excitement of meeting a new friend and realizing that you don’t have to be alone today.
She tries to hold it in, but there’s something sweet about her quiet excitement that shows on her face.
“Why hello. Find any good watches today?”
She places The Goonies and Jurassic Park on the counter.
“Jurassic Park too? Nice.”
Mallory tilts her head in acknowledgment as she picks them up.
“These are some great picks.”
That seems to make Creature’s mouth moves upward into a bigger warm smile from the acknowledgment as she pulls out her membership card as well.
While putting the information into the computer, the Creature offers a fun fact, not something seen every day.
“Did you know that The Goonies was filmed in Oregon?”
“Really? Mallory says with interest. She always wanted to see Oregon.
The Creature goes on about the filming locations and shots made around where she grew up while Mallory listens and processes the rented movies.
Honestly, it’s one of the reasons Mallory works at the video store. The joy of simply discussing movies, even if it’s only for minimum wage.
That was all Mallory needed to make her night better.
It’s getting late now. Not many people are here anymore but a few. The only ones left are the ones who linger and take longer to decide before closing.
So during this time, Mallory starts “facing” the displayed tapes to occupy herself, making sure the tapes are facing the right direction with their titles in view.
Slowly yet surely she’s now in the horror comedy section.
The kind of section where you know it’s wrong to look, and yet you do anyway. Morbid curiosity perhaps?
It makes Mallory pause a beat longer. There’s one in particular that makes her stare longer, but that soon gets interrupted by a small sound.
She turns her head and begins to listen, following where it’s coming from.
One by one, her feet quietly plant as she comes closer.
She listens more carefully. Plastic clacking against plastic. That’s what she notices. And…coat fabric shifting. At one point she hears a low, raspy exhale, which was really weird for her to hear.
She finally reaches the source of the sound.
She still can’t see their face yet, but she does see somebody in a dark, seemingly expensive overcoat, a wire from headphones hanging over, and the back of their head with dark hair ducked slightly forward.
The last sound she identifies is…
Like somebody is drinking something. She does her best to get his attention. She almost reaches out to tap his shoulder but stops.
Just something about the coat tells her not to touch.
She gathers herself and instead makes her voice clear, trying to remain calm.
She shifts slightly, trying to get a better view before continuing politely.
“Sir, is everything alright? Finding everything you need?”
Nothing. No answer from him.
Then his shoulders start to stiffen and straighten, revealing his full height. Irritatingly tall.
A pair of headphones hangs around his neck, and one expensive black-gloved hand lowers a can of Diet Pepsi
At first his expression is blank and frozen, as though he hadn’t realized someone else was there.
In full view there is a man perfectly tailored beneath an overcoat worth more than your rent. The dark strands of his hair fall just so, brushing his left cheek with that effortless, careful polish.
He has that razor-sharp, charming, testing energy, as if he’s some game show host, while his smile starts to widen at her almost too fast.
His eyes briefly flick towards the shelves before returning to her while he casually adjusts the sleeve of his coat. It looks more like he’s making sure something is hidden than fixing his sleeve.
“Just uh…being indecisive, I guess.”
His voice now carries an observant tone as he nods, delivering a compliment so natural and smooth that it feels rehearsed.
“Your horror section is very well organized, I must say.”
Mallory’s eyebrows knit together slightly, uncertain whether she should be thanking him. If there’s one thing she’s definitely convinced of, it’s that something is off about him. Very strange. Or maybe it’s just how late it is.
She doesn’t even know what to say. She breathes out a small chuckle. Just an attempt to release some of the tension from an atmosphere that doesn’t sit right.
“Uh, anyways. I also wanted to inform you about…”
Her eyes quickly dart away, avoiding giving away that she noticed he was hiding something in his sleeve. She chooses her words carefully without directly pointing it out.
She winces. “Yeahhh… I’m not sure if you’re supposed to have those in here, but I’ll double-check what the policy says. So just…make sure to throw that away when you’re done.”
A brief laugh escapes him as if this is only now occurring to him.
He glances at the can in his hand before looking back at her. He tilts his head slightly, one eyebrow lifting before settling back down and blinks when he apologizes. The kind of apology he would give after finishing a call and realizing the other person had to wait. Sincere, but doesn’t actually mean it.
His fingers tighten slightly around the Diet Pepsi before relaxing again.
She hears the faint crinkle of the can, as if he’s trying to stifle something boiling beneath the surface.
She points behind her as she slowly starts to walk backward, saving herself from any more awkwardness.
“Thanks. If you need anything, I’ll…be at the counter.”
She nods to herself, turns around, and starts walking away.
She pauses mid-step, anticipating what he’s going to say. She has this dreadful feeling about what comes next.
Expecting something sharp and unexpected, like a blade against the back of her spine.
But instead she receives a:
“You seem very serious about following the rules. As you should be.”
He nods in acknowledgment when he says the last part.
She doesn’t have anything to say to that. She’s completely thrown off. It stills her steps for a moment before she continues walking. She gently shakes her head, trying to shake off the uncanny feeling behind her. She feels like she’s being watched.
That makes his gaze linger on her for a moment. Just long enough to feel deliberate.
His mouth starts to curl upward now, deliberate and almost amused, as he watches her walk away.
She makes it back to the counter, now sitting there. It doesn’t seem like many minutes have passed for Mallory. Time feels painfully slow as she counts down the minutes, moving her head back and forth to look at the clock.
She has sat here the entire time, her right leg shaking, tapping her foot in a nervous tic.
She hasn’t left the counter because he’s still there. She doesn’t want another encounter with him again.
