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By R. R. Stark

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They were ordinary workers on the late night shift at Kal-Mart, stocking the shelves. But one night, something eerie happened that would change their lives forever!

Late, late after midnight, the night stockers roam. They stalk stealthily up the aisles of the huge warehouse department store in a small Midwestern town. For their stomping grounds was the popular mega-store called Kal-Mart. The premises boasted fifty long, wide aisles and high ceilings and high hanging fluorescent lights. The store closed at 10:00 pm sharp, when the three young night stockers started on the clock, but quite often they goofed off, and got away with clandestine activities that the night supervisor Mr. Bullock rarely found out about. Such as putting chocolate pudding in people’s lockers, or duct taping all the breakroom chairs down on the table tops, or even rehanging Mr. Bullock’s pictures and plaques upside down in his little office.

Although he suspected which employees might have been behind such pranks, such as Skeeze, Alec, and Brody, who always denied the accusations, he could never prove anything.

This portly, balding bulldog-faced middle-aged man never smiled, but always sneered, and always barked orders at his night employees.  Only seven employees worked at night, but four of them ended their shift at 3:00 am, leaving the threesome with the whole joint to themselves. That’s when they really had fun, goofing off, or flat out avoiding work.

Skeeze was the goofy, skinny, pimple-faced one, with a goofy laugh. Alec was the short haired, good-looking, buff fellow. And Brody was tall and lean, and sported a trimmed mustache.

But they all had the same mischievous, silly, demented personality type, as if they were one soul in three bodies. They hung out together even during off-hours, usually going to bars and picking up chicks, or just hanging out at the park and drinking beer, and sometimes playing basketball – while drunk, which was a lot of fun actually. Sometimes they went to the theatre together, usually to see old horror flicks when they showed them. They were roommates in the same apartment, and they were like blood brothers, ever since the third grade. On weekends they drove their souped up hotrod down Fletcher Ave, the main boulevard in town, hollering after the sexy chicks in their little sporty car. After that, they always winded up at some bar and drank themselves silly.

But they didn’t mind their night job at Kal-Mart – except that Mr. Bullock would sometimes excuse himself from his little office up front and check up on the three, or give them pointless assignments, or just bark random orders just for the heck of it, like giving janitorial duties to keep them busy if the usual stocking work was done. Bathroom cleaning or mopping the aisles were the usual tasks that got foisted on them, but sometime he would make them dust the tops of the high metal shelves, or even the even higher fluorescent lights, by standing on the highest level of the forklift – rather dangerous really.  At times like that they really hated Mr. Bullock.

But normally he kept to himself in his little office, watching movies on his CD players, usually porn that he brought from home. Which worked for the three buddies; it kept him busy so they could screw off now and then, especially after 3:00 am.

Usually they hid up in their top-secret fort they had built up in the metal framework shelves, up on the topmost shelf, between the Big Bobby’s Snack Cakes and Sandy’s Sandwich Crackers – of which they ate plenty during their long, undeserving breaks.  They had secured this little stronghold in the very back corner of the warehouse, the storage section where they used forklifts to transfer pallets of merchandise to the customer aisles. They didn’t like hanging out in the lunchroom in the front employee section of the story. That was too close to Mr. Bullock’s office.

Their fort looked like bulk cereal boxes, with a small opening where they went to and fro. Often they brought soda pop or other snacks, along with magazines from the literary aisle, often movie and TV mags, which fueled their crazy discussions, since they usually frequented the theatres together. Horror movies were their forte. Quite often they yammered about horror flicks, old and new, while sitting on upturned plastic milk crates.

Alec enjoyed any old monster movies, and the more gore the better. Brody was obsessed with any flick with scantily-clad women, the fewer clothes the better. Skeeze loved all the vampire movies, and he even used to watch “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” when it was on the air. Now he just rented them at Casey’s DVDs. 

This very night they brought with them to their well-concealed citadel the latest issue of the Horrorfest magazine, while slogging down their colas and eating Big Bobby snack cakes or bags of potato chips. 

