Closing Time

I always do the closing shift alone, have done it for three years,

and I stopped thinking about it as something that could go wrong because nothing ever did.

That night I locked the front at nine, started going aisle by aisle the way I always do,

checking everything was clear before I armed the system and left.

Third aisle, I found a utility knife sitting open on the shelf, blade out, like someone had set it there on purpose and walked away,

and I thought okay, customer being careless, and I pocketed it.

Wait, the blade was already out when you found it?

Extended, yeah, facing outward, like it had been placed that way, not dropped, not knocked over, placed.

I called Carl to close out the register, he asked if everything was normal, I said yes,

because as far as I knew it was, and we hung up and that was the last time I spoke to anyone until I got home.

Then I went to grab my bag from the break room and the back door was closed, completely closed,

and the wedge I use to prop it open was gone, not kicked to the side, not on the floor, just not there.

Did you check outside, like maybe it fell out when the door shut?

I didn't, and I should have, but I told myself it slipped and I moved on because I didn't want to think about what it meant if it hadn't.

I went back out to do one last pass through the floor and I was in the paint aisle when I heard a sound from the lumber section

at the far end, this slow dragging noise, like something heavy being pulled across concrete, deliberate, not accidental.

What did you do?

I called out, asked if someone was there, and my voice just went flat into all that space and nothing came back,

and then I walked over and there was nothing,

just the shelving and the dark and the stacked wood, completely empty.

I felt better after that, which I think is the thing that scares me most now, looking back, that I actually felt better,

like I had checkedand it was fine.

Because you hadn't actually checked.

Because I hadn't actually checked. I just looked down one aisle and decided everything was okay because I needed to go home.

I was at the front panel putting in the code to arm the system and I was looking at the glass of the door,

you can see the whole floor reflected in it when the lights are low, and I saw a shape standing at the far end near the tool wall.

A person?

The shape of one, yeah, just standing there, not moving,

the way someone stands when they've been still for a long time and they're used to it.

I didn't turn around right away and I genuinely cannot explain that,

I just stood there with my hand on the panel

looking at the reflection,

and it didn't move, and I think part of me believed that if I didn't turn around it wouldn't be real.

I did, and it was gone, the floor was empty all the way to the back wall, every aisle open and clear,

and I finished the code and I walked out and

I locked the door behind me and I sat in my car for a few minutes before I could actually drive.

Did you call anyone, did you call Carl back or the police or anyone?

I called nobody because I had no proof of anything and I knew how it would sound, I heard a noise and I saw a shape in a reflection and

then it was gone, that's nothing, that's a tired person at the end of a long shift.

So what made you sure something was actually wrong?

When I got home and took off my jacket, the utility knife I had pocketed in aisle three was gone, and I know I didn't put it down, I know I

didn't drop it, I had felt it in my pocket the whole walk to the front of the store.

Someone took it out of your pocket.

Someone was close enough to take it out of my pocket and I never heard them, never felt them,

never saw anything except that shape in the glass that was gone the second I turned around.

Reese, that means they were right behind you at the door.

I know where they were.