Wham!

 

Something struck the door, wrenching me out of my half sleep.

 

Wham wham!

 

I sat up and blinked in the darkness. The pile of toilet paper rolls underneath me provided a decent enough bedding, but now felt lumpy and uncomfortable.

 

“Brian, are you in there?”

 

Rodney’s muffled voice called from the other side of the door.

 

“Brian, if you’re in there, you’d better get up. Chuck’s coming back from break in two minutes and he won’t be happy.”

 

I staggered to my feet rubbing my eyes. I tripped over the stack of water bottles and finally pulled myself up to the door and opened it.

 

“Geez, Brian, you look terrible. Another late night?”

 

I nodded lazily.

 

“Sorry man. Well listen, you’ve got another minute so go clean yourself up and you can be back to clock in on time.”

 

I mumbled something in agreement. Rodney was a good guy. He understood that when you have to take on a second night shift job to help cover the rent, you’re not always going to be operating at 100%. That’s how it had been since dad died two years ago; endless working. Mom almost lost the house, but between the two of us pulling double duty, we’d managed to claw ourselves out of the debt hole.

 

Still, as I lumbered through the aisles of fresh meat, canned soup and bread up to the front office to clock in, I thought to myself that all I wanted to do was sleep.

 

“Hey, Wilkins!

Chuck’s booming voice crashed into my skull as I sniffed awake. I was standing at the checkout and must have begun to doze. An old woman stood in front of me with a bizarre, blank expression on their face.

 

“You’ve got customers, Wilkins. Another trick like that and you can say goodbye to your weekend shifts.” Said Chuck before moving towards the frozen vegetables. Chuck didn’t walk so much as he floated through the aisles like Dracula.

 

“Cash or card?” I said after scanning the woman’s four packages of hamburger meat.

 

The short woman wore a straw hat with a flower in it and a dress that looked like it was made in the 1800s. She said nothing, but handed me two 20’s. As she approached the front door, she turned and looked directly at me. A wide, wretched smile, to wide to comprehend, spread across her face and she said,

 

“Join us at the midnight market. New customers are always welcome.”

 

“That was weird,” said Rodney.

 

I jumped, having not heard him walk up next to me.

 

“Whew, not sure whether you need more or less coffee,” he said. “Anyway, are you good to close up tonight? I’m taking Meghan out to DaVinci’s tonight.”

 

That’s what Rodney called David’s Pizza on 5th and Western. He always had a way of talking something up and made one hell of a wingman.

 

“Yeah I’m good,” I said.

 

He eyed me for a moment, deciding whether or not to trust me.

 

“Alright, just give me a call if you need anything.

 

“Will do.”

 

Closing up the store wasn’t exactly difficult. I’d been an inventory manager for four years now and knew the routine like the back of my hand. The biggest challenge was staying awake given the level of sheer monotony. I’d always managed to finish up and lock the door with my consciousness still intact, but tonight my eyelids felt like lead weights. I had to be up in four hours for my security guard job and the easy chair in the break room had never looked cozier. Maybe just this one time I could close my eyes for a few minutes…

 

Laughter.

 

Laughter and shouting. Not angry shouting, but excited, vibrant shouting, pulled me out of sleep. I was still in the easy chair, with my head slumped over to the side. I pulled out my phone and checked the time. Exactly 12:00, which meant I’d been asleep for about 90 minutes.

 

“Great,” I said to myself.

 

I’d have to get home, shower and hopefully grab another hour to sleep before heading out again.

 

A kid’s laughter floated in through the open breakroom door and I froze. I thought what I’d heard was just the remnants of a dream bleeding into reality, but this new sound persisted even though I was wide awake.

 

There shouldn’t be anyone in the store. I locked up. I thought I locked up. Either way, what was a kid doing here at midnight?

 

I straightened my uniform and stepped out of the break room. The dimly-lit hallway gave way to the brightly-illuminated store. Odd, seeing as how both sets of lights were on the same preset. Through the large double doors, shadows moved back and forth past the porthole-style window. Boisterous shouts emanated from behind it. I took a breath and pushed open the doors.

 

The light hit my eyes and the sting caused me to recoil and shield them. The stench of ammonia drilled into my nostrils. As I strained to see what was in front of me, a pale white face with sunken eyes loomed towards me and then swerved out of the way. I blinked a few times and finally saw the horror of what surrounded me.