But being here at the counter is not any better. She’s nervous about him approaching the counter.
It repeats like a mantra.
Realizing how overstimulated she’s getting, she decides to go through the drop box and rewind the returned videotapes. The tapes are in piles surrounding her in a particular organization as she rewinds them, places them in their proper cases, and sorts them into a bin specifically for the finished ones.
But there’s one in there that should not be. It makes her stop as she looks at it. The same one she stared at in the horror section earlier.
What? It can’t be…It’s supposed to be on the self, not in the drop box.
On the cover is a man in a dark, crisp suit with a striped button-up shirt and a pink and purple patterned tie.
You can barely see his eyes. They are shadowed out, showing the nothingness behind them. Like two dark, bottomless pools.
It reads. Something dark and charismatic, like it belongs on the cover of a Goosebumps book.
Why does that man look so familiar?
Which one, though? The man she encountered, or the man on the cover of the tape?
The question sits there for a moment. It’s hard to tell the difference between the two.
He knows, Mallory. He knows how many times you’ve watched it, and now he’s out to get you.
Mallory shakes her head and looks away as chills start running through her. Uncomfortable with the thought.
She nudges the tape out of her sight and brings herself back to the present.
Mallory has been rewinding tapes for so long that she forgets to check the time. She looks over at the clock.
“Oh shit, it’s midnight. I have to close the store.”
She quietly mutters to herself. She quickly gets up and checks around to see if anyone is still there. But there isn’t. No sign of that man. The store is completely empty.
She usually has to send reminders, but it seems they got the curfew.
Shrugging, she thinks: Oh well.
Now time for cleanup. Stuff like putting movies away, a little sweeping, throwing trash away, etc.
When it comes time to take out the trash, she gathers all the bags and heads towards the back. She’s about to go out the door that leads to the dumpster outside, but her feet get stuck in place. She hesitates.
Any moment now she will step outside into the alley.
It’s dark, tight, quiet. The kind of alley where every shadow looks deeper than it should. She pushes the door open. The cold air hits first, and then the silence.
The dumpster sits at the far end. Just a quick walk. That’s all. She convinces herself.
Don’t look back. Don’t look back.
Her grip tightens around the trash bag. A faint scrape echoes somewhere behind her. Her pace quickens. Closer this time, and then footsteps. The footsteps are steady, measured, and following.
The trash bag slips from her fingers. She turns around but there’s nothing, only darkness. She lets out an exhale. Right before a pair of gloved hands reaches from a dark corner and…
She blinks. The door is still closed. Mallory is still standing in front of it with the trash bag clutched in her hands. The thought makes her heart start to noticeably pulse. She doesn’t want to disappear.
She can feel that quick, hollow feeling in her chest starting to pick up. It could possibly be the adrenaline, she can’t tell. No matter how much she tries not to think like that and convince herself to quickly go out into the darkness, throw the trash away, and run back in, the feeling remains.
She even grabs the broom she used earlier as some sort of weapon until realizes how silly it is. Breathing out a chuckle, both amused and almost whining, she tilts her head upwards.
She puts the broom down and the bags. She can come back to this task later. She returns to the front of the store.
Instead she focuses on a different task, like putting movies away. To drown out the dreadful silence, she puts on headphones and listens to music while putting the movies away.
That somehow hurts Mallory’s ears, even with headphones still on.
She pauses and lowers one side of her headphones. Nothing. She doesn’t like this at all.
She quickly bolts towards the front door. Her hands shake as she grabs the lock, only to find it’s already locked.
She lets out a shaky exhale while looking down at the knob, trying to control her breathing.
Another exhale, slower now.
Another thought clicks into her mind.
She quickly heads toward the landline and dials her number. At this point her vision is blurry and she can’t feel her own feet over her heart racing, unmeasured breathing. She waits for Astrid to pick up. She can’t wait though. It takes a moment.
Brrrrng. Brrrrng. Brrrrng.
It comes out a little too quickly.
“Hey, Astrid. It’s me, Mallory. Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m good. I’m just having some snacks while watching a movie.”
Her mouth perks into a quirky smile as she settles further into the couch on the other end.
Mallory lets out a sigh in relief, closing her eyes for a moment.
“Ah, thank goodness,” she mutters before her voice returns to full volume. “I’m glad to hear it.”
“The question is are you doing alright? You sound pretty stressed and tired.”
“I’m just… very jumpy. There’s just so many sounds, and I feel like I’m being watched.”
Astrid’s voice comes out almost soothing, trying to help Mallory relax.
“I get it. It’s a bit strange around this time, but nothing’s gonna happen. It’s just a plain old store with nothing much happening. Keep thinking like that and everything will be chill and less scary. Yeah?”
“Yeah. Okay…thank you, Astrid. Sorry to be calling you at this time.”
“No problem. Take care now and try to get some rest.”
She slowly puts down the phone. Taking a moment for some deep breaths. There’s no danger. She keeps thinking that until she finally succumbs.
And then a moment of silence.
“Sorry to interrupt, Mallory. I know the store is officially closed, but I have to return some videotapes.”
She recognizes that voice from anywhere. It came directly from the dark aisle behind her. Her expression starts to grow in terror, more petrified.
Welcome to Evergreen Video
“Where every night is movie night.”
𝐈 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐡𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐎𝐂 𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐭𝐨:
✧ 𝐌𝐲 𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠’𝐬 𝐎𝐂, 𝐀𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐝. 𝐒𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐚 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐢𝐭. 🤭
⊹₊⋆. 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮. 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐲𝐨𝐮!! ⏾⋆.˚
