Skip to main content

"The Hunger"

     The alarm clock beeped, jarring me awake as I bolted out of bed and threw some clothes on. Looking over at the time, I had roughly ten minutes until I had to clock in at work. I couldn't believe I had slept through that many alarms.
    I headed out the door and into my car. As I drove down the road a little ways, I saw there was a car accident. I tried paying no mind to it and drove on past. The accident didn't look too bad, I thought. I mean, there weren't any police cars or ambulances there, so it couldn't have been that bad, right?
    Finally, I got to work at the super market. I threw on my apron and clocked in for the day.
***
    Helping customers was always something I dreaded. Sometimes it would end in the customer getting irritated at me over things I can't control, like the price being too high or something being out of stock. Very rarely did these interactions ever go well.
    The customer I was helping was asking where the hamburger meat was. It was strange because we had signs overhead that clearly pointed to where the meat is. Despite this, I guided him over. It was a break from stocking the shelves, so I didn't mind.
    After leading him over, he thanked me before grabbing a five-pound package of hamburger meat, unwrapping it, and emptying the meat down his shirt. I didn't know what to make of this. Was this guy psychotic or something? Then, I saw his shirt moving in waves, like something in his shirt was rumbling.
    I quickly ran up to him. "Sir, you have to pay for that," I said.
    He tilted his head and studied me for a few moments. "Pay? What for?"
    I stared at him in shock. Was this guy for real? "You just stuffed a bunch of hamburger meat down your shirt," I said. "You have to pay for that."
    "Meat?"  he said softly, looking me up and down. He outstretched his arms to grab me but I dodged away from him and stumbled back. He charged toward me and I took off, running for the back of the store. No way he could get me back there.
    As I reached the locked double doors, I frantically shone my badge over the card reader and pushed the doors open, looking behind me to see if he was still there. Sure enough, he was.
    I ran into the back room and waited for the doors to lock. And waited. Then, the doors quickly flew open with heavy force. The man who was chasing me was now standing before me, his face red and his eyes nearly bulging out of their sockets. I backed away as he stared me down, arms outstretched like a zombie who hungered for my flesh.
    I staggered back until I hit a wall. This was it, nowhere to run. Nowhere to go.
    The man lifted his shirt, revealing what looked like a human face embossed on his skin, its make-shift mouth snapping open and closed as it prepared for its next meal. Then it grabbed me and pulled me in.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

"Hooked"

T he summer can be the perfect time to get away, to unwind while kicking your feet into the cool water while the hot sun is beaming down on you. But what if the bright summer sky was hiding behind it something even darker? I had been waiting for today all week. They'd finally opened the stream up for fishing. I was a little upset at the fact they'd decided to raise prices, but I didn't care, it was a nice day outside and I wasn't about to waste it sitting inside when I could be fishing. With my tacklebox in hand and my fishing pole in the other, I made my way to my truck. I threw everything in the back seat. I was about to head to the driver's seat but hesitated when I thought about bringing my cooler. I had one in the back ready for fish, as well as housing some canisters of worms. But what if I brought one along for some drinks? After a few moments I decided it might not be the greatest idea. It would be too much to carry and I didn't trust anyone that...

"The Light"

  My day off from work was supposed to be a day for me to relax and unwind and rest. The past few days had been incredibly stressful, from hateful customers to managers that expected everyone to do their jobs for them, and everything in between. It was nice to finally have that down time to spend away from all that. I'd decided to spend my time, not to get things done around the house, but to play a new game I'd been hooked on lately. It was this puzzle game where every room is seemingly randomly generated, each with clean and clever puzzles. After booting up the game, I was presented a room with white padded tiles all over the walls. There were a few green, red, and blue squares. I guess my job was to manipulate those tiles somehow to get me from where I was no, up to the top of the level. I looked around the room and could barely make out an opening. I pressed a single button to get myself started when the light in my bedroom burnt out, leaving me shrouded in darkness...

"Checkmate"

W hen my best friend and I got into a small disagreement, I didn't think all that much of it afterward. When he and I fought, it didn't really end in much besides us stepping away from each other for a few hours before reuniting as if nothing had previously taken place. I knew it meant we had a strong friendship. The argument we just had, however, was completely different from the small disagreements we usually had. Instead of it being about videogames of films, this one got a little personal. Pretty much, I had deeply judged the guy because he wasn't a fan of my speedrun tournament. He swore that I had agreed to hang out with him just before going live with my greatest world record speedrun attempt yet, one I had been spending three weeks practicing for. Before we went our separate ways, instead of wishing me luck or doing our usually angred goodbyes, he snickered at me, saying "Good luck with your stream." Before I could ask him what that was about, he left ...