Skeeze beamed, “Look here! Dracula’s Crack-whore Sister VI – finally! I love that series!”

Alec sneered, “Man, those flicks suck like vomit!” He fake-vomited.

Brody shrugged, “I dunno....  I kinda liked that sexy crack-whore.”

Skeeze grinned sleazily, “Yeah, I know, she’s boobalicious!”

They all laughed.

Alec said, “Hey, Matt Stevens from Scarbeard is playing in the first remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street. That should be good!”

“Oh yeah?” Brody countered, I saw the preview on TV of Freakenstein! It’s finally coming to town! Down at the Century 25 Multiplex!”

“Cool!” Skeeze and Alec yelped in unison.

This is usually how their crazy conversations transpired, until they would hear Mr. Bullock hollering after them to give them some task to do. So on those occasions, they would squeeze through the hole and climb down to the floor before the bulldog-faced supervisor reached their aisle, or if they had time, they would spread out in a hurry, pretending to straighten items or dust or sweep the aisles or some other mindless choirs.

But this particular night was special. Not because they were all jazzed about Freakenstein coming to their town, but because something unexpected lay in store for them.

So, back to their inane jabbering, they were discussing Freakenstein, until Brody brought up the old original Halloween movie, the one that launched the whole series.

“Late last Saturday night, I saw the old Halloween flick, and I’d forgotten how cheesy it was compared to the first time I saw it. At 9 years old, I was freaked out! Man, your perspective changes when you get older.”

Alec commented, “I liked the element of suspense, and the edge-of-your-seat nail-biting tension it gives you. Except there wasn't really any blood in it. That sucked."

Skeeze said, “That's why I like the Rob Zombie remake. It's got buckets of blood and gore in it!”

Brody added, "Yeah, that was really cool!”

Alec said, “Yeah, that version was awesome.”

Skeeze excitedly said, “Hey, there’s this real-life slasher story I read somewhere.”

Brody teased, “Like in one of those stupid tabloids?"

“No-o-o-o! It was a real magazine,”  Skeeze frowned.

Alec taunted, “Oh, a reeeeeeaaal magazine, he says. Not a fake one.”

        Brody suggested, “Yeah, like the reeeeeaaal accounts of how Batboy joins the Navy, or how a severed human head was preserved in a vat of regenerative solution!”

        Alec added, “Or that one how a guy got pregnant and gave birth to a horse!”

Skeeze interrupted, “Hey, dudes! I thought I had the floor! I had a story to tell! Sheesh!”

Alec slugged him on the arm. “Excuse me, slugger, go right ahead.”

Brody said, “Yeah, let’s here it. A real-life phony baloney tale of terror, eh?"

Skeeze chuckled weekly, “Okay, maybe it’s more like one of those urban legends, I dunno. But it’s a real cool horrific yarn. So anyway, there was this little town, don’t remember its name, and people in the town started disappearing, one by one, and then after a while,  corpses started appearing in weird places, like one tied to flagpole, another found in someone's swimming pool, or another hanging by a rope from a tree limb, and that  kinda thing."

Brody chuckled, "Are you making this up as you go along, dude?"

"No, not really."

Alec snapped in good humor, "Yeah you are!"

Skeeze admitted, "Well, just to fill in the gaps where I don't remember."

"Yeah, the BIG gap in your head!"

Then Brody snapped, "Shush! I heard something! Maybe Mr. Bullock."

Everyone shut up. But no one heard anything.

"You're pulling our chain, right?" Alec hoped.

Seriously, Brody said, "No, I really heard something, like- like- I dunno, like a bird flying around."

"Again?" Alec sighed. "The last time a bird got stuck in here, Mr. Bullock shot it with a beebee gun."

Brody shrugged, "Whatever. Maybe it was nothing.”

Alec said, "Skeeze, go on with your crazy story."