 

Dozens of meat hooks hung from the ceiling and held freshly-slaughtered cows. Streams of crimson red still poured into buckets on the floor. Whole skinned animals- some I recognized as sheep or dogs- sat in massive open freezers. Towering booths that reached almost to the ceiling held bizarre fruits and mushrooms and other items I couldn’t even begin to explain. A shelf to my left contained an entire section of what looked like human spines.

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As I stared gawking at all of the nightmarish items, I barely noticed the odd shoppers and vendors who had begun staring at me. A woman approached. She looked mostly normal except that she was almost 7 feet tall and in place of one eye was a hole about the size of a silver dollar that went completely through her head so I could see to the other side.

 

“Found yourself here already, young man?” she said, her voice sweet and soothing. As she spoke, sharp teeth emerged and undulated within her head.

 

“I, uh…” I stammered.

 

She smiled.

 

“Don’t stay too long.” She continued past me down the aisle.

 

“Get it while it’s fresh!” a booming voice next to me said.

 

I turned to look and saw a heartily-built man with a beard behind a booth. On display in front of him were a variety of dead birds. They weren’t plucked and cleaned like you’d expect to see in the poultry section; these were completely intact birds with feathers and all.

 

“Hey bud, if you’re not buying then move it along,” he said and ushered me away with a dead crow. As I staggered on down the aisle, I got a better look at him. The man’s entire skull was hollowed out and a warm glow emanated from within. He got a better look at me as well and glared as I hurried away.

 

I hurried down one of the aisles. A pair of giggling women pushed a cart past me. In it was a basket of human skulls with bits of flesh still clinging to them. They turned to look at me as I squeezed by the and seemed almost offended. I smiled awkwardly. I looked back and saw that that both of their backs were completely exposed muscle and bones. They continued on down the aisle gossiping and leaving a trail of bright red dripping on the floor.

 

I felt a sudden chill run down my back. This was not simply a prank or a dream. I felt cold, menacing eyes watching me. Each time I turned to look at someone, they quickly looked away so as to not draw my attention. I made my way towards the exit. In the fresh produce section, the shelves were lined with severed hands and feet and bags of eyeballs sat on display where the grapes should have been.

 

A woman faced me browsing through the eyeballs. She wore a bright sun dress with a matching hat. I stared at her for a moment, my brain seeking some comfort in seeing another normal person. She looked up and gave me a sour look, then turned to push her cart. Her entire back, up to her head, down to the bones and muscles, were gone. Blood trickled over exposed nerves and her lungs expanded and contracted as she walked away.

 

I sprinted for the door. Outside looked pitch black but the windows were heavily tinted. As I approached, all of the nearby shoppers turned towards me and I felt their judgmental gazes turn to rage. I slammed into the door and began to push it forward. For a brief moment I saw outside. The parking lot was shrouded in a dark purple haze and beyond that, an inky blackness pressed inward. The heavy stench of ammonia and sulfur hit my nose. The door budged ever so slightly and then slammed back into place, knocking me to the floor. The shoppers had now closed in and stood over me as I looked up.

 

“He’s a wholer,” said a man with a chunk of his shoulder, neck and one arm missing. The other shoppers gasped and whispered to one another.

 

“Get him!”

 

I don’t recall exactly what happened next. All I remember were dozens hands and fingers closing in on me followed by vicious tearing and cracking sounds.

 

My head jerked up. I had been asleep again. This time I found myself slumped over a shopping cart. The smell of ammonia immediately hit my nose, but this time it didn’t seem so unpleasant. As I pulled myself to a standing position, I saw a pool of blood dripping through the cart and collecting on the floor. A woman with flesh on her head and arms, but nothing but a bloody ribcage approached. I recoiled but she gave me a gentle smile. I felt the trickle run down my neck and slowly brought my hand to my face. Wet and textured. I turned to the dark glass of the window. A ghoulish figure wearing my own clothes and with my hair, but with the skin completely ripped off my face stared back. It didn’t hurt, but rather felt cool, like I had just washed my face in the morning.

 

A man now approached the cart. All of the skin and muscle on his neck were gone so that only a few vertebrae held up his head. He also smiled warmly at me.

 

“Welcome to the Midnight Market,” he said. “We’re always delighted to have a new customer.”

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