“Where the hell did he go?” Kim murmured to herself.
So intent on her search down the aisles, she didn’t notice the little boy until she ran into him. Stumbling into a display table of donuts and other assorted pastries, Kim stood back and looked down to see him peering fascinated into a freezer unit. From behind him, she could just make out his reflection in the glass door. Words tried to tumble out at the same time she took in the blackened, filthy little fingers pressed against the cool glass.
“Meat!” came an itty-bitty voice. “I like meat. Mommy is meat, and Daddy is meat. And I like meat!”
“Where… where are your mommy and daddy?” asked Kim as she backed away from the boy.
“They’re meat!” said the boy, never turning from the freezer unit door.
Kim sped down the frozen food aisle. She spun around past the beer and wine and stopped short by the open door leading back to the stockroom.
She could hear Joyce and Dr. Homme babbling with Maria, the pharmacy tech, only feet away, but for some reason she hesitated at the dark opening.
She knew Angie was right through the short hall, working on pricing. She knew…
Something touched her shoulder and she screamed.
“Jesus, Kim! What’s with you?”
She stared up at Dwight’s pale, chubby face screwed up into a scowl.
Letting a sigh of relief that almost turned into hysterical laughter, she patted him on the arm. He flinched at the touch.
“Nothing, it’s… I’m sorry. There are some serious weird people in the store right now.”
He cocked an eyebrow high on her for this one. Dwight found her
“Goth” lifestyle quite high on his weird meter. He had made it blatantly obvious that he was both disgusted and freaked out by her – and disliked the fact that he had to answer to her as an assistant manager.
“There’s a… overweight gentleman. And a little boy. I think he’s sick. The man I mean, not the little boy. Just, shit, just help me find both of them, okay?”
“Help you find a fat guy and a kid?”
“Just… please, Dwight?”
Maybe it was the “please.” Probably it was the look on Kim’s face.
Dwight continued his bug-eyed examination of her for a few more seconds, then shrugged. He went off towards beer and wine with less stomping than he usually employed. Kim closed her eyes, dry washed her face and quietly counted to five. When she opened her eyes, she heard laughter ringing out from the pharmacy.
Moving along, she came to the pickup window and Joyce’s brightly smiling face. Kim had known Joyce most of her life, the older woman growing up with Kim’s mom. They had always stayed friends and Kim had looked on her much like a surrogate aunt. Her wavy brown hair had gone almost all grey, but Joyce refused to get what she called a “matron-cut.” She still wore it long and often in a ponytail.
“Hey Kim, what’s the word?”
“Hey Joyce, have you…”
The question drifted off as Dr. Homme strolled around the corner, giving her a cold glare.
“Hi, Melissa.”
“Kim,” she replied.
Kim tried not to grit her teeth when it became apparent Dr. Homme wasn’t going anywhere. “Have either of you seen, well… an overweight man or a little boy come past here recently? They may have looked sick?”
“A lot of people we see here look sick, Kim.”
Kim fought back the urge to jump the counter and strangle the pharmacist.
“As in the last few minutes?”
“No, I don’t think so,” said Joyce.
Kim pondered this as Maria, the pharmacy tech, hefted an armload of paperwork past and gave her a boisterous greeting she hardly heard. When she thought about it, except for now, she hadn’t been away from the front registers in hours except to smoke – out front. She had never noticed either of the customers enter. In fact…
“What about an older lady?” Kim asked.
“Huh?”
“I… I saw an old lady earlier. She looked kinda sick, too. Same as the other two.”
“Sick how, Kim?” Dr. Homme asked, displeased the conversation was continuing.
She tried to figure out how to explain it. “Um, red eyes and snotty.
Talking weird? Something wrong with their… mouths and fingers.”
“Kim, I don’t think…”
“Ewww! I saw some old dude like that earlier!” shouted Maria from the back.
“What?”
Maria sauntered her considerable bulk out from her cubby space, eyes lit and ready for gossip. “Oh yeah, tall and old. What’s the word?
Emancipated?”
“Emaciated?”
“Yeah! His fingernails and teeth were all black, like he’d been chewing on an ink pen and he was saying all kindsa nasty stuff. Somethin’
about killing dogs.”
Kim just stared at her.
“Freakazoid. Eh, it’s been a slow evening at least. Hey, I’m going to go grab me a diet shake… you gals want anything?”
Dr. Homme simply walked away as Kim shook her head and Joyce said a pleasant no thank you, trying to keep the smirk from her face. Maria drank an average of six “diet shakes” per shift. Usually while eating a bag of chips. Kim turned to leave as well, but Joyce gave a tiny yank on her sleeve.
“Kim, I really wish you and Melissa could figure out how to get along.”
“Joyce, I have nothing against her, “ Kim said in a low growl. “But Dr. Homme has made it clear she doesn’t care for me.”
“She’s just…” trailed off Joyce, trying to find the word.
“It doesn’t matter.”
Kim stormed off back towards the front of the store, momentarily too pissed off to worry about all the creepy folks running around. Thru-Drug was a larger chain, but far from one of the biggest. Joyce had lost her last two pharmacists to national chains who could pay more. Basically if it came down to it, Kim was dispensable if the risk was losing Dr. Homme.
Swearing to herself. Kim rounded the corner to the checkout area and stopped short. It was empty, abandoned. No customers, no employees.
Wes wasn’t at his register, Maria wasn’t raiding the cooler. Dwight wasn’t even loitering about.
“Wes?” she heard herself whisper.
Mankind does not truly know the meaning of silence. We still can hear vehicles in the distance, the hum of electrical lighting and other mechanized devices running. In more primitive times, that silence would have been filled with the rustle of leaves, the movement of furtive animals and perhaps water lapping against whatever nearby shore. Yet, were we to have those few seconds of utter quiet, it would still not be true silence. We can not help, in those times, but hear the beating of our own heart.
Standing there beside a towering display of men’s shaving products, Kim heard the sound of her own heartbeat and nothing else. What she felt, however, was something horribly foreign, something incorrect and near-reprehensible. This feeling is what made her scream.
“Wes!”
“Kim! What the…” squealed Wes as he popped up from behind his counter and promptly fell over. “Ow! Damn it!”
“What were you doing?” Kim said, her voice shrill as she ran over to him. “Where were you?”
“Fucking hell, I was stocking the gum! I was just sitting here reading the stupid new flavor descriptions. Why are you freaking out on me?” Sure enough, five cases of bubble gum lay scattered out in the space behind the counter, a rainbow of sugary yumminess. Kim clutched at her face and tried to get her breathing back under control. Something was definitely off today, something more than just her being spooked by weird customers – she was sure of it. Looking out, she saw that night had fully enveloped Logres, Trick Or Treating in full swing in other parts of the town.