So Skeeze continued, "Okay, anyway, if I remember right, the police were scared out of there minds, because their own sheriff disappeared for several days, then his corpse popped up – found all swollen and waterlogged from sitting in a pond. But by the uniform and such, they figured out who it was. But that kinda screwed things up for them, ‘cuz the deputy sheriff wasn’t very bright and slowed down their search. But one thing was sure, they knew it was a serial killer doing it, ‘cuz all the corpses had one of those pentagrams carved into their chests, like some ritualistic murder or some crap like that."

Then they all heard it -- a subtle noise, the sound of bird wings most likely.

 Brody whispered, "There it is again."

Alec nodded, "Yeah, I heard it too."

Skeeze added, "Me too."

They paused again, but heard nothing.

Alec suggested, "Yeah, I think a freaking bird got stuck in here again."

Brody frowned and said, "Except birds usually chirp or squawk or something. We heard nothing like that."

"You're right, man."

Skeeze remarked, "Maybe someone's playing a trick on us, one of the morning shift guys coming in early."

Brody shot, "No way!  Those bums would rather sleep in and come in late, like they've done sometimes."

Skeeze said, "Yeah, but then who could it be? Mr. Bullock?"

Alec shook his head, "He doesn't play pranks -- he wouldn't know how!"

They all laughed.

Brody snickered, “Besides, he holes up in his little office watching porn!”

Alec cackled, “Yeah, what a perv!”

While drinking their colas and eating their snacks, Skeeze continued his story. "Anyway, so the police christened the unknown culprit the Pentagram Killer, and the local rag ate it up, and every day you'd see a headline, like 'Pentagram Killer Strikes Again!' or 'Pentagram Mark Found on Mayor,' and 'Police Stumped -- Who Is the Pentagram Killer?' and like that."

Alec asked, “So – who was the Pentagram Killer?”

Skeeze grinned, “Gotta wait till I finish the story. Anyway--”

Suddenly, they heard what sounded like the flapping of wings just outside the fort, then something screeched for a moment, then nothing.

Brody said, "What the hell is that?"

Alec suggested, “Sounded like a bat.”

Skeeze huffed, “No way! There ain’t no bats around this town.”

Brody said, “Maybe it got lost.”

Alec remarked, “Yeah, real lost – in our store!”

Then they heard the screech again.

Skeeze said, “Okay, somebody has to go and check it out.”

Alex smirked, "You said it, you do it."

Brody added, “Yeah, or are you chicken?"

“No, I ain’t chicken!” Skeeze snapped.

“Then go check it out."  Alex insisted.

Skeeze protested, “But what about my story?"

“Finish it when you get back,” Alec suggested.

Skeeze shrugged and squeezed through the opening. He climbed down the metal framework out into the aisle and wandered off.

A few minutes later Alec and Brody heard the screeching in some distant aisle, then they heard Skeeze screaming – then it stopped abruptly.

“What the hell happened?” Alec shuddered.

“He’s just screwing with us, I bet,” Brody hoped.

They waited several minutes for Skeeze to come back laughing -- but he never did.

Alec suggested, “We’d better check it out."

So Alec and Brody climbed down the framework and searched the aisles, figuring Skeeze was hiding.

Then the two saw Mr. Bullock come down the main traffic aisle, snapping at them like usual. “Are you fools goofing off again? I don’t see you working!”

Alec tried to look alarmed and said, “We heard Skeeze scream, real loud like  – we think he fell off a pallets up on one of the higher shelves or something.”

Mr. Bullock sneered, "One of his stupid pranks, I'm sure. You boy’s have shelves to stock! Get to it!"

Brody said, “What about Skeeze? He might be hurt.”

“When he shows his face, tell him he’s fired if he doesn’t stop clowning around and get to work!”

Mr. Bullock returned toward the front of the store, back to his little office.

Alec grabbed Brody’s arm and said, “We've gotta find Skeeze.”

Brody nodded, “Yeah, but I sure hope he’s just pulling our leg.”

“Yeah, I’m sure he is.”

But as they walked up the aisle, suddenly all the lights clicked off.

“Holy crap!” Alec gasped.

“What the hell!” Brody shot.

It was practically pitch dark in the huge store, except for meager light from the dozen rows of skylights above, since it was a full moon outside, and they allowed just enough light to see their way through the aisles. But they knew that all the lights couldn’t just turn off simultaneously like that, unless there was a total power outage. Normally it took several minutes for a guy to walk around the store and turn off several separate panel switches before all the lights were off, and then they left a few on for security purposes. So they knew something fishy was going on.

Alec remarked, “I think Skeeze is just playing games with us, part of his creepy story thing I bet. He’s probably standing at the breaker box right now laughing about it.”

Brody commented, “I sure hope that’s all it is. He’s definitely one for the dramatic.”

Then they heard the bat-screeching in the distance.

“So he’s making that bat sound too?"

“I dunno, man. This is getting freaky.”

“Let’s check the breaker box.”

“Let’s kick on the generator."

They went to the very back of the store where the breaker box was, but when Brody felt the breakers in the half-darkness, they were all on –yet no lights were on.

“It’s definitely a power outage,” Brody affirmed.

“Then let’s kick on the generator," Alec said.

 Right next to the breaker box was the main generator switch, so Brody flipped it -- but the backup generator lights did not turn on.

“Damn!” Brody shot. “The power’s cut everywhere!”

Alec said, “This is getting really freaky-deaky weird.”

They saw the beaming light of a flashlight coming from the front of the store, coming down the main traffic aisle.

Mr. Bullock’s voice hollered like a fog horn, “What in God’s name are you idiots doing? No more games! Turn the lights back on or you’re all fired!”

Alec and Brody ran up the main aisle and reached their angry boss.

Alec volunteered to speak first, “Sir, we didn't turn the lights out--”

“Do you all want to be fired? Get those lights back on – PRONTO!”

Brody growled back, “Sir! Listen! We can’t! Something cut the power!”

“What? Where’s Skeeze! Tell him this isn’t funny! He’s fired!”

Alec tried again. “You’re not listening. There’s some freaky power outage, and the backup lights won't even come on.”

“Then fix it! Now!”

Brody whimpered, “We’re trying, but Skeeze disappeared too, we’re looking for him.”

Mr. Bullock yelled, “Obviously, this is one of his stupid pranks, you idiots! Find him and tell him he’s irreparably fired! AND GET THE DAMNED LIGHTS BACK ON!”

Mr. Bullock turned and with his flashlight trotted back to the front into his office.

 Brody signed and said, “Sometimes I just want to strangle him.”

Alec chuckled, "Yeah, you and me both."

“But he’s really pissed, man.”

“Yeah. I bet his porn flick must’ve cut out at a good spot.”

They chuckled.

In the hardware section they found some flashlights and used them to search up and down the aisles for Skeeze. In the automotive department they each grabbed a long crowbar. A few more times they heard the flapping of wings and the screeching of what was most likely a bat.

Brody swung his crowbar over his head as the noise got too close to him.

“Damn it! This is annoying!” Brody growled.

Relentlessly, they searched up and down the aisles for Skeeze, afraid something horrible had happened to him-- but what, they didn't know.

  They decided to split up – which was probably a bad idea. Alec searched through the lawn and garden department while Brody looked around in one of the grocery aisles.

Brody saw something at the end of the cereal aisle, a mass on the floor. He aimed the flashlight beam at the lump, then ran down the aisle and found Skeeze lying there, unmoving.

Scared, Brody called, "Come on, buddy, get up. No screwing around, okay?”

Then he bent down and looked closer, aiming his flashlight beam, seeing that Skeeze’s face was white as snow, and there were two bloody spots on the side of his neck. He didn’t like the looks of this at all!

Brody jumped back, breathless and totally freaked-out. He tried to scream, to call for Alec, but nothing came out.

Then he heard the bat-screeching whoosh by overhead, as hew swung the crowbar back and forth, but to no avail. He ran down the aisle, finally screaming. Then he heard someone else screaming -- it was Alec! But it was cut short as something stopped him from finishing the scream.

Brody didn't know what to do except run up and down the aisles, brandishing the crowbar as he kept hearing the bat screeching over his head. Then he stumbled upon another mass lying on the floor. He pointed the flashlight beam and saw Alec laying there, face pallid, with the two bites on his neck.

Brody really freaked out now, as he got up and ran, heading for the fort where he hoped he would be safe. But as he ran down the snack aisle, something appeared in front of him. A black bat surrealistically fluttered just in front of him, hovering in one spot, and eerily transmogrified into the form of a human figure. It was a tall man wearing a black cloak, with long black hair, and his skin was stark white, and you could see that his canine teeth were two distinctly long fangs, each stained with blood. And his eyes were blood-red too.

Brody froze solid, as if by some unknown force, because he wanted to run the hell out of there.  The only movement he felt was an icy chill running up his spine.

The strange, tall man slowly waved his hand across Brody's frightened face and in a deep voice spoke melodiously, “Resist not.... and succumb to me… You have a choice…. You can die now, or live forever."

Brody was speechless, and he could not move an inch.

The ominous nightstalker continued, "You are already halfway there…. You sleep in the daytime and you work at night…. and they call you a night stocker . . . How amusing." The dark character grinned slyly.

Brody exerted his will against the spell and managed to swing the crowbar crosswise, and it slashed the stranger's right cheek. But the red gash disappeared quickly.

The eerie Gothic looking character chuckled and commented, “That is just one of the many perks of being a vampire – fast healing.”

“Cool.” Brody was finally able to say.

"I'll take that as a yes."

Then the creature of the night quickly leapt on Brody, grabbing his shoulders , his mouth gaping wider then was humanly possible, and the two long fangs plunged deep into Brody's neck, as blood drained from the wound and down the vampire’s throat. But then, the undead creature pulled away, intending not to drain his victim completely. With a long fingernail he slashed his own wrist and forced the wound into Brody's mouth and made the young man drink his own cursed blood. This was the ancient ritual of vampiric conversion.

The ominous stranger spoke to Brody melodiously, “Soon you shall join me with the brotherhood of the everlasting curse!”

Then he let Brody slump onto the floor, as the nightstalker transformed back into a bat and flew off into the darkness . . .

Brody woke up in his bed at 6:00 pm as the sun began going down.

Holy crap! He thought that was a pretty weird dream he just had, although it was rather fuzzy.

When he got up to get ready for the night –which was his day, considering he was a night worker -- he felt like he had the worst hangover ever. He didn't remember drinking the night before; in fact, he couldn’t remember much of anything. Was he out drinking again with Skeeze and Alec? He wasn’t sure. But then heavy duty hangovers like this one left you confused like that.

He went to the bathroom and looked at his face in the mirror. He looked pale and sickly, and for a split second, as he turned toward the toilet, he could swear he saw his image fade, looking almost transparent. But when he looked again, his reflection appeared normal as ever. But he also noticed two tiny red spots on the side of his neck where the jugular was. Probably mosquito bites. So he shrugged it off.

After he peed, he went to the kitchen and decided to eat that big fat sirloin steak he purchased at a discount at Kal-Mart. It had been thawing in the fridge, so he pulled it out, slapped it on the counter, and unwrapped it. Rich, red juice pooled around the luscious raw steak on the wax paper. His mouth drooled hungrily. This was not just meat juice. This was blood! Suddenly, he ravenously ate the whole steak right there on the spot -- and damn it tasted good!

He had a few hours before he had to go to work, and he had this weird desire to watch Interview with a Vampire. So he stuck that DVD in the unit and watched it, wide-eyed and grinning throughout – as if he was seeing it for the first time, although he’d seen it dozens of times. But now he was seeing it in a different light, as if this was some bizarre training course for – nah, perhaps he was just fantasizing, like usual.

Then it was time to shove off. Work started at 10:00 pm, so he left twenty minutes till.

For the first time it felt wonderful driving to work at night. It dawned on him that he never really liked being out and around in the day time. Odd to realize that now, he thought. Odd to appreciate the nighttime atmosphere as if for the first time, the array of glittering stars, the full orange moon just peeking up to the east, and the surrounding darkness that lay like a dark blanket over the little town, the mystery and ominous presence of – what? Evil in the air? He shook his head. That vampire movie was doing weird things to his mind. He knew how movies make you imagine you’re in it, as if  your portraying one of the main characters, just for a little while, and Brody was one to fantasize to extremities. So Brody imagined he was a ravenous vampire like in that movie, particularly Tom Cruise’s vampire character. In fact he felt it come on pretty strong, and he found himself craving blood! That scared him at first. Then when he went to adjust his rear view mirror, he should have gotten a glimpse of himself – but no reflection appeared!  He pushed his face up close to it – phew! Just a trick of shadows perhaps. There he was.  

A horn honked behind him, since he was mindlessly swerving. Straightening out, he focused on getting to work – safely. But oddly, even if he did get in a horrible accident, he felt he would survive it and walk away unharmed – as if he was invincible. What a strange thought! But he figured it was just that movie influencing him again.

Brody pulled into the employee parking lot to the side of the huge Kal- Mart building, where he saw his friends Alec and Skeeze waiting for him as they stood by their cars.

They met and looked at each other, noticing how pale each of them looked as the floodlight shone on them from above.

Brody asked, "Did we go out drinking yesterday, or what?"

Alec replied, "That's what we were wondering.”

Skeeze frowned, “Yeah, I got the weirdest hangover when I woke up.”

Brody said, "Me too.”

Alec added, "Something weird must've happened, something we forgot."

        Skeeze said, “Well, I had a freaky dream – I think, but I can’t remember anything about it now.”

Brody exclaimed, “I did too! But it’s real fuzzy.”

        Alec added, “I rarely dream – but I think I did, but I’m not sure.”

        Skeeze frowned, “Well, everything seems weird and fuzzy to me.”

        Alec nodded, “Yeah, I know what you mean.”

        Brody asked, "Do either of you remember what happened at work last night?  It seems to be a big blank."

        Alec and Skeeze just shrugged.

        Skeeze assumed, “Probably just another boring night.”

        Then Brody said, "Wait. Skeeze, you were telling us some weird slasher story.”

        Alec beamed, "Yeah! I remember!"

Brody remembered, "Something about the Pentagram Killer.”

 Skeeze nodded, “Oh yeah, that’s right!”

Alec said, “Yeah, and people in that town were being killed, corpses strewn everywhere and stuff. But you never finished it, so the mystery never got solved. So, like, who did it?”

Skeeze grinned, “Oh. Well, the sheriff, of course."

Brody exclaimed, "What? But he was killed too, I thought.”

Skeeze replied, “He faked his death, using some other body that people mistook for the sheriff, since he put his clothes on it.”

Brody snorted, “That sounds stupid.”

Skeeze explained, “But the body was all swollen up from sitting in the lake, remember? So you couldn’t tell who it really was.”

Alec huffed, “That sounds lame. I bet you made that story up."

Heading for the employ entrance, Skeeze said while grinning, "You'll never know!"

They all filed in through the door together, and right away Mr. Bullock was in their face, looking mean and bulldoggish as ever.

“You boys are five minutes late!” the scowling boss barked. “And to me five minutes is far too late! You've been late to many times, boys! So guess what? YOU’RE ALL FIRED!!!"

The three men frowned, but it was the angry frown of the typical nightstalker, as they raised their lips and revealed their long fangs. Plus, there was a reddish glint in their sinister eyes.

        Brody gave the command, "Let's get him!"

        Quickly, the three newbie vampires pounced at Mr. Bullock and pushed him to the floor, feasting on their first real kill.

*    *    *

Copyright by R. R. Stark September 2009

Published by Bamblebrush